During the past five weeks, pupils at Ashfield Park School in Ross-on-Wye have been introduced to a new after school activity – golf.

With the support of Headteacher, Geraint Mills, 60 pupils from years 5 and 6 have taken part in ‘Tri-Golf’ sessions with professional, Oli Leett, and his assistant, James Dobbs, a former Ashfield Park pupil at the helm.

Tri-Golf is a ‘mini’ version of golf for primary schools, which involves the use of adapted equipment and a variety of games designed to provide an enjoyable introduction to the sport. The equipment is designed to be safe and suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. It provides a fun, energetic view of golf to suit all abilities with flexibility between individual play and team values in a completely safe and secure environment. In Ashfield Park’s case it also ideally compliments one of the school’s main aims of pupils becoming ‘the best that they can be’.

On the wider front the current decline in people playing golf regularly, which has contributed to falling levels of golf club membership everywhere, will be a matter of concern for all golf clubs. Initiatives like Tri-Golf, the brain child of the Sports Foundation help to focus on the grass roots. They can reveal the undoubted talent which can lie dormant in many young people, so this initiative makes good sense and provides those vital ‘win-win’ scenarios where everyone benefits.