A Geelong golf club has been recognised by Golf Australia’s inaugural National Awards of Excellence for its efforts in bringing new players to the game.
The Barwon Valley Golf Club received the Get Into Golf Venue of the Year award last week for its pathway approach for beginning players and its community-first adult participation model.
Over the past 12 months the club has run 79 Get Into Golf programs for 416 participants, with nearly half of those complete beginners, through the Geelong Golf Academy.
The club has also partnered with other clubs in the region to extend the academy’s impact, focusing particularly on women’s participation.
Barwon Valley operations manager and golf instructor Tybin Lawson said it was “incredibly exciting” to be recognised in the inaugural awards.
“We’ve been lucky to have the right people in place who create an environment where new golfers feel welcome, supported, and part of a community from their very first session,” Mr Lawson said.
“While any PGA professional or community instructor can deliver a women’s Get Into Golf program, there’s a real art to doing it in a way that makes participants love every moment, and inspires them to return term after term.
“This is where (instructors) Jay McKenzie and Jarryd Watene truly excel, and it’s the key reason we’ve been recognised with this award.”
Mr Lawson said the academy had built a community of female golfers over the last few years, which contributed to the program’s success.
“When someone signs up to one of our beginner classes, they aren’t just signing up for 8-10 one-hour golf sessions, they become part of a network of well over 500 women in Geelong who are all fairly new to golf in the last few years,” he said.
“This amazing group of women are all extremely encouraging of each other and understand the challenges of being a new golfer, as they were in that position only a year or two ago.
“Our belief is that hardly anyone continues to learn or play golf if they don’t have anyone to play with, so our aim is to provide as many opportunities as we can to ensure women in our programs are able to meet other new golfers, and build new relationships that extend beyond the golf course.”
