2.00pm Conan Reid & Dawn Butchart / Lochlan Stewart & Jacki Stewart
2.07pm Stuart Duncan & Jackie Moran / James Soppit & Lorraine Wallace
2.15pm Archie Pattullo & Anne Baird / Keegan Fergusson & Iain Butchart
Good luck everyone and hopefully the weather forecast gets better for Saturday
Today was the start of a new chapter. Tarah and Keir were out with the others playing a card for handicap and Jack was making his debut in the last Summer League event. All 3 played very well. Keir was out with Archie and me and his ball striking was very consistent. He must have been worried about the pond but I told him it was only wet grass. He teed it up and sailed it by 100yds !! Highlights were 4 on 17th and his approach shot on 9 hitting the pin, he thought he’d holed it but the 8 inch putt was converted no problem. Tarah had a 4 on 4 and Dawn who played with her and Keegan said she is probably the quickest junior she has every played with. Definitely no slow play from Tarah. Jack who was out with Jackie, Blair and Stuart managed pars on 7, 10 and 15. All 3 were a delight to play with, their etiquette and behaviour is a credit to the section. Getting back to the scoring Keegan smashed it today, told Dawn he wanted to break 100 on the 3rd and boy did he do it. Shot 97 gross back in 45 only 10 over with a superb 5 on 12 with an up and down from the front bunker to a back right pin probably a 20yd bunker shot. 48 stableford points will lead to a big handicap cut. Stuart who took possession of a set of Ping G25 irons on Monday when he upgraded from graphite to steel shafts made them an instant success. His standard answer on how he got on is “fine” but today it was “great” and 38 points proved this. His score today secured the Rannaleroch Summer League Trophy due to his consistent scoring. Exciting times ahead and some more juniors are going to upgrade and maybe some parents joining as well.
Just received this message from Blair.
Hi Iain, Wanted to let you know that today Conan and I along with some others from our school played in the East District schools competition, We both played good, I shot a scratch 2 over 71, not bad for first full 18 since injury, and I won the overall individual scratch, along with the team from Monifieth we won the scratch team competition, we were both recognised as ” Iain Butchart’s young prodigies” when we mentioned we were members at Strathmore, the word of Strathmore is getting out there.
Ben who attended a taster session on Wednesday has become our 2nd 2022 new member and Keir has upgraded to Rannaleroch and will hopefully be out putting in cards soon.
Took part in a Focus Group Zoom call last night with Inverurie GC , Peterculter GC and Gavin Forrester from Scottish Golf to discuss what happened with Junior golf this year.
Busy night again. Jon picked up his new hire trolley from the scheme and Stuart upgraded his irons. Tarah is the first to upgrade her membership to include the Rannaleroch course and Dawn took her out tonight for a few holes and she acquitted herself very well. Angus was working on swings tonight and was great at explaining how to get hip turns to assist with the follow through. Made huge differences to James and Owen. Next Monday is the final Autumn session but there is nothing to stop the kids continuing to come along on a Monday night to play a few holes or for the Saturday participants to do likewise. Another very pleasant surprise tonight was Amy Mitchell bringing her sister Carly along to the range. Great to catch up and hear that she is intending to join again and get back playing and would like to assist at the coaching if needed. Might take her up on this offer. Alex Simpson finished 17th out of 68 today at Dornoch which is a decent result but I know he will be disappointed not to have finished higher, but onwards and upwards. It all starts at the coaching then playing and practicing regularly and progressing through the stages. Alex did it all and others can follow if they are dedicated enough.
Strathmore Golf Centre’s progressive approach to encouraging Junior membership today was rewarded with its first new member for 2022. Danny who joined today also took advantage of the club Hire Scheme and now also has a free pair of Nike golf shoes complete with new cleats. All good to go and takes our total membership up to 95. Dawn and I invited Bella and Lottie out for a few holes on Rannaleroch to assess their progress and were suitably impressed. Both hit some very good tee shots and once we gave them a couple of alignment tips were hitting them straight and very long. Lottie’s highlight was a 5 on the third and Bella hitting the 7th green in 3 shots. Both girls are going to take advantage of the upgrade and looks like mum may join as well. Alex Simpson sent me a message after his first round at Dornoch in the PGA young Professional’s event where he shot level par. He was very pleased with his round especially tee to green, a couple of good par saving putts after poor chips saved the day and hopefully tomorrow he can improve on his tied 10th position. Met Cormac Sharpe out again today practicing, great to see him playing so much on the course. Also confirmed Archie lost another shot off his handicap 👏👏👏
Strathmore Golf Centre have generously agreed current Leitfie only members can upgrade now at 2021 prices to Rannaleroch giving them 16 months for the price of 12. The support the section receive from the Centre is brilliant from the inclusive professional coaching they pay for to the club tops they provide. Coaching this morning was great and Gareth is so pleased with the results he is seeing. Great to have Blair Hockley back playing and huge thanks and respect to him for giving up his free time today to cover the 3 morning sessions and then joining in for 15 holes with the others. Archie again showed his progression this week. His ball striking is so consistent and his putting has improved so much. He definitely gives every putt a chance and if it misses doesn’t mind holing out the 2 footer back. Strathmore hosted a P&K Girls training session today and it was great to see so many Strathmore girls involved. The future just gets better !!!
Dawn had played alongside Keir on Sunday and had said how well he had done. Tonight I decided to take him out to play the 10th on the Rannaleroch. He hit a tremendous drive from the yellow tees 150 yards up the right hand side of the fairway. We decided he should hit a six iron but it ran into the bunker. I asked him to hit a five iron and this shot was perfect and finished 10ft from the pin. His first putt was great for weight and left him a tap in 4 for par. Keir proved tonight that he is definitely more than ready for an upgrade and we are going to take him out for 18 to confirm. Aged only 7 he already is showing so much promise and with many Golf Clubs not even allowing children under 8 to join it proves again why Strathmore’s policy of no age restrictions works and allows kids of any age to enjoy golf. He has been a member for nearly 3 years and played in both our Flag and GolfSixes teams this year but is about to take the next step from Fun Handicap on Leitfie to Full Congu Handicap on Rannaleroch and who knows what next over the years. Took Callum, Kian and Nate out with Keir on 1st and 2nd for a quick Texas Scramble and they managed an easy par followed by another 5. Bella and Lottie really impressed tonight and their swings are text book and if we can get them out playing more often on the course could be exceptional.
Unfortunately Kirsten’s trip to Islay didn’t go to plan. After a disappointing score on Saturday she started Sundays round in good spirit but in her own words “lost a few too many shots on the back 9” Great experience and she will take the positives and move on. Back at headquarters Keegan took the honours on Saturday and reduced his handicap by a shot. Sunday saw another Family Fun Day with Callum, Owen and Dawn taking the honours with a level par 27.
Message from Kirsten Miller received tonight -
Just letting you know that I am away to Islay this weekend for the final of the race to the Machrie! Really looking forward to playing and spending time with the other players. Also got some good news today that I have been selected as SportScotland Young Ambassador for Perth Academy for this year which I’m so excited about!
Great news on both fronts. Also took delivery of some extra clubs today to enhance some of the sets we had already purchased to fill distance gaps.
Our first junior section match play league game took place tonight which was introduced because all the P&K County Match Play events had been cancelled and I did not want our juniors missing out on the valuable experience that match play brings. Keegan Fergusson played Lewis Smith and with some great scoring including 1 par and 6 bogies recorded the first win. This is so exciting as it brings another dimension to their games.
Over the past 3 weeks Angus has been working on grips, stance and swings whilst we have covered pitching, chipping and putting and tonight we put it all to the test on Leitfie. Really impressed by everyone and some of the improvements are amazing. The consistency in the putting was a major factor and Dawns schooling techniques are making the difference with the players taking more care by marking the ball, working out the slopes, lining up the lines on the ball to the target line, using the lines on the putter and then using their judgement of pace to consistently get the ball closer to the hole or on many occasions into the hole. Jack, Kier, Lewis and Rory members of our GolfSixes team were presented with their Silver Medals and Certificates.
Weather was perfect for the final GolfSixes event. We used the Leitfie course and set it up so we had 6 holes. We used the 1st, 4th, 6th and 9th and played from the 2nd tee to 3rd green and 7th tee to 8th green. Scoring was great with Crieff coming top with 125 points, Strathmore came 2nd with 123 ahead of Auchterarder with 122 and Pitlochry with 116. Tom Wolfe from Pitlochry had to play as a single but scored an amazing 41 points. James Soppit won the nearest the pin on the 1st. James and Sophie Goult from Auchterarder recorded the only 2. In the overall cumulative scores Crieff came top with 16 points and secured the trophy and Gold medals, Strathmore came 2nd with 10.5 points to pick up the Silver medals with Auchterarder 3rd on 8 points and Pitlochry 4th with 5.5 points.
