New junior drive at Inverness

In a two-pronged effort to encourage its juniors to play more golf and generate handicaps, Inverness Golf Club has taken giant steps forward this season by installing junior tees on all 18 holes and training two of its members to deliver clubgolf coaching.

On first impressions Inverness Golf Club is brimming with junior interest. Inverness has 130 on its junior membership and 100 more on its waiting list. Yet from this total only 40 have handicaps and there are just 18 girls amongst them. These are statics the Club and its volunteer coaches are determined to change.

“I was going to competitions with my son, who is a junior member, and seeing and hearing what other clubs were doing with their junior coaching and I realised we were missing out,” said David Connell, newly appointed Junior Convenor and PGA Level 1 coach. “Many of the Clubs had PGA Level 1 coaches providing tuition for beginners and a golf course with junior tees.”

“Once I was appointed junior convenor I asked if we could start junior coaching and improve the facilities and I got the full backing from the Club.”

The Club’s new junior drive comes at a time when opportunities for children to play the game in Scotland have never been better. Through the innovative national junior golf programme, clubgolf, Scottish golf clubs are being challenged to adopt a junior coaching culture.

Emerging from Scotland’s successful bid to host the Ryder Cup, clubgolf is a partnership between the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association, the Professional Golfers' Association, the Golf Foundation and sportscotland, which aims to introduce every nine-year-old child in Scotland to golf.

Mr Connell and fellow Club member, Iain Ross, became qualified coaches this year through clubgolf’s PGA Level 1 coaching course. Now they are preparing to deliver clubgolf Stage 1, a 40 hour course covering the fundamentals of putting, chipping, full swing, rules and etiquette, to the Club’s non handicapped children.

“This is the first time we’ve done junior coaching separate from what the Club Pros have done at the start of the season,” said Mr Connell. “We’re planning to continue this current coaching on a Friday night from July until September, depending on the light.”

In a further move to encourage children and their families to play, the Club has created forward junior tees on all 18 holes.

“We felt the course was too tough for the junior beginners so the new tees will give them a platform for them to get started and build up their confidence,” said Club Secretary, Ewan Forbes.

“The juniors now have a range of holes between 65 and 220 yards and we’ve developed a separate score card for the junior holes with the par the same as the full course.

“It means that parents can now play a round with their children and it’s far more enjoyable than what they had before. The children without handicaps and their parents have said it’s a great idea.”

In adopting the clubgolf programme, Inverness joins the 220 plus clubs in Scotland and the growing band of 1200 qualified volunteer coaches working with children in clubgolf coaching programmes.

“We have a bit of work to do to get the other juniors handicaps,” said Mr Connell. “We are trying to encourage more boys and girls to enter more competitions and get their handicaps, so they can go out and represent the Club.
“Already we have more juniors playing and last month we had one of our biggest junior entry into the monthly medal.

“This is the first season and it’s not a quick fix but if we keep this going then we will get the children progressing and over the next few years I am sure we will see the benefits.”

Said Willie MacKay, clubgolf’s Highland Regional Manager: “Having Inverness Golf Club now delivering clubgolf coaching is brilliant as there is a high demand for junior membership in the City. The introduction of the new forward junior tees has gone very smoothly and now Inverness Golf Club have a player development pathway that allows children to start as a beginner and develop their potential all the way to being an elite player.”