Player Improvement

Seniors Tour Players Deliver Successful Coaching Clinic

At the recent Scottish Senior Open at the Fairmont St Andrews, 8 of the tournament’s players kindly took time out of their busy schedule to deliver a coaching clinic to local junior golfers.

Youngsters associated with clubgolf at Scotscraig Golf Club and St Andrews Links Junior Golf Association were treated to tuition from the players on the driving range at the tournament.

Notable names of the professionals delivering the coaching included Scottish players John Chillas and Bill Longmuir, however the most popular person by far was Victor Garcia father and coach to European Ryder Cup star Sergio Garcia. The junior golfers were treated to both a full swing and short game coaching followed by a tour of the state of the art Players Equipment Support Truck.

Craig Mackie, PGA Professional at Scotscraig Golf Club commented “This has been a great experience for our clubs juniors as they have been given quality instruction from players who have a wealth of experience playing high pressure golf and they have been given access to areas of the tournament, which are usually strictly for the players only. We would like to thank the European Seniors tour and the players for making this opportunity possible.”

Local youngsters enjoy day out at Gleneagles

Over 300 youngsters attended the clubgolf coaching area at Gleneagles host for the 2014 Ryder cup during the Johnnie Walker Championship. Participating school and club groups from the region were treated to free coaching from PGA Professional coaches funded by the European Tour, which included putting, bunker and full swing sessions.

In addition to attending the event for coaching, the groups also thoroughly enjoyed, watching some of Europe’s best golfers in action. A few of the kids were fortunate enough to obtain golf balls and gloves from the players as momentums of their day out.

From a development standpoint it was pleasing to find out that the majority of the schools had come the event as a result of doing firstclubgolf during the curriculum and that the groups attending from clubs involved in clubgolf had recruited their juniors from school showing the player development pathway is working.

Picture shows a school pupil being given some coaching from King James VI Professional Alan Knox.

clubgolf grows significantly within the region in 2008.

2008 saw clubgolf make massive gains in introducing the regions young people to the sport within both school and clubs. The schools programme firstclubgolf was delivered to a total of 3906 Primary 5 children across the regions four local authorities. This was a massive leap on the previous year’s delivery to 670 Primary 5 pupils. The 483% increase in schools participation in down to each local authority growing firstclubgolf. A particular mention should be made to Dundee City Council who delivered to every Primary child making them one of only five local authorities to achieve full roll out of firstclubgolf.

The growth of clubgolf was also evident within the setting of golf clubs. The number of young people now accessing structured coaching through the coaching pathway has now risen from 561 to 800. The most significant statistic has been the number of new clubs and facilities now delivering coaching through clubgolf. There are now 29 clubs and facilities in the region where children can access clubgolf coaching as apposed to the 13 venues the previous year. This has greatly enhanced the links between schools and clubs within the region. The plan for the current year is to build on the growth of clubgolf in schools and clubs to ensure even more children in the region are able to experience the golf. Many thanks go to everyone involved in making clubgolf such a success in 2008.

	2008	2007	Percentage change
firstclubgolf	3906	670	+483%
clubgolf stage 1	633		+72%
clubgolf stage 2	135		N/A due to pathway change
clubgolf stage 3	32		N/A due to pathway change
Clubs and facilities	29	13	+123%
Active Coaches	118	100	+18%