Kick start JOLF – What Next After Lockdown?
Looking back at the beginning of the 2020 and we were planning for a very busy summer term of golf in schools. We had numerous play days booked in and were looking forward to continuing our work of putting golf clubs in children’s hands for the first time and introducing them to the game of golf. We were focussed on our aim of connecting with schools and providing the children with a positive first experience of the game, enthusing them to search out further opportunities to play, learn and compete.
This all stopped on Friday 20th March when schools closed and the country was put into lockdown!!!
We pressed the pause button our business!!! We, like everyone, did not know what the future might look like!!!
Our initial aim was to look after our families. Homeschooling started and everyone in the house had new skills to learn!!! Days passed and we endeavoured to make the best of the situation, we tried to look after ourselves physically and mentally. No one could predict how long lockdown would last and we had to take each day as it came.
We used the time to review and reflect where we were. JOLF was born in 2011 and so we are fast approaching our 9th birthday. We have LOVED and continue to enjoy the journey as we develop the business. Lockdown has allowed us to reach out and connect with the golf industry, coaches and others in our network. We have asked ourselves searching questions to find our purpose and continue to develop our values and principles.
SO MANY QUESTIONS!!! When would we be able to get back to work? What would the world look like after lockdown? The “New Normal”?!? How do we turn lockdown into an opportunity? And so on…
We asked A LOT of questions of our self and wanted to be clear with our aims and purpose, making sure that the business and our personal aims and purpose aligned. We came up with the following;
We provide children with opportunities to play golf and aim to increase access and opportunity for families to play on course. We do this by delivering enjoyable, engaging and appropriate experiences in schools, the community and at golf clubs. Our approach to playing and learning golf is driven by JOLFology, our guiding principles developed through our ongoing experiences, research and critical review.
We have made a decision to focus solely on providing opportunities for children and their families to play golf, in schools, in the their local community and at golf clubs.
So, what next? Our work in schools will inevitably start again, we are still not quite sure what that will look like but we know that at some time we will be able to return. And we will be ready!
Very shortly we will be launching the JOLF club. This will be an online community for families to join (for FREE) and will provide them with guidance, support, access and opportunity to play golf on course. The JOLF Club has been in our thoughts for over 12 months and we have not had the time to put it together, in that way lockdown has been perfect. During July/August/September we will be running a number of family on course play experiences at a number of golf clubs in Sussex.
WATCH THIS SPACE!