Carradale's new coaching team at this weekend's PGA Level 1 course

Every South Kintyre golf club ready to deliver junior coaching

Opportunities for children in South Kintyre to learn golf have never been better after seven of the area’s golf club members qualified to become clubgolf volunteer coaches this weekend.

Until now three of South Kintyre’s four golf clubs – Machrihanish, Dunaverty and Gigha – had supported the national junior golf strategy clubgolf, which emerged out of Scotland’s successful bid to host the Ryder Cup and is a partnership between the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association, the Professional Golfers' Association, the Golf Foundation and sportscotland. 

The fourth club, Carradale, signalled its commitment to local juniors by sending no less than seven members on clubgolf’s PGA Level 1 course.  This doubles the number of clubgolf volunteer coaches in South Kintyre.

“We are fortunate to have four clubs, all with excellent courses, and they have been great at coming forward to encourage children through clubgolf,” said South Kintyre’s Active Schools Co-ordinator, Lindsay Owen.

“Members of Carradale were aware that there were few juniors coming through and they recognised the need to work on that.  It’s a fantastic response for them to put forward seven volunteers to become coaches.

“This means Carradale will now have plenty of coaches to work on a rotation basis bringing forward some more juniors from the school.” 

In line with clubgolf’s aim of creating the opportunity for every nine-year-old child in Scotland to experience the game, over 26,000 children in Scotland were introduced to golf in 2007 through clubgolf’s introductory game, firstclubgolf.  It uses modified equipment to give children an exciting introduction in school.

“We are rolling out clubgolf’s introductory game in the majority of primary schools to pupils in Primary 5 and composite class, with an Easter holiday programme that will include golf,” said Lindsay, who coaches this level of the programme.

Following the six-week firstclubgolf course, children have the opportunity to progress to the second phase of clubgolf's Player Pathway, Stage 1.  The seven new Carradale Golf Club coaches have been trained to deliver this phase - involving 40 hours of coaching delivered over two years, and covers the fundamentals of putting, chipping, full swing, rules and etiquette.

All four clubs will deliver clubgolf Stage 1 this summer.