The young golfers are pictured, along with organisers and invited guests.
Twelve young people from Maybole and Girvan have been participating in the Fairway Forward Golf Initiative, that was jointly run by members of the South Ayrshire Community Safety Partnership Antisocial Behaviour Team and Community Support Officers from Maybole and Girvan.
The four week initiative provided golf activities, that included golf lessons from Brunston Castle Golf Course professional Stuart Smith. The aim was to encourage young people to become interested and stay interested in golf by getting them to work with members of the local community including Community Support Officers, Antisocial Behaviour Officers and Outside 4 Walls Street workers who provided transport to and from the golf venue.
The initiative ties in with South Ayrshire Council’s Junior Golf Action Plan, which aims to assist 600 nine to fifteen year olds to experience golf in a community golf programme by 2009. This plan also mirrors the Scottish Executive’s National Junior Golf Strategy.
To mark the completion of the lessons a nine hole golf competition was played on Maybole Golf Course, where volunteer adults acted as caddies and scorekeepers for the young golfers. Lady members of the Maybole Ladies Golf Club provided refreshments for everyone taking part in or supporting the competition.
Councillor Margaret Toner, Depute Leader of the Council and Chair of the South Ayrshire Community Safety Partnership and Councillor John Hampton presented prizes, that were donated by Ayrshire Housing, to the young golfers.
Councillor Toner said: “This initiative has introduced young people to golf and helped them to learn a new set of skills in a fun and structured environment. Golf is a healthy leisure pursuit that places a strong emphasis on sportsmanship, etiquette and improving skills. I sincerely hope that all the participants build on what they have learned over the last few weeks, and continue to play golf in the future and to use their leisure time constructively.”
Shannyn Henderson aged 14 from Maybole who won the competition, and Calvin Christie aged 15 from Girvan who was runner-up were presented with trophies to mark their success. All the young golfers who took part in the competition received a trophy and a South Ayrshire Council season ticket.
A competition was also run to design a logo that ‘Fairway Forward’ could use in future intitiatives and golf competitions. For their artistic efforts four young people Curtis Crawford, aged 12, Leam Crawford, aged 11, Emma Gillan, aged 15 and Kimberly McCoy aged 12 each won a state of the art Slazenger double strap stand bag. From these four an overall winning design, that of Kimberly McCoy, was selected as the one that will be adopted as the ‘Fairway Forward’ logo.
View winning logo here.