The Shackleton Scholarship Fund - Shackleton Scholar's Report 2010

Shackleton Fund Visiting Professional Golf Coach to Falkland Islands

Stanley Golf Club

Stanley Golf Club is a highly active golf club based in Stanley in the Falkland Islands. The Club is made up of a number of local golfers who have themselves developed an 18 hole golf course to the West of Stanley town. The course is open to all members of the community as well as to current serving military personnel based at Mount Pleasant Complex. Club members also have an ongoing and extensive junior development programme. With a view to improving the quality of play and introducing the game to new players the Club committee decided to bring down a professional golf coach to the Islands. Club Captain Glenn Ross approached the Shackleton Fund for support and were extremely pleased when the latter offered to cover the cost of an airfare to the Islands with a grant of £1500.

Club Secretary then approached the Golf Development Office at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and was directed to the Director of Education of the Professional Golf Associations of Europe based in Portugal. The R and A have a pool of approximately 30 European Professionals who are prepared to travel around the world with a view to spreading the game of golf. The pool of potential coaches was contacted and a Keith Barrett based just outside Lisbon agreed to come.

Keith arrived on the airbridge on Monday 25th January 2009. He had agreed to start coaching on Wednesday 27th and to give lessons for the following 7 days. On Tuesday 26th Keith was interviewed on the Falkland Islands Radio where he acknowledged the grant of the Shackleton Fund. On the mornings of the 27th,28th and 29th Keith gave lessons to groups of juniors from the local school organised by Club Member and School Physical Education teacher Wayne Thompson. Special mention should be made of Ian Stewart Construction, Morrisons Falkland and Rod Tuckwood and Wayne Thompson who between them sponsored the junior sessions. In all he taught around 24 juniors in groups of six. The sessions took place on the school sports field and were highly visible to the community. During the sessions the Penguin News came over and interviewed Keith and took some photographs for the paper.

Keith coached seniors on the afternoons and for four further days once he had finished with the juniors. He brought with him all the latest teaching technology including video facilities. All seven of his coaching days were full and in total he gave 33hrs of coaching. On Wednesday 3rd February Keith was given a round robin tour of the Islands by air, a highlight of his trip. Then in the evening Keith gave a complimentary coaching session to Club members who were interested in junior coaching providing a critique, complete with video, of each of the promising juniors. Keith also gave members valuable information on how the Club should further develop the course with special emphasis on improving the quality of the greens. He has subsequently sent a copy of a book titled Practical Greenkeeping to the Club. On Thursday 4th February he spent the day touring East Falkland including visiting San Carlos, Darwin and Goose Green. Keith left the Islands on Friday 5th February.

Keith stayed with the Club Secretary throughout the duration of his visit and on most nights was entertained by a Club member. He thoroughly enjoyed his visit and was enthusiastically talking about a return trip. The Club was immensely pleased with his visit and would very much like to thank the Shackleton fund for their support without which his visit would not have been possible.