Two members from Royal Ascot Golf Club in Berkshire have been shortlisted for England Golf’s 2019 Volunteer of the Year award.
Susanne Lesley and Owen Lewis were nominated for the prestigious award on the back of more than three years of tireless, unpaid work in the recruitment and retention of members at the club.
The pair set up a Buddy Scheme in 2015, with the aim of helping new members to settle into club life at Royal Ascot, and since that time, with the help of fellow club members, have smoothed the way for over 200 new members.
Once a new members joins, they contact them personally and introduce them to the ways of the club, help them to meet other members, and join in social roll-up groups. They’ll also play with new golfers and mark their cards for handicap purposes.
The buddy scheme has its own website page, which has raised the club’s profile locally and helped it recruit and retain members. It has been so successful that new members have recommended it to their friends, who have also joined the club. Lesley and Lewis also host a range of events for new members, such as rules and etiquette evenings and new golfers’ competitions.
Their nomination commented: “Susanne and Owen have committed a huge amount of their time to buddying new members and supporting them through their initial weeks of membership.”
The pair are up against volunteers from three other clubs in the country, including Mark Feeney, the junior organiser at West Derby Golf Club; Judith Sandford at Cheadle Golf Club in Cheshire, who has helped revitalise her club’s ladies’ section; and Marcella Tuttle from Newmarket Golf Club, who has also helped the ladies section at her club grow.
England Golf Chief Executive Nick Pink said: “These volunteers are quite exceptional. They put in countless hours to help other people have a great golfing experience and our game is the richer for them, and the many thousands of other volunteers across England who do the same.”
The winner will be announced at the England Golf Awards 2019 on March 21, at a black tie event hosted by BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.