Junior golf in the North West

Starting ages

There's no single official minimum age. What we can confirm from a published source is England Golf's own Girls Golf Rocks and Get into Golf Rookies schemes, which take children from age five through to eighteen. Rookies is mixed; Rocks is girls-only. Both run as six one-hour sessions, once a week, with the final session played out on the course rather than the practice ground. Some clubs' own junior sections start earlier than five, so it's worth asking the individual club as well.

England Golf's beginner sessions

Get into Golf's own page describes the sessions as fun, built around team and group activities plus social time. You find one through the sign-up portal at rocksandrookies.played.co or by emailing rocksandrookies@englandgolf.org. See our page on starting golf as an adult for how the equivalent adult sessions work, including PGA Play for one-to-one junior lessons with a professional.

PGA pros at local clubs

Away from England Golf's national scheme, plenty of North West clubs have a PGA professional who coaches juniors directly. At Haigh Woodland Park in Wigan, for example, the club's own golf page names two: Ian Lee, whose academy takes players "from complete beginners through to elite amateurs", and Alan Crompton, a PGA professional for "over thirty years" who teaches "juniors and beginners to County players". PGA Play is the general way to search for a professional near you if your own club doesn't have one on site.

Photo to followA PGA professional giving a young golfer a lesson on a driving range

The county pathway

Once a child is hooked, the county unions run the next level of development. Lancashire Golf's own site describes a County Academy Programme for players under 17, plus performance squads selected each year on "performances, handicap, attitude and dedication", overseen by a director of coaching. Cheshire Golf fields age-group boys' teams from Under 14 through Under 16 to 18s, competing in the Northern Counties League and a Four Counties tournament against Yorkshire, Durham and others. Neither county's own page we checked publishes a cost for joining these squads; that's arranged through the club and county coaches directly.

Junior membership costs

Club junior membership is usually far cheaper than adult membership, and sometimes free.

Costs vary widely by club, so check the specific club's own membership page; see our full cost breakdown for adult prices to compare against.

Safeguarding

Golf Metric doesn't run junior sessions itself, so this is England Golf's area, not ours. Its own safeguarding page states plainly that "we all have a responsibility to protect and safeguard children and adults at risk", and gives a route to raise any concern: its governance team on 01526 351824 or safeguarding@englandgolf.org, or the NSPCC's 24-hour helpline on 0808 800 5000 for anything urgent. Read England Golf's safeguarding page directly for the full policy.