President Mr Forbie Urquhart escorted the royal party into the clubhouse for a buffet lunch with guests including the convener of the Highland Council, Councillor Sandy Park, golf club officials, and the newly appointed Duke of Edinburgh's Award director for Scotland, Barry Fisher. Also present were local Duke of Edinburgh's Award officer Liz Whiteford and development officer Isobel Gray.

After lunch, Rebecca Raynes, the Highland Council's senior youth development officer, introduced 20 young people from Gairloch, Fortrose and Tain who are all taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. The prince spoke to the pupils about their projects and saw some of the displays they had produced.

Tain Royal Academy currently offers the Award at all three levels with many participants pursuing music as a skill, an activity the school is particularly renowned for. The group has been led by teacher Fay Wilkinson for the last 10 years. Joining her at the golf club were pupils Laura Simpson, Kitty Prentice, Andrew Graham, Sam Brennan, Rory Cunningham, Katie Bremner and Calum Ross.

Prince Edward was then escorted outside by the council's golf manager, Willie Mackay, and Tain Golf Club's head coach Mike Sangster, to watch young golfers taking part in a variety of Clubgolf activities.

Emerging out of Scotl-and's successful bid to host the Ryder Cup, the national junior golf programme, Clubgolf, is a partnership between the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association, the Professional Golfers' Association, the Golf Foundation and sportscotland.

Willie Mackay said: "Tain Golf Club was one of the first clubs to sign up to Clubgolf and to host a stage one programme back in 2004 and have built up a very strong junior section. Juniors that started as primary pupils are now knocking on the doors of area and regional squads and last year Sammy Vass gained her Scottish cap after being selected to play for Scotland. The golf club's commitment to the programme and the numbers of children they have introduced to golf is quite remarkable so it was very fitting for the club to host the royal visit."

Mike Sangster is one of only six PGA Level 2 coaches in the UK and, along with four other Level 1 coaches, he introduces the juniors who progress from the primary school game of firstclubgolf to clubgolf coaching with real golf clubs where they learn the basic skills of putting, chipping and driving and then are ready to learn to play on the course.

Mike said: "Now that Tain Golf Club have appointed a full-time PGA professional in Stuart Morrison, who is also a Scottish Golf Unions Academy regional coach, the player development pathway for juniors is complete from beginner all the way through to elite player."

The Prince met several young budding golfers, who demonstrated putting and chipping, before watching coaching sessions taking place from the new artificial mats and the newly installed triple bay practice nets. Stuart Morrison also showed how video analysis and computer software can be used to fine-tune swing techniques.

Tain juniors have their own two-hole mini-course that they progress to from the junior practice area where under adult supervision they learn how to play the game safely. Once they can go round the two holes twice within a score of 21 they can progress to the specially made nine junior tees on the 18-hole course where they play the first five and the last four holes for a 9-hole score.

As well as young golfers, the prince chatted with several intermediate lady members who were introduced to the sport when dropping their children off for Clubgolf coaching. They had originally enquired about getting some lessons so they could join their children and play a few holes on the junior tees. This has grown beyond everyone's expectations with now over 40 "ladies intermediate members" who pay half the full fee but only play half the full course.

Earlier the prince had visited Milton, having arrived by helicopter, and his final visit of the day was to the Seaboard villages.

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