Scottish golf legend Colin Montgomerie visits Deer Park Golf and Country Club to hand out junior scholarships

Dec 23 2010 West Lothian Courier

RYDER CUP captain, and the recently crowned BBC Sports Personality Coach of the Year, Colin Montgomerie was a very special guest of honour at Deer Park Golf and Country Club this week when the Scottish golf legend swung by the Livingston club to hand out junior section scholarships to local West Lothian youngsters.

The top two teenage winners of the first ever Junior Deer Park Masters held back in August — John Bayliss (winner) and Kieran Cooney (runner-up) — were the first recipients of scholarships from Montgomerie.

Monty also presented four additional scholarships to four younger children who have excelled through the popular clubgolf initiative, Scotland’s national junior golf programme.

They were: Megan Smith (10) from St John Ogilvie Primary; Olivia Scott (10), from Carmondean Primary; Brodie Dickson (11) from Williamson Primary and Cameron McQuaid, (10) also from Williamson Primary.

Monty said: “I am delighted to be here at Deer Park today and wish to congratulate the Golf and Country Club on this new scholarship initiative. It is so important to encourage youth in the game — they are the very future of golf in Scotland — and to do this right at grass roots level, with support from Clubs like Deer Park.”

John Muir, Muir Group Chairman, continued: “Our sincere thanks go to Colin Montgomerie for making time in his busy schedule to come here today and officially launch our new Junior Scholarship initiative.

“Our Junior Section is very important to us – the Junior Deer Park Masters event was a great success and we have decided to make it an annual event.

“We are great supporters of the worthy clubgolf initiative and I am sure that Colin will agree with me in saying that the correct coaching is crucial at a young age”

Deer Park’s golf professional Sandy Strachan and his assistant professional John Murray have completed extra training to attain clubgolf Stage 3 coaching status.

A number of local children aged between nine and 14 regularly attend Saturday morning coaching sessions at Deer Park.

During Colin Montgomerie’s visit, primary six children from Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Blackburn demonstrated some of the techniques used in clubgolf coaching to introduce youngsters to the game, through links with West Lothian Active Schools, whilst other schoolchildren practised their swing indoors in a specially adapted room suitable for indoor winter use.

Hosting both the Junior Deer Park Masters and the Senior Masters at the same time gave promising teenage golfers such as winner John Bayliss to engage with the professionals over the two day tournament.

John said: “It was fantastic to attend the prize giving of the Deer Park Masters and meet the winner, David Patrick and to chat to several other golf professionals who have made golf their career.

“Meeting Colin Montgomerie today has been a great experience – he was very encouraging and took time to talk to us all.”

For further details on junior and other memberships at Deer Park (Junior memberships cost £89 a year for those aged nine to 14 years) check out the website at www.deer-park.co.uk.