Hampshire Golf officials hoping for post-lockdown boost in junior numbers

Many educational experts have spent the last year fearing the impact the Covid-19 lockdowns, which have closed schools as well as sporting facilities, on both learning and participation levels, writes ANDREW GRIFFIN.

And Hampshire Golf junior manager Wayne Matthews accepts golf faces as big a challenge as any other sport, with youngsters having got out of the habit of many of the things that were part of ‘normal life’ before March 2020.

The Newport GC member, from the Isle of Wight, said: ‘Participation numbers for juniors have remained quite low even before the pandemic.

‘But hopefully with the large number of adults who took up the game during the lockdown last year, we will see a benefit with more young people coming down to the clubs.

‘If more of them are tempted to take up golf that can only be beneficial to the county.’

Matthews has been involved in the county’s junior golf programme for the past five years, and has managed the U18 team with with Rob Mulcahy, from South Winchester GC, for the past couple of years.

They are both chomping at the bit to get their development programme under way for 2021, having been forced to write off last summer.

‘Our efforts to form an U10 squad for coaching proved difficult in the past, because there was a high attritional rate, so we have combined them with the U12s this year.

‘We had a good recruitment day for the U12s at Sherfield Oaks in November with a good turn out and have now picked a 13-strong squad.

‘The lowest handicap is 10 and the highest is 31, and we will continue to monitor all those that attended under coaches Adam Glass and Barney Wychard, who are based at Sherfield.

‘Under 12s manager Richard Beeston will look after those U10 players after Dave Telfer retired after a number of years in the role, and we thank him for all his efforts with Hampshire Juniors.

‘The EZGO Junior Tour will give many of the youngest players a platform to improve and push for inclusion in the U12s squad, either later in 2021 or in future years.

‘I was very impressed with the way Adam and Barney ran our selection day at Sherfield Oaks and now they have taken over the U12s coaching, I am really looking forward to working with them during the coming season.’

The county have spent the winter months keeping the youngsters involved through a series of online meetings with their coaches, and some fitness and skills challenges run on Facebook.

Matthews said: ‘We held our selections days for the five different age groups before the new lockdown, and have our managers and coaching teams in place.

‘Obviously the planned coaching session for the first three months of the season had to be called off because of the second lockdown.

‘But with the return to golf this week, we are all raring to go and get back to work.’

Matthews and Mulachy hope the South East League fixtures for the U14s, U16s and U18s, which were scrapped en masse in 2020 will go ahead as lockdown restrictions are removed.