Georgia chips in to help

TASMANIAN golf star Georgia Milbourne is helping to drive a group of Special Olympians to take on a new challenge and embrace her sport.

Milbourne has coached the group every week for the past six weeks at Kingston Beach Golf Club.

Despite her relatively young age, 19-year-old Milbourne has plenty of knowledge to pass on.

She was the state’s leading player at the recent Tasmanian Open, finishing fourth after having six months away from the game to recharge her batteries.

Milbourne has only previously coached school groups, and said leading the group was both challenging and rewarding.

“The change you see from them and their confidence and knowledge about what they’re doing from when they started to now is quite incredible,” Milbourne said.

“To be able to introduce them to golf and be able to help them play — whether they’re in a wheelchair or not — has been really rewarding.”

She said there were a range of abilities within the group, but the program was ultimately about participants having a go.

“It think it’s an outlet for them. It’s something they can go and enjoy, and kind of be a bit more independent in a way,” she said.

“They get to stand up there and hit the ball themselves and see where it goes, whereas a lot of the stuff they do, they’ll have a lot of help.”

The program is having a break over Christmas, but will resume next month.