Golf Academy with Tommy Fleetwood Academy
New year-round programme brings TFA’s professional golf coaching, performance analysis, on-course experience and competition into the school environment for students aged 3–18
Dubai, UAE – GEMS School of Research & Innovation (SRI) has launched a specialist Golf Academy, in partnership with Tommy Fleetwood Academy (TFA), giving students aged 3–18 the opportunity to develop as golfers within the school environment, from discovering the sport and building core skills through to performance and competition.
The year-round programme, available across Pre-Prep, Prep and Senior School, brings TFA’s coaching expertise into SRI through professional golf coaches, simulator-based performance analysis, selected on-course playing opportunities and competitive experiences. Students will follow a development approach shaped around their age, ability, aspirations and performance, with opportunities to progress at their own pace.
The SRI Golf Academy will use CERO, TrackMan and Swing Catalyst as part of its performance technology environment, enabling simulator-based coaching and analysis and giving students and coaches data to inform training and player development.
Beyond golf technique, the programme is designed to support the wider development that comes with pursuing a sport seriously. Students can access strength and conditioning, mental performance and wellbeing support, media and communication training, leadership experiences and opportunities to compete through internal and external competitions.
Jay Varkey, Deputy CEO of GEMS Education, said: “Education should create room for a young person’s ambitions to become real, not simply ask them to fit those ambitions around school. For SRI, our goal is straightforward: to create an environment in which students can discover what they are capable of, develop that ability with the right expertise and, where they choose, take it into competitive settings.
The Golf Academy is a clear expression of that ambition. We’re incredibly excited to see how the Academy unfolds over the course of the year, how our students respond to the opportunities in front of them and, most importantly, where their own ambition and potential can take them.”
Tommy Fleetwood, TFA founder and one of the world’s leading golfers, said: “The reason we created TFA was to give young people the opportunity to experience golf in the right way. Whether a child picks up a golf club for the first time and simply finds a game they love, or whether they have the talent and ambition to take it much further, we want there to be a pathway for them.
What makes this partnership with GEMS SRI particularly exciting is the opportunity to bring that philosophy into the school environment. Golf doesn’t have to be something that children fit around their education; it can become part of their development. With the coaching, technology and facilities available at SRI, we can introduce more children to the game while also providing a genuine pathway for those who want to see how far they can go.”
Joshua Levenson, Director of Futures at GEMS SRI, added: “Sport is central to SRI’s vision of ‘Future-ready Education, Today’, and we are seeing that ambition take shape through specialist pathways such as our Motorsport Academy and now the Golf Academy.
The Golf Academy brings together professional coaching, technology, real playing experience and opportunities to compete, giving students the space within our schools to develop at their own pace. For a student who wants to pursue golf seriously, that creates a meaningful pathway to develop their ability while gaining the discipline, confidence and broader experiences that come from pursuing something they care deeply about.”
The programme also extends beyond technical instruction. It offers students opportunities to train, analyse, play and compete throughout the academic year, with development supported through performance groups, golf squads, co-curricular opportunities, selected trailblazer experiences and optional one-to-one tuition.
The Golf Academy also follows the launch of SRI’s specialist Motorsport Academy, reflecting the school’s ambition to create opportunities for students to pursue areas of sporting interest within an educational setting. The school’s specialist sporting environment includes an Olympic-size swimming pool, FIFA-standard football pitch, NBA-spec basketball court and 400m Olympic track. Together with expert coaching, these environments are designed to support both elite sporting pathways and lifelong participation, while developing physical literacy, confidence and wellbeing.
ENDS
About GEMS Education
GEMS Education is one of the world’s leading, oldest and largest private K-12 education providers, with a legacy spanning more than 65 years. Founded in the UAE with roots dating back to 1959, and beginning with a single school in a private home in Dubai in 1968, GEMS remains a family-founded and family-led organisation, guided by its visionary Founder and Chairman, Sunny Varkey, and his sons Dino Varkey, Group Chief Executive Officer, and Jay Varkey, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer.
Today, GEMS educates more than 200,000 students from over 176 nationalities through its global network of owned and managed schools, supported by more than 17,700 employees, including over 10,000 educators and school leaders representing 112 nationalities. Having educated more than 500,000 students over the decades, GEMS continues to provide world-class education through four curricula, preparing young people with the knowledge, character and confidence to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
Guided by its enduring mission to put a quality education within the reach of every learner, everywhere, GEMS combines academic rigour with character development, wellbeing, innovation and strong partnerships with families and communities. Its graduates progress to the world’s leading universities, with students accepted into more than 2,000 universities across 71 countries over the past five years, including all eight Ivy League universities in the US and all 24 Russell Group universities and colleges in the UK. In the last four years alone, more than 3,500 GEMS graduates have attended the world’s top 100 universities, over 2,200 have progressed to Russell Group universities, almost 2,000 have enrolled at the world’s top 50 universities, and more than 60 have gone on to Ivy League institutions.
Through its expanding network and philanthropic initiatives, GEMS continues to create opportunities for young people to become leaders, innovators and positive changemakers in their communities and beyond.
About TFA
TFA is a business fully owned and managed by the Fleetwood family.
Now with 5 locations, and continuing to grow globally. The first location was established in 2019 in the UK at Tommy’s birthplace of Stockport-Formby Hall Golf Club, where Tommy’s love of golf began.
Following with his second in Dubai UAE at Jumeirah Golf Estates where the Fleetwoods also have a family home.
They work with world-class facilities and partners to create academies around the world, based on their strong foundations and capabilities. The focus is not so much about the facility itself and its assets but the people they populate their Academies with and the Fleetwood golf philosophy they deliver.