Crown Golf clubs ‘Bag Amnesty’ is off to a flying start! Over 300 golf bags and 2,000+ golf clubs have already been donated with Chesfield Downs and Cams Hall Estate leading the way.

Crown Golf clubs ‘Bag Amnesty’ is off to a flying start! Over 300 golf bags and 2,000+ golf clubs have already been donated after just SIX days, with Chesfield Downs and Cams Hall Estate GC leading the way.

If you've got an old golf bag in your garage, or some golf clubs which you will never use again? Here’s how to put them to good use.

With its ‘Free Bag’ campaign – in which a character named 'Bag' is shown as being neglected in a garage – Crown Golf has set up its 25 golf clubs as drop-off points to receive donations of surplus golf equipment from all members of the public, irrespective of whether they are golfers or not  and hope to amass over 2,000 golf bags, and 15,000+ golf clubs.

All items donated during the Crown Golf Bag & Equipment Amnesty 2014 will be shipped to a warehouse set up by golfing charity The Golf Trust, for re-distribution to golfers with physical and mental disabilities in conjunction with organisations such as Special Olympics GB and the Disabled Golf Society. The Golf Trust will also involve the donated goods in its outreach work in inner-city projects within the UK, and will also send them to countries such as Grenada and India where it is helping to grow the game.

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One lucky participantat a Crown Golf club will win a trip for two people to the Caribbean island of Grenada in autumn 2014, thanks to the Jason Roberts Foundation. But the trip will not only be a sunshine break – the pair will also be actively involved in the distribution of Bag Amnesty items to the island’s schools and parishes, and will also have the opportunity to play on Grenada’s only golf course, interacting with schoolchildren as they enjoy their newly-supplied golf equipment.

And everyone who donates a golf bag or golf club during the Amnesty will receive a Callaway Golf voucher, giving £20 off their next Callaway golf bag if bought from a Crown Golf pro shop during the Amnesty period.

The Crown Golf Bag & Equipment Amnesty 2014 is open fromThursday 12  June to Sunday 28 September. In golfing language, that’s from the U.S Open to The Ryder Cup .

Most golfers will admit to having at least one old, unwanted golf bag lying neglected in the garage, plus several old golf clubs which will never be needed again. With over 4 million regular golfers in the UK, there’s a 'golf bag mountain' which the Crown Golf Bag Amnesty is setting out to reduce.

Golfers who successfully root out their old golf bags and clubs should take them to their nearest Crown Golf pro shop  (see www.crown-golf.co.uk for full addresses), where they will receive their Callaway Golf bag voucher in return by way of thanks.

Cae Menai-Davis, co-founder of The Golf Trust, said: “Please respond to this call to action! We are ready to receive and re-distribute as many golf bags and clubs as people can throw at us. So come on, be generous, and have a good clear-out – we can certainly put everything to good use in our various projects.

“And thanks to the Jason Roberts Foundation, which is dedicated to providing opportunities for young people both in the Caribbean and the UK to take part in sports, we’re looking forward to taking a Crown Golf prize-winner plus a friend on an unforgettable trip over to Grenada, to see for themselves the effect this generosity will have in the schools and parishes over there”.

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Guy Riggott, Director of Operations at Crown Golf, is the man with the task of organising the Amnesty. “The Bag Amnesty 2014 takes in three of golf’s Majors, and you could say that this is our own Major this year. We all have our sleeves rolled up, and will be ready to start taking in people’s old bags and clubs when Justin Rose starts his defence of the U.S Open in June. It will be a logistical challenge, especially if the public really takes it to its heart, but we want a big response from golfers everywhere and we are delighted that we found the perfect partners in The Golf Trust, the Jason Roberts Foundation and Callaway Golf".

For information please visit www.freedomplay.co.uk

Photographs: Richard Benfield (pro at Wickham Park) and the team at Cams Hall Estate, with their first-weekend haul!