Aylesbury's Chiltern Forest Golf Club receives over £25,000 to boost female facilities

The golf club wants to use the donation to address a lack of female participation
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Aylesbury's Chiltern Forest Golf Club has received over £25,000 to improve its facilities and encourage greater female participation.

Chiltern Forest Golf Club (CFGC) was granted £27,326 from HS2’s Community and Environment Fund (CEF) to improve its women’s changing room.

Now, the hugely popular club which has one of the only 18-hole courses in North Buckinghamshire, plans to fully refurbish the changing rooms as soon as possible.

The CFGC courseThe CFGC course
The CFGC course

The picturesque course is located between Wendover and Halton, near Aston Clinton.

A CFGC spokesman reports that only 15% of people playing golf in England are female and an even lower percentage of women are represented at Chiltern Forest.

A CFGC spokesman said: "Since the golf club has been fully reopened following lockdown we have seen increasing numbers joining the club and playing the course.

"However the present dilapidated state of the women’s changing facilities continues to affect our aim of welcoming more women at CFGC.

The clubhouse at the site near Wendover WoodsThe clubhouse at the site near Wendover Woods
The clubhouse at the site near Wendover Woods

"Besides golfers, the clubhouse facilities are widely used at events organised by local community groups and by passing visitors."

Further efforts are being made at the popular golf site to encourage greater diversity.

The club is setting up a Women’s Golf Academy, which will be run by the club professional at Bierton’s Dynamic Driving Range.

Organisers say it will take place in a fun low risk environment and concentrate on the basics of the fiendishly difficult game.

One of the picturesque fairwaysOne of the picturesque fairways
One of the picturesque fairways

It is based on England Golf’s ‘Get Into Golf’ national campaign, which hopes to promote the sport as a fun, sociable way to grow confidence.

CFGC states that it runs activities aimed at both casual female players, and those wanting to compete.

All competitions at the club are open to both genders, while mixed team events also take place at the club near Aston Clinton.

Recently, the club started a 'roll-up' scheme designed for women who want to play golf with someone else of the same sex.

Also, CFGC has introduced gender neutral tees.

Jacqueline King, women’s golf captain of CFGC, said: “The changing room improvements and the other initiatives we are making for women visiting socially or playing the course will be a big improvement.

"I’d like to thank HS2 for the opportunity this gives us to greatly improve the offer to women at CFGC.“

Since the rail project began in 2017, HS2 Community and Environment Fund (CEF) and Business and Local Economy Fund (BLEF) has supported organisations on the HS2 route, currently under construction.

Ron Fisher and Peter Barron, joint chair’s of CFGC, said: “The members of CFGC would like to thank HS2 for providing us with funding which will make a real difference to us and to the local community and will improve greatly our facilities for women golfers and visitors.

"This investment, together with funds provided by the club, will allow us to build modern facilities that will greatly help us in our mission to increase the number of women who can access our facilities for social, fun and competitive golf at Chiltern Forest Golf Club."

Cathy Elliott, independent chair of HS2 Funds, explained the decision to fund the initiative. She said: “The Chiltern Forest Golf Club has provided leisure and sport facilities to the local people for decades and their successful application to HS2’s Community and Environment Fund highlights the important role they play in bringing together the local community.

“Their plan to use the funding they have received to improve the changing facilities on offer to female golfers, combined with some key member-run initiatives like the Women’s Golf

Academy, will bring them one step closer to achieving their important goal of increasing the participation of women in the sport.”

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