Sponsors Back on Board with EGU

Titleist and FootJoy have agreed to supply golf balls, gloves, shoes and bags for the England amateur men's, youths' and boys' teams for the 2000 season. Titleist will also be the official ball, glove and shoe supplier to the National Golf Centre's shop at Woodhall Spa.

Meanwhile, Prosimmon Golf (UK) are to continue their sponsorship of the English Golf Union's associate membership scheme for a second year and will provide £60 000 over three years to help develop the game at grass roots.

The scheme, now in its third year, has already helped over 7,000 golfers who do not belong to clubs to gain a handicap, and 40 per cent of them have since gone on to join a club. It is also being funded by Sportsmatch – the government’s business sponsorship incentive scheme for sport - and will also support another EGU campaign, ‘free golf coaching for beginners’, which will run between June and September.

For a second year, Marsh Sport & Leisure and Royal & SunAlliance will back the EGU's junior golf development programme in England which helps to fund club coaching sessions with a target figure of 6,000 youngsters at 600 clubs. The proposal again offers a grant of £100 towards junior coaching to each club which invests £100 of its own. This will provide 10 free one-hour coaching sessions for boys or girls from PGA professionals.