St Mellion Launch New Scholarship

St Mellion International Resort  is planning to develop its next generation of golfers with a major new Scholarship.

In the new scheme, twenty-five young golfers will be given free membership and coaching at St Mellion for anything up to six years, as part of a Scholarship which the club claims will create a “golf club for the future”.

This month the club embarks on a search for local youngsters aged between 12 and 18, who will each be granted full membership and free lessons from the club’s PGA Teaching Professional Jason Avery.

The membership gives full playing access to the two championship golf courses at the resort, the world-famous Nicklaus and the recently-refurbished Kernow, as part of a newly-created St Mellion Junior Golf Scholarship.

At the same time, the club has announced that its popular free membership scheme for under-10s is to be extended to include all under-12s.

The club’s current Junior Members have already started to apply for the Scholarships, which will be assessed on a youngster’s willingness to attend coaching sessions regularly, to play for the club’s junior teams and – if they achieve the right level of ability – to represent Cornwall at county level.

St Mellion juniors who remain in the Junior Golf Scholarship scheme will in this way have their golf completely funded right through until their 18th birthday – up to six years’ coaching.

The Scholarship is the brainchild of Jason Avery, and David Moon, St Mellion’s Director of Golf who told GOLF RETAILING, “This will be a game-changer here at St Mellion” said Moon, “not just for our junior section but also for the way we develop long-term members at this golf club. Our goal is to create a strong, loyal and competitive junior team who are each developing their involvement in golf at their own pace. And over time, we believe they will flourish not only as better golfers, but also as young ambassadors for St Mellion and everything it stands for.

“This is our chance to create a golf club for the future.”

Avery believes that the Junior Golf Scholarship will unearth several new young female talents. “The Scholarship is open to both sexes, of course,” he said, “but given the fact that St Mellion has a high female participation rate and a family-friendly and unstuffy attitude, it will be particularly appealing to girl golfers who may be struggling to find the right environment in the local area.”

“I believe that this new Scholarship will foster the best possible relationship between the club, and the families of the 25 children involved. To maximise parental engagement, we have designed the coaching activities so that non-golfing parents can, if they wish, enter our innovative Get Into Golf programme, to help them join in with their children’s golfing development, regardless of their experience.

“I feel that this typifies the resort’s holistic approach. We like to be seen as far more than just a golf club, and I think that this Scholarship and the activities surrounding it will give our pupils and their extended families and friends a great opportunity to enjoy not only golf but also all the other facilities which St Mellion offers.”

Potential applicants should contact Jason Avery at St Mellion as soon as possible, on 07816 189519, or email stmellion-academy@crown-golf.co.uk.