Golf Lessons for Ukraine

25/03/2022

PGA Professionals encouraged to support Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis by fellow Rosslare pro, Jamie O’Sullivan.

Rosslare Golf Club professional Jamie O’Sullivan is putting out the call to his fellow Irish PGA Professionals to support his recently launched initiative ‘Golf Lessons for Ukraine’ which he hopes can raise up to €25,000 for the besieged nation.

With spring in the air and the new golf season upon us in Ireland, O’Sullivan is one of many struggling with the disconnect of news from Ukraine where innocent people continue to suffer the most extreme atrocities daily.

He decided to act when he spoke to a lady who works at his golf club who has been directly affected by the terrible war. The woman has family in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus and after listening to her story, O’Sullivan felt compelled to do something, having felt nothing but helplessness since the Russian invasion.

“When I spoke to someone at my club and she told me how the war had affected her, I felt completely helpless,” O’Sullivan said.

“I knew I had to do something, but what could I do? I had seen Gareth Maybin raise money for charity around Christmas time by offering golf lessons and I thought that if I could help in some small way then I had to do it.”

O’Sullivan then set about working out how exactly he could contribute before setting up a Concern fundraising page and contacting fellow PGA Professionals looking to recruit their support.

“I emailed as many as I could,” he said. “I organised a day at Rosslare where I gave over the whole day to lessons and people could donate the lesson fee and if they wished to add anything extra, they could do that too.

“I ran the day on March 24^th and raised €815, which in itself isn’t a huge amount but if 20 or 50 other PGA Professionals can do the same, then that can become a big amount and have a huge impact.

“I want to get more people involved and anyone can do it. It doesn’t even have to be lessons, it can be whatever you want to do.

“I want all the money raised to be from the PGA in Ireland. We’ve all benefitted in recent times from the boom in golf and this is one small way we could give something back and make a huge difference, so anything PGA pros can do would be brilliant.”

If you’re a PGA Professional and you want to help Ukraine’s humanitarian struggle, all you need to do is pick a day or date, run the lessons or any other relevant activity, and use the Concern fundraising link below to collect the money. All funds raised will go directly to Ukraine to help those in such dire need.

To take part, can you please email Jamie O’Sullivan on oneeyegolfltd@gmail.com or contact him on 0868889890.

CLICK HERE to view the Golf Lessons for Ukraine fundraising page.