Brancumhall to host new event for local club juniors

September 2009

East Kilbride’s Brancumhall Golf Development Centre will be the stage for a new junior golf event, on Sunday 20th September 2009, organised in South Lanarkshire for children who have been participating in clubgolf coaching during the golf season.
 
clubgolf is the national junior golf programme formed by the partnership of the Scottish Golf Union (SGU), the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association (SLGA), the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA), the Golf Foundation and sportscotland.  It was launched after Scotland’s successful bid to host the 2014 Ryder Cup.
 
The Centre will host the Texas scramble event for children from six local golf clubs -  Biggar GC, Hollandbush GC, Torrance House GC, East Kilbride GC, Langlands GC and Broadlees Junior Golf Academy – who have each entered a team of four boys and two girls from their coaching programmes.
 
The aim of the event is to bring together players and coaches from clubs throughout South Lanarkshire for a fun event which completes a busy clubgolf coaching season.
 
The players, who will be put into teams with golfers from other clubs, will be encouraged to work as a team to achieve the best score.
 
clubgolf volunteer Level 1 coaches from the six participating clubs will be on hand to assist with each group’s scoring and encourage the players around the course.
 
The competition marks the point where South Lanarkshire Leisure begins a new five year golf strategy in 2009 which will lead to the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in 2014.
 
During its first four year strategy, completed in 2008, over 10,000 South Lanarkshire Primary 5 children were introduced to golf via the firstclubgolf programme in schools. One of the aims of the new five year strategy is to maintain these impressive participation figures in schools whilst increasing exit routes for children to progress their interest in golf.
 
Colin Girvan, Golf Development Officer for South Lanarkshire said:  “We achieved some very impressive statistics during the first strategy.  However, we are keen to keep improving our programmes and are focusing on supporting schools in staff training via the Active Schools Team whilst maintaining the resources required to deliver the firstclubgolf programme.”
 
With 100% rollout of firstclubgolf across South Lanarkshire, exit routes to local clubs and facilities will be the main focus of the new strategy.  The demand for junior coaching is greater than ever and there are opportunities for clubs and PGA Professionals to play a part in the South Lanarkshire Golf Strategy and fill their own coaching programmes whether it be clubgolf, Young Masters Golf or a Professionals own programme.
 
Other significant areas of development in the new strategy include an elite performance pathway to identify and develop young talented players who could represent Lanarkshire in the International Children’s Games in 2011. Secondary Schools in South Lanarkshire now have Active Schools Coordinators in position and the Golf Foundation programme Golf Extreme is currently being delivered in many of the schools.