CN Future Links Offers Canadian Kids Good Start
Junior Golf Program Boosts Kids' PGA Tour Hopes
Nov 20, 2008
It's not necessarily the fact that several of the wannabe-PGA Canuck players on the Nationwide Tour, like Ian Leggatt or Jon Mills and those on the Canadian Tour, like Wes Heffernan and Graham DeLaet, are set to make the jump to the top just yet, but they're on their way.
Which is perhaps the case for plenty of other young players who have PGA dreams, according to the CN Future Links program. Now in its 12th year of operation, CN Future Links has funneled almost three-quarters of a million kids through its programs, ranging from grassroots participation to high-end elite level tournaments.
A banner year for Canadian junior golf
While the CN program is designed to bring kids into the game of golf and keep them there for a lifetime, it's about more than that, Mark Wallace, the company's Assistant Vice-President, Public Affairs, said in a written statement to the Royal Canadian Golf Association which in turn was released to the media.
"We believe that young people...should have the opportunity to participate in a sport that can lead to a lifelong passion and that introduces values that travel with them throughout adulthood."
Ian Giles, the Advisory Committee Chairman for Future Links golf program agrees.
"2008 was another banner year for Canadian junior golf participation through the CN Future Links program," he said in the same release. "With the generous support of CN and the partnership between the RCGA, CPGA and the provincial golf associations, we proudly celebrate our 12th year knowing that close to 750,000 young boys and girls having been introduced to a game they can enjoy for life."
The numbers from this past year demonstrate how large the game has come in what's considered a hockey-mad country, and how it will continue to grow in the years to come.
Clubs, schools buying in
In the past year alone, over 22,000 kids took part in instructional golf clinics hosted by CPGA pros while the 10 provincial associations of the RCGA has more than 57,000 children take part in various programs they staged.
Further, 278 schools ran CN Future Links golf programs for more than 36,000 kids and more than 10,000 young players teed it up in at least one tournament sponsored by the junior golf organization over the last year.
Growth should continue
To say the game is growing in this country and that the Canadian population on the PGA Tour will grow accordingly is like saying a 300-yard drive for an average player is 'nice'.
In reality, it's amazing.
The numbers have grown from just over 3,500 kids in CN's initial year of sponsorship in 1996 to over 112,500 this past year and shows no signs of slowing down.
That's an amazing increase for a sport once considered elitest and for old people and something that will certainly benefit the game, both on a regional as well as on a national and international level, in the years to come.
