Isle of Man Golf is the governing body of the sport in the island and one of its key aims is to promote the game to youngsters from all backgrounds.

This means offering them the opportunity to experience golf using specialised equipment within the school environment.

Three years ago, IoMG created Chip n Putt for the island’s year six primary school children and so far have delivered fun sessions to more than 500 students in 17 schools.

Thanks to sponsorship from several areas, the initiative has been able to offer these sessions free of charge to each of the schools.

The specialist junior equipment is used to reduce any potential hazards and is left with the school after the sessions have finished so golf can be introduced on a year-round basis to many students.

Over the last year this equipment has been generously donated by the Tevir Group and Isle of Man Golf would like to thank them for the generous support.

The governing body held its inaugural Golf Festival at the NSC recently with more than 40 island children taking part.

This event gave local schools the opportunity to take part in a fun afternoon of golf and consisted of many of the games that were played during the previous school visits.

Accompanied on the day by a UK Golf Foundation representative, the children enjoyed a very competitive afternoon with the team from Laxey school coming out on top.

Isle of Man Golf hopes to get to all the island’s schools soon in their attempts to introduce and promote golf and will definitely be looking to run a second festival next year.

If anyone would like any more information on junior golf, contact Andy Patterson on 466996 or ring your local course for more information about junior training.