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Tain Golf Club‘s Mike Sangster,
winner of the MFR Contribution to Sport
Award
Tain volunteer
wins Contribution to Sport Award
Tain Golf Club‘s volunteer coach,
Mike Sangster, a driving force behind the club’s junior
programme, was honoured for his efforts in helping make golf
accessible to every child in Tain by winning the MFR Contribution
to Sport Award.
Three years ago Mike was one of the
first of Highland’s
100 plus recruits to step forward for the national junior golf
strategy, clubgolf’s
PGA Level 1 Volunteers Course.
He has since devoted every summer weekday
evening and Saturday morning to helping transform to area’s
children into accomplished golfers. Around 100 children
flock to his clubgolf Level 1 course each week. In
the process he has become one of a select handful of golfers
in the UK to earn clubgolf‘s Level 2 coaching qualification.
“I get a lot out of the coaching
and it was a very nice surprise to win this award,” said
Mike, a previous winner of Ross-Shire Sports Personality
Coach of the Year. “Being recognised like this
makes the coaching I do even more worthwhile.”
Not content with just coaching children, Mike
saw a further opportunity last year to begin coaching the children’s
non-golfing mothers. His
Ladies coaching group has since grown to 40.
“I never thought it would take off in
this way,” admitted
Mike. “These ladies have gone mad for golf and
from a group of complete beginners we have already got seven
full members from it.”
With such high numbers of newcomers attending
the Club, Mike is being supported by two of his own protégés,
Michael Brand and Craig Smith, who recently became clubgolf’s
PGA Level 1 Volunteer Coaches. A
further club member is also hoping to qualify this summer. The
club has recognized the need to expand its facilities and has
begun extending its practice area and creating a new green
with bunkers and a second practice putting green - due to open
in June.
Said Willie MacKay, clubgolf’s Highland
Regional Golf Manager, "Mike is to be commended for his
outstanding work in making Tain one of the most successful
clubs in Scotland at delivering clubgolf. I
am thrilled that he has been recognized by this earning this
award.
“Mike has introduced hundreds
of children to golf and since starting to deliver the Stage
2 Development clubgolf coaching syllabus at Tain Golf Club,
he has built up a group of 25 boys and girls which is an outstanding
commitment. Several
of these juniors have made savage cuts to their handicaps since
joining the Level 2 coaching structure.
“The structure that Mike has put
in place with youngsters progressing from the clubgolf tees
onto the junior tees and then lowering their handicap to 16
so they can enter adult competitions, provides them with a
progressive challenge.
“We are looking forward to the opening
of the Club’s
Phase 2 junior facility in June, a project which would not
have been possible without Mike's expertise
and the support he gets from the Captain and his committee."
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