By Paul Prendergast.
Photo: Golf Australia
These are certainly interesting times in the game of golf, albeit ‘the game’ is far bigger than what’s playing out at the pointy end of professional circuits each week. Participation in the game at grass root levels has skyrocketed around the world in recent years with many club membership quotas at full capacity – the same clubs who had been burning the midnight oil, wracking their brains to come up with innovative strategies to ‘attract’ members just months earlier.
Of course, these are revolutionary times in the men’s professional game but you have to hand it to Victorian Lucas Herbert, who’s well-timed gift of ‘giving’ today provided some much-needed light at a time when many seem to be ‘on the take’.
Golf Australia announced that as part of their Give Back initiative – a scheme where elite players supported by their programs commit to return a portion of what it cost to fund them as amateurs and during the first five years of their professional careers once they reach certain performance thresholds – Herbert has recently handed over the entire sum of his obligations to continue to support elite golf pathways in this country.
Remember that this is the same Lucas Herbert who immediately reached out to tournament organiser Mike Clayton to commit himself at the end of an arduous year to support the inaugural Sandbelt Invitational just before Christmas last year. He’s starting to create a bit of a legacy for himself with magnanimous gestures of this nature.
The 26-year old is in great company with fellow Australians Cameron Smith and Minjee Lee showing their loyalty, gratitude and commitment to, er, growing the game in their homeland with similar gestures in past years.
Smith chose to make his Give Back contribution by establishing his own scholarship fund, hosting two young Queensland amateurs at his home in Florida each year in a scheme similar in nature to the support Karrie Webb has provided to aspiring women players over many years.
World No. 2 and current U.S. Women’s Open champion Minjee Lee was the first elite player to hand back a sum of cash, as Herbert has done, directly into the High-Performance systems in Australia.
“I’m absolutely rapt to be part of this,” said Herbert. “I had no hesitation when I heard about it. I’ve been very lucky to have benefited from the state and national programs when I was an amateur and a young professional out of the Bendigo area, and I’m forever grateful for that. Having made my way to the PGA Tour, this is the least I can do to help, and I love the fact that the money will go straight back into the same programs that helped make me who I am today.”
Brad James, Golf Australia’s General Manager High Performance, said the Give Back program inaugurated in 2015 was now kicking in and having an impact.
“Providing developmental opportunities via international competition, camps, coaching and service provision is a key element of what the national program delivers,” said James today. “The additional funding from the Give Back program allows us to deliver these advantages to a larger cohort of athletes.”
“It includes the mentoring and role modelling programs that have been established where our Australian players guide younger people through when they arrive on tour, just practise with them or hang with them at the Australian Golf House in Florida, helping them out with the loneliness and uncertainty that can come for a young pro.”
“This scheme really fits with that mentoring system. It’s a chance for these players to put something back into the sport in their country, it helps us fund the High Performance programs at home, and it makes Team Australia a stronger unit in what is a very competitive, extremely tough and a very international game.”
“We’re so thankful to players like Lucas and Minjee for the contribution that they’ve made and for the fact that they have done it so willingly. We’re very proud of what they’ve become.”
