Open players take on the youngsters at Muirfield

At Muirfield during The Open Championship this week, a number of the competitors have made a great gesture to the Golf Foundation and played in special Tri-Golf challenges with groups of children.

This week, France's Gregory Bourdy, Sweden's Oscar Floren, America's Brooks Koepka, Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Scotland's Lloyd Saltman have joined in the fun.

Gregory Bourdy said: "I started playing at about aged four as my family love golf. I think it is important to really encourage children if they wish to play, to help them get started. I enjoyed the Tri-Golf, it's a great game."

Lloyd Saltman said: "I was very lucky that my family played and my older brother really helped me. Golf is a great game for youngsters and we should all help the next generation."

The player visits were arranged with the support of Titleist and FootJoy, and each of them signed up to play the ‘Tri-Golf Open Challenge', with Brooks winning with 102 points, just pipping Kiradech who shot an impressive 99.

Mike Round, Chief Executive of the Golf Foundation, said: "It's great that these players chose to give up their time to support the youngsters in this way. It is clear they understand that by engaging with youngsters they really can inspire them."

"Golf offers young people valuable life skills and opportunities to forge friendships, and promoting this principle underpins our entire HSBC Golf Roots programme that reaches hundreds of thousands of youngsters each year. The generosity of the players here really helps to raise our profile and we offer a huge thank you to the team at Titleist and FootJoy for assisting us in arranging these visits."

The Golf Foundation is a highly progressive development organisation which is increasing golf participation in schools and creating stronger links between schools, golf clubs and driving ranges in support of the national bodies for England, Scotland and Wales.