England's first official Japan Park Golf course opens in South Shields

Shields Gazette

The first official Japan Park Golf course has opened in North Marine Park, in South Shields.

Transcript

00:00Japan Park Golf is a one club one ball game played to a large 8-inch hole and basically

00:06it's as simple as that. The golf club has got a large head on it similar to a driver but it

00:12doesn't have any loft on it's a square face and the ball is a large 60 centimeter diameter size

00:18ball. The reaction has been unbelievable unbelievable we've had nearly I think it's

00:23close to now 600 I think maybe up to 595 people played so far which is absolutely brilliant.

00:31Families love it, kids love it, it's great to see granddads and grandmoms playing with

00:35their grandchildren just very very fun. We've had people playing wheelchairs, we've had various

00:40groups coming and they've just loved the game. We've got additional bookings which is fantastic

00:46and it's just great to see in South Wales fantastic. You can find us if you come down

00:50to North Rink Park it's got fantastic facilities anyway and but we've got a lovely little course

00:56here it's not too long it's a six-hole course short course absolutely brilliant. Come down

01:02and have a game it's free and all asking for us a donation if you'll afford it for various

01:08charities that we're raising money for. We don't make any money at Toversell personally we are

01:14hoping to get grants to pay for additional equipment. The good thing about this game is

01:17this game can be taken anywhere so anywhere there's a field they can be played even indoors

01:23if it's a carpet area they can be played there. If you want to get in touch please get in touch

01:27we can take this game to you we're not after any money ourselves personally if you can donate

01:32something towards charity that would be fine. Zac started this off in Scotland he lived there 20

01:37years he came back we thought it was a great he was really keen on to get it going he spoke to

01:43me about it and had a look at it we went onto the Japan Park Golf website in Japan there's lots

01:50of millions of people played over there it's it's called I think it's called American Grass

01:54Golf in America and it's it's really popular as I say but for me the point was that

02:00what I looked at it it's a really easy game to play very simple it's a flat club one ball one

02:07club you can't slice the ball out or anything it's in its own surroundings but anybody can play it

02:13and you know we've had people in wheelchairs playing we've had people with crutches we've

02:16had young people old people so it's great for everybody. People come here who maybe have anxiety

02:22depression health issues mental health issues and they can focus on the game and it takes them out

02:28of themselves and they forget about their problems they're connecting with people you know they're

02:32taking notice of what's going on around them nature it's all all good 12 pluses I think you

02:37know in terms of health etc you know and it's fun that's the main thing as well it's fun. We wanted

02:42to put something back into the community but also we're not trying to make anything out of it we

02:47just basically want to help the community so we're looking to maybe setting up as a charitable trust

02:54if we can but at first we thought well because it takes a while to do that we thought right

02:59well who can we help and as it happens I actually go to an open mic night at their sea change cafe

03:05in Ocean Road and I know the two owners there so and they're used to or they're still involved

03:10with autism able in South Shields South Tyneside and they run the cafe as I say and it's a great

03:15cafe and they do loads for young people with autism help them find training jobs etc and

03:21people with young people with disabilities so we thought well that's great so we've taken them on

03:25as they're actually the official charity at the moment that we're collecting for and it's I say

03:29people come along and just put in a contribution if they can if they can we'll just let them play

03:33we'll just say yes we'll have a go you know that's what it's all about but yeah that's the charity

03:37and they do great work for the young people as I say so hopefully we'll work we're working together

03:43to try and raise funds for them you know last week I think we raised £238.39 in five days

03:51and it's I mean the bucket's sealed so I don't know exactly what's in it but

03:55this it feels quite heavy so this week we've will have raised a fair bit as well

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