Barclays Premier League: Yorke talks about Premier League 4 Sport Golf

The Derby County held the first Premier League 4 Sport Midlands Regional Golf Competition last May at their iPro Stadium. In the said competition, 24 young people in eight teams representing Derby and Aston Villa played nine holes of Street Golf involving tasks such as chipping and putting in the concourse. Derby and Aston Villa have been attending PL4Sport golf satellite clubs at their schools and local golf clubs.

The prize for the two victorious teams - Derby from Highfields School and Villa from Bishop Walsh was a chance to visit The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake just last month. The young people were guests of the Golf Foundation; they support the PL4Sport golf programme as part of its commitment to developing the game in Britain and was given the opportunity by the organizers of The Open, The R&A, to showcase its work in the middle of the action at Hoylake.

As well as enjoying the chance to see the skilled in action the PL4Sport youngsters also demonstrated the skills that gave victors to them and secured a place at Hoylake with a series of Street Golf challenges at the Golf Foundation area. The youngsters created their own challenges, firing shots into wheelie-bins, at tin cans and bulls-eyes and even into opened golf umbrellas.

The following day, former Aston Villa striker Dwight Yorke made a guest appearance and tried his hand at some of the Street Golf challenges.

"I really enjoyed the Street Golf games," Yorke said. "I can see why they appeal to teenagers who can invent their own games to suit their local environment. We didn't play any golf when I was growing up and we would have loved this."

He added: "This is a nice partnership between Premier League 4 Sport and the Golf Foundation. I am sure it will be an excellent way for football clubs to engage with the community and bring golf to many new young people who would not have thought about playing. That's good because it's a wonderful game to play for youngsters."

Nine football clubs around the country propose golf through Premier League 4 Sport: Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Hull City, Aston Villa, Everton, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Southampton and Derby County - with local PGA coaches from local golf clubs.

"The link to the golf club is key, as is the support from the PGA coach, but we are also benefiting from the expertise of the Premier League and Championship football clubs with their own community development programmes, all of which use the power of football to encourage more young people into sport," Brendon Pyle, National Development Manager for the Golf Foundation, said.

Premier League 4 Sport started back in 2009 and is delivered in partnership between the Premier League and Sport England. The aim is to use Premier League and Football League clubs as hubs linked to local community sports facilities to encourage young people to try out other sports.

The programme initially concerned four sports but it has been such a triumph that the scheme now delivers 12 different disciplines - badminton, judo, table-tennis, volleyball, basketball, handball, hockey, netball, athletics, boxing, golf and tennis.

In the last five years, it has engaged almost 70,000 people and last year received a boost with a £16.8m partnership between the Premier League and Sport England.

(Source: Barclays Premier League official website)