A group of budding golfers at Blyth Golf Club, a sand greens course located two hours north of Adelaide, needed help.

What were they to do for the six months a year that their course was not operational?

It was a head-scratcher that had club members working with Golf Australia for a solution, and thankfully, Clare Golf Club, only 12km down the road, stepped up to the plate.

Clare, with its large grass greens, would play host to Blyth’s beginners during the summer and a Get Into Golf program was quickly established.

Golf Australia (SA) participation manager Christian Puccini and his team suggested that the neighbours joined forces and he was full of praise for the two clubs’ efforts in driving participation within the area.

“With a number of beginner golfers at Blyth keen to continue with their golf, it was great to hear of the support Clare provided when a joint program was discussed,” Puccini said.

The collaboration was pushed by Clare’s president Heather Grace and Blyth’s president Janet Zweck, who are also community instructors, and they took the reins for the first few weeks of the program prior to handing them over to Clare’s PGA Professional Phil Skeers.

“The participants found the program most beneficial with the weekly sessions offering continuity of learning and a weekly reminder on how to hit a golf ball,” Zweck said.

A key part of that ‘weekly reminder’ was adhering to Grace and Zweck’s philosophy of keeping things as straight forward as possible.

“We arranged to keep it simple and make sure the participants had some fun with a few game-based exercises,” Grace said. “As a community instructor, I really try and get them hitting the ball and having some success.”

The five-week program was delivered to 12 participants, with eight women from Blyth joining and they have since returned to their home club as the new Blyth golf season began last month.

The relationship between the two clubs does not end there however, with Clare already lining up seven participants for the next Get Into Golf program to be held on Sundays.

Over 10,000 participants and 265 clubs & facilities have been involved with Get Into Golf over the last 12 months. Is today the day you get involved? Find out more at www.golf.org.au/getintogolf