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Welcome to the Darren Clarke Foundation
Firstly, thank you for logging on to the Darren Clarke Foundation website. I launched the Foundation in 2002 with a view to giving something back to the game which has been so good to me. My initial thoughts were that we could focus on bringing the game of golf to youngsters who might not have exposure to or the opportunity to play golf for a variety of reasons. Due in part to the influence of my good friend Tiger Woods, who incidentally has his own successful Foundation, golf has enjoyed massive TV exposure and huge popularity over the last 10 years or so and it has been exciting to be part of this golf revolution.
I would like to think that any of the kids who come in contact with the Foundation will benefit in some manner and if I can pass on some of my knowledge and experience and demonstrate that golf is a fun or cool game which can be played all of your life than I think the Foundation will have succeeded. As explained in the Aims of the Foundation section, we are working with various agencies including Junior Golf Ireland to develop various programmes to bring the game of golf to more of the kids around the island of Ireland.
I also host the annual Champions Weekend which might be described as a master class for the best junior golfers in Ireland. All of the participants are champions. They have won a provincial or national boys or girls tournament at their appropriate age level and over the past five years or so I have invited them for a weekend of coaching and tuition. I believe the Champions Weekend is very popular among the junior golf fraternity. I always enjoy the weekend immensely and it’s great to see the level of talent that is emerging in Irish junior golf.
During the first couple of years I funded the Foundation myself and that indeed was my intention, however I’m delighted to have received support from my own main corporate sponsor, Barclay’s Capital. They have provided sponsorship to the Foundation which I hope will enable it to go forward and get involved in bigger and better projects which I hope will result in bringing more people to our wonderful game and enhancing in some way the enjoyment that our junior players get from the game of golf and perhaps helping them to springboard to a successful amateur, and maybe even professional, career.
Yours in Golf
Darren Clarke
