Reay Club Captain Ian Ross (left) examines plans for the new practice facility with Graeme Dunnett, Project/Course Manager and former Captain

 

Juniors to benefit as Reay Golf Club wins
facility development award

Reay Golf Club, at the forefront of developing junior golf in its local community, has this week secured an Awards for All lottery grant to develop a three-hole junior practice facility.

The award - for £9790 - will enable the Club to expand and develop a patch of waste ground currently used by its senior members for practice.  The new facility will comprise a three hole-course with new tees, greens and bunkers.  In addition a large bunker will have bays so that as many as six children can practise in safety at one time.

 

“The Club is delighted to receive this award,” said Graeme Dunnett, Project/Course Manager, former Club Captain and Chairman of the Caithness & North Sutherland Junior Golf Partnership when the project was initiated in 2006.

 

“We are in gratitude to Sandside Estate for their support and continued commitment for the development of this facility and junior golf on the Sandside links”

 

Four years ago Reay was one of the first clubs in Scotland to implement the national junior golf programme, clubgolf, the partnership between the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association, the Professional Golfers' Association, the Golf Foundation and sportscotland. 

 

Emerging from Scotland’s successful bid to host the Ryder Cup clubgolf is a result of the Scottish Government’s commitment to introduce every nine-year-old child in Scotland to the game.

 

“This facility will be of particular advantage to the youngsters, who would really benefit from having their own dedicated and safe environment, away from the hazards that are present on any golf course,” said Mr Dunnett.

 

“Not only do we encourage juniors at the Club through clubgolf, we actively get involved with coaching in the schools and encourage the continuation by inviting school parties with their teachers to the course.  We will continue this commitment by making the new facility available to interested parties.”

 

Reay’s clubgolf programme listed 96 juniors last year. Over half of them are from non golfing families and thirty percent are girls - encouraging statistics for the future of golf in the north.

 

The Club’s Junior Convenor, Kevin McLeod, coordinates the weekly junior section sessions with support from a volunteer PGA Level 2 coach and a team of seven PGA Level 1 coaches.  Approximately twenty club members and parents, who have all been vetted by Disclosure Scotland, support the coaching. 

 

“A tremendous amount of effort has gone into preparing the Awards for All application,” said Ian Ross, Club Captain.  “Now we have been successful we can start progressing this facility which I am sure will be an asset for the juniors and the course as a whole.”

 

Work is due to start on the new facility this spring. Contractors will handle the technical aspects such as improving the road surface to facilitate disabled access. Dedicated resources will be commissioned to execute manual tasks such as fence building, tees, greens and bunker construction.  The Club will provide resource to manage the project and manpower for specific identified tasks.  Indigenous materials will be used wherever possible to make the facility aesthetically pleasing as well as being sympathetic to environmental issues.

 

“A condition on the Awards for All grant is to have the project completed by March 2009,” added Mr Dunnett.  “But I would hope that we could be in a position by the end of this summer season, around September, to officially open the facility for use.”