Rotorua golf clubs working together to get kids playing

TEAM WORK: Rotorua Golf Club head professional Ant Barkley, pictured with the club's new simulator, is co-ordinating a joint venture to get juniors playing the sport. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER

Four Rotorua golf clubs are hoping a new joint venture for junior golfers will be a hole-in-one.

Rather than competing for a decreasing pool of young people, Rotorua Golf Club, Lakeview Golf and Country Club, Springfield Golf Club and Government Gardens Golf Club have worked together to create the Geyserland Junior Golf Club (GJGC).

Rotorua Golf Club head professional Ant Barkley, who is co-ordinating the joint venture, said the aim was to grow golf and give more children the opportunity to learn the game as well as the "life traits" that come with it.

"All the clubs were struggling to get junior numbers and sometimes it felt like we were all fighting each other for the same players.

"Junior golf was beginning to lack in Rotorua and I felt like there was a need to create something a little bit different," Barkley said.

GJGC is a virtual golf club in which children can be active members online and on social media, and play at each of the clubs involved.

"The package for golf in Rotorua wasn't quite where we wanted it to be. So we started looking at this joint venture - the Wakatipu Junior Golf Club is doing something similar, they've been really helpful and we're basically following the same model.

"It's about taking away looking at juniors in a financial way and looking at it as a growth in general way, more long-term. Juniors aren't going to make a club wealthy.

"The main goal is introducing as many kids to golf as we possibly can, making golf courses a fun and enjoyable environment and making better people through golf in the Rotorua community."

Barkley said golf was a sport that taught young people about self-confidence, respect, motivation and discipline.

"All those really good things that they can use in everyday life. Some of the kids I've been lucky enough to work with when they've made it to quite a high level have worked out to be really good people too. I think it's quite important and it's sometimes lost a bit these days.

"How it works is there is an introductory free element, where the kids can come in and try it, we have two to three coaches once a week, every week of the year. They can come along to a point and then we'll say okay you're ready to go to the next level.

"We're working out where to hold the sessions so that it is fair to all the clubs - we'd like to find a neutral location," he said.

After completing the introductory sessions the children can become members of the GJGC virtual golf club. For $100 a year they receive memberships to play at all four courses, they will receive handicaps and can play in tournaments under GJGC.

"We have started applying for funding and we are hopefully launching properly in term 4. We're looking at having a competition to design the GJGC logo and get people involved.

"It is community focused, it's something different and Wakatipu has a proven model that works and New Zealand Golf are looking at doing it in other areas."

Earlier this month an indoor golf simulator was installed at the Rotorua Golf Club. It is a first in Rotorua and gives coaches the ability to provide a service all year round.

Players hit the ball at a projected screen and the simulator tracks its flight on a virtual golf course. Up to four players can play rounds on 15 different international golf courses.

"Coaching-wise we can come in here and work on their swing, it doesn't matter if it's raining or dark," Barkley said.