Top Cornwall club looks to the future

St Mellion International Resort, the flagship venue at one of England’s most progressive golf groups, is planning to develop its next generation of golfers with a major new Scholarship.

In the new scheme, 25 young golfers will be given free membership and coaching at St Mellion for anything up to six years, as part of a Scholarship which the club claims will create a “golf club for the future”.

This month the club, which is part of the award-winning Crown Golf group, embarks on a search for local youngsters aged between 12 and 18, who will each be granted full membership and free lessons from the club’s PGA Teaching Professional Jason Avery.

The membership gives full playing access to the two championship golf courses at the resort, the world-famous Nicklaus and the recently-refurbished Kernow, as part of a newly-created St Mellion Junior Golf Scholarship.

At the same time, the club has announced that its popular free membership scheme for under-10s is to be extended to include all under-12s.

The club’s current Junior Members have already started to apply for the Scholarships, which will be assessed on a youngster’s willingness to attend coaching sessions regularly, to play for the club’s junior teams and – if they achieve the right level of ability – to represent Cornwall at county level.

St Mellion juniors who remain in the Junior Golf Scholarship scheme will in this way have their golf completely funded right through until their 18th birthday – up to six years’ coaching and golf at one of the UK’s favourite golf destinations.

The Scholarship is the brainchild of Jason Avery, and David Moon, St Mellion’s Director of Golf.

“This will be a game-changer here at St Mellion” said Moon, “not just for our junior section but also for the way we develop long-term members at this golf club. Our goal is to create a strong, loyal and competitive junior team who are each developing their involvement in golf at their own pace. And over time, we believe they will flourish not only as better golfers, but also as young ambassadors for St Mellion and everything it stands for.

“This is our chance to create a golf club for the future.”

“The Scholarship is open to all, regardless of background or golfing experience” said professional golf coach Avery, whose Junior Golf Scholarship coaching programme begins in February 2014. “It is all about identifying potential, and helping to develop it. We have kept the barriers low, as regards eligibility for these Scholarships. If a youngster is capable of playing handicap-level golf, is willing to be team-spirited and is capable of engaging consistently in both group and individual coaching sessions, then we want them playing golf at St Mellion.”

Stephen Towers, Resort Director at St Mellion, feels that the Junior Golf Scholarship typifies the resort’s attitude towards playing an active role in the community. “It is important that we get the parents’ backing for this” he said. “I am sure that they will welcome the financial benefits of the Scholarship, but I think they will also appreciate that this is as much about attitude and personal development, as it is about teaching youngsters how to be better golfers.

“I believe that this new Scholarship will foster the best possible relationship between the club, and the families of the 25 children involved. To maximise parental engagement, we have designed the coaching activities so that non-golfing parents can, if they wish, enter our innovative Get Into Golf programme, to help them join in with their children’s golfing development, regardless of their experience.”

*Potential applicants should contact Jason Avery at St Mellion as soon as possible, on 07816 189519, or email stmellion-academy@crown-golf.co.uk