The Golf Academy

At a recent meeting, the Trustees of the Friends of St. Bees School General Charitable Trust appointed Matthew Rigby, an Old Boy Governor, and Michael Coffey, President of the Old St. Beghians Golfing Society, as new Trustees and established a new fund as part of the Trust, The St. Bees School Golf Foundation.
The purpose of the new Foundation, which benefits from the charitable status of the Trust and for which Matthew and Michael have specific responsibility, is to allow the Trustees to attract regular and one-off donations to fund the activities of the Golf Academy, including the provision of golf bursaries, purchasing state of the art equipment and other development expenses.

The school’s Golf Academy now has a Golf Studio. This was funded by the school and supported by a sizeable donation from the Dick Harrison Memorial Fund. It is a superb facility situated behind School House, in a former workshop. It is fully equipped with nets, artificial putting green and video analysis; facilities to which most teaching professionals aspire but rarely enjoy.

Stuart Hemmings, our resident professional, is already working with a number of pupils on a one-to-one basis and some excellent golf swings are emerging.
The Academy and the brochure detailing the golfing facilities offered by the school - its own golf course, academy, professional, etc. - have already attracted individual pupils, particularly from overseas.

The next project is the establishment of a Short Game practice-area, playing to a green adjacent to the 9th hole of the school’s golf course. Work has already started on this, and with the promised support from donations to the Foundation, it is hoped that it will be fully operational by the beginning of the next school year, when many members of the OSBGS will be able to view it on Old St. Beghians’ Day (September 12th).

Once the Short Game practice-area has been completed, it is our intention to build a practice chipping and putting green next to the Academy and from there go on to a full driving range, in an area beyond the shooting hut.

Finally, the Trustees will be writing to all Old St. Beghians in the hope of attracting annual donations in order that the St. Bees School Golf Foundation will, within a very short period, be able to offer golfing bursaries to one or two pupils per annum.

Matthew Rigby