Perthshire golf academy teeing youngsters up for success

A golfing centre of excellence in Highland Perthshire has borne its first fruit.

The Golf Academy at Pitlochry, which opened its doors with much fanfare in May, is already close to meeting its ambitious aim of developing a new generation of elite youngsters.

At the inaugural Perth and Kinross Country Race to Kingsbarns, Pitlochry boasted a quarter of all the junior boys’ qualifiers, with three in the top five including overall winner, Stewart Burns.

Grant Stewart, the reigning County Boys strokeplay champ, came fourth, while John Cowan finished fifth. Officials believe investment in the academy will help to produce future international players.

Club captain Ron Bell said last night: “Our junior section is actually relatively small, so it is great what we have achieved this year at top level.

“Because we have the new facility and the fact we had some surplus funds we were able to offer juniors extra winter coaching, including video analysis, and the players were well prepared before the season started.”