Thursday 26 March 2009

Golfers in Spean Bridge near Fort William will be celebrating this Saturday (28 March) with the official opening of the new clubhouse at Spean Bridge Golf Club.

Supported by a £83,976 Lottery investment from sportscotland, the new clubhouse will allow the club to develop its membership and see them expand their junior coaching programmes being delivered to local schoolchildren through clubgolf, Scotland’s national junior golf strategy.

In particular, the new facilities will benefit the club’s junior section which has over 20 children taking part in regular clubgolf coaching provided by three fully trained Level 1 coaches. In addition, the club has a junior convener who has established links with Active Schools in the Lochaber area and two local primary schools helping them deliver the introductory game of firstclubgolf.

The new clubhouse has a club room, male and female locker rooms, kitchen and toilets and is a vast improvement on what the club had previously, which consisted of a timber shed with no electricity or mains water and restricted the club’s development and growth.

The new facilities will complement the challenging and picturesque nine-hole course at Spean Bridge, which offers great views of the surrounding mountains, including Ben Nevis and is extremely popular with locals and visitors alike. The club was formed in the 1950s by families in the village, some of who included veterans of the Second World War, who then went on to design and build the original course. The local community will also benefit from the creation of the clubhouse, using it for meetings and local events.

George Carson, Clubhouse Project Convener, Spean Bridge Golf Club said: “Throughout the three years of the project the office bearers and committee have kept their ‘eye on the ball’ in recognising that a fully serviced clubhouse was a watershed for the club’s future development. It will also provide the community with a valuable asset and I would like thank all the contributors in making this project possible.”

Louise Martin CBE, Chair of sportscotland said: “sportscotland is delighted to have supported the new clubhouse at Spean Bridge Golf Club with an investment of £83,976. Supporting projects like this demonstrates our commitment to enhancing sporting opportunities for local communities, by providing them with quality, accessible facilities that meet local priorities.

“The new facilities will allow the club to expand the development of clubgolf activities locally through the training of coaches and ensuring youngsters receive a quality introduction to golf. The club is one of many who have established a successful partnership with clubgolf and it is encouraging to see club’s hard work and determination paying off with the creation of a great facility benefiting golfers of all ages.”

• Provost of Lochaber Councillor Allan Henderson will officially open the new clubhouse on Saturday 28 March at 11.00am.
• Media representatives are invited to attend.
• Other funders of the project have included: HIE Lochaber; Foundation for Sports and the Arts; The Ward Councillors; Spean Bridge Golf Club’s Committee and fund-raising Members.
• clubgolf is the partnership between the Scottish Golf Union (SGU), the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association (SLGA), the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA), the Golf Foundation and sportscotland.
• Launched in 2003 following Scotland’s successful bid to host the 2014 Ryder Cup, clubgolf is a direct result of the Scottish Government’s commitment to introduce every nine-year-old child to golf.
• In 2008 clubgolf achieved the following: 33,600 Primary 5 children in 1320 primary schools played golf through clubgolf’s introductory game, ‘firstclubgolf’; 8,563 children took part in clubgolf coaching programmes at 233 golf clubs and facilities; 1137 qualified volunteer coaches delivered clubgolf coaching in these clubs and facilities.