Golfers celebrate new course extension
Monday 30 June 2001
Today the golfing community of Balfron are celebrating the completion of a project to extend the Shian Golf Course from nine holes to eighteen.
"Sport has the capacity to provide endless hours of enjoyment and fun as well as the obvious health benefits."
The club, which closed during the Second World War, reopened as a nine-hole course in 1994. Now, seven years later, work is completed on a £450,000 expansion to make the course a par 72, 18-hole layout.
Made possible with the support of a Lottery award of £213,000 from the sportscotland Lottery Fund, the £450,000 project will boast a 6,000-yard course, upgrade of the greenkeeper's workshop and an extension to the clubhouse and car park.
Other contributors include: the Paul Charitable Trust and the Foundation for Sport and the Arts each adding £50,000; The Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St Andrews gave £25,000 and the rest of the £112,000 coming from the members through subscriptions, levies and contributions.
Ian Rubythorn, Secretary of the Balfron Golf Club, said: "We are delighted to see the opening of the course extension and think we have a first class golf course that’s a great asset to the local area.
"I would like to thank all the contributors to the project, also the volunteers who have worked on the course construction and have made this project come to fruition."
Alastair Dempster, Chairman of sportscotland, said: "The new extension to Shian Golf Course will have a positive, lasting benefit to the community and visitors to the area.
"sportscotland is committed to providing quality facilities for Scotland and this new course will allow more people to participate encouraging sport to be played by more people more often.
"Sport has the capacity to provide endless hours of enjoyment and fun as well as the obvious health benefits. We aim to encourage participation in sport from all ages and abilities by making Scotland a country where sport is more widely available to all."
The annual subscription to the new course is estimated at £130 and a number of keen golfers have already joined the waiting list.
Scotland is also keen to promote the game of golf at junior level and has looked at the New Zealand model for guidance, inviting Murray Macklin, a pre-eminent golf coach, to speak at the first Resource Group meeting of the Scottish Junior Golf Partnership at the Scottish National Golf Centre at Drumoig (June 11), to offer support and advice.
The Scottish Junior Golf Partnership which includes the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association, sportscotland, the Professional Golfers Association and the Golf Foundation, has been set up to develop and implement a junior golf plan to encourage youngsters to take up the sport. Its aim is to ensure that the structures are in place to build on Scotland's Ryder Cup pledge to introduce every nine-year-old child to the game of golf by the year 2009.