A trip to Mataranka, in the red dirt south of Katherine in the Northern Territory, has come up trumps for the sport of golf and the students at Mataranka School.

In his years as a PGA Professional in Darwin and Queensland, Darwin head pro Kurt Watts has never been moved so much as he was by this four-hour trip south from the NT capital for a set of school clinics.

The clinics came about after Mataranka School applied and succeeded in winning a Sporting Schools grant via Sport Australia, aimed at increasing sports participation. The school wanted to follow it through with some golf clinics, and as it happened, GA’s Relationships Manager in the NT, Brodie Morcom, had previously dropped a MyGolf kit at the school.

GA has run clinics in Katherine before but never so far south as tiny Mataranka, where three days of clinics took place under the watch of GA’s Sam Wright and Watts at the end of term three. Almost 20 children of all ages from five to 18 took part.

For Watts, it was not only an eye-opener but highly rewarding.

“It was an opportunity for us to expose golf to kids who might have never get the opportunity,” he said. “It was a pretty cool experience, that’s for sure.”

Watts and Wright found a level of keenness that was off the charts, and a glimmer of knowledge of the sport, in particular Tiger Woods. “I said to this kid, ‘you’re seven or eight, how do you know Tiger Woods’?”

There was also some talent on show. “There are some gifted athletes,” said Watts. “We asked them to duplicate what we were doing and they were like ‘no worries’. Twenty minutes into the session, they’re loving it.

“I think contact is important. From a holistic perspective, it’s above and beyond golf. Some of these kids are in off stations or farms, some of them are from indigenous communities, and having that contact with us makes a difference.

“I think it was a massive success. It was the most rewarding school trip I’ve done. I’ve done my fair share – probably 25 different Sporting School grants over the last five years – and this was by far the most rewarding.

“I don’t think any of those kids, regardless of demographic, would have had the opportunity to access golf as a sport.”

The clinics at Matarenka are set to continue in 2025. “I do think if the right opportunities are given to these kids and that’s what they want, absolutely it can make a difference,” said Watts.