Scottish Golf has received close to £20,000 of support from The R&A to provide all weather putting surfaces including installing new outdoor greens in the north and south of the country to enhance its Academy coaching programme.
Based at eight different facilities around Scotland – Tower Wood (Dumfries), Mearns Castle (Renfrew), Brucefields (Stirling), Braid Hills (Edinburgh), St Andrews, Oldmeldrum (Aberdeen), Nairn Dunbar and Tain – chosen with the intention of minimising the amount of travel the selected players must undertake to attend coaching sessions, the SGU and SLGA Academies support around 80 players with each receiving 100 hours of coaching support per annum.
With the majority of coaching taking place over winter months a lack of quality putting surfaces during the winter had been identified as a major issue.
Consequently Scottish Golf has agreed, with full funding from The R&A, to enhance existing facilities, each of which has been individually assessed in close consultation with Scottish Golf’s preferred supplier Huxley Golf.
The facilities will not only be available for Academy and clubgolf programmes but also for any SGU or SLGA national squad member who requires access at no cost, as well as providing local golfers with facilities they would not otherwise have access to.
The SGU approached The R&A for funding to back the project which is costing a total of £19,430 and were delighted to be given their support for the full amount.
Director of Golf Development at The R&A, Duncan Weir commented, “Using money generated by The Open Championship, The R&A is delighted to support this new initiative which will benefit golfers all over Scotland. Twenty years ago it would have been fair to say practice facilities here in Scotland were generally poor but this situation has changed dramatically in recent times which must augur well for the future of our game.”
Scottish Golf Union www.scottishgolf.org