JEDDAH: Before the start of this Thursday’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by the Public Investment Fund the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club took delivery of the latest generation of Starting New At Golf equipment as part of Golf Saudi’s plans to attract juniors to the game. 

Better known as SNAG, the program offers all the basics of golf, helping to teach beginners and develop their skills. SNAG has become a global hit due to the fact that it can be played both indoors and outdoors, ensuring anyone can learn and play golf. 

In partnership with Golf Saudi, the SNAG equipment will support the club’s Royal Stars Junior Program, which will feature a host of new activities to encourage young boys and girls to pick up a golf club for the first time. 

Commenting on the partnership with Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, Bouchaib El-Jadiani, head of mass participation and national teams at Golf Saudi, said: “We have identified SNAG as a successful pathway for youngsters to gain an interest in golf. The priority of our mass participation program is to introduce golf at  grassroots level, to non-golfing Saudi children.”

El-Jadiani continued: “We are therefore delighted to support PGA Professional Michiel De Wet and his team of coaches at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club with this equipment. We look forward to announcing a series of new classes through our ‘Let it Fly’ program soon, which provides pupils from government funded schools and universities the chance to try golf for the very first time.”

SNAG is the brainchild of former US PGA Tour professional Terry Anton, making golf easy to learn through its colorful, portable and accessible equipment, as well as having the game’s rules explained in a simple fashion. Since its rollout across the Kingdom, the program has become a proven learning and training system and continues to grow under Golf Saudi’s guidance.  

Golf Saudi’s growing SNAG program continues to expand with adults too, who are also eligible to participate with the various initiatives that Golf Saudi is currently overseeing in order to encourage their participation in the game. 

One such example is the Ladies First Club, which was inspired by the 2020 debut Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by PIF — the Kingdom’s first-ever professional women’s golf tournament. Scores of women across the country registered to learn golf for the first time, with over 1,000 ladies signing up in the initiative’s first four days.

All of the participants have been using SNAG equipment since they signed up to learn more about the game and further their own development. The Ladies First Club has enjoyed great success in bringing more Saudi women into golf, aligning with the Kingdom’s wider ambitions under Vision 2030, which aims to get more Saudis regularly active.

Coaches, golf club staff and physical education teachers are all now involved and working with Golf Saudi in order to create a nationwide network of knowledgeable and skilled grassroots coaches. For further information Golf Saudi, please visit: www.golfsaudi.com