Children and coaches at Shetland Golf Club's Junior Golf Day

Junior golf vibrant in Shetland

clubgolf has only been operating in the Shetland Islands since last year but already the results are startling.

So great are the numbers of new juniors flocking to the Islands’ courses that Shetland Golf Club’s Junior Open, sponsored by BP Sullom Voe Terminal, incorporated its first ever Junior Golf Day this summer.

“The attendance of 44 kids marks a huge improvement on previous attendances of eight at our last two junior opens,” said the Club’s delighted Junior Convenor, Alan Harcus.

“This is solely down to the success of the clubgolf coaching sessions we have been running for over a year now.  Since its introduction at the beginning of 2006 we have trebled our number of junior members.  Almost   70 of them hadn’t realised they could play golf or had never had the opportunity. The golfing families have taken their friends along so a lot has sprung from that.”

Shetland Golf Club now has over 100 junior members.  At least 40 attend Saturday coaching sessions irrespective of the weather.  Whalsay Golf Club’s junior coaching is equally vibrant, with around 30 youngsters attending Monday evening coaching sessions.  Eight volunteer coaches are active at Whalsay and a further 10 operate at Shetland GC.

“Everybody is so enthusiastic, we want to get as many young people into the game as possible and there’s no problem getting volunteer coaches,” said Mr Harcus.

“We couldn't believe the response we had the first year with around 30 regular juniors attending Saturday morning sessions. We weren't sure whether they would come back for the second year but they did and also brought along their friends.

“The introduction of clubgolf in Shetland has got young kids interested in golf with its simple but organised approach.  The perception of golf as an old person’s sport, I think, has almost disappeared thanks to clubgolf.

“The junior section now makes up around a quarter of the membership at Shetland Golf Club and as coaches we enjoy a great sense of achievement as we see improvements on a weekly basis.  Parents and golf club members alike are delighted to see the future of golf and sport in Shetland in good hands.”

Willie MacKay, clubgolf Regional Manager for Highland & Islands said, “Shetland Active Schools Manager, Philip Ashley Smith and his team of Active Schools Co-ordinators rolled out the introductory golf game, firstclubgolf to over 180 Shetland primary pupils in the summer term. 

“This gives children from non golfing families the opportunity to experience a ‘fun type golf game’ in a school setting and with strong links between schools and the Golf Club the transition in to learning the basic skills with trained PGA level 1 coaches has proved very successful.  Shetland already have 18 fully qualified PGA Level 1 coaches but with such a large uptake for junior golf a further training course is planned to train more coaches in September.”