Bankstown Golf Club currently have one of the best Junior Foundations in the country.

The club has been successful in promoting junior golf at a very high level over the past 10 years with the following players coming through the Bankstown Golf club junior program:

• Mitchell Brown         (No 1 Ranked Amateur Golfer in the world in 2006)
• Justine Lee              (2009 Australian Amateur Champion)
• Michael Smyth         (2009 NSW Amateur Champion)
  

The club sent 7 colts members on a (6 week) golfing tour of Scotland in 2008 to enhance their golfing abilities and to provide them with a chance to play against some of the best players in the world at some of the world?s finest golf courses. The club is organizing another  trip to Scotland for the colts players again in 2010.

Bankstown Golf Club Juniors Programme

This programme has been compiled and issued with the aim of making junior members aware of activities available to them within the club over the next twelve months.

It contains information on competitions, special junior events, coaching arrangements, dress and behaviour requirements and channels of communication for receiving and initiating information and suggestions.

To receive information on Junior fees, please contact the office on 9773 0628. For any other information on the Junior Programme, please contact Greg Watkinson on 0411 469 960.

---

 Bankstown Bankrolls Youth Trip

The seven lucky Bankstown golfers bound for Scotland.
L to R: Nathan Beaven, David Abbott, Chris Akers, Mitchell Beaven, Sam Costa, Sam Bennett, Sean Underwood

 

Junior development has become a buzz word in golf in recent years but at Sydney's Bankstown Golf Club they were ahead of the trend nine years ago. Noticing a lack of younger members populating the club, life member Ray Harrison set about turning things around.

Owner of a driving range next door to the western Sydney course, Harrison began offering free lessons to junior members and organising clinics with Alex Mercer, one of the country's most respected coaches, to try to encourage more youngsters to the club.

The idea took hold and has since spawned an internal club facility known as the Ray Harrison Youth Foundation, a group which organises fund raisers and events to assist young golfers between the ages of 17 and 23 continue to pursue top level play, even preparations for a professional career.

"That age group is a bit of a difficult time for good players," says Bankstown's Junior Development Officer Greg Watkinson. "There's a lot of junior and senior golf about but not as much for players in that bracket. And it's also a time in life where a lot of things change.

"Young people get their first jobs, club fees usually go up and they discover the opposite sex. It can be hard to keep those players as members and the Foundation is one way of trying to do that."

And do that it no doubt will if the Foundation's latest venture is anything to go by. The group raised $50,000 to sponsor a group of seven players for a five week trip to Scotland next month playing a series of elite events.

"We want these guys to get some exposure to the level of golf internationally, not just in Australia, because it tells them where their games are at," says Greg. "And the fundraising work the Foundation has done is allowing that to happen.

"What they have achieved is remarkable and will be a great experience for all these young guys."

Already several former Bankstown members who were beneficiaries of the Youth Foundation have gone on to professional careers and Greg believes it has also helped boost the club's junior ranks.

"There's no doubt kids see the effort we put in to this program and feel it's a club they'd like to be a part of so it's been good for the players involved and the club in the long term," he said.

"And really, pretty much all the credit belongs to Ray Harrison. It was shi idea and it has been him that's been the driving force behind it. I know the club appreciates it and I know the guys who have benefited from it do, too."