Powfoot Golf Club steps up junior drive through the winter

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September 2009

The golf season might be winding down at clubs across the country but Powfoot Golf Club in Dumfriesshire is gearing up for the start of a junior coaching programme which will run through to next May.

Powfoot’s challenge, and it’s a nice one to have, is that its course is so popular with visitors through the summer that the locals often find it difficult to get a round.

But Powfoot, one of the runners up for this year’s Dunfermline Building Society Junior Club of the Year Awards, has found a unique way to ensure its juniors get the full attention they need to develop their skills.

“Our course is so busy with visitors – on one day last week we had 96 - over the summer so there is no way you can get on the course or even the driving range,” said Margaret Mannall, volunteer coach and Junior Development Committee member.

“We run the junior coaching on Saturday mornings between October and May. We’ve got 50 children getting started in October. That will be a new group of 30 junior Chippers and 20 children who are coming back for Level 2 coaching.”

Powfoot has made an enormous commitment to develop its junior section. Six years ago it was one of the first clubs to sign up to the national junior programme, clubgolf, a partnership between the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association, the Professional Golfers' Association, the Golf Foundation and sportscotland which emerged from Scotland’s successful bid to host the Ryder Cup.

Fifteen volunteer coaches run a coaching programme that gives juniors new opportunities to develop their talent, realise their potential and, for those that have high ambitions, support them in reaching local, district and international level. Adam Aitken, assistant Pro at Dumfries and County Golf Club coaches the more advanced players.

“We are getting more children coming for coaching each year and as the members become aware of what we are doing, the further the word spreads and the more it grows,” said Margaret.

“We’ll be working with them to get them up and running over the summer so after May they can get a nine hole handicap and play competitions amongst themselves.”

The figures are impressive but on the tip of the iceberg. A further 64 boys and seven girls are junior members with handicaps that play regularly.

“The Club has not had a Scottish internationalist so that would be our ultimate aim,” said Margaret.

“In the meantime the standards are improving and this year our juniors lifted quite a few trophies. A couple of our boys played in the Scottish events, one of our girls is in the Scottish girls’ squad and another has reached the Wee Wonders World final in Pinehurst, USA, next August.”

With an expanding junior section, a new Family membership proposed which will make junior golf even more affordable and the refurbishment of the clubhouse planned, the Club’s coaches feel they will have an even stronger case when they enter the Junior Club of the Year award next year.

The proof that their junior drive is working is the number of juniors now playing.

“Six years ago we had around 60 junior members but the turnout was poor and you’d be lucky if you got six juniors to play in a medal,” said Margaret. “Now we regularly get between 30 and 35 out in a competition.

“This has been the result of a number of the Club’s older members encouraging and coaching the younger ones. We realise that these juniors will be the body of the Club in 10 to 15 years time and we have reached a point where the Club has a secure future because of the numbers of juniors we have playing.”