A CANADIAN with Scottish forbears is undertaking research into the golfing history of a small Highland town which is now established as an international magnet for the sport.
It is known from accounts dating to 1616, that John, the 13th Earl of Sutherland, spent £10 on bows and arrows, golf clubs and balls as a boy, which was the first mention of golf in Dornoch.
But a new academic study, ahead of the 400th anniversary of this first mention in the east Sutherland burgh, is to fill in the gaps.
Few records have been explored from the period 1600-1800 and the new project aims to bridge the gap in knowledge in the lead up to the town's 400 Years of Golf in Dornoch celebrations.
The Royal Dornoch Golf Club has donated £54,000 to the University of the Highlands and Islands' (UHI) Centre for History, based in the town, to establish a three-year PhD studentship to investigate the history of sport and culture in Dornoch and the Moray Firth region.
Former Open champion Paul Lawrie attended the launch at Royal Dornoch Golf Club. He said: "The work here at Royal Dornoch with UHI may even show us how to bring new people and children into golf."
Details of the project were unveiled yesterday as the Highlands returned to the golfing spotlight with the Scottish Open being at Castle Stuart on the shores of the Moray Firth this week.
The research will start in September and will be carried out by Canadian Wade Cormack who will stay in Dornoch during the three-year project. He has strong Scottish connections with his father's family having lived in Wick and his mother's family, the MacDonalds, having sailed from Tiree to Canada 200 years ago. He said: "This project will help to uncover the foundations of the game, and answer more questions about who played, where they played and what it was like."
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