Royal Dornoch youngsters celebrate being crowned Scottish champions
ROYAL Dornoch’s young golfers capped an unforgettable season with victory in the final of Scottish Golf’s National GolfSixes.
The six-strong team drawn from the town’s primary and secondary schools captured their latest title against opposition gathered at Swanston Golf Club in Edinburgh.
Nearly 150 clubs, involving 1500 youngsters, from across Scotland took part in this season’s league.
“It was a great way to end the season. It was a long journey down but the trip back up the A9 was helped by having a trophy onboard,” said Royal Dornoch golf operations manager and head teaching professional Gary Dingwall.
It comes hard on the heels of a club quartet winning the National Junior Flag Championship hosted by Gleneagles for the third year in a row.
Also, an older group of youngsters claimed an August win in the club’s biennial match with an American team from the Chicago area.
Dingwall (46), who has been with Royal Dornoch for 20 years, said the Junior Section now boasts more than 130 members, with coaching classes for boys and girls held on Thursdays and Fridays.
“It has been an amazing culmination to the season for our youngsters and after the thrill of being announced by the Golf Foundation as the UK Junior Club the Year, winning the National GolfSixes title is the icing on the cake,” said Gary.
“While our Championship Course is world renowned it is good to put Royal Dornoch on the map in terms of junior development.
“The club has always encouraged juniors and it has really bought into the development programme over the last five or six years. Hopefully we will continue to go from strength to strength.
“Since the awards ceremony at Wentworth we have already had clubs ranging from Scotland to an Open venue south of the border reaching out hoping to tap into our experience.
“We are proud of what we have done and the more kids playing golf the better. We are delighted to help other clubs in whatever way we can.”
The section has bounced back strongly since the pandemic, when club member Mark McFall filled the coaching gap while staff were furloughed. The turnaround has been led by Gary and teaching pro Ally MacNaughton.
General manager Neil Hampton is delighted with the success of the club’s junior coaching.
“The work began pre Covid when we had young Jorden Ferrie with us. She was getting golf into the local schools and doing very well with the younger kids in particular,” he recalled.
“Unfortunately, we had to make her redundant when the pandemic brought our programme to an abrupt halt but thankfully Jorden is now the PGA professional at nearby Golspie.
“We determined to reinvigorate the Junior Section post pandemic and Gary, along with club council member David Diracles, presented a comprehensive and ambitious development plan which involved bringing in another coach.
“Ally has brought admirable passion to the role and it’s marvellous to see the work of the team being rewarded in terms of national success and also by seeing so many local youngsters enjoying their golf.”
