Suffolk professional in the final three for national ‘Inspiration’ award

Steve Hall’s ongoing mission to bring more people to golf will be recognised on March 24 when he is one of three finalists for a national award.

The Suffolk Golf Club’s head PGA professional/director of golf is in contention for the ‘Inspiration of the Year’ gong at the Community Sport and Recreation Awards 2022, which will be presented at a ceremony in Coventry. The Sport and Recreation Alliance’s president is HRH The Earl of Wessex, who will be presenting the winners with their trophies.

Part of the reason why Hall was nominated was because he regularly attended a local secondary school to introduce golf to kids during the covid pandemic. He offered his expertise and time free of charge. Working with the Golf Foundation, he helped with the successful delivery of the charitable organisation’s Unleash Your Drive initiative, which is designed to improve ‘mental toughness’ along with coaching traditional golf skills.

Hall also came up with an idea to help frontline NHS workers during the pandemic. He was the person responsible for The Suffolk Club’s ‘Rainbow Membership’ scheme, offering free golf for a 12-month period to all NHS employees.  It had a remarkable take-up of around 150 people with the club’s owner David Harris and its existing membership all right behind the thoughtful plan.

Hall’s tireless efforts at the club, located just outside Bury St Edmunds, resulted in him being put forward by the Golf Foundation’s chief executive Brendon Pyle for a Sport and Recreation Alliance award.

And he returned from a recent holiday to discover that he had made the final three alongside Andy Craddock (Birmingham Wheelchair Basketball) and Mary Tweed (Nordic Walking East Anglia.

Hall, 49, said: “When I got back, the first email I opened was the one saying that I’d been shortlisted. I thought, ‘I can’t believe it’. After all these years of trying to make a tiny difference, it’s the first time that there’s been any recognition for it. The next thing I looked at was what the other finalists (there are eight categories) have done and thought, ‘Blimey, that’s good’.  So, there’s lots of like-minded people out there that are doing their bit.”

Hall, who qualified as a PGA professional in 1994, is intent on bringing more people to golf. He is especially focused on sharing his passion with schoolkids. Back in his own school days Steve shied away from letting others know he was into the game. “I didn’t tell people I played golf because I probably would’ve got bullied for it,” he said.

Now he is busy out in the Suffolk community taking golf into schools and spreading the word. At the moment he is working with a particular middle school with a view to getting the sport integrated into its regular PE offering. With safe equipment that’s adapted for youngsters, he is leading sessions alongside a teacher, who will in the future be able to roll out the programme herself with a subsequent route for children to take the next step and enjoy golf at a nearby club – preferably The Suffolk!

He said: “What we hope is we just get a lot of kids trying golf. Our whole attitude is to make it fun, teaching skills for life within that. Hopefully we get a few on the pathway into golf that wouldn’t have considered it before.”

And that’s Steve in a nutshell. Making sure golf is accessible to anyone that wants to give it a go.

• Categories:
• East
• Suffolk