Hollandbush Golf Club manager hoping youthful captains can inspire influx of young members

Aaron McIntyre, 22, and younger sibling Lucy, 18, of Kirkmuirhill, are respective gents and ladies’ captains this year and were part of a team which finished third overall with a score of 53.5 in a season-opening Texas scramble won by George Douglas, John Douglas, Andrew Suckle and Jim Burnside with a score of 50.95.

"They are really good players and we definitely hope that having such young captains will get more young people joining the club,” club manager Mags Cathcart told the Carluke and Lanark Gazette.

“We want to try and secure a future for the club.

“With the job retention scheme and local authority grants, we have managed to keep ticking over with just myself.

“I’ve been the only one that’s been working on the administrative side.”

With more than 30 new members coming on board this year and total membership now standing at 218, Hollandbush is one of many golf clubs thriving in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m over the moon with these figures, and they’re still coming in,” Mags said.

“We’ve got a few 16-year-olds who’ve just joined.

“They’ve realised it’s the only sport going about just now, so they’ve jumped in.

“They’ve not got any football to go to or anything like that, so golf is getting them out.

“We hadn’t had any juniors the last couple of years and now we have three boys aged 16 and there’s a young girl going to be joining.

“Her grandparents are members and she has said she would like to join.”

Unlike some other Scottish clubs that have postponed competitions until after proposed coronavirus lockdown easing on April 26, Hollandbush is continuing to run members’ competitions in the interim.

That is because more than 90 per cent of Hollandbush’s members are from the South Lanarkshire Council area so they are not flouting Covid-19 rules by travelling into a different local authority patch for non-essential reasons.