Community Interest Company
No. 14816436 · Bootle, Merseyside
No. 14816436 · Bootle, Merseyside
Programme notes
What happened when we took golf to a group of Merseyside children who had never held a club.
We ran a six-week golf programme with Everton in the Community, one of the most respected community organisations in football, coaching young people across Merseyside. Almost none of them had played golf before.
Every participant received an Everton in the Community-branded polo shirt. That isn't a giveaway for the sake of it — golf clubs have dress codes, and a child who turns up in the wrong thing gets turned away. Handing them the shirt in week one means the door is already open by the time they get to a course.
One boy took to it immediately, and the barrier in front of him was simply that he had nothing to play with. We gave him a full set so he could carry on straight away. There were a few tears in the room that day, ours included.
The programme finished with a nine-hole tournament, and the trophy was presented by a former Everton player. Finishing on a real course, in a real competition, is the part that makes it stick — it turns six weeks of sessions into something a child can say they did.
Golf's access problem isn't about talent. It's cost, kit, dress code and the feeling that the game isn't meant for you. A programme like this removes all four in six weeks, and then hands families a route to carry on without us.