REGULARS at the Auld Hoose pub in Perth were stunned to find their local transformed into a fairway and putting green for Gleneagles golfing festival.
Mark O'Callaghan and wife Lisa came up with the idea of decking out the bar with an artificial turf course and setting up a charity putting green in the corner to raise money for deprived children.
The couple and their regulars raise funds to support an African school and thought they'd bid to boost the pot with the city playing host to thousands of visitors from around the world for the Ryder Cup.
Mr O'Callaghan said: "It was my wife's idea. We sponsor a school in Africa through Mary's Meals.
"It's (the turf) on the floor and covering the bar.
"There's been a few eyebrows raised, but the regulars love it.
"There's a little putting green and people pay £2 to play for Mary's Meals."
As well as welcoming guests from around the globe Perth has also set up a fanzone at the Concert Hall where fans can watch the tournament, one of three including Glasgow's Merchant Square and St Andrew Square in Edinburgh.
Meanwhile, ScotRail are laying on dedicated early morning and late trains for Ryder Cup ticket-holders only, but services are already sold out with the operator admitting that services will be too busy to guarantee all passengers a seat.
Around 45,000 golf fans are expected to pour in during the competition days from Friday to Sunday, with around 7,500 spectators arriving via the dedicated Ryder Cup trains each day.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article