Scottish Golf’s long-time national coach Ian Rae has not has his contract renewed with the amateur game’s governing body as part of a review of their performance programme.
Rae (whose departure was exclusively revealed on Friday by Bunkered editor Bryce Ritchie) has been with Scottish Golf and formerly the SGU for 26 years, the majority of time heading up the amateur game in Scotland’s men’s and boys’ elite coaching programmes.
However, after those programmes were closed down for a year due to cost-cutting as a result of the pandemic, Scottish Golf are now looking in a new direction.
Rae, formerly the head pro at Hollandbush Golf Club, piloted Scottish men’s amateur teams to the World Amateur Golf Championship in 2008 and to several European Team Championship victories.
He was one of the longest serving national coaches in world amateur golf.
He remains the swing coach for several leading players who have since turned professional, including three-time European Tour winner Richie Ramsay.
A statement from Scottish Golf did not mention Rae by name, but said that specific roles within a new performance programme had yet to be determined.
“Like all businesses in the last year, Scottish Golf has had to make difficult financial decisions in light of the disruption caused by the pandemic,” said an SG spokesman.
“Focusing our efforts on supporting affiliated clubs became the priority.
“As previously announced, we took the decision to cancel all of our performance and event activity last year to allow us to divert resources directly into club support.
“As part of this, all self-employed coach contracts, which were agreed on an annual basis, were served notice in 2020 due to no performance activity taking place.”
Scottish Golf have brought in Scotland’s last two major champions, Paul Lawrie and Catriona Matthews, to advise on the new direction of their player performance programme.
Lawrie and Matthew have agreed to be part of a mentoring programme for young players and to contribute to the review to “ensure resources are being allocated in the most appropriate and effective manner”.
“When this review is complete, we are intending to announce full details of the new programme,” added the SG spokesman.
“At that point we were intending to recognise the contribution of former coaches involved with Scottish Golf.”
