2,010 by 2010 - Dewstow set ambitious target

Thousands of Gwent youngsters will get the chance to play golf, thanks to an ambitious scheme to take the game to 2,010 children by the time of the 2010 Ryder Cup.

Staff and members at Dewstow golf club, a few miles down the road from Ryder Cup hosts Celtic Manor, have hatched the plan which is backed by Golf Development Wales, the Sports Council for Wales and Ryder Cup Wales.

Club professional Steve Truman is the man with the plan to take golf to all the schools in the area so that around 170 children a month will have the chance to try the game for the first time before the Ryder Cup rolls into town.

“I was thinking about how to do something based on the Ryder Cup and first thought about getting 21 people into the game, but that was a bit simple so then I thought of 210, but then decided to go the whole way and go for 2,010,” he explained.

“We are just launching it now after presenting the idea to the governing bodies and getting their support, so hopefully it will be a big success.

“The more I think about it, the harder it gets. We should be able to do it though, I work very closely with the comprehensives in Chepstow and Caldicot and both their Heads are very much behind the plan and will almost make it part of the curriculum.

“That is 6-700 children, plus we will be targeting all the primary schools and also disadvantaged children.

“We will take Golf Xtreme and Tri-Golf into the schools to give them a taste of the game and then they can come back to the club to take up golf properly, tying in with the programmes set up by Golf Development Wales.”

Dewstow have earned the Junior Golf Cert for their work, which will also give some of those juniors the chance to go and see the practice days of the Ryder Cup next year as well as a tried and tested structure to introduce people to the game.

They won this year’s Gwent men’s strokeplay title with four juniors in a their five-man team, as well as providing a quarter of the current Wales Under 15’s squad – a remarkable achievement in one club.

“It is a very ambitious plan, but it is targeted and there are a very fine bunch of people behind it,” said Golf Development Wales chairman Andy Morgan.

“This sort of scheme is really at the heart of what we hoped to do for Welsh golf – some of us have had a dream for 30-40 years to be able to develop the game in this way and help people like those in Dewstow.”