Golf regaining popularity on P.E.I.

After years of declining numbers, the PEI Golf Association is trying to rebuild the sport on the Island starting with the juniors.

"We're into the schools all winter with kids and giving them basic instruction in the summer time," said executive director Ron MacNeill.

"We've got programs for competitive kids and we've developed a Team PEI which is a prelude to the Canada Games where we're taking our best boys and girls and giving them year-round training."

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For years, MacNeill said, participation in golf on P.E.I. was growing seven to eight per cent every year. Five years ago, the trend started to reverse, with declines of three to four per cent per year.

MacNeill calls it the Tiger Woods effect.

"There was a big boost in golf when Tiger was dominating the world scene and that kind of faded away, right across North America you started to see a bit of a downturn in the numbers."

The association is starting to change that. It now reaches more than 12,000 kids through the school program, and summer clinics for kids across the province are full. The junior program at the Belvedere Golf Club in Charlottetown is also busier than it has been in years.

"More people are leaving baseball or other summer activities just to play golf because it's a fun game and a lot of parents like the game of golf," said Ben Willis, who is in his fifth year of golf.

More prizes at Amateur

The golf association is also trying to take a new approach this year to its biggest championship. The P.E.I. Amateur will still have champions, but there will also be prizes for golfers with higher scores, in the hopes of encouraging more Island golfers to compete.

"We'd love to see it go back to the days where we filled the Amateur up long before the entries closed and hopefully in the next few years we'll work towards that," said Sherry White, one of the top amateur golfers in the province and a member of the committee that looked at how to boost the numbers.

The entries this year are around 70, a far cry from the 150 participants of years gone by.

But with Canadian golfer Brooke Henderson now No. 2 in the world, the association is also hoping to attract more P.E.I. girls to the sport, said Brenda McILwaine, president of the PEI Golf Association.

"When you look at the LPGA and you see all the little girls there watching her and admiring her, I just think why can't we get more girls out here. She's wonderful and we're so proud of her."

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