Royal approval for Tain Golf Club

Excitement was high at Tain Golf Club this week HRH The Earl of Wessex stopped of at the club on a day long visit to Milton, Tain and Balintore in Easter Ross.

The Prince was given a rousing welcome by young piper Calum Ross from Tain Royal Academy. President Mr Forbie Urquhart escorted the royal party into the clubhouse for a buffet lunch with invited guests including the Convener of The Highland Council, Councillor Sandy Park, officials from the golf club, and the newly appointed Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Director for Scotland, Barry Fisher who was congratulated on his recent appointment. Also present were local Duke of Edinburgh Award Officer Liz Whiteford and Development Officer Isobel Gray who have both been involved with the Award in Ross and Cromarty for 15 and 9 years respectively.

Prince Edward was escorted outside by clubgolf’s Highland Regional Manager, Willie MacKay and Tain Golf Club’s Head Coach, Mike Sangster to watch young golfers taking part in a variety of Clubgolf activities.

Emerging out of Scotland’s successful bid to host the Ryder Cup, the national junior golf programme, clubgolf, is a partnership between the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association, the Professional Golfers' Association, the Golf Foundation and sportscotland.

Willie MacKay said: “Tain Golf Club was one of the first clubs to sign up to clubgolf and to host a Stage 1 programme back in 2004 and has built up a very strong junior section. Juniors that started as primary pupils are now knocking on the doors of area and regional squads and last year Sammy Vass gained her Scottish Cap after getting selected to play for Scotland.

“The golf clubs commitment to the programme and the numbers of children they have introduced to golf is quite remarkable so it was very fitting for the club to host the royal visit.”

Mike Sangster is one of only six PGA Level 2 coaches in the UK. Along with four other Level 1 coaches at Tain he introduces the juniors who progress from the primary school game of firstclubgolf to Stage 1 coaching.

Said Mike: “Now that Tain Golf Club has appointed a full-time PGA Professional in Stuart Morrison, who is also a Scottish Golf Unions Academy Regional Coach, the player development pathway for juniors is complete from beginner all the way through to elite player.”

As Mike explained about clubgolf’s success to the guests, HRH watched a demonstration by primary pupils playing with firstclubgolf equipment.

The Prince then went on to meet more young budding golfers who demonstrated putting and chipping from the clubgolf stage 1 coaching programme before watching the stage 2 coaching sessions taking place from the new artificial mats and the newly installed triple bay practice nets. Stuart Morrison also showed how video analysis and computer software can be used to “fine-tune” swing techniques.

Tain juniors have their own two hole mini course that they progress to from the junior practice area where under adult supervision they learn how to play the game safely. Once they can go round the 2 holes twice within a score of 21 they can progress on the specially made nine junior tees on the 18 holes course where they play 1,2,3,4,5 and 15,16,17,18 for a 9 hole score. The bronze, silver , gold sections within the juniors is working well as the juniors gain promotion by virtue of their scores, their behaviour and their commitment to coaching nights.

As well as young golfers, HRH the Earl of Wessex chatted with several Intermediate Ladies Members who were introduced to the sport when dropping their children off for clubgolf coaching.

They had originally enquired about getting some lessons so they could join their children and play a few holes on the junior tees. This has grown beyond everyone’s expectations with now over 40 “ladies intermediate members” who pay half the full fee but only play half the full golf course.

This demonstrates that Tain Golf Club is growing the game of golf both as part of the national junior programme called clubgolf but are also now growing the game of adult golf as well.