When the sport of football permeated itself into every part of the world where energetic young people were looking for some physical activity to fill a few empty hours, its very simplicity was the reason for its global growth. Find a flatish area of land, a ball of nondescript size and substance,
a pal or pals to compete against, and a makeshift goalmouth…
and away you went.

In Brazil, for instance, the ‘flatish area of land’ was the nearest beach, and the seeds of the Pele era and ‘the beautiful game’ were planted. Those beginnings were a century and more ago, during which time football of some sort has been played in jungle clearings, street corners, school playgrounds and even – it is historically reported – in the no-man’s land of World War I battlefields during a break in hostilities. Obviously this modern sporting phenomenon of golf, growing as it is world-wide at an impressive rate, could never match football’s forest fire-like spread. Or could it?

The wind of change

The answer realistically has to be a reluctant “well, probably not”. More open space is needed, more equipment, more knowledge, more patience and more practice to even reach an enjoyable level of expertise. And yet golf is attracting new participants every day of every year in regions of the world where previously the opportunity to expend surplus energy and mental and physical prowess in a sport was confined pretty much to football, or whatever other activity was popular locally. Countries such as the Ivory Coast, Botswana, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, El Salvador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Iran, and Bulgaria do not spring instantly to mind as places where a young person would hurry from school to a nearby driving range or practice ground to wrestle with the complications of a golf swing. Kick a ball across a field, maybe. But not practise his or her pitching and putting.

And yet it is happening. Truly. Due to an initiative funded by the The Royal & Ancient of St Andrews – the sport’s original governing body – conducted with the support of the Professional Golfers’ Associations of Europe, representing 35 member PGAs across Europe and beyond, the gospel of golf is being spread globally in the most practical way possible. The initiative that began in the humblest of fashions some 20 years ago by means of one golf professional visiting one country for a couple of weeks or so to give a few lessons to a handful of students, has now become the World Golf Development Programme. This has led to The R&A providing – from their substantial annual financial surpluses arising from the staging of The Open Championship – appropriate grants to enable World Development Consultants, followed by World Development Tutors, to visit countries which request such help in order to advise a way forward.

The request for aid would normally come from the country’s amateur union or federation asking for a range of advice including that of how to start teaching those who wish to take up the sport in a structured manner. The ‘way forward’ most likely would be, for instance, a three-year programme of visits by an experienced consultant and coach, during which time foundations of a golf education policy would be put down, leading hopefully in the long-term to their being able to train their own professional teachers and coaches.