Golf Ontario along with our We Are Golf industry partners, are pleased to announce the commission of a comprehensive, independent review of the Junior Golf Pathway in Ontario, conducted by independent reviewer Sport Performance Management led by Dr. Peter Davis.
This review and modernization initiative is an effort to align all junior golf leaders and to evolve the promotion and communication of the junior golf pathway at all levels. This initiative has two guiding principles:
- All aspects of junior development will be open for discussion and all stakeholders (facilities, parents, coaches, tour operators, volunteers and associations) will have an opportunity to provide feedback.
- Revisions will be assessed with the junior golfer in mind, so that the pathway is easier to understand and apply not only to elite juniors, but also intermediates and beginners.
Our collective hope is a major step forward in pursuing the following goals and outcomes:
Overall Goals
We want a modernized junior pathway to:
- Be more easily understood and applied to all;
- Be more consistent and inclusive; and
- Provincial-wide adoption at all levels
Project outcomes for Revising the Junior Golf Pathway
We want the new pathway to address:
- Pathway structure & criteria – a tiered structure that clearly outlines athlete movement along the pathway both on the development side (coaching) and competition participation;
- Pathway branding & marketing – a recognizable industry brand for junior golf that clearly provides athletes and their families answers to the question “What’s Next?”;
- Development landscape and gap analysis – a full inventory of the junior golf development programs available across the province. A gap analysis of what opportunities are missing at each stage along the pathway;
- Competitions landscape and gap analysis – a full inventory of the competition opportunities across the province. A gap analysis of what opportunities are missing at each stage along the pathway;
- Order of merit analysis – an analysis of the current Order of Merit system and ensuring that it supports each stage along the Pathway; and
- Pathway membership model – a junior membership option that provides athletes and families with additional tools, access and support at each stage along the Pathway.
Given the scope of this initiative, we want everyone involved in the junior golf community to have a chance to give us their feedback. We encourage you to complete this initial pathway survey here.
Survey responses will be collected until August 31st 2019
Our Process for Developing the Modernized Junior Golf Pathway
Working groups of Golf Ontario staff, industry leaders, PGA professionals, tour officials, and other stakeholders will be set up to review both the substance of the pathway but also and a modernized pathway will be communicated.
As work progresses on this initiative, we will talk with a variety of different leaders and organizations to update them and to get their preliminary reactions to recommendations including:
- Facilities; leaders at the club level with key roles, such as PGA professionals, instructors and coaches, members, volunteer junior chairs and
- Golfers; at all levels of the game (both individually and in focus groups), including professionals and elite amateurs, intermediate golfers and beginners.
In the next several months, we will seek your feedback about any proposed changes and revised ways of supporting junior golf, as follows:
- We will continue to meet with interested golf organizations and groups around Ontario to hear their thoughts about junior golf.
- Anyone who wishes to respond individually, we will create a feedback mechanism for receiving comments.
This will be an informal process in which we listen to and consider the input that we receive in many different ways, as we continue to assess and then finalize the modernized pathway.
Implementation of the Modernized Pathway in 2020
We intend the modernized junior pathway to go into effect on January 1, 2020. The anticipated process and schedule between now and then is as follows:
- Online Survey (August)
- Direct Interviews (August) – Direct interviews with key stakeholders
- Part A Report (end of September) – Report and recommendations from survey and interviews provided by Dr. Peter Davis.
- Workshop #1 (October) – 1st Pathway Workshop with identified key stakeholders.
- Workshop #2 (October) – 2nd Pathway Workshop with identified key stakeholders.
- Feedback period (November) – Pathway design recommendations and changes provided to industry for feedback and comments.
- Part B Report (December) – Finalized Pathway design provided to all industry stakeholders provided by Dr. Peter Davis.
If you have any questions please contact Mallory Dayman – mdayman@gao.ca
