Polkemmet drive keeps golf on track through the winter

The coldest week of the winter might have kept many indoors but the ice and snow did not deter 13 budding young West Lothian golfers from turning up for a new golf coaching course which started at Polkemmet Golf Club this month.

The Club, in Polkemmet Country Park (Whitburn), run by West Lothian Council's Countryside Section, is one of the most recent to join forces with clubgolf, the 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.

One of its regulars, Macrina Crawford became a qualified coach, enabling the Club to offer a clubgolf Stage 1 programme, a 40 hour course covering the fundamentals of putting, chipping, full swing, rules and etiquette, over the next two years.

The difference between Polkemmet and the 200-plus clubs across Scotland delivering the programme is that the West Lothian club is offering the coaching year round.

“clubgolf said there were quite a few schools in West Lothian with children who have played the introductory game but there weren’t facilities to take the coaching further over the winter,” said Stuart Mungall, Polkemmet Country Park’s Service Co-ordinator.

“We have the ideal set up here for kids yet we don’t have the amount of juniors playing that we’d like. We have a driving range and putting green which is floodlit, plus a 9-hole course which we plan to use over the Christmas period for a game with the children.

“We decided to start a clubgolf Stage 1 coaching course with the intention of having just one session but we became inundated with juniors wanting to start so we decided to run back to back sessions on a Thursday evening.

“We have two groups, with the 13 children, and we already have a waiting list for the next course.”

Stimulating the interest within local schools is clubgolf’s introductory game, firstclubgolf, which uses multi-coloured modified clubs, rubberised balls and Velcro targets to give primary school children a safe and enjoyable first experience of golf.

Active School Co-ordinators are responsible for training and supporting school staff in this key phase of the programme as well as encouraging children to progress their golfing skills at nearby clubs like Polkemmet.

“The response to the coaching here at Polkemmet has been fantastic with children coming from all over West Lothian - from Livingston, Stonyburn and Whitburn - so there’s obviously a big demand for it,” said Active Schools Co-ordinator, Paul Stark.

“With the Countryside Section and clubgolf supplying all the clubs it takes out the cost implications for the pupils as well. They’ve invested in the programme to buy the resources, and trained their coaches, and as most of the children who attend don’t have their own clubs this is a fantastic opportunity for them.

“We are also working with Greenburn Golf Club in Fauldhouse, which is also full to capacity, to run clubgolf sessions so we’re very lucky to have two golf clubs in this area providing clubgolf opportunities.”

Polkemmet is one of clubgolf’s newest clubs yet already they have seen the potential of running a junior programme.

“We’re running a clubgolf Stage 1 programme at the moment but thinking of setting up a network in the West Lothian area where the kids will all come for Stage 1 then move to another venue for Stage 2,” said Mr Mungall.

“David Burns is our Pro and the plan is for the kids who want to go beyond Stage 1 can to go to him for coaching.

“There are a number of improvements going on in the park. Work has just started on a brand new play area which will be finishing in March and we’ve got a new cafe which is children orientated to go along with our on-site golf clothing shop, GolfPoser.

“So next summer we hope to see the park full of kids.”