BEAT YOUR BOGEY HOLE WIN FOOTJOY SHOES

Chris Wood
Two European Tour
wins. Finished 5th
as an amateur in
2008 Open, tiedthird
a year later.
he top-20 at this year’s Irish Open
featured Danny Willett, Andy Sullivan,
T
Chris Wood, Eddie Pepperell, Matt
Fitzpatrick and Tyrrell Hatton. Those players all
have two things in common. One – they’re all
English, part of a vanguard of new,
homegrown stars who are taking over the
mantle from the likes of Lee Westwood and
Luke Donald. And two – they all benefited
from England Golf coaching on their pathway
from young prospect to Tour professional.
The most notice the majority of amateur
golfers will pay to England Golf is the small
affiliation fee – usually around two per cent –
added to your annual membership fee. This
money goes towards things like organising
your county championship and administering
the handicap system. But England Golf also
uses it, along with some National Lottery
funding, to provide coaching to talented
youngsters and turn them into future Tour
pros and, with a little luck, the first English
Major winner since Nick Faldo won the
Masters in 1996.
Wood, who recently won his second
European Tour title, says: “Obviously we did a
lot of work on our game, but there was also
off-the-course training plus lots of travelling
which educated us on what was needed and
how to be strong enough for life on tour when
we turned pro.
“The sort of opportunities I had to play
around the world just wouldn’t have been
available if I hadn’t broken into the English
teams and got that support. When you
understand how important being in the
England set-up was you can appreciate how
desperate I was to get in it.”
“National coaching really took off in 2001,”
says Stephen Burnett, performance manager
for England Golf. “There were obviously still
English golfers doing well before then, but it’s
a completely different world out there now
with all the other countries really investing in
golf coaching.”
In a world where sport is big business and
one home-grown Major winner can change
the future of a sport, England cannot afford to
rely on chance to deliver world-beaters when
other countries are investing millions in
spotting and nurturing young talent.
“There aren’t many golfers that have
gone on to the Tour in the last few
years that haven’t come through the
programme in some respect,”
says Burnett.
Nowadays, a structured
programme invites
applications from
promising teenagers,
the best of whom are
invited to attend a ➔