Wrag Barn junior Ellie Webster has been named England Golf’s Hero Handsake winner for November after her superb work helping spread the word about golf on Instagram.

HERO’S Handshake winner Ellie Webster has built up quite a following with her regular posts about golf on social media.

However, it’s at her Wiltshire club where the 12-year-old is really gathering the most ‘likes’.

Twelve-year-old Ellie is the latest recipient of England Golf’s Hero’s Handshake award. She received it in front of family and friends at Wrag Barn Golf Club at the weekend.

Throughout 2019, Ellie has helped light up the club with her winning smile and willingness to help fellow juniors.

As a Girls Golf Rocks ambassador, Ellie was on hand to provide tips and encouragement for girls new to the game and attending two six-week coaching blocks set up by England Golf and the Golf Foundation.

Regular posts on Instagram also charted her season on and off the course – with even the bad shots and rounds discussed and simply shrugged off as “par for the course.”

Positive comments followed from all over England as well as America where her honest and witty posts struck a chord.

Already working hard on a winter programme to help her improve on her 21-handicap, Ellie has impressed everyone at her club including Verity Manners who owns Wrag Barn GC along with her husband Tim.

Verity said: “Ellie joined just over two years ago and has been a really active member of our golf community.

“She is always helpful, always enthusiastic and approachable and does everything with a smile on her face.

“Sometimes we are quick to slate social media, but the way Ellie uses it to promote positivity about golf shows that it can also be a very useful tool.

“Ellie was on hand to help out at Girls Golf Rocks. We had around 20 girls taking part for the first time and it can be a bit daunting for them.

“Ellie was there to keep them focused and hand out words of encouragement while the teaching pro carried out the sessions.

“Whether or not she makes it as a pro herself, her early experiences in golf will stand her in good stead for life.

“She has learned about interacting with fellow juniors, as well as men and ladies at the club who all play golf together during our golf week.

“She has learned the etiquette of the sport which is also useful for life skills.”

Mum Tracy, dad Michael and little brother Logan were all present to see Ellie pick up her award after she finished playing in a club Texas scramble competition.

They did well to keep the award a secret, but there’s no hiding from the fact young Ellie has her sights trained on a career in golf.

“There’s nothing else she wants to do in life – there are no other options to even consider. She wants to be a golfer,” confirmed mum. “Ellie’s played since the age of six.

“Ellie has embarked on a winter training programme including fitness work and her coach can already see that she is becoming stronger.

“Ellie is quite quiet and unassuming and her involvement at the golf club has built up her confidence.

“I supervise her social media access and together we have posted videos and photos, and the good thing is she is not afraid to talk about her bad rounds as well as the good ones.

“There’s been messages from all across the world – particularly in America.

“We went to Florida on holiday and started following various social media accounts of golf courses we visited.

“In turn they followed Ellie and the responses have come from that source.

“As a family we are so proud of her and all she is doing. This award means the world to her.”

Ali Jodiyawalla, from the Young Ambassadors programme, made the Hero’s Handshake award presentation to Ellie.

•You can follow Ellie’s Golfing Girls Journey on Instagram by clicking here.

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Young golfers who have already come through the Girls Golf Rock programme are signin up as ambassadors to support and enoucrage girls who take up the game in 2020

GIRLS Golf Rocks is back for 2020 and clubs in England can now sign up to make it bigger and better then ever.

The programme is now in its fifth year and has helped introduce more than 5,000 girls to the game of golf – inspiring beginners to enjoy themselves in a fun, friendly and safe environment.

Applications are now open for affiliated clubs and HSBC Golf Roots centres who wish to join in the fun for 2020 – and encourage the next generation of girl golfers to pick up a club for the first time.

Girls Golf Rocks aims to ensure they have a ball at their local golf centre

In 2019, 112 facilities across England signed up to make Girls Golf Rocks a runaway success according to organisers England Golf and the Golf Foundation.

In 2020, there is scope for up to 200 facilities across all 48 counties in England to get involved in the biggest girls’ coaching programme in the country.

England Golf and the Golf Foundation have joined forces once again to set up the initiative and will provide marketing tools, resources and coach-funding for clubs eager to take part.

Clubs will be tasked with teeing up two separate six-week teaching blocks at times convenient to them between May and October 2020.

The emphasis on the lessons is for the girls to learn the fundamentals of the game – have fun with their mates in a comfortable and relaxed setting – without too much emphasis on the coaching and competitive elements of the game.

The six-week blocks will take the girls through all the basics culminating in a final session on the course where they can put into practice all they have learned from their PGA-qualified coach.

Clubs can also stage taster-sessions ahead of any coaching block – however this is at the discretion and expense of each club.

The aim of Girls Golf Rocks is to boost participation numbers and address for the long-term, the disparity in numbers between girls and boys playing the game.

While qualified PGA professionals will lead the sessions, Girls Golf Rocks will also encourage current female members to act as peer role-models and assist in the delivery at each club by becoming ambassadors.

In 2019, 166 girl ambassadors helped support the sessions and ensured it was the most successful campaign to date.

England Golf’s women and girls manager Lauren Spray said: “We’re excited to open applications to clubs looking to get involved in the 2020 Girls Golf Rocks campaign.

“Thousands of girls have been already introduced to the sport and caught the golfing bug through Girls Golf Rocks.

“Now we want to encourage new recruits to share in the fun and start out on their own golfing pathway.”

Golf Foundation head of development Martin Crowder said: “Girls Golf Rocks offers young girls a great start in golf in a fun and welcoming atmosphere.

“The Girls Golf Rocks ambassadors play a vital role as they are able to show that golf can be a cool, sociable, healthy and athletic sport that new players can enjoy together and make new friends at the same time.”

For more details about the Girls Golf Rocks programme visit www.girlsgolfrocks.org and for an application form click here.

The closing date for applications is Friday, January 8.

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THE Golf Foundation is celebrating girls’ golf in style during this week’s Solheim Cup at Gleneagles, while supporting the iconic match between Europe and the USA, which starts on Friday.

For the whole week, the Golf Foundation team will be highlighting the positive steps taken by its supporters to grow the game for girls.

It will also ask what more can be done to promote the playing, health and social benefits of the sport for girls.

The charity is staging a trio of special events in support of the Solheim Cup and Team Europe.

Teeing-off the week of international celebrations around the Gleneagles area, Scotland’s GolfSixes League Final was held at nearby Muckhart Golf Club, with 16 teams of boys and girls from across Scotland.

GolfSixes League is a Golf Foundation programme involving 260 golf clubs and 3,000 youngsters in England, Scotland and Wales – around 33 per cent of players are girls.

Scottish Golf has made GolfSixes League such a success that with additional support from the 2019 Solheim Cup Development Group, the number of mixed golf club teams taking part will increase from 67 this year, to 100 in 2020.

Golf was also celebrated in a unique ‘Solheim Cup takeover’, on Sunday as 59 girls from clubs in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire played GolfSixes at Elsham Golf Club.

Older girls have been specially trained to support the youngsters, helping to increase their leadership experience while backed throughout by adult volunteers.

The day was all about learning and fun, with plenty of other attractions including face-painting, a fun photo booth, activity stands, a pick ’n’ mix stall and plenty more.

A similar Solheim Cup themed day will end this special week on Sunday, September 15, on the final day of the biennial match which is the women’s equivalent of the Ryder Cup.

In this case, teams of girls from Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Middlesex are invited to Golf World Stanstead for a GolfSixes League competition and fun activities including a “Mega Putt Challenge” for all the 50 girls invited.

Stacey Mitchell, who heads girls’ golf for the Golf Foundation, said: “These three GolfSixes League events will all be particularly special as they take place in a celebratory week for girls’ golf alongside the Solheim Cup.

“These matches, and our work that we will be promoting throughout the week on social media, serve to highlight how all the activity of the Golf Foundation, from school and community golf to regular play in golf clubs, has a stronger focus on girls than ever before.

“The charity is proactively working to encourage more girls to ‘Start, Learn and Stay’ in golf and love the sport.

“From offering leadership training to empower more girls as leaders, to working with our ambassadors Meghan MacLaren and Felicity Johnson to promote girls’ golf nationally, we want to continue to make a positive difference going forwards.

“From ensuring that school golf teams, and club GolfSixes League teams, pick girls alongside the boys, and funding PGA Professionals at our junior friendly clubs to coach more girls, to working with Brownies and Guide groups, we are seeking to innovate to build momentum.

“We also recognise a great deal more needs to be done to grow participation and this week of activity will highlight this.”

The Golf Foundation’s ‘HSBC Golf Roots’ programme has created positive results in the last year with regard to girls’ participation. These include:

•A 48 per cent increase in the number of girls visiting a golf club

•The generation of 3,422 new affiliated golf club junior members including 23 per cent girls

•Thirty-three per cent of GolfSixes League players have been girls, with two girls-only leagues in Lincolnshire and Essex

•The Foundation trained more than 200 new Girls Golf Rocks ambassadors with England Golf, while in schools, the charity requests 50 per cent of all school teams are girls for games they play.

The Golf Foundation is following closely its stated pledge as a signatory of The R&A Women in Golf Charter.

The R&A is the charity’s strongest supporter as the two bodies seek to inspire more youngsters into playing golf and to increase the retention of juniors within the sport to boost membership at clubs.

For the week ahead now, the foundation’s team looks forward to supporting the Ladies European Tour and its players throughout the Solheim Cup.

The charity will also be asking its supporters and others in golf to share positive stories about encouraging more girls to enjoy the benefits of golf.

#SolheimCupCelebration and #GrowingGirlsGolf will be among the hashtags deployed on social media in what should be an exciting week for all involved, said a Golf Foundation spokesman.

Girls from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire will play in special GolfSixes League day at Elsham Golf Club this weekend to mark the Solheim Cup between Europe and the USA at Gleneagles. Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

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