Brora, Tain and Golspie have made senior appointments as Golf Highland looks to build longer stays around the north of Scotland’s established golfing centres.
Golf Highland says a growing number of visitors are extending their trips beyond Royal Dornoch, Nairn and Cabot Highland at Castle Stuart, and three neighbouring clubs have responded with significant changes to their management teams.
Brora Golf Club has appointed Royal Dornoch’s head PGA coaching professional, Gary Dingwall, to the newly created role of Director of Golf. At Tain Golf Club, Brora’s long-serving professional Malcolm Murray is taking up the position of General Manager, while Golspie Golf Club has recruited Simon Pope from Cleeve Hill in Gloucestershire as its new General Manager.
A regional opportunity
Neil Hampton, General Manager at Royal Dornoch and a founding member of Golf Highland, welcomed the appointments as evidence of clubs investing in their future.
“It’s great to see clubs like Brora, Golspie and Tain creating these senior management roles to build on the success they have been enjoying in recent years and to modernise their operations,” Hampton said.
He added that the appointments reflect the region’s close-knit golfing community. Dingwall spent 23 years at Royal Dornoch, most recently as head PGA teaching professional, while Murray was Brora’s head professional for more than a decade. Murray, who studied golf management at the University of the Highlands and Islands, began a management development programme at Brora last year.
“The Highland clubs work together closely as we seek to encourage even more golfers to base themselves here for the golf, the scenery and outdoor life, and our hotels and restaurants,” Hampton said.
More than the headline names
Golf Highland’s recent survey puts annual visitor expenditure on green fees, merchandise, transport, food and drink at an estimated £60 million. Hampton stressed that the group’s offer extends beyond its best-known courses, incorporating 18-hole clubs and nine-hole community venues across the north of Scotland.
For golfers building an itinerary around Dornoch and Inverness, Brora and Golspie offer two distinctly rooted stops on the Sutherland coast. Brora sits where the River Brora meets the North Sea and its 18-hole course is based on a 1924 plan by James Braid. The people who make the links
Golspie’s 6,021-yard layout combines links, heathland and parkland holes, according to the club, giving visitors a different golfing proposition from a single-style coastal course. Welcome to Golspie Golf Club
The appointments at Brora, Tain and Golspie therefore carry a wider significance: they are part of an effort to make it easier, and more compelling, for visiting golfers to linger in the Highlands rather than simply passing through on the way to a marquee tee time.
This article is based on a press release from Golf Highland.