From a barren to blossoming girls’ golf landscape, the AGF Junior Girls Scholarship Program has planted the seed for success at Mandurah Country Club!

When six girls, new to Mandurah Country Club, stepped on course in their AGF uniforms at the beginning of 2022, with no clear participation pathway and limited playing opportunities, the club knew something needed to change.

Brad Law, Mandurah’s junior coordinator, reflects on this turning point.

“Our volunteer group, which looked after juniors at the time, only focused on scheduling junior boy’s pennant. With the addition of the girl’s scholarship program, we started asking ourselves some important questions around, “How do we keep these girls playing? How do we progress their golf? And how do we keep them at the club?”

This sparked the existing junior committee to approach management for assistance with funding a Junior Golf Academy to help grow and support the junior presence, and more importantly, help manage the younger players.

Criag Tapp, Mandurah’s PGA Professional, is thrilled with this progress, especially with the opportunities that have been created for girls to practice, play, and make friends.

“I am really happy with the way it’s all progressing. We now have some great continuity for our scholarship girls and juniors. Not only are our girls enjoying their scholarship training session each Saturday, but the club has introduced a supervised practice session each Tuesday, plus a nine-hole junior event on Sundays for all juniors (including our scholarship girls) to enjoy.”

“Being engaged numerous times per week at the club and spending lots of time together, the girls are flourishing”, adds Law. “They have made good friends; are all playing regularly in Sunday competition and are working towards obtaining handicaps. Alexandria Page who is 12 years old has really excelled, having dropped her handicap from 45 to 27 since receiving a scholarship.”

With thanks to the AGF for sparking the creation of a junior academy and additional program, there has been a noticeable shift in momentum for juniors at the club. Seventeen juniors are now playing each Sunday and large numbers attend the supervised training sessions each Tuesday. We watch these numbers grow with great excitement for juniors in our club.

“The scholarship program is a great idea,” remarks Law.

“We are all absolutely embracing the essence of the program, and junior development as a whole at the club has come ahead in ‘leaps and bounds’ thanks to the AGF scholarship funding.”

Australian Golf Foundation is the national foundation for golf in Australia. The AGF supports Golf Australia’s vision to grow golf by investing in targeted initiatives to inspire all Australians to enjoy and play the game. Visit australiangolffoundation.org.au for further information.

Australian Golf Foundation is thrilled to partner with NEXTGEN Group as the principal partner of the AGF Scholarship Programme in 2022, with significant further support provided by Golf Australia, Golf Victoria, Victorian Golf Foundation, Golf Queensland, Golf South Australia, Golf Tasmania, Golf Western Australia, Western Australian Golf Foundation, Golf Northern Territory, Jack Newton Junior Golf, Golf Management Australia, WPGA Tour of Australasia and PGA of Australia, as well as a number of additional generous private benefactors.

The scholarship program has come to fruition thanks to the foresight and generosity of Bonnie Boezeman AO, Director of the Australian Golf Foundation, who originally established the program at Killara Golf Club, NSW.