Lombard tee up bank job

City bankers swapped their desk for a quick golf lesson as the Lombard Trophy paid a visit to Royal Bank of Scotland employees.

PGA Professionals Sophie Daws (above centre), of P Golf, and Karl Wesson (above left) of City Golf, set up inside RBS in Bishopsgate, assisting total beginners to low handicappers with their game.

In addition, Titleist Performance Institute certified fitness coach Mike Joyce (above right), also from City Golf, was on hand to illustrate some simple exercises to improve the golf swing.

During the three hour window dozens of RBS employees took up the opportunity, in the process learning more about the bank’s sponsorship of the Lombard Trophy – Europe’s largest pro-am tournament which was first competed for in 1979.

Amongst those taking part in the session was 46-year-old Paul Lawlor, who works in RBS’s restructuring and provision team.

Paul will be competing for a place in the Lombard Trophy final when he tees up at Walton Heath in July representing Army Golf Club with PGA Professional Graham Cowley, having won his club qualifier.

However, even he wasn’t aware of the link between his club competition and event at the time of booking his place in regional final.

“At the time I’d never put two and two together and looked what the competition was all about,” he said.

“I just thought it was a club competition and not Lombard as in part of RBS! I found out afterward I would be in the regional final, so let’s see what happens in July.”

Lombard and RBS are keen for its employees to be aware of the sponsorship deal with the PGA and what the bank is doing to promote itself to the wider public.

Ian Wood, head of marketing, said: “It’s marvellous for us to be able to do this kind of promotion within RBS and raise the profile of the tournament across the company and get visibility of it to staff. Staff engagement is a really important to us.

“I think across Lombard people know of the tournament and our involvement but what we’re trying to do is appeal to the wider RBS audience. There’s another 8,000 staff in the UK that work for us that won’t be aware and we are hopefully appealing to the staff and those that play golf can take the message back to their clubs.

“It’s very much about brand promotion and putting the Lombard name out there. One of the key things to us is that golf is a business tool and lots of business conversations take place on the golf course and if we can be in that environment promoting our brands that’s very positive for us.”

This was echoed by Ian Isaac, head of Lombard sales and a keen golfer.

“It’s a great idea that we set this up. This is about showing the things that Lombard are doing within the wider bank, what we are doing for our customers and also our community.

“The Lombard Trophy name gets a lot of resonance in communities where it’s quite aspirational for an amateur golfer. This year we have a female pro here and we have female CEO and we’re keen to show what we’re doing and what the PGA are doing to promote women’s golf.”

Reflecting on the day’s coaching was PGA Pro Sophie Daws (pictured above), who has just completed the final year of the PGA Foundation Degree.

She added: “It’s different today as we’ve had all level of golfers, which has been interesting. We’ve had people who just want to have a go and maybe haven’t swung a club before which is good.

“It’s a good way to let people know about the Lombard Trophy and for me to practice coaching different types of players.”

The first of 16 regional finals tees of this month at Camberley Heath and includes venues such as Little Aston, Formby, Fulford, The K Club and Royal Ashdown Forest. The final will be held at Gleneagles in September.