Is golf seriously a game for all? In certain places, it can be just that but, when it comes to turning professional, UK youngsters without rich parents continue to have a tough time trying to get started.
The general consensus of opinion would seem to be that one player in five – on the women’s side of the game – is currently having to give up on her professional dreams because she does not have the wherewithal to give herself so much as half a chance.
For an up-to-the-minute report of what a hit-and-miss affair the process of turning professional is apt to be in the early days, Bishop Auckland’s 23-year-old Jessica Hall has recently gone down the “Just Giving” route after returning from four years at Fresno State University in California. Out there, her golf came on in leaps and bounds under the eye of coach Emily Loften. Yet the longer she spent in the States, the more she was out of sight and mind of those who might fund her start on the LET.
As she had played twice for the England girls’ team, I asked if she had called upon England Golf to assist. The answer was in the negative. “You can’t,” she advised, “rely on your country for help”. (What she was saying in fact covers all three of England, Wales and Scotland.)
It could be that Hall’s idea of wanting to set off around the world playing golf might strike some people outside the game as the equivalent of a gap year. However, where a gap year can be done on the cheap, with red-eye flights and nights in hostels, that does not begin to apply to an aspiring golfer. He or she will need to take flights which marry with tournament dates, besides staying in reasonable hotels, eating well, and shelling out for a caddie.
It was a sister member of Bishop Auckland, who helped to set Hall up on the “Just Giving” site and, when Hall and I spoke, well-wishers had contributed £2,500 towards her £5,000 target. Club members, along with her parents, donated separately, while Jenny Lucas, formerly Jenny Lee Smith and the winner of the first of the Women’s British Open championships in 1976, threw in another £1,000. All of which meant that Hall was able to practise in Portugal before moving on to Spain for the LET’s up-coming pre-qualifiers and final qualifiers.
England’s Hannah Burke had to sell her car to help fund LET Qualifying School
(Image credit: Ladies European Tour)
England’s Hannah Burke, on learning of Hall’s experiences, said she was listening to a familiar story. …
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