Juniors playing clubgolf at Whalsay Leisure Centre

Indoor golf keeps kids swinging on Whalsay

Referred to by the locals as the ‘Bonnie Isle’, Whalsay, off Shetland’s east coast, was as cheerless as the rest of Scotland last summer when the five newly-trained volunteer golf coaches attempted to teach golf to juniors at Scotland’s most northerly golf club through the national junior golf programme, clubgolf.

“Last year we were getting as many as 26 children to the coaching, a big turnout for the size of the island, but you felt sad for them because the weather was bad,” said volunteer coach Graeme Sandison, a fisherman on the super trawler fleet who knows a thing or two about weather.  

“Some nights in May we had to cancel because it was blowing force eight and raining.  We’re up the north end of the island and there’s no shelter – so last year was a bit of a disaster.”

On the few occasions that the weather was good, it didn’t help the coaching momentum that Mr Sandison and another fisherman-come-golf-coach could both be at sea earning a living. 

Undeterred by their first, miserable experiences as clubgolf coaches, the volunteer team expanded in the autumn when a further four – two of them semi land based ferrymen - took part in PGA Level 1 training. There are other plans to get volunteer coaches trained to Advanced Level 1 standard and also to create enough interest for the girls to have their own competition.

But despite all the action and good intentions, what to do when the weather gets bad again remained a headache.  That is, until the Whalsay Leisure Centre and Golf Club entered into discussions.  They produced a stroke of genius by deciding to transform the indoor sports hall into a golf coaching facility.

“We close off two of our badminton courts, borrow the indoor bowls mats to create areas for putting, chipping, pitching and full swing,” said the centre’s manager, Ian Simpson, himself a PGA Level 1 coach.

“With the airflo balls and big curtains there’s a lot you can do here and we have a session each week.  Two members of staff at the centre are qualified Level 1 coaches and all the volunteer coaches from the club help manage things.”

The indoor coaching is not the first example of the islander’s adaptability in the face of golfing adversity. So keen on golf is Mr Sandison and his fishing colleagues that they have created their own floating driving range by draping fishing nets in their boat’s hold.

“It’s not a big ship so there’s not much room to swing a golf club but you’ve got to keep trying, to keep the joints working,” he said.  “There are six golfers on the boat and we sometimes get a game when in port in Lerwick, Ireland and Denmark.  We also have a practise device on board so you can actually keep the swing going at sea if the weather permits.”

It’s still early days in the leisure centre’s evolution as an indoor golf venue but, with a good team of volunteer coaches now available, Mr Simpson’s imagination is doing overtime to exploit its potential.  

“We’ve only been giving the coaching for three weeks but it’s been such a success that we’re looking to expand it to get into beginner adults as well,” he said. 

“We had golf mats here 10 years ago but it never really got established because no one had the coaching qualification. It just started then stopped.

“This is the first time it’s been run properly because we have a good team of qualified coaches.  Now is a good time of year for beginners to start so it’s not such a big jump when they go outside. The outside training starts in May but the weather here cab be ridiculous. They now have the option to come indoors so they aren’t missing a week.”

With the loss of the island’s only golf pro he is hopeful this “will fill the gap.”