Nicola Sturgeon has acknowledged that more needs to be done to preserve council-run golf courses in Scotland – but has told the country’s golfers that they have a part to play in that, too.
The First Minister spoke to bunkered.co.uk during a visit to The 150th Open at St Andrews, where 20,000 children will be attending the championship for free.
The decision to allow free entry for under-16s is a continuation of the R&A’s successful and long-running ‘Kids go Free’ programme, which is designed to ensure that the game continues to thrive and that young people are inspired to take up the sport.
That, at least, is the hope. The concern is that many won’t be able to because of the closure of many council-owned golf courses.
Nowhere is that more evident than in Glasgow. The city council gave up all but one of its six municipal courses in 2020 due to financial pressures on the local authority – this, despite the city profiting to the tune of £390million from staging the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
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Only the nine-hole Knightswood golf course continues to be run by the local authority. The land previously occupied by Lethamhill was bought by the R&A, with the governing body currently transforming the site into a brand new, community golf facility.
However, the other four courses operated by Glasgow city council – Littlehill, Linn Park, Alexandra Park and Ruchill – have been effectively abandoned, much to dismay of many local golfers who cannot afford the membership costs associated with joining private clubs.
It’s a similar story in other parts of the country and whilst the First Minister agrees that’s a bad look for the ‘Home of Golf’, she insists it cannot just be the responsibility of the authorities to…
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