Georgina aims to keep Garon Park in the spotlight

Georgina Swallow will be hoping to continue a memorable year for Essex’s Garon Park when she plays in the Powerade PGA Assistants' Championship qualifier at Chigwell Golf Club.

Garon Park hit the headlines when it collected the GolfMark Club of the Year 2013 award after being in administration just three years earlier.

And the Southend-on-Sea club was featured on Sky Sports News earlier this month after director and former PGA captain Alan Walker significantly increased the involvement of junior players.

Now final year PGA assistant Swallow will bid to fly the flag for the club again when she heads to Chigwell in a bid to qualify for the FootJoy-supported championship final which carries a £30,000 prize fund and will be held on August 7-9 at Coventry Golf Club.

And there she hopes the Garon Park success story carries on.

She said: “There’s been so much interest in the club since we won the award and then we got TV coverage from Sky as a result.

“Alan’s not only shown great vision for the future but he’s helped out the five professionals here too, including myself.

“I think we used to have five junior members, now there are 150.

“And we also have a player who is going to really well in the future in Dulcie Sverdloff.

“She’s only 18 but has a handicap of plus two and she’s heading to college in September to play golf in the USA.

“But Alan’s had a major influence since he’s been here. He’s always encouraging people.

“And now we’re getting people coming in who say ‘we saw you on the telly’!

“As for myself, I think I’ll be heading down the coaching route, what Alan has done with the club means we’re being kept busy here and I think I’ll do that more than playing. But it’ll be good to test myself at Chigwell too.”

Other players taking part in the event from the east of England include: Chris Cutchie (Colchester Golf Club), Lee Marshall (Gog Magog),  Ian Scott (Bungay Golf Club), Darren Walton (Bedford Golf Club) and  Ross Anderson  (Finchley Golf Club).