The Indonesian Golf Association (PGI) and Indonesian Junior Golf Community (IJGC) announced plans to set up the first golf league for school students in Jakarta to uncover potential talent.
PGI, IJGC and the Global Jaya International School will hold a pilot tournament called the Jakarta Schools Golf Invitational at the Damai Indah Golf-Bumi Serpong Damai Course in Tangerang on April 29 to kick off the Jakarta Schools Golf League.
Up to 30 junior and senior high students from five international schools — Global Jaya, Tiara Bangsa, Sinarmas World Academy, Bina Bangsa and Morning Star Academy — are expected to participate in the event.
Participants are required to have handicaps of between six and 20.
“We realize that it will be difficult to develop golf without the involvement and support of schools. Golfers need to have a certain level of intelligence that can only be obtained from school,” the Indonesian Golf Association (PGI)’s head of athlete development, Teddy Harmidy, said Tuesday.
“Schools are the key place to discover more golf talent,” Teddy said, citing the practice of the US National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which is inte-grated with school systems in organizing and discovering potential national athletes in colleges and universities.
The Jakarta School Golf League is expected to be developed similarly to the Jakarta School Football League, which is in its fifth season and boasts the participation of more than 20 schools in the capital, or be integrated into the Jakarta Area Athletic Conference.
PGI chairman Arifin Panigoro has said he aims to discover and nurture at least 2,500 talented young golfers by the end of his term in 2013. The PGI currently has 750 junior golfers on its roster.
Despite the low number of amateur senior competitions, the PGI has increased the number of junior tournaments in the past three years.
“The Jakarta Schools Golf League will not only improve their playing skills, it will also serve as the place to mold a healthy mentality for competition as early as possible. We hope that in the future, they will be able to compete better on a regional level,” Teddy said, adding that compared to golfers in other countries, Indonesian golfers lacked a competitive mentality.
Apart from the support of parents and more golf courses for young golfers, the Indonesian Junior Golf Community (IJGC) highlighted the need for schools to start providing a more conducive approach to students who compete in golf tournaments.
“Unsupportive schools have been a great barrier for talented young golfers who want to participate in competitions. Hopefully, the existence of a grassroot development program such as the Jakarta Schools Golf League will erase this barrier,” IJGC deputy chairman Dading Soetarso, who is also the parent of a Global Jaya International School student, said.
PGI said it expected the League would expand to include not only international schools, but also other schools, as well as make inroads into other cities across the country.
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