INSIDE THE ROPES
INVALUABLE
lessons
Empowering young girls through golf is legend Sally Little’s lifelong passion
BY CRAIG RAY
‘It’s magnificent, isn’t it?’ That’s my first interaction with Sally Little as I look down the fairway of the immaculate Centre for Excellence named after the three-time Major winner and LPGA Legends Hall of Famer.
Little is unquestionably South Africa’s greatest female golfer, and one of the country’s most famous golfing ambassadors. But that’s only one string in her bow. The Sally Little Centre for Excellence is another, where she has, and continues to have, a profoundly positive effect on the lives of some of Cape Town’s most needy.
Little is warm and engaging, clearly someone with great depth and empathy. Which is why she’s spent more than a decade using golf to help young Cape Town girls develop the skills and character to face the real world.
She established the Sally Little Golf Trust to use the sport to change the lives of young women, and she carries this out at the Centre for Excellence. Officially, the site is the Peninsula Driving Range in Maitland. It’s located on the banks of the Black River, adjacent to the busy M5 highway.
For 80 years it was a driving range, but it was not well maintained by the previous tenants and had gone to ruin.
‘I felt I could give back in a similar way to what the LPGA had taught me’
More than a decade ago, Cape Town mayor Patricia De Lille, herself a keen golfer, called Sally and asked if she wanted to take over the lease. Little, as it turned out, was in the early stages of a programme to use golf to change the lives of young girls in Cape Town.
One thing golfers need is somewhere to play and practise. The frayed old range with beautiful views of Devil’s Peak was the right place at the perfect time.
But the story starts years before. As a prominent member of the LPGA Tour in the early 1980s, Little, along with a few other senior pros of the time, such as Nancy Lopez, wanted to grow golf in the United States’ inner cities.
They took their plan to Tom Bradley, who was the first black mayor of Los Angeles. He listened to the pitch, which required the use of a public course and some funding. In the end, Bradley found these pioneers a course and $100 000, which in the early ’80s, was significant.
‘We started with five girls, and then by the end of the year we had 1 200 girls in the programme,’ says Little. ‘The LPGA couldn't believe it and, in the end, made it their official charity. It grew and grew and grew, and then the PGA Tour looked at it, and it became the “First-Tee” programme, which is in every major US city now.’
It was this success that inspired Little to try something smaller and much more modest when she returned to live in South Africa in 2005. At first, she returned to design a golf course, but within a few years she needed a new challenge back in her homeland.
BUILDING BLOCKS
Through a meaningful collaboration with DP World, the Sally Little Centre for Excellence launched the first DP World Clubhouse in Cape Town – an innovative, dedicated indoor-outdoor practice golf facility located at the driving range. It is a safe, supportive space where girls receive coaching, mentorship and opportunities to grow, and it gives golfers the opportunity to refine their skills year-round, regardless of the weather.
Part of a global initiative transforming trade infrastructure into golf training hubs for underserved communities, the Clubhouse reflects a shared vision between the Trust and DP World. From a converted shipping container in Johannesburg to a fully equipped training facility built through DP World’s smart logistics network, this collaboration is designed to uplift and inspire.
As the flagship of DP World’s global Clubhouse programme, this facility sets a new standard for accessibility and excellence in the game.
‘I felt I could give back in a similar way to what the LPGA had taught me,’ Little recalls. ‘I took a similar concept to the City, and told them I was looking for a place where I could train golfers from a few targeted schools.’
Prestwich Primary School in Sea Point came to Sally’s attention via a fundraiser held for the school by her local club, Metropolitan in Green Point.
‘I told the principal about my idea to use golf to uplift girls,’ says Little. ‘I could only fund 10 girls, who had to be between the ages of seven and eight.
‘I asked him to allow me to take them out at 9am once a week, train them for two hours and feed them. I asked for three months to prove it worked.
‘After we’d started it, he called me after a month and said, “I don’t know what you’re doing, but I asked my teachers to see if there’d been any change in the 10 girls, and the changes have been remarkable.’
This isn’t a programme intentionally designed to find the next Lydia Ko or Nelly Korda, but if that happens along the way, it would be a happy by-product.
Gallery below
More than 80 girls have passed through the programme, which now includes the Garden Village Primary School, with the simple idea of learning values through golf. The long-term vision includes developing on-site classrooms, computer labs and Teach the Teacher programs.
The girls have to maintain high academic standards to remain in the programme. While it only caters for primary school-age girls, the success it has brought means many of the graduates from the Sally Little School for Excellence have been placed in some of the best high schools in Cape Town.
‘The programme is not successful enough because by high school I lose them. I’m working on finding more funding to expand it,’ says Little.
‘I always felt I had the most incredible life and career, and that I’d never change it. But I also wondered why there weren’t any superstar golfers coming from South Africa. It was a frustration, but I turned that into better education for young kids of colour who would never get an opportunity to even touch this sport.’
GROWING THE GAME
The Sally Little and Imibala Golf Clinic helps expose young players from disadvantaged backgrounds to elite golf at the Investec SA Women’s Open.
This year at Erinvale, the Little Golf Trust girls from Prestwich Primary were able to experience the tournament and share in the inspiration of women in sport giving back to their communities. They also received gifts from Investec and golf shoes from Footjoy, and took part in a putting and chipping clinic by pros Ivanna Samu, Kaiyuree Moodley and Danielle du Toit.
The girls also helped run a clinic for learners from Fernwood and Amabali School where they got to share what they’d learned in the game of golf.
For Little, the week is about opportunities for the next generation of South African women golfers and the inspiration they are to others. ‘To come to a tournament as a young professional and be able to play a golf course like Erinvale, it elevates that feeling of them being able to take their careers overseas and to achieve their dreams. It’s beautiful to see.’
TYRONE WINFIELD/PERFECT EXPOSURE/SALLY LITTLE GOLF
