England Golf

Driving awareness of England Golf and its equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives outside of the golfing community

England Golf is the governing body for amateur golf in England, representing over 1,800 golf clubs and over 730,000 members.

Dedicated to growing the game of golf, England Golf has developed a number of initiatives designed to increase participation and grow the grassroots game.

PHA’s Sport & Fitness team were challenged to raise the profile of England Golf and highlight the success of these initiatives, before submitting select initiatives for industry Awards to enhance England Golf’s relevance and standing outside of the golfing community and within the wider sports sector.

To strengthen the award entries, it was important to secure top tier press coverage around the England Golf initiatives that were the focus of the submissions.

The strategy we devised focused on maximising England Golf spokespeople in the national media. These spokespeople discussed increasing participation numbers in the grassroots game, weaving in key messaging in interviews which fed into our keyword ranking strategy.

For example, PHA successfully secured an interview with England Golf’s Women and Girls Manager to discuss their ‘Girls Golf Rocks’ initiative with PA Media, which resulted in over 100 pieces of coverage, including the likes of the Daily Mail, The Independent and Yahoo! Sport. In addition, we also secured an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live.

A key tactic we used to promote England Golf’s success in driving participation in the sport was the use of case studies, one such example being a woman named Marjorie from Cumbria who, at the age of 93, won her Club medal.

Seizing this opportunity, we reached out to Marjorie’s local media, resulting in a broadcast interview on BBC North West and BBC Radio Cumbria.

We also raised awareness of a golf club in the West Midlands launching the UK’s first disability-designed artificial putting green, enhancing accessibility for wheelchair users.

We invited BBC and ITV down to a taster day where they got to interview case studies to hear what opportunities this new putting green was giving them, as well as speaking to the head professional who was behind the project.

Having successfully raised the profile of England Golf’s initiatives in the media, we then drafted and submitted award entries that would further raise the profile of these initiatives within the industry, shining a spotlight on their commitment to diversifying the sport and inspiring other sports to do the same. This has resulted in multiple award wins for the governing body.

All photos supplied by England Golf

280

Pieces of coverage secured

10+

Shortlisted award entries, including wins at the Sport Business Awards and Sports Governance Academy Awards

11

Keyword increases around women in golf onto, or within, page 1 of Google

8%

Increase in non-branded terms – showcasing an increase in visibility for England Golf around golf-related terms

"PHA have been instrumental in helping us generate and distribute our key golf news to both local and national media. The team have been professional and always work to tight deadlines, and they feel like a genuine extension of our team at England Golf."

Toni Shelbourn

Campaigns and Brand Manager

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