Liberton aims to stay on
crest of a wave

May 2010

Edinburgh’s Liberton Golf Club is, in the words of its Junior Convenor ‘on the crest’ of the wave of good junior performances.

Its elite boys’ team hold the rare double of Edinburgh Junior Summer League and South East Edinburgh Winter League titles. One of the team, Anthony Blaney, finished joint second in this month’s SGU Junior Tour event and has recently represented Scotland U-16s. It has healthy junior numbers in the 50s yet the club is not resting on its laurels and expecting the good times to roll for ever

“At the moment we are in a good place with established juniors but like all junior sections you have peaks and troughs,” said Robert Ross, the junior convenor who had held the post back in 2001, starting some of the current crop of top junior performers, and has taken on the post again to renew the junior drive.

“We are on the crest but we need to guard against complacency to avoid being in the trough in a couple of years time.”

This month the club is offering clubgolf coaching for the first time, widening its net to include the whole community. Twelve children signed up for the Stage 1 course, nine of them are from local schools which have been delivering clubgolf’s introductory game, through Active Schools Co-ordinator, Ellie Forgan.

“Ellie has been a great help because she made children and parents aware that we would be running the coaching,” said Robert. “Twelve is the maximum number we can take at the moment but we were pleased with the response and delighted to get three girls. There’s a real dearth of girl members in clubs; we only have three, two are in their final year and one wee girl doesn’t really play.”

At the moment two Liberton members , Robert one of them, are qualified clubgolf volunteer coaches. A further two were due to be trained to coach last weekend by the PGA. A number of members have also stepped forward as helpers. And the club’s Pro Iain Seath is backing the project.

“We are all happy to learn this year with the plan of expanding the coaching as we go along,” said Robert. “The vision is to have six coaches in place, so we can run classes, first and second year groups, each with three coaches.

“We have agreed with Iain that we will take the kids through Stage 1 coaching so when we offer them to him they will have a sound grasp of the basics. We have also agreed that if we discover any kids we think have the talent and could be fast tracked we will give him the chance to look at them.”

The club has found a way to remove the only fly in the ointment, its limited practice facilities, by teaming up with nearby Liberton High School to use its sports hall for long game lessons.

“The club has a chipping and putting area, and a couple of nets, but we have nowhere to hit full shots,” said Robert. “We are grateful to the janitor, Walter Thomson, for letting us use it and the kids like it.

“sportscotland has lent us an indoor practice net so it’s a good coaching base. The other advantage is that we will never have to cancel a class for weather.”

Most importantly the whole club is backing the initiative.

“Golf has always been seen as an elitist sport but we are trying to break down the barriers so that kids from all walks of life can get the opportunity to play,” said Robert.

“If we get a few members out of this then that’s a bonus but first and foremost we are hoping that local children will enjoy it and discover a new interest. Our mantra is to give the kids a chance.”

Said Laura Rushby, clubgolf’s East of Scotland Regional Manager: “When I first met the club they thought that they couldn't work with clubgolf because they have limited practice facilities at the golf club and so wouldn't be able to do clubgolf coaching.

“But there are always solutions to any facilities challenge. With the club and the high school so close to each other it was a perfect solution for the two to work in partnership so that the full clubgolf coaching programme could be delivered.

“This is just the first year but in time this will be a great opportunity for the golf club and high school to use both facilities to develop clubgolf coaching and a pathway for both the primary and high school children in the community to learn, play and enjoy golf.”