New facility at Aberdeenshire club allows young golfers to develop their pitching and putting skills
Torphins Golf Club welcomed former Scottish Ladies Amateur champion Laura Murray as its guest of honour as it officially opened its brand new practice area, which has been created to improve the play of its junior members.
The facility, made possible through a £5,000 grant from Awards for All - Scotland, has been created on spare moorland at the highest point of the course and has been designed to help juniors develop their pitching and putting skills, with a new putting green and five hitting bays.
After carrying out the opening, recently turned professional Murray joined all Torphins juniors in pitching and putting competitions. She also spoke of her first impressions of the new practice area.
“The new facility is going to have a huge benefit. The kids are going to develop a lot of confidence in their short game and with that, their scores will come down and their handicaps will come down,” said Murray, who currently plays on the LET Access Tour.
“It gives them the chance to experiment with their short game and give touch and feel around the greens. It’s going to build a strong junior section at Torphins.”
Now in its eighth year as part of the ClubGolf national junior programme, Torphins has a thriving junior section with around 30 children regularly taking part in coaching and competitions on Friday evenings.
Junior Convener John Giblin explained the reasoning behind the development of the new practice area. He said: “We hadn’t had any practice facilities to speak of at the club,. We wanted to create a place that juniors could use.
“We approached Awards for All with help from our ClubGolf regional manager, Audra Booth, and received £5,000 funding. This, plus a lot of hard work by the members, has enabled us to create this great facility.
“We really needed this kind of space to bring the kids on. While we have nine and 18-hole competitions on a Friday evening for the older and more able children, we were also having to use the course for our ClubGolf coaching, which meant those competing had to be patient and wait for greens to clear before playing.
“We no longer have to do that, as we can carry out ClubGolf coaching on the practice area, giving the other kids freedom of the course.”
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