Pitlochry golf Festival kick starts new junior coaching programme

Mark Pirie, the PGA Pro at Pitlochry Golf Club whose programme of offering free coaching in local primary schools this winter was little short of revolutionary, is taking strides to revitalise his club’s junior membership after running a successful Festival last month.

The Festival will kick start the Club’s inaugural clubgolf course, run by Mr Pirie and his eight-strong team of PGA Level 1 volunteer coaches.

Emerging from Scotland’s successful bid to host the Ryder Cup, clubgolf is a partnership between the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association, the Professional Golfers' Association, the Golf Foundation and sportscotland. The programme has been developed as a direct result of the Scottish Government’s commitment to introduce every nine-year-old child in Scotland to the game.

Of the 48 children who attended the Festival, six have already signed up for membership and coaching at the Club. For a staggeringly affordable £30 they will be entitled to free weekly coaching and competitions for the whole 2008 season.

“The Festival weekend was about planting the seed to entice more junior members to come to the Club and get them involved on an active basis through the year,” said Mr Pirie.

“It went well with 48 kids coming along, the vast majority of which were non members. If any of them want to come and join then we’ll be delighted to see them.

“For £30 a year they will get everything under the sun. Every Monday from April to mid September, there’ll be a competition and free coaching on a Tuesday night. It doesn’t matter what their level or ability is, we’ll cater for them.”

The clubgolf coaching programme at the Club is the third stage of Mr Pirie’s masterplan to introduce the area’s children to golf.

In February and March, together with Active Schools Co-ordinator Karen Todd, he introduced 200 Perthshire primary school children in eight local schools to clubgolf’s introductory game, firstclubgolf.

During the winter he had recruited eight Pitlochry members to train as PGA Level 1 coaches to teach on a volunteer basis at the Club

“The schools coaching was a huge success,” he said. “Highland Perthshire is traditionally rugby for the boys and netball for the girls so for the schools to take it on board as well as they did was a great achievement.

“The three stage plan has worked well so far and at the end of the season we will review it and see if we can do something similar. The more coaching we do with the children the more we are going to get playing.”

For information about Pitlochry Golf Club’s junior coaching please contact Mark Pirie on:

T: 01796 472792 E: pro@pitlochrygolf.co.uk