Kirkcaldy Golf Club selected to host national tournament

The Scottish Boys U14 Open Championship will be staged at the Balwearie course on August 8-10 next year.

The event will see around 140 of the top junior golfers from across the UK and abroad take on the challenging 6083 yard course, which has a par of 71.

“It’s a great event for us to have and will help raise the profile of the club,” said club chairman Allan Elder.

“It will be nice to see some of top younger talent coming to Kirkcaldy.

“We could have the next generation of Rory McIlroy’s playing our course.”

The competition will be held over three days, with a practice round on Saturday followed by 18-hole rounds on Sunday and Monday.

This year’s tournament was held at Newmacher Golf Club in Aberdeen where a sensational 10-under par round of 62 saw England’s Hugh Adams take the title.

Such scoring could put the Kirkcaldy course record under threat, which currently stands at a seven under par 64 set by Adam Rigby in 2001.

“10 under par on a fairly tough course is some shooting for a 14-year-old!” Allan added.

“That’s something you’d want to see and I’d like to think we’d get some spectators down to watch.

“A few people have equalled Adam’s record, but no-one has managed to beat it yet.”

It is the first national event to be staged at Kirkcaldy since the Scottish Ladies Under 21 Stroke Play Championship took place in the club’s centenary year in 2004.

Junior convener, Bill O’Neill, is hoping the event can provide a boost to the club’s junior section, which has seen membership numbers dwindle from over 100 to just 12 over the past decade.

“This is a big shot in the arm for the club, and for Kirkcaldy in general,” Bill said.

“We’ll be asking all members to get their shoulders behind this to make it a success when it comes along.

“We can hopefully use it to promote our junior membership here, which is badly needed. There’s been a lack of investment in junior golf in last 10 years and we’ve missed a generation.

“We’re liaising with Scottish Golf and Active Schools to see what we can do to get kids away from the X-Box and back into golf.”