skysports.com visited a World of Golf range to see if their free lesson initiative was really too good to be true...
skysports.com visited a World of Golf range to see if their free lesson initiative was really too good to be true...
Ever fancied taking up golf but been put off by the cost, the perhaps slightly snobby reputation or just the embarrassment of how to even get started as a novice? Well, now World of Golf driving ranges are hoping to change that and bring in more people to the sport by offering free beginners lessons.
The aim of World of Golf's innovative new plan is to grab potential new golfers from the very start, and then manage their development right the way through until they are ready to take to the course by themselves.
Anyone who has taken up golf, unless accompanied with a fellow novice or friend, will know that at times it can be intimidating to simply turn up at a range and try and really get into the game, while costly lessons may also put off a potential new golfer.
That's where World of Golf feel they come in - with their offer now running of six hours of beginners' lessons with a PGA Qualified Instructor completely free, but Group Golf Development Manager Jon Woodroffe insists it is much more than a gimmick.
After visiting the New Malden range, and having a quick lesson with Jon (a golf pro of 30 years), you can tell by his enthusiasm that he really is committed to bringing more people into golf, apart from obviously wanting to build a successful business.
Approach
The main difference with the World of Golf approach is that they want to not just teach you how to swing a club, but get you fully prepared to take up the sport properly after going through the free beginners lessons and onto the improvement course.
"We feel the free group passes that we're offering is a fresh initiative and radical innovation that we've embarked upon, with the free group lessons for beginners being a unique selling point," Woodroffe told
skysports.com.
"As a golf pro of 30 years I know one of the things I've seen so often is that people come along to practice, but they come down to the range and basically what they do is they do it wrong."
As a hacker with no lessons under my belt it was immediately clear that unfortunately I fell into that exact category, although I am still ploughing away with stunning ineptitude around the golf course - a fate Woodroffe wants to spare potential new golfers.
"Swinging the golf club is not that difficult. Holding the golf club and standing correctly are, as you know, incredibly unnatural, nobody would come along and hold a club like that of their own volition, so they come down here and whack golf balls with the wrong grip and posture.
"There's an element of improvement but eventually it stops and then they get worse, then they give up the game and we all lose because they give up golf.
No cost
"What we're doing with the beginners' golf classes is we're getting them at the start, we take away many of the barriers that would stop them, the cost is now gone, its free, six one-hour lessons and there's no charge.
"They're shown how to hold the club and how to stand, which are really the most important things to learn - I know that they will then learn the basics, they will improve as golfers and they'll stay as golfers.
"Now the beauty of that is obviously at World of Golf they'll stay as customers for us, but I'm really keen on the fact that what we're doing is we're creating more customers for the whole golf industry."
Improvement classes are not free, however, but World of Golf will take improvers out onto the course, and they also have deals on memberships and green fees at local courses to help the transition before, like a proud parents, Woodroffe and his fellow pros watch their newcomers fly the nest.
"After we teach them the basics, the next step is into the improvement classes where we go into a little bit more detail and we really do then push them into going out onto a golf course," Woodroffe added.
"With each set of classes we do we take them onto the golf course, at the start of the beginners classes will tell them 'you will be golfers'. We give them a lesson on the golf course so they learn course management and the rules and etiquette and from there the progression is onto individual lessons.
Out on course
"Then it moves on to trying to help them - facilitating memberships of golf clubs or golf holidays, any way they want to play golf, we have links with local courses and local companies that specialise in those things that we can move them on to, to enjoy their golf, we can advise them every step of the way.
"So when they join us at World of Golf we look after them from there until they join golf clubs and then they move on the next wave of beginners comes through. I think what World of Golf is doing is really going to help the whole golf industry, not just us as a company."
A further feature of World of Golf, which has three sites in London at New Malden, Croydon and Sidcup and one up in Glasgow, is that along with the state-of-the-art driving range is an adventure crazy golf course to encourage kids to pick up a club.
"We also have adventure golf to get the kids in to get them at the earliest age just holding a golf club and having fun with the game. So it introduces them to the sport and then it's relatively easy to springboard them from the putting to the driving range if they enjoy golf.
"So we feel we're covering the golf development process from the youngest basic stages right through to when we feel we have to say goodbye to people because they're off to join golf courses."
To check out the World of Golf facilities and book your lessons, visit
http://www.worldofgolf.co.uk/web/guest/lessons
