Ladies golf it up at the Standard Bank Pro-Am in Serengeti

The third tournament of the Standard Bank Pro-Am series teed off at Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate on Wednesday last week, while the series’ golf development programme for girls continues to yield the desired results for the girls and the coaches.

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The Standard Bank Pro-Am Series was created by Lifestyle Golf, in association with the Women’s Professional Golf Association (WPGA), and aims to drive the development of female players at the grassroots level and empower talented professional female golfers by creating opportunities for more playing time.

The first two professional events of the season were hosted at Glendower Golf Club and Atlantic Beach Links, respectively.

At the same time, the development of girls has been ongoing in various places around the country.

In Orange Farm, there are currently 29 girls, from the initial intake of 30 girls last year, all of whom have progressed to level three of the programme and they have hit the ground running this year, according to Barbara Pestana who is the executive director of the WPGA.

“The girls couldn’t wait to pick up from where they left off last year and to facilitate progression to the next level an early assessment was done by the coaches to gauge retention levels and skill sets,” Pestana said.

The coaches were suitably impressed with the girls’ absorption levels so much so that this group is now ready to make the switch to standardised golf equipment which will be introduced in tandem with the SNAG (Starting New At Golf) programme due to the limited space within the school grounds.

The girls were transported to the Chris Hani Sports Stadium, which is roughly 3km from the school, for the final term sessions.

This enabled them to experience hitting real golf balls with proper golf clubs and to become more acquainted with the game much to their delight.

The potential and high level of commitment within this group bode well for their venture onto the golf course later in the year.

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In addition, 26 girls from the original intake at Serengeti last year had returned for levels four to six but this number has dropped to 22 girls.

This is largely due to a few experiencing transport challenges in returning home after the lessons along with some who have changed schools, and similarly, their progress has impressed Pestana, her professional coach.

In their early assessments, the girls passed with flying colours and progressed comfortably on to playing-related activities and are now learning to hit longer clubs which has captured their attention even more and has brought out their competitive edges in seeing how far they each hit the ball.

As this was the pilot group, the girls will now be split into segments of equal abilities as the focus begins to shift to playing the game.

Founder and promoter of the golf development programme and the pro-am series, Jenny Havenga of Lifestyle Golf said more work is being done in the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape with girls over there currently doing their levels one to three of the programme, after which they will move on to levels four to six.

“These programmes are designed with longevity in mind so, hopefully, we can successfully retain most of these children within the golfing environment in some shape or form.

“We thank the WPGA for the work their coaches are doing with these girls and we thank our sponsor Standard Bank for making all this possible,” Havenga said.

The girls are between the ages of six and 17, a perfect age for them to learn new skills and behaviours.

The Golf Development Programme supports the objectives of the Standard Bank Pro-Am series, which, amongst others, is to introduce as many young girls to golf as possible, equipping them for any role within the golfing landscape.

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“It is pleasing to note that the targeted objective for the first part of the year has been met, and in some cases exceeded, as a few of the older girls in the latter programmes have already progressed onto standardised golf equipment due to their advancement,” said Pestana.

Pestana added that whilst continuity is key, the opportunities being provided to these young girls are invaluable and hopes that with more stakeholders getting involved in structured golf development for girls, in particular, a lot more could be done to improve their lives and show that there are sustainable opportunities in golf.

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