Golf Initiative Hits the Target

An initiative in the Highlands to promote golf is proving a big hit with young people.

Since the launch of the Highland Junior Golf Strategy three years, 5,650 Primary 4/5/6/7 pupils have been given an introduction to golf by teachers, Active School Co-ordinators and volunteer coaches at 32 participating golf courses.

This has ensured Highland is on target to meet the First Minister’s target of delivering introductory golf to all Primary 5 pupils by 2009.

Ensuring that pupils introduced to golf have the opportunity to develop their interest in club-based coaching programmes is vital to the strategy and 564 juniors have participated in the Stage 1 Clubgolf coaching course across 32 participating golf clubs in the Highlands. It has also seen the number of girls participating in this course increase from 19% in 2003 to 28% this year.

A total of 16 players who are showing particular prowess in the game have been selected to participate in Stage 3 coaching at Inverness and Nairn Dunbar Golf Clubs while 12 juniors have been selected for Stage 4 coaching at Nairn Dunbar and Royal Dornoch Golf Clubs.

Three juniors have been accepted into the Highland Institute of Sport programme and Kelsey MacDonald, Nairn, has represented Scotland as a junior.

Willie Mackay, Highland Junior Golf Manager, was praised at The Highland Council’s Education Culture and Sport Committee, for the progress being made in encouraging young people to experience golf.

He said: “Not only does this initiative help some really good golfers realise their full potential,  it will help produce more adult members for golf clubs in the future.. With the Ryder Cup coming to Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2014, it gives the Clubgolf juniors an extra incentive to aim for a Ryder Cup ranking place in the team.”

He said he had been delighted with the support given to the initiative in schools and golf clubs, several of whom had improved practice facilities for young golfers.

He also reported that to mark Highland 2007, the year that Scotland celebrates Highland culture, a pan-Highland junior golf competition, with area and Highland-wide finals, will be launched in March next year, involving 30 golf clubs and an estimated 600 juniors.