With an ever-increasing presence in the Middle-East, it would only be a matter of time until the Confederation of Professional Golf [CPG] had involvement in the development of golf in the country of Jordan.
Just recently, Martin Westphal visited the country as part of the CPG’s and Royal and Ancient’s (R&A) mission to driving the game’s development globally. This mandate is delivered by the CPG, considered experts in this field, on behalf of the Royal & Ancient.
We spoke to both Martin Westphal [MW] and the President of the Jordanian Golf Federation, Hali Alabdallat [HA], on the visit and how the two organisations will work together in the weeks to come on developing the game in Jordan.
HA: “In Jordan we have approximately 300 golfers and two facilities. The first is a 9 hole course in Oman and the second is a Greg Norman – designed Championship course with a golf academy.
“Our main missions are to have more people involved in the game of golf. This is not just in terms of participants, but also in the form of coaches, educators, referees, managers and tournament administrators as well.
“Creating a network of homegrown, Jordanian Golf Professionals is with the eventual goal of growing golf participation numbers and developing competitive, national squads that play against the very best all year round.
“We contacted the R&A to help us achieve these ambitions, particularly in helping set up an effective coach education system that will eventually produce homegrown PGA Professionals. They recommneded the CPG’s Martin Westphal to bring his knowledge and expertise in this matter to Jordan”.
MW: “My visit was an initial fact-finding mission that started at Bisharat Golf Course. I met board members of the Jordanian Golf Federation (JGF) and the General Secretary of the Jordanian Olympic Committee, Mr Nasser Majali – these conversations resulted in the JGF becoming the recognised body of golf in the country.
“My week also consisted of developing conversation with these officials on better ways to coach golf (including delivering some of my own sessions to juniors) and ways to maximise efficiency and profitability of golf facilities.
“The week was very productive and as a result, we held some excellent conversations together that will over the coming weeks and months, bear fruit in achieving the JGF’s objectives.”
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