May is National Golf Month, an initiative encouraging people of all ages to get playing golf.
As the New PE National Curriculum encourages a diverse range of sports to be offered in schools, the benefits offered in golf are extensive, making it a great sport to include in your department.
In research published in the Evidence on Physical Education and Sport in Schools document by the Department for Education, 44% of schools in 2009-2010 offered golf in their sports provision; an increase of 30% from data collected in 2003-2004.
Golf develops a fantastic range of transferable skills and qualities important for personal development in physical activity such as:
- Strength
- Balance
- Power
- Endurance
- Body awareness
- Core stability
- Concentration
- Perseverance
Golf is a great inclusive sport as sessions and exercises can easily be differentiated. This could include making distances shorter or longer, for example. Varying levels of competition can also be introduced, making it suitable for all your pupils to participate.
Opportunities for development of literacy and numeracy in golf are also plentiful. In 2009, the BBC reported on a golf coach who was given a grant to teach numeracy in schools through the golf scoring system.
Opportunities for literacy development come in the form of understanding specific golf terminology and being able to spell and define the terms confidently.
Including golf in your PE department encourages the development of physical literacy, as including a variety of sports and activities will allow all pupils to see what type of activity they can connect with and develop skills in, encouraging them to continue to develop these skills and passion for certain sports and activities throughout their school and adult lives.
