A RECREATIONAL ground and a park may not seem the most obvious place to recruit young golfers but the Professional Golfers' Association is doing just that to attract more girls to the game.

The PGA and the English Ladies Golf Association (ELGA) have teamed up to bring a golfing road show to the Midlands, with venues including Bromsgrove and Pershore.

As part of a bid to encourage more young girls to try their hands at the sport the PGA is providing two qualified professionals to offer free lessons using the latest Tri-Golf plastic golf sets supplied by the Golf Foundation.

The offer is aimed at six to 11-year-olds and the road show will stop at a number of unconventional golfing venues including Sanders Park and Lickey End Recreational Ground in Bromsgrove.

A similar scheme has proved popular in Canada and PGA chief executive Sandy Jones hopes it will prove a hit in England.

"Numbers of young girl golfers taking up the game remain frustratingly low, which makes this the perfect time to branch out and try something a bit different," said Jones.

"In taking golf to non traditional venues and targeting girls at primary school age, we can attract a much wider audience.

"Our focus on the fairer sex also extends to all lady golfers where plans are in place to encourage more women to gain qualified status and join the professional ranks as a teacher, tour players, retailers or golf directors."

Currently there are just 4,000 junior girl golfers around the United Kingdom compared to 60,000 boys and the road show is trying to break down barriers for girls.

Road show organiser Kirstie Jennings - national girls' development officer at ELGA - says the scheme breaks down barriers and encourages girls to play the game.

"We find that if you have sessions just for girls at an early stage that they are more likely to come back," she said.

"It is as much about a social experience as much as sport and we need to appeal to that."

Membership among girl members has increased by 20 percent in the last year and Jennings believes Tri-Golf will encourage more the girls to take up the game.

"Tri-Golf is not just about golf clubs but different games such as Simon Says and Grand National which show it can be fun.

"The whole idea is that golf clubs can be perceived as restrictive by youngsters so we aim to take the road show into their territory where they feel comfortable and it is one less barrier for them to break down."

The road show will be at Sanders Park, Bromsgrove on Tuesday, August 6 (2-4pm), Lickey End Recreational Ground, Bromsgrove on Tuesday (2-4pm), August 13 and Sanders Park again on Tuesday, August 20 (2-4pm).

Any girls interested can drop in and have a go.