The Ryder Cup build up may have consumed all and sundry here at Gleneagles this week, but the work to create Scotland's next generation of golfing stars has certainly caught the eye.
The Clubgolf programme, the national initiative aimed at giving every nine-year-old in the country the opportunity to experience the game and develop their skills through structured coaching, continues to go from strength to strength. It also continues to attract envious glances from afar.
Ted Bishop, the president of the PGA of America, has experienced the work that is being done in the Gleneagles area during his stop off in Perthshire as part of the Year to Go celebrations and he has been given plenty of food for thought for his journey back across the Atlantic.
"I'm very envious of it to tell you the truth," said Bishop, one the global game's most powerful figures. "It's great that the Scottish Government give the game of golf that kind of support. For a nine year-old to get free golf lessons and exposure to the game at that age is unbelievable. I wish we had something like this in America."
There are a number of junior initiatives available in the USA, with the PGA themselves running a Junior League which Bishop's own six-and-half-year-old grandson is part of.
The Clubgolf model, which has introduced almost 300,000 primary five school children to the game since its inception a decade ago, remains Bishop's ideal structure, though.
"This is the way to go about it," he added. "I take my hat off to Scotland. What I have seen is innovation but I've also seen reality. It's one thing to talk about it. It's another to do it. It's happening. Ideally we could take what we have seen here and figure out a way to replicate it in the USA."
What the future holds for Clubgolf and Scottish golf in general is anyone's guess but Bishop is confident that the nation will reap a reward.
"In 10, 15, 20 years from now, Scotland will have a Ryder Cup player that was part of this," he said. "You don't need to cross your fingers. It will happen."
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