Monty set to reward grass roots heroes

The Golf Foundation President’s Awards winners and heroes of junior grass roots golf will be duly rewarded by winning Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie at Wentworth on May 25th.

Taking place in Wentworth Club’s magnificent Ballroom courtesy of Golf Foundation supporter The European Tour, the President’s Awards ceremony will celebrate inspirational figures who have worked closely with the Foundation during the last year to make golf more accessible to children from all backgrounds and abilities.

This will be Montgomerie’s first official duty as the new President of the Golf Foundation, the leading golf charity that aims to reach one million youngsters a year through its Golf Roots programmes by 2013.

Monty is giving his time on the busy final day before competition starts for the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Monty is “very honoured” to take on the new role. He added: “Golf has played such an important part in my life and I look forward to working with the Golf Foundation to inspire as many youngsters as possible to take up this great game.”

There are eight Golf Foundation President’s Awards to be won in all. Four individual awards include the volunteer and PGA professional of the year, a special award for making progress in golf despite adversity and The Sir Henry Cotton Award, which goes to a person who has done great work for juniors over a sustained period. Four further awards cover successful regional golf projects of varying sizes and objectives.

A special moment during the occasion will be a big ‘thank-you’ from the Golf Foundation team to its outgoing President Ken Schofield, former Chief Executive of The European Tour.

In his five years as President, Ken has presided over the most successful period in the Foundation’s 59-year history, assisting in the development of the Golf Roots strategy that takes golf into schools and communities and then links projects to a growing number of golf clubs with follow-on opportunities.

Charles Harrison, Chairman of the Golf Foundation, said: “Ken’s wealth of experience in helping to grow The European Tour offered us a great source of knowledge and contacts to tap into as we ourselves have grown quickly as an organisation.

“His expertise in development, management, but perhaps more importantly his ideas and sense of enjoyment allied to a real love of the game, have been a great help and inspiration to the whole team.

“We thank Ken and now look forward to working with Colin to ensure that we can continue to offer excitement in golf to a new generation of young players.”