“I want to leave a legacy” Amy Millward on women’s golf in the UAE

Gulf News

Read more Golf in UAE stories here:   https://gulfnews.com/sport/golf-in-uae  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #golf  #sports

Transcript

00:00Dubai was never one of the countries on my list to go and work to, in fairness.

00:06But the first time I came, I literally fell in love with it, and that kind of completely

00:10changed my opinion on it and wanting to work here.

00:13I love the golf courses, and I was just like, OK, this is the place I want to come and work

00:17next.

00:24So I've been based at the Claude Humman Golf Academy probably coming up to four years now.

00:28I joined in September 2019, and I joined after interning twice at the golf school.

00:35I realised that this was a place that I wanted to come and work in terms of Dubai, and it

00:40was a great way to kind of experience how kind of lessons were given, what the job entailed,

00:47and kind of just getting kind of stuck in a little bit, meeting the coaches, meeting

00:50the team, and just helping out.

00:52So it was the perfect opportunity to come here next.

00:56I am the only girl here at the moment.

00:58I'm very lucky in the fact that the guys are like family to me.

01:03They look out for me, and we do get on so well, which makes every day a lot easier.

01:09We have all abilities here at the Academy.

01:12So we have beginners through to our junior programme.

01:15We also have your standard amateur up until your elite player, and pros that we teach

01:20as well.

01:21So it covers everybody, really.

01:23We make sure that whatever your needs are, they're met as close as we can.

01:31Kind of across the time that the school's been open, even when it was Butch Harman first

01:34and now Inter-Claude Harman, they've had some amazing players come through, some great amateurs,

01:39and I think that's just come down to the instructors themselves when it was kind of like, now that

01:45it's Jamie, Joe, Mike, the whole team, and before when it was like Justin, Claude, and

01:50they were here.

01:51It just shows kind of the level in which the school is, and the reason why people maybe

01:54come to us as well.

01:57We've kind of had down in the past kind of like Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Nicholas

02:02Coulthart, Thomas Dietry.

02:04So we do get a lot come and utilise the facilities kind of in January, maybe November time, just

02:09before the race to Dubai.

02:10So we do get a few familiar faces pop down every now and again.

02:16It's amazing working under Claude's name, and having the opportunity to kind of like

02:21meet him.

02:22He comes and sees us kind of at least once, maybe twice a year.

02:25So we get that chance to kind of watch him give lessons, ask him as many questions as

02:29we want, kind of bombard him, I guess, a little bit.

02:33I was really lucky.

02:34I went and watched the US Open with him last year when it was at the Country Club, and

02:36just kind of watching him, seeing him at work is awesome, really.

02:40So we're very lucky to be under the Harman name, I guess.

02:44The list of players Claude's taught, kind of having two world number ones in kind of

02:48Brookes and DJ, and then just kind of the level that they still remain at, and kind

02:54of coming back from injury, specifically in Brookes, and just kind of seeing him come

02:59back and win a major was awesome.

03:04I joined the Women in Golf Charter.

03:08It was kind of my mission to do their Women in Golf Foundation programme, and you couldn't

03:13do the programme without becoming a signatory on the charter.

03:17So I basically just persuaded Jamie that this was something we had to do.

03:21Like I'm a big advocate for growing the women's game anyway, I think being a female, growing

03:25up through the sport, and kind of seeing how it is still evolving and becoming more inclusive

03:30is amazing.

03:31But I still want to, like, do more, leave kind of a legacy, however cliché that sounds.

03:38Obviously already been doing a lot in terms of trying to, like, build a ladies' programme

03:42here, working alongside Jenny with Chicks With Sticks, but it was like, what can we

03:45continue to do more?

03:46So I was like, if I can get on their leadership programme, there'll be more that I can develop

03:51as a person to maybe grow myself as a coach, as an individual, and then maybe a leader

03:56as well.

03:57I basically contacted Jackie at the RNA and was like, what is the process here to join

04:03the charter, do the programme, and we just kind of came up with our goals and initiatives

04:07that we would do to help grow the game, commit to the charter, and then it kind of went from

04:12there, really.

04:16I think with women's golf, there's definitely kind of that trend for more people to get

04:23into the sport.

04:26It's one of those sports that I think once you play, you actually kind of, like, get

04:29hooked.

04:30You just have to, like, kind of break that barrier of getting to a golf course or a driving

04:34range and trying it, and then you realise, actually, I quite like this.

04:40But I think the way that trying to get more coverage of the women's game, I think, is

04:45going to be a big step in the right direction, and we saw it kind of for the US Open, I believe.

04:50They had it on mainline channels at kind of peak times, and their coverage spiked by like

04:55100%, which is a ridiculous statistic, really, that shows that if it is covered, people probably

05:00will watch it too, which is great.

05:04A lot of that's come down to kind of just the initiatives that have been played a part

05:08in, especially aiming at certain ages for girls, or women, I should say.

05:13So Chicks and Sticks has probably been a big initiative there to help grow the game in

05:17terms of that kind of probably 18 to maybe 35, 40 age bracket, in terms of kind of having

05:23a big social play.

05:24And I think that's the biggest thing that females want out of the game, is to see the

05:27social side.

05:28It doesn't have to be competitive by any means.

05:31It's just people coming together, having a laugh and a joke, just enjoying themselves

05:35playing a sport, and that kind of thing.

05:38We've complemented that with the ladies' programme that we run here, which is part of love.gov,

05:42and the two programmes have just really worked well together, covering kind of a really nice

05:45basis for all ladies to get involved, whether you're kind of working, mums, young, old,

05:53I guess, everyone is covered to feel what you need to be part of.

05:58Recently we had a talk with the RNA and the UGF to kind of come together and kind of really

06:06push women's golf.

06:07So I think the fact that the UAE is the first country to have all golf clubs signed on the

06:12chart, it means that the UAE and the UGF are making a massive push for the women's game

06:17to come to the forefront a little bit more.

06:19So yeah, why would you not want to play golf in the UAE?

Category

Transcript

Recommended