The COVID-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on universities across the UK with restrictions relating to social distancing and mass gatherings impacting on the integrity of their academic programmes and ability to provide the ‘university experience’ prospective students desire.

Dr Paul Wiseman, PGA Executive Director – Education, outlines five reasons why The PGA training programme is ‘COVID-19 secure’.

1 – ONLINE LEARNING – The PGA training programme is primarily delivered online as a distance learning course which has been delivered successfully for almost 20 years. The PGA Academy team are experts in online teaching with all academic content delivered through a sophisticated Virtual Learning Environment, a platform all students can access from their home (and on their phone).

2 – PRACTICAL ELEMENTS IN SMALL GROUPS – All practical elements of the training programme, such as coaching, can be delivered in small groups, therefore adhering to UK Government COVID-19 social distancing measures.

3 – PLAY IN TOURNAMENTS – The UK Government has given approval for Professional tournaments to take place. Students are therefore able to complete in 21 tournaments rounds that are an essential element of the training programme. To support this, The PGA, supported by The R&A, is launching a new series of regional events for trainees with a prize fund of £1,500 at each event.

4 – LEARN AT YOUR CLUB – The centre of learning for the training programme is based at the golf club the trainee is based with the training professional playing a central role. Golf clubs were chosen as one of the first businesses to open post ‘lockdown’ many months before universities were able to re-open.

5 – TRIED AND TESTED – The training programme has been running for more than fifty years and has successfully adapted to constantly changing circumstances. It is also the only training programme that is delivered by The PGA and therefore benefits from being sole focus of the Training academy staff.