Funding Grass Root Aid Across the Continent
PGAs of Europe Annual Review 2009-10
When the Ryder Cup was restructured in 2004 with the formation of Ryder Cup Europe LLP, in a partnership between the European Tour (60%), the PGA (20%) and the PGAs of Europe (20%), one of the important outcomes was the formation of the Ryder Cup European Development Trust. The purpose of this UK-registered charity is to ensure that a portion of the net profits accrued from the Matches is absorbed into the Trust, thereby allowing aid to be distributed by means of grants for grass root schemes throughout Europe.
Trust Helps France to Take Golf to its Inner Cities
With the 2010 Matches at the Celtic Manor Resort, Wales, guaranteed to inject more resources into the Ryder Cup European Development Trust Fund (RCEDT), the last 12 months has seen more proposed schemes rubber-stamped and put into practice.
As organisations in countries around Europe have come to realise the possible funding that could be on offer for ‘grass roots’ initiatives, and to appreciate the need for such schemes to be carefully organised and supervised, so the Trust committee has approved those applications considered to be suitable and provided necessary grants.
When the Ryder Cup was restructured in 2004 with the formation of Ryder Cup Europe LLP, in a partnership between the European Tour (60%), the PGA (20%) and the PGAs of Europe (20%), one of the important outcomes was the formation of the Ryder Cup European Development Trust. The purpose of this UK-registered charity is to ensure that a portion of the net profits accrued from the Matches is absorbed into the Trust, thereby allowing aid to be distributed by means of grants for grass root schemes throughout Europe.
The committee meets on a regular basis to consider applications and is always readily available for advice on meeting the guidelines required for grants to be provided.
One 2010 example of the invaluable contribution that the Trust makes to international golf development can be found in France, one of the five nations currently awaiting the outcome of their bids to stage the 2018 Matches.
Aided by the support of a grant from the Ryder Cup European Development Trust, France is pursuing a wide-ranging scheme, targeted largely at inner-city children, to promote golf by creating new courses and providing a golf education programme.
The scheme was inaugurated in 2003 by PGA professional Bill Owens, businessman, Patrick Wallaert, owner of four golf courses around Paris, and Alexis Godillot, a French and European golf champion with the aim of developing the sport across the country with the launch of the Association pour le Développement du Golf Éducatif (ADGE) Among the ambitious features of the longterm programme is that of creating courses for the general public at affordable cost in a country that, they believed, saw golf as being ‘only for the privileged few’ and in which ‘pay-as-you-play facilities in close proximity to town centres are few and far between’.
Also to take golf tuition to inner-city children in an easily-understood way and to generally introduce the sport to new generations. A recent symbol of the outstanding success of the far-reaching project was, with the support of the PGA of France and the French Golf Federation, the opening on May 26 of a course and teaching facility (or ‘L’Inauguration du Parcours Éducatif’) at Choisy-le-Roi, with golf course, teaching facilities and 15-bay driving range.
How The Ryder Cup Promotes Golf Throughout Europe
• Up to €1.4M from a total ‘pot’ of some €2,5M has so far been distributed throughout Europe to aid the community of golf at large for this and future generations, with many of the programmes being ongoing initiatives to be further funded.
• In the Czech Republic, an initiative to increase the number of Junior Training Centres from ten in 2006 to 24 in 2009 has been very successful.
• More than 6,000 children have been introduced to golf in Bulgaria in recent years.
• A promotional project within the school’s curriculum in Turin, Italy, allows pupils aged 10-18 to practise golf free of charge.
• More than 1,800 free golf lessons were dispensed at various European Tour events throughout Europe in 2009.
• The UK’s Golf Foundation Golf Roots project has involved more than 11,000 participants in the game at public venue events. Golf is now taught in 254 schools to in excess of 9,000 pupils.
• The number of coaching centres in Ireland has risen to 200, with a coaching centre in 30 of 32 counties and with almost 2,000 juniors registered on the coaching programme.
