Golf, a “Hole” New Sport at AISG

This school year, a new sport that has never been played at AISG has been added to the activities program. This sport is golf. According to Mark Elliott, the Athletics and Activities Director, “many students have expressed interest for golf to begin at the school.” Last week, an email was sent out to the high school community by Mr. Elliott, stating that practices would officially begin on September 13 and would occur every week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Elliott has been hoping for the past three years to initiate the golf team. The problem was finding the perfect location to get lessons and to train. This year, AISG has managed to find the ideal spot at a golf academy just 15 minutes away from the school, on the way back towards the city. The driving range provides bilingual instructors who can speak both Chinese and English and can also help the team enter into local tournaments. This will be a great way for students to become more knowledgeable and skilled at golf. Elliott believes that all the school’s sports teams need to make more of a connection with local schools because AISG has not made any great bonds with local schools in Guangzhou. Golf is the perfect sport to create a strong connection with other schools because it is a very popular sport in China.

“Golf is a game that you can play for the rest of your life,” declared Mr. Elliott, “If people learn it, they can play with their friends, family, and business associates.” Golf is a sport where the players don’t have to be big or strong. They just have to learn the skills and with that, they will be able to succeed. People that play golf are not the same ones that play tennis, volleyball, or run cross country. Elliott stated that AISG wanted to offer a sport that would give a different group of people a chance to play something different from the sports that are already available at the school.

For the past years, AISG has added very diverse activities to improve the program. This year, the activities added were ping pong and golf. The year before that, the quiz bowl team and the dance team were added. AISG has made substantial improvements over the years in their Athletics and Activities Program and hopefully, this growth will continue over years to come.