JUNIOR GOLF 2010-2011

What lies ahead and the advances made over the past year.
September 2010

With the new season starting we can look forward to the continued improvement of juniors involved with coaching programs at several clubs in Cyprus. There has been a small growth in the number of children participating in a junior program last season and we hope to raise this number again over the coming year.

The R&A have once again helped the junior program for 2010 and 2011, not only providing a small subsidy for any juniors taking part in organised programs but also with funding to send 2 junior representatives to the Lundin Club Scotland; to compete for Cyprus in the 2010 R&A Junior Open.

The federation has taken its first steps to creating a junior national squad by appointing Paul Dyer, PGA professional as the official National Coach. Later this year Paul will start a selection process to create the first official "National Squad" for juniors. We may be premature with this thought process but let me say that it is the long-term goal of everyone in the Federation to send a Team of juniors to represent Cyprus in some of the many internationally stage junior team events, all been well and with sufficient funding we could be in a position to do this by the end of 2011.

One other advancement over the past 6 months was the approval from the Federation Board for the "FREE" Federation licenses to all juniors involved with programs or those that are members of clubs. This is really significant in allowing the Clubs to Federate all its junior allowing tem to manage and regulate the junior handicaps in accordance with the guidelines from the R&A.

Looking ahead - We will continue at the start of 2011 to invite and introduce children from some of the local schools to golf. Earlier in 2010 we have invited 150 children to a golf introduction day at Aphrodite Hills, the day was a great success and the children showed a real interest in the game, some signed up for lessons and we hope to continue this concept and invite children to the other on Island clubs, Secret Valley and Minthis Hills.

The Federation will also be planning its first Junior Open - information on dates and venue will be released shortly. The Event will be the starting point of a Junior Open that we hope in the future will gain International recognition. The event will be made possible thank you to the kind offer of a course from Cyprus Golf Resorts and General Manager Stelios Patsalides

With-in the junior section of the website you will be able to find the calendar of events and other interesting facts and figures about the various academies that are operating in Cyprus.

Should you have any questions, ideas or wish to support junior golf in Cyprus please contact Andrew Darker, Junior Golf Director juniors@cgf.org.cy