Wednesday 15 / January / 2025
Muscat: As part of the drive to turn golf into one of the leading National sports, the Oman Golf Committee has launched a new school initiative across the Sultanate to introduce Soft Golf into both Government and private schools. By introducing the sport of golf as an extracurricular activity, the Oman Golf Committee is working to have golf become an integral part of the PE curriculum in schools.
Soft Golf is a ‘mini’ version of golf specifically for use by children in primary and junior schools in smaller areas. This involves developing youngster-friendly golfing equipment which has proved to be popular with children, beneficial for schools, and easy for teachers to use. In addition, Golf Oman is provided teacher resources giving fresh ideas for games and activities can be linked with the PE session and educational curriculum.
Explaining the principle behind the school initiative, Mundhir Al Barwani, Chairman of the Oman Golf Committee noted, “We will be providing the golfing equipment and a golf “mentor” to the selected schools. The golf mentor will be a PGA golf professional who will teach the school staff how to run the programme and the various games that can be played. At the end of each term the staff will select a certain number of the children who have shown promise and commitment to the sport and we will award them a Golf Oman scholarship. This will allow the children to attend the Junior Golf Programme run by the PGA professional. We want to be in every school but this is dictated by funds, but we are working hard to make sure we can grow the initiative quickly. We would like to thank the R&A, one of the governing bodies of golf worldwide, who consistently support us and have provided sets of equipment to allow this programme to get underway. We also thank the PGA Teaching Professionals at all the clubs who are helping drive this programme forwards.”
The first school to launch the initiative is The Sultan’s School who recently launched their Soft Golf with the support of Jade Lucas, Muscat Hills PGA Teaching Professional.
Lee Mulliss, Activities Co-ordinator at The Sultan School believes Soft Golf to be a fantastic initiative by Golf Oman, “As a school we believe in giving our students as many opportunities as possible to experience sporting activities and we fully support Golf Oman in this exciting initiative. As an introduction to golf it is second to none and with the additional possibility of our students gaining golf scholarships in the future, The Sultan’s School is delighted to be involved in this programme.”
Jade Lucas added “The educational benefits of golf far outweigh any other sport for a child. For a start golf is one of the only sports that the sportsman is his own referee. The children are taught to respect the rules from day one and it is down to the integrity of the golfer to abide by them. Soft Golf is a great way to build the children’s interest and I’m really excited to be part of this drive by Golf Oman.”
Golf Oman is a brand created to bring together all the golfing elements of golf in Oman and create an umbrella brand to promote the sport. This makes all golf related activity in Oman a custodian of this brand. It is therefore the responsibility of the Oman Golf Committee to bring together these entities and unify the effort to promote Golf in Oman under the brand. The Oman Golf Committee is the governing body of golf in Oman and tasked with growing the game across the Sultanate.
Formed in 2004 and based in St Andrews, The R&A seeks to engage in and support activities that are undertaken for the benefit of the sport of golf. The R&A organises The Open, golf’s oldest and most international major championship, along with a number of other amateur and junior events, some of which are sanctioned by other golfing bodies. The R&A also provides best practice guidance on all aspects of golf course management, to help grow golf throughout the world in a commercially and environmentally sustainable way.
