NO NEED TO GO WEST, YOUNG MAN OR WOMAN
- UNIVERSITY GOLF HERE HAS MUCH TO OFFER
By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Four head golf coaches from American universities attended last summer’s Boys’ Amateur Championship at Royal Aberdeen. That’s about par for the course.
A head coach of a US college women’s golf programme flew over in the autumn to look for talent at The Duke of York Young Champions’ Trophy at Dundonald in Ayrshire. She will be back for this year’s Girls’ British Open Amateur Championship at Southerndown in Wales.
That gives you a slight pointer as to why there is a steady drain of teenage golf talent from Britain, Ireland and the rest of Europe to American colleges every year.
Going to the States to combine competitive, inter-collegiate golf with gaining a degree works for some. Just ask Walker and Ryder Cup players Luke Donald and Paul Casey or Solheim Cup stars Janice Moodie and Mhairi McKay, all of whom have prospered with the help of US golf scholarships.
But it does not work for all those who see America as the land of opportunity. In another era, even Nick Faldo and Sandy Lyle failed to stay the course at their US university of choice and countless other promising British and Irish players have returned home early. Some come back disappointed at the lack of technical help available on the golf swing from their “college golf coaches.”
Duncan Weir and Alison White of The R&A’s Golf Development staff believe the time has come for universities on this side of the Atlantic to blow their own trumpets about what’s available to student golfers here.
“We don’t think our universities should try to compete with the NCAA in the States but the message that there is a viable alternative in this country should be conveyed to the talented boy and girl golfers who want to combine golf with a university education,” said Weir who himself spent four years at William & Mary University in Virginia.
“For those attending universities receiving financial assistance from The R&A, unrestricted access to their regular coaches and the opportunity to play a full amateur season must hold some appeal.”
Catriona Matthew from North Berwick was a very successful amateur player before she turned professional and has since become the most successful Scottish player in the history of the LPGA Tour in the United States.
She has no doubt that selecting a British university – Stirling – gave her a solid foundation for the future.
“I decided to go to Stirling for two reasons. Firstly, it would provide me with a reputable degree that I could use if circumstances dictated and secondly it was one of only a couple of universities in Britain at the time that operated golf scholarships,” said Catriona.
“I was lucky enough to receive an R&A Foundation Bursary which was a great honour. Before I committed to go, Stirling University had a good reputation already for golf.
“The scholarship scheme was run by a very enthusiastic director, Dr Ian Thompson, which is key to the whole thing working. I had the added bonus of being coached by both one of Scotland's top players and coaches John Chillas who gave me support and help well into my professional career for which I will be forever grateful.
“In my third year at Stirling I was offered a scholarship to Stanford University in California however, I decided to stay at Stirling to complete my degree.”
And Catriona has absolutely no regrets.
“Looking back, I wouldn't have done anything differently because Stirling gave me exactly what I wanted - both a first-class degree plus the opportunity to advance my golf career. .” she said.
“At Stirling I was never pressured into practising every day, which I believe has led to my longevity on tour. On the American college circuit there is great competition, however, that also can lead to burn-out in some instances.”
In addition to grants to assist selected university golf programmes, The R&A provides considerable financial help to certain individual students of any nationality who are in full-time tertiary education. Richie Ramsay, winner of the US Amateur Championship last summer and a student at Stirling University, is but one of 64 students – an increase of 20% on the 2005-2006 number, in receipt of R&A Foundation bursary funding for the current academic year.
Such individual bursaries range upwards from £500 and are granted annually. Details on criteria for application can be found on www.randa.org
The universities currently in receipt of R&A funding are:
Birmingham, Bournemouth, Dublin, Exeter, Glasgow, Heriot Watt, Loughborough, Northumbria, St Andrews, Stirling, Strathclyde and Ulster.
In addition, there are other universities, not necessarily R&A funded, which also offer golf.
Given that The R&A’s total annual spend on university golf currently tops the £300,000 mark, the question exercising the minds of Duncan Weir and Alison White might well be: “Are the universities too reactive instead of proactive when it comes to enrolling the best student golfers they can?”
Perhaps it is time that these universities in particular sent “recruitment officers,” for lack of a better term, to attend the summer’s big junior golf championships in Europe and give the American coaches some competition for the cream of the golfing crop?
Our universities offer their student golfers organised inter-university league competition, coaching, fitness training and psychology sessions as well as providing back-up to help them manage their time to combine golf with academic requirements.
The majority also arrange training weekends and warm weather camps abroad. As is obvious, there is much on offer for the best golfers at universities here at home.
There are attractive spin-offs, too, for the student golfers who resist the urge to cross the Atlantic.
The annual R&A Foundation Bursars’ tournament was played over two rounds for the first time this year over the Old and Eden Courses at St Andrews.
“Gordon Yates of Stirling University, the winner of the men’s section, is guaranteed a place in the European team for the annual transatlantic students’ match against the United States for the Palmer Cup,” said White.
The Palmer Cup, which saw Europe thrash the American college men at Prestwick last year, will be played at Caves Valley, Maryland on June 7 and 8. So that’s a big boost for Gordon Yates for winning The R&A Bursars’ title in April and there was an added bonus of a trip to Peru in mid-April to play in the Manuel Prado Cup at Lima (Yates finished joint 22nd and the other R&A Bursar to make the trip, Edward Parker of Birmingham University finished a creditable seventh).
Irish student Rachel Cassidy (Stirling University), the winner of the R&A Bursars’ tournament women’s title, now gets a place in the pro-am for the Women’s British Open being played over the Old Course in August and she will also be given a slot in the field for the Scottish Women’s Open at The Carrick at Loch Lomond in September.
“Next year we will extend The R&A Bursars’ tournament to three rounds in order that it can qualify for World Amateur Golf Ranking recognition. Our Training Panel is continually looking to improve what is on offer for the student golfer who remains in this country,” said Duncan Weir.
“Make no mistake about it, the standard here is very high but we believe it is not widely enough known amongst our best young golfers, boys and girls, that there is much to be gained by pursuing a university education at home and particularly at one of the institutions supported by R&A funding.”
And a final word from Colin Dalgleish, the Captain of this year’s Great Britain & Ireland team for the Walker Cup match at Royal County Down.
“I consider myself fortunate to have attended and graduated from Stirling University as one of the first golf bursars in the early 1980s. In fact, I am attending a 25th year anniversary dinner of the Stirling University programme later this year,” said Dalgleish.
“I know that, funded to a great extent by The R&A, the number of golf bursaries has grown considerably over the years, and that there are now many good university golf programmes.”
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Contact Details
Birmingham 0121 414 7678 Elizabeth Egan e.egan@bham.ac.uk
Bournemouth 01202 965883 Jason Atkins jatkins@bournemouth.ac.uk
Dublin 00353 1 7162208 Suzanne Bailey Suzanne.Bailey@ucd.ie
Exeter 01392 263595 Nick Beasant N.E.Beasant@exeter.ac.uk
Glasgow 0141 330 5429 Euan Smith euan.smith@admin.gla.ac.uk
Heriot Watt 0131 451 8410 Mike Fitchett M.A.Fitchett@hw.ac.uk
Loughborough 01509 226117 Tom Neale T.O.Neale@lboro.ac.uk
Northumbria 07971 950009 Gareth McKenna g.mckenna@unn.ac.uk
St Andrews 01334 462190 Martin Farrally mrf@st-and.ac.uk
Stirling 01786 466908 Raleigh Gowrie r.n.gowrie@stir.ac.uk
Strathclyde 0141 548 2782 Neil Sturrock n.sturrock@strath.ac.uk
Ulster 0287 032 4332 Phil Carson sportscentre@ulster.ac.uk
The R&A 01334 460000 Alison White alisonwhite@randa.org
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