The Australian Golf Foundation (AGF) Junior Girls Scholarship Program is still in its relevant infancy having been launched in 2021, yet one its former participants has already provided a remarkable endorsement of its benefits.

Maddison Kelly’s engagement with golf when she started to play the sport is somewhat typical of many young girls, however, her participation in the program founded by Bonnie Bozeman AO led to a change of heart and now a burgeoning career in the game.

“From memory when I started, I didn't quite enjoy golf at that point,” Kelly said at the recent Webex Players Series Sydney.

“When I started going to the clinics, I started to gain that love for golf and I'm thinking, ‘Okay, this is kind of cool’.

“I was about 14, just turning 15 at the time, so I was still pretty late to golf.”

What Kelly considers late to golf, many others consider an almost ideal time to find what is a game for life, including Bozeman.

“I picked up golf later in life and was frustrated to witness the decline in female/girls club participation by 46 percent since the mid 90s,” Bozeman has said previously of the creation of what would become the AGF Junior Girls Scholarship.

“Knowing the power of philanthropy and 'paying it forward', I designed a structured scholarship program for five girls a year between the ages of 10 and 16 and offered to pay for the program for my lifetime and another 30 years in my will.”

Bozeman’s generosity something that Kelly, who was part of the program at the founder’s home club of Killara Golf Club in Sydney, experienced first-hand.

“Bonnie really mentored me, and she helped me see some little potential and then I ended up moving to Queensland after that and continued to play,” Kelly said.

Coming to the Program via a PGA Professional at Thornleigh Golf Centre, Kelly’s move north saw her join Noosa Springs, which is now the training base for one of the newest members of the WPGA Tour of Australasia.

One of 12 players contesting the unique The Athena this weekend at Peninsula Kingswood Golf & Country Club, Kelly earnt her 2025 WPGA Tour playing rights at Qualifying School and is almost at a loss to describe how her ongoing learning is continuing every time she tees it up.

“It's crazy. I still can't believe it. Being out here the past couple months playing with the pros. It's just been such an eyeopener and it just showed me that I do belong here and I can play to the level that I need to,” Kelly said.

Adding of the learning experiences at each event: “It's crazy. 10 times each week. You can't even put a number to it.”

So far in her professional journey a 30th place at the Melbourne International is the best result for Kelly, but to hear the 18-year-old’s attitude towards the professional game it is easy to believe that mark will be surpassed soon.

“The more you can play, the better. To be honest, yeah, the more experience you gain, and I've learned so much,” Kelly said.

“In the off season I know what to work on and next year I'll be coming out firing.”

Potentially using The Athena as a springboard, with the winner earning a start in next week’s lucrative Australian WPGA Championship at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast, Kelly still remembers fondly where her golfing journey really gained momentum.

The now Sunshine Coast resident unable to encourage young girls enough to take part in the AGF Junior Girls Scholarship Program.

“Hundred percent,” she answers when asked if she would recommend the program to a young girl, parent or grandparent.

“It's the best for girls golf because they'll have this for life no matter if they don't like it now, they might in a couple years like my case, and they never know where it'll end up for them.”