– This is the text of an article by Scottish first minister Alex Salmond which first appeared in the Sunday Mail. On the last day of the Open championship, the first minister outlines Scotland’s clubgolf initiative:
When Rory McElroy lifted the trophy at the US Open a few weeks ago, thousands of young boys and girls across Scotland must have paused for just a second to think: “That could be me in a few years’ time.”
I believe it can be. Scotland’s future golfing prowess will owe much to getting young people interested in the sport as early as possible.
Scotland rose to this challenge by creating clubgolf, following our successful bid to host the 2014 Ryder Cup, with the aim of every nine-year-old child being introduced to this magnificent sport.
Clubgolf is a Government-backed sports initiative aimed at giving thousands of children in Scotland the chance to play golf, putting a club in the hands of every nine-year-old in the country and creating the possibility of golfing success at the highest levels.
Today it is doing just that – giving primary school youngsters the chance to pick up some clubs, gain some confidence and then go on to be coached at clubs by qualified volunteers and pros. We are introducing record numbers of young people to the game.
So far, over 180,000 children have been introduced to the sport at school through the introductory game, firstclubgolf, with the support of the active schools network and primary schools across the country.
Our target is to have 40,000 P5 children participating in firstclubgolf every year, 12,000 boys and girls in club coaching programmes, 350 new volunteer coaches trained, and 300 venues delivering clubgolf coaching programmes.
And we have the backing of some top golfers who have pledged to help: Jack Nicklaus, Colin Montgomerie, Stephen Gallagher, Catriona Matthew and Paul Lawrie to name a few. Only a couple of weeks ago, Jack was at Gleneagles giving an inspirational talk to a group of children from Auchterarder Primary who have all participated in the initiative and I was fortunate enough to be part of that.
What interested me particularly was the dedication of the girls in that group and it’s clear that female role models such as Catriona are having a great impact in getting many more girls interested in the game.
In some cases, youngsters who began clubgolf a few years ago have progressed through to the Scottish Golf Academy programme as well as our national squads. And who knows – some of those young sportsmen and women could go on to become this country’s golf stars of the future – perhaps even reaching the pinnacle of their career at the Opens, and playing for the European Ryder or Solheim Cup teams.
We are also investing £1 million to support Scotland's most talented amateur players make the transition to the professional game. We are supporting players in crucial areas as they look to step up and get established on Tour – including provision of sports science and warm weather training opportunities.
There is no doubt this is a long-term project but our goal is to have a player in the top 15 in the world for both the men’s and ladies games – to guarantee involvement in the Majors, the Ryder and Solheim Cups and the Olympics. Golf as a sport is continuing to grow in Scotland and we need to ensure that we do all we can to make that continue.
Golf is a vital part of the fabric of our nation, and we will step up our initiatives to capitalise on the benefits of the game for young Scots and for Scotland.
In ten years' time Scotland can be a world golf superpower – we can be future of the game as well as the ancient home of golf.
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