Staff WriterEngland Golf has brought in a man built like a cathedral door and, more importantly, one who seems determined to keep it open for everybody else. Jamie Bigg, better known to millions as Giant from the BBC’s Gladiators, has joined the governing body’s Game Changers programme in a move that feels less like a celebrity garnish and more like a proper nudge toward a broader, more welcoming game.
That matters, because golf has spent long enough fighting old myths in old clothes. Too stuffy. Too expensive. Too exclusive. England Golf is clearly trying to drag those ideas into the rough and leave them there, and Bigg arrives with the sort of presence that can make people look twice and listen once.
He joins a growing list of familiar faces already involved in the initiative, including Dame Denise Lewis, Jay Bothroyd, Carly Telford and junior trick-shot talent Leo Boniface. It is an eclectic mix, which is precisely the point. The future of grassroots golf is not supposed to look like one thing, sound like one thing, or come from one lane.
A different kind of standard-bearer
Bigg is best known for being a towering figure on television, but the more interesting part of this appointment lies away from the camera. England Golf is not just borrowing a famous face. It is aligning itself with someone who speaks naturally about confidence, community, youth engagement and mental wellbeing without sounding as though he has swallowed a media guide.
That makes him a neat fit for Game Changers, a programme designed to amplify youth voice and support inclusive golf initiatives across the country. In simple terms, England Golf wants more people to see the sport as theirs. Not someday. Now.
Bigg said: “I’m absolutely buzzing to join England Golf as a Game Changer. Golf is an incredible sport for building confidence, resilience, and friendships, and I want more young people to feel that it’s a place for them and to pick up a club for the first time.
“I love golf because it’s accessible, and that’s why I’m here, to prove it’s accessible and fun. It gets you out in the open, gets you out with your friends. For me, the best thing is I’m always on my phone for work. The phone’s become a creature of people’s habit and lifestyle, so when I’m playing golf, the phone goes in the bag for four hours. That ability to just switch off and enjoy yourself and concentrate on a game for several hours out in the open is why I love it.”
There is something refreshingly plainspoken in that. No jargon. No scented brochure language. Just the very modern appeal of putting the phone away, breathing proper air and doing something social that does not involve staring into a glowing rectangle.
Why this matters for grassroots golf
For all the hand-wringing about participation numbers, the reality is often simpler than the debate. People try golf when they can see themselves in it. That is where a figure like Bigg becomes useful to England Golf.
He does not fit the tired stereotype. He looks like he could lift the clubhouse and relocate it. Yet he talks about accessibility, friends, family and mental health with the ease of someone who genuinely believes sport should improve lives rather than just fill diaries.
With his role as a Game Changer, he added: “What excites me the most is getting more people involved in golf and expressing that you don’t need to be amazing at golf to do it. It’s accessible to everyone – women, men, children. I’m a massive advocate for mental health and being out there in the open, doing something active and socialising with friends – it’s great because now I can promote the mental health side, and get people fit and healthy at the same time, and do it from a really young level.
“We can promote that in kids but also in families doing it together. I’ve been to a driving range many times with my family, with my kids, with my friends, and it’s just a great way to get off the tablets and phones and do something really fun.”
That is the broader play here. Not simply getting juniors through the gate, but making golf look like something families can do together, something communities can rally around, and something that serves wellbeing as much as competition.
England Golf and the wider inclusion push
The appointment also sits neatly within the governing body’s Respect in Golf movement, which is aimed at improving accessibility and inclusivity while making it crystal clear that discrimination has no place in the sport.
That is more than a slogan. At its best, it is a recognition that golf’s future depends not only on how courses are maintained or competitions are staged, but on how welcome people feel when they arrive. The game has always been excellent at explaining its rules. It has not always been as good at explaining that everyone is invited.
England Golf appears to understand that modern relevance is not earned through tradition alone. You need different voices, different advocates and different entry points into the sport. A celebrity tie-in can sometimes feel hollow. This one does not. It is rooted in the same things club golfers, driving-range regulars and first-timers already know: fresh air helps, laughter helps, company helps, and hitting one decent shot can keep a person coming back for years.
A little humour does not hurt either
Bigg also seems to understand another truth about golf: the game has a savage sense of humour and delights in humbling the physically gifted.
Asked whether golf and bodybuilding have any parallels, he revealed: “Probably none or very few! Golf requires flexibility and mobility. Because I’m big, people think I’m going to smash it miles, and I don’t because the mobility is not there to generate the power. The only benefit from bodybuilding is that if the golf buggy’s battery dies, you can put it on your shoulder and carry everyone in it!”
That, frankly, is the sort of line golf could use more often. Self-awareness travels well in this sport. So does honesty. The old assumption that brute strength equals effortless distance has sent many a hopeful soul into the trees, the bunker, or a minor existential wobble. Bigg’s willingness to laugh at that makes him more relatable, not less.
What happens next
The real test for England Golf will not be the announcement itself, but the follow-through. If Game Changers is to mean anything, it has to show up where young people are, where families gather, and where newcomers first encounter the game, whether that is a municipal course, a driving range, a school project or a beginner session run by a local club.
Still, this is a sharp move. England Golf has not chosen someone to simply stand beside the game. It has chosen someone capable of changing how the game is seen.
And for a sport still trying to convince the unconvinced that it can be open, healthy, social and fun, that may be the biggest win of all.
