By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IN his bid to help improve the growth of the sport in the country, Mark Lawrie met with various stakeholders in the Bahamas Golf Federation yesterday.

The meetings, which took place at the BGF’s Driving Range and Nine-Hole Golf Course at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex, were considered to be very productive.

BGF’s first vice president Anthony Hinsey facilitated the meetings with members of the Flamingos Golf Club, the 242 Golf Academy, the University of the Bahamas and the Fourteen Clubs Golf Academy.

Lawrie, the regional managing director of the Latin America & Caribbean of R&A, the governing body for the sport, said he was pleased with every meeting that took place.

“I think there’s a genuine interest from all of the stakeholders in The Bahamas to move it a notch up,” Lawrie said. 

“There’s obviously one underlying factor they are all experiencing and that is gaining access to the local golf courses. We are aware of this and we are hoping that we will be able to help. But  we need to get people on the golf courses to be able to get hooked on and become golfers.”

Once the BGF can grow its numbers to over 700 registered golfers, The Bahamas has the potential to broaden its horizons. 

Lawrie said R&A will be making a contribution for its improvement to allow more local competitors to participate.

Lawrie, who is in town until the weekend, said he has been impressed from what he’s seen in The Bahamas and he’s looking forward to making the recommendation to bring one or two of their major international competitions here in the future.

Ahmal Henfield, representing Fourteen Clubs, said the meeting with Lawrie was very informative. 

“We got some clarity and some good ideas on how we can develop the sport here,” Henfield said. 

“So I really enjoy what I heard from him. 

“Fourteen Clubs intends to work closely with the BGF and we will discuss bringing in more individuals for coaching so that we can develop more coaches so that they can expand in both the Family Islands and in our school system.”

University of the Bahamas’ golf head Fred Taylor said the meeting was very enlightening for him, athletic director Kimberly Rolle and sports information director Chris Saunders. “We talked about some things we can do to further this programme,” Taylor said. “We’re still in our infancy stage and we want to know what direction we should take to get to the next level.

“It’s more clear to us because he shared some perspectives on what steps we should take from here. We are seeking to join up with the NAIA and we’re looking at all avenues to get there.”

242.Golf Academy’s head coach Ian Corbell, who was accompanied by one of his students-turned into a coach, Miranda Tucker, said the session was very informative

“We got a different perspective on our vision plan,” he said. “Getting a very from his perspective, we can now go back to the drawing board and make the adjustments and hopefully come up with a very successful plan of operation.”

Tucker, who has been playing golf for the past 14 years and just recently graduated from the Dominican University of New York, said she got to learn a lot about golf in Latin America and the Caribbean,

“:I learnt new avenues on where to pursue more amateur golfers and possibility bridging amateur golf to professional golf and some of the required things I need to do,” Tucker said.

She said she definitely hopes to take the information back to her students with the view of trying to help them get into colleges and universities on athletic scholarships so that they can pursue their dreams of becoming professional golfers.

And Agatha Delancy, the pioneer for women’s golf in the Bahamas, said Lawrie was very keen about where women golfers came from and where they are today.

Using herself as an example, having served as the first female president of the BGF, Delancy said there was no organized women’s outlet until the late Ken Francis encouraged her to get more women to participate.

Over the years, Delancy said she was able to serve under the leadership of Ambrose Gouthro, Neville Adderley and Craig Flowers, which enabled her to become the president.

“So I’ve seen the highs and lows of women’s golf in the Bahamas,” Delancy said. “I’ve seen the junior golfers rise to the top level like Raqiuel Riley, Georgette Rolle, Helena Hutchinson and of course Jamaica Duncombe, who was an exceptional talent.

“Then we had the setbacks with the Hurricane and Cocvid-19, but we have formed a new organization and we’re now seeing a lot of women coming out to our Saturdays programme, so we feel we can only get better with our programme.”

She noted that the nuggets that Lawrie shared with her, she will pass onto her members of the Flamingos Golf Club so that they can continue to grow from strength to strength.