Braverman and Reform UK are a threat to the golf industry

Suella Braverman, the former Conservative minister and current member of Reform UK, has made deeply concerning, offensive and inaccurate comments about University courses on an interview with Nick Ferrari on LBC. Braverman was discussing University degrees with Ferrari and used the term 'Dud', which means a person, object, or project that fails to work, performs poorly, or is completely useless. Ferrari asked her four times what she meant by the term, and eventually she gave an answer: "A Dud degree is something which doesn't lead to graduate employment. We have got 700,000 graduates who are unemployed, 250,000 of our graduates are currently claiming welfare."

Ferrari then asked her to hive an example of a Dud degree.

She continued and did not answer the question "these figures are damning, and they do not show that a University degree is good value". Ferrari asked her again "I wonder if I could ask you again, for a fourth time, what is a dud degree, give an example".

"I have seen courses in Golf Course Management"

"I have seen courses in Surfing"

"I don't think Universities should be offering courses in these sort of pastimes"

"By all means study those subjects, but do not do it at a University funded by the Tax Payer" she said.

Well, Suella, let me address your absolute nonsense and bile.

By Golf Course Management, you actually mean any discipline which makes up Golf Studies, this includes Golf Management, Professional Golf, Golf Coaching and Performance, Sportsturf and Applied Turfgrass Science, Turfgrass Science and Management.

I graduated with a Foundation Degree in Golf Management in 2005 and please, let me dispel the absolute total corrupt nonsense you have spouted.

Golf Studies, and every course within it, does lead to graduate employment and I have many examples.

• Several PGA Professionals around the UK and working in the United States and United Arab Emirates

• Touring Professionals playing on the DP World Tour, and Ladies European Tour

• Caddies working in the professional game

• Staff on the DP World Tour, Ladies European Tour, and working for the R&A

• Staff for Performance 54, IMG and other golf and sports agencies

• Golf Club and resort administrators including Royal Ascot Golf Club, JCB Country Club, Halifax Bradley Hall Golf Club, Harpenden Common Golf Club, Knock Golf Club, Formby Golf Club, Moortown Golf Club and many others

• Golf Travel Consultants and staff for golf travel agents

• Head Greenkeepers and green staff at hundreds of golf courses across the UK and the world

EVERY industry is competitive, and only some people with a degree, whatever the discipline will succeed in their chosen industry. That is not a reason to close down every course being offered in that discipline. I was made redundant during the global financial crisis in November 2008, but due to my Golf Management qualification I was eventually able to secure employment within my chosen industry. That though is your true problem isn't it? You don't want us working class to be able to choose an industry, you want us working class to be slaves to your rich friends, working in a restaurant, bar or factory for the rest of our lives. Unsecure employment, which people like you call Unskilled.

During my 2 years unemployed I applied for more than 100 jobs, and due to having my Golf Management qualification I was able to travel the entire length and breadth of the country to attend interviews. I had interviews at Celtic Manor resort (Newport, Wales), The Grove (Watford), the Ladies Golf Union and Fairmont St Andrews (St Andrews, Scotland), and Bowood (Wiltshire). Without the qualification I would not have even had the opportunity to apply for these jobs, let alone secure an interview.

But, as we all know, getting a job is about far more than the qualifications you have. It is about experience, attitude, work ethic and other personal elements, such as your ability to relocate or drive. It also comes down to the day and how it goes, and how other people perform at interview. You are an intelligent woman, surely you understand this?

Reform UK lead the polls right now

My Foundation Degree in Golf Management gave me the opportunity to do a job which I could never have accessed had I not attended the college to do the course. In the summers of 2004 and 2006 I caddied at Royal County Down Golf Club in Northern Ireland. Caddying there was what helped to end my two years unemployed, as it gave me the experience and knowledge to apply for a caddying role at the home of golf, St Andrews.

The wider economy is the problem, not me studying golf management at University.

I was made redundant by Woolworths in 2009, and by a hotel in St Andrews in 2011, and by another St Andrews hotel in 2020. Yes, my golf management qualification has not resulted in me earning vast sums of money like your Reform UK colleagues, but it has given me the opportunity to live and work in Scotland, and contribute to the economy and work within the golf and associated industries for more than a decade.

Golf Studies graduates have contributed massively to the economy, through an industry which contributes a Gross Value Added (GVA) of £2.6 billion to the economy, and raises £1.3 billion in Tax for the UK Exchequer. More than 64,000 people are employed full-time in the UK Golf Industry, and many of these are golf studies graduates from administrators to PGA Professionals, from the greenkeeper to the bar staff.

So please, instead of spouting opinions based in prejudice, how about coming up with a system which enables graduates to get jobs within the industry they study? .

Not Kind Regards

Matt.

FdA Golf Management, 2005 (Myerscough College)

SHANK, by Matt Hooper

Matt Hooper is an Associate Member of the Sports Journalists Association, and founder of SHANK