How to make coaching accessible to families

17/06/2025

Sophie Daws is the PGA Professional at a golf course and driving range in North Yorkshire, where she has seen families graduate from beginners into regular players through her four-week coaching initiative.

Get Into Golf was a scheme that the team at Bentham Golf Course hoped would do exactly what it said on the tin.

It involves a four-week lesson schedule on Saturday mornings, with catch-ups available for those who can’t commit to the full programme. At £40 a person per block, or £12 for a single lesson, Daws has enjoyed seeing some of her students, whether they are families or juniors, carry their enthusiasm to the golf course and beyond.

“What I have found is quite a few couples have come along - A husband and wife will come along and then they'll go on the course a little bit, and then realise they want some individual lessons, and book some off the back of that”, Daws said.

They're just getting out off their own back and going out onto the course, which I know from when they came to their first lesson, that wouldn't have been something they thought about.”

- Sophie Daws

“And then they already know me. It probably helps that I'm the only coach here as well. That's the only option they've got! But once you've already started the relationship, they're going to more than likely come back and have some more lessons.

“There’s either four or five people from last year that have joined on different types of membership,” she added about last year’s Get Into Golf scheme.

“The thing for me is seeing their name on the tee sheet, and you say, ‘Oh that’s good’. They're just getting out off their own back and going out onto the course, which I know from when they came to their first lesson, that wouldn't have been something they thought about.”

That has been a huge box ticked. While affordability is important, the driving range at Bentham was also given a new look to make the practice facilities more attractive.

Operations Director John Marshall commissioned the organisation Local Graffiti Artists to work their magic, which has also contributed to the laid-back nature of Get Into Golf where visitors, who don’t have to bring their own clubs, can connect and enjoy a golf lesson with a little less intensity.

“Driving ranges can be a little bit boring, can't they?” Daws said. “It does brighten it up down there.

“They can borrow equipment. You’ve got to gauge it by the people that are coming along, but if I can, I'll try and pair them up so that they're not stood there hitting golf ball after golf ball.

“If you're not used to it, that's quite a lot. Especially if you're new, you might not be hitting it particularly well, but if you're having a little break every now and then, you can have a little chat in between, and it's a little bit more relaxed in that sense, rather than feeling like you've got to stand there and hit hundreds of balls.”

Bentham also acts as a holiday park with glamping pods and luxury lodges – a feature the club has found useful in spreading the word about Get Into Golf.

“We try and put it out on social media, and then because the owners of the golf course here have got the caravan site locally as well, there's a newsletter that goes out to both the golf club members and people that have signed up to get our marketing emails and also it goes out to the people at the caravan park as well,” Daws said.

Group coaching attracts a variety of abilities, whether it be complete novices or mid-handicappers re-entering the game, which requires Daws to tailor her coaching from the technical end of the spectrum to the basic.

“You try and advertise it as beginners or people getting back into golf, but I had someone that was getting back into golf, but when he'd played in the past, he was an 18 handicapper, so he could obviously hit the ball,” Daws said.

“I can't be as technical with the coaching, but when someone's starting out, you don't want to be. You want them to get the basics and get going with it, and then maybe later on down the line, depending on how far they want to go with it, then you can get a little bit more technical. it's just giving them the starting point.”