{"id":37516,"date":"2026-07-16T06:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T06:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/37516\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T06:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T06:00:08","slug":"the-muslim-golf-associations-drive-to-broaden-the-sports-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/37516\/","title":{"rendered":"The Muslim Golf Association\u2019s drive to broaden the sport’s appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AThe Muslim Golf Association aims to make the sport more accessible, particularly for Muslim women and girls. Photography for Hyphen by Fatima Mian<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s often viewed as the sole preserve of middle-class, middle-aged white men, but Amir Malik is opening up the fairways to a more diverse cast of players<\/p>\n

\"Portrait\"Portrait<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a warm summer morning in the Cambridgeshire cathedral city of Peterborough. As the country faces a rare extreme heat warning<\/a> and schools cut the day short due to rising classroom temperatures<\/a>, girls at Iqra Academy are outside making the most of the cooler morning air and taking turns putting balls across the grass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had to come to a public park today, just so that these girls can play on some green space,\u201d says Amir Malik, who is watching the group complete the final session of a month-long course that teaches the basics of golf.<\/p>\n

The Iqra Academy\u2019s programme is one of a growing number of initiatives organised by the Muslim Golf Association<\/a> (MGA). Malik, 42, founded the organisation in 2019 with the aim of making the sport more accessible, particularly for Muslim women and girls. Through school visits, community coaching sessions and partnerships with mosques, the MGA is challenging the perception that golf is the sole preserve of middle-aged and determinedly middle-class white men.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to figures published by England Golf<\/a>, women\u2019s participation in the sport is on an upward trend, with women and girls now accounting for around one in three new players in the UK<\/a>. Despite that progress, Muslim women remain far less visible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The MGA programme comes at a time when wider research has highlighted inequalities in access to sport for girls. A new report<\/a> commissioned by Sky and published by the consultancy group Public First has found that girls aged 11 to 18 play an average of 84 minutes less sport each week than boys of the same age. Even wider gaps in participation exist among girls from minority ethnic backgrounds and those who live in areas that lack sports facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The session I am attending is taking place in a park opposite the academy, across a busy road, because the school has no suitable green space of its own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is right next to a car dealership. You wouldn\u2019t think there\u2019s an Islamic school here and their facilities aren\u2019t the best in the world,\u201d says Malik. \u201cYou can only look across the road where there\u2019s a state school. They have so much space.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Malik, bringing golf to underrepresented communities is a personal mission. As a child, he had played football, cricket and other sports but never considered golf until his late 20s, when a former boss persuaded him to give it a try.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A\"AHareem Saeed in hijab holding a golf club and setting up a ball on a tee. Photography for Hyphen by Fatima Mian<\/p>\n

Everything changed the first time he struck a clean shot. \u201cI went out to my first ever golf course and hit a shot that came right out of the middle. I got a really tingly feeling. I fell in love with the game,\u201d says Malik.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After noticing how few Muslims were playing and how unwelcoming some clubs could feel, he founded the MGA in December 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start playing at club level, you realise that there is a lot of alcohol, a lot of gambling and, actually, a lot of covert racism,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you go to some golf clubs, you know immediately when you\u2019re not welcome, or when you are made to feel different. That didn\u2019t sit right with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Determined to find out whether there was any appetite for golf among British Muslims, Malik started by hosting a charity golf day at The Grove<\/a> course in Chandler\u2019s Cross, Hertfordshire. The event sold out all 72 places within 24 hours and brought together players from across the country.\u00a0 Now, the MGA runs school coaching programmes, women\u2019s taster sessions<\/a> and the Race to Makkah<\/a>, an international men\u2019s tournament spanning South Africa, the UK and the US, where players compete for a place in the final in Saudi Arabia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Malik estimates the MGA has introduced around 4,000 to 5,000 Muslims to golf, including more than 2,500 women, and worked with around 10 boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 schools around the country. At Iqra Academy, perceptions of golf are already changing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Mehr Amzan, 12, first tried the sport in primary school, she quickly wrote it off as something that wasn\u2019t for her. \u201cI just didn\u2019t get the hang of it,\u201d she says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t able to hit the ball properly at the beginning. I didn\u2019t think I had the ability to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says the school programme has given her confidence in her own ability. She even enjoys playing with her brothers now. But when asked if she knows any famous female Muslim golf players, she pauses, then answers \u201cno\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mehr\u2019s friend Maleeha Rehman, 12, explains. \u201cIf you only see people who aren\u2019t from your ethnicity, they\u2019re not the same colour as you, they don\u2019t wear the hijab, then in your mind, even when you\u2019re young, you think: \u2018This sport isn\u2019t for me. Nobody like me plays it.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you see more people doing it, then you feel like, \u2018OK, yeah, this is a really open sport, anybody can do it.\u2019 You just get this feeling that you can 100% do it and no one\u2019s going to judge you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A\"AA Muslim Golf Association coach helping a school girl in a hijab learn how to hold a club. Photography for Hyphen by Fatima Mian<\/p>\n

Much like Maleeha, Mehr admits she had initially dismissed golf as \u201can old people\u2019s sport\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised I was able to do it,\u201d she says. \u201cBefore, I thought it\u2019s boring, it\u2019s hard, it takes a lot of skill but it\u2019s mainly just more about the fun of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the girls pause for a water break before making their way back to school, coach Darren Game resets the makeshift course, rearranging the plastic golf clubs and balls for the next year group\u2019s session.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Game, 54, has been playing golf since the age of four and has spent the past 14 years coaching children. Living with no focal vision has shaped the way he approaches inclusivity in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would actually class myself as disabled, so I\u2019m very passionate in that I know golf is for all. I want to make sure that every child has the opportunity to share my passion for the game,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019re a human being like me. Why would I treat you any differently?\u201d<\/p>\n

During a previous visit to the local Burghley Park golf club, Game showed the girls the club\u2019s handwritten minute book from its first meeting more than 130 years ago after noticing similarities between the copperplate writing and Arabic calligraphy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He says he was \u201cblown away\u201d by the girls\u2019 interest in the old book: \u201cIt was almost the highlight of the day, just to see the connection. It shows how we need to get golf out into the communities. There\u2019s so many different ways of connecting with the youngsters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malik echoes Game\u2019s thoughts, adding that programmes such as those run by the MGA are about reaching young people before they\u2019re alienated from the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t wait for a Muslim celebrity or superstar to get there. What we can do is start putting golf clubs into young girls\u2019 and young boys\u2019 hands and saying, \u2018Go have a swing\u2019. Hopefully they\u2019ll get that tingly feeling that I did.\u201d<\/p>\n