FOR the last 18 months, Royal Troon Golf Club has been on a journey to stimulate interest in golf by introducing the game to all local school children in the community, with the simple aim of inspiring the next generation of golfers in Troon and surrounding areas.

Royal Troon professional, Kieron Stevenson, and his team have set up The Royal Troon School of Golf, open to all boys and girls aged five to 12.

Since embarking on this initiative in early 2018, the Professional Team has dedicated over 400 voluntary hours of free golf sessions at the seven primary schools in the Troon area.

This resulted in over 3,000 children being given the opportunity to play golf during curriculum time.

This was followed by free sessions in the Spring at the Club, to give children the opportunity to experience more aspects of the game in a proper golfing environment.

In May of 2018 and 2019, Royal Troon hosted two magnificent free Summer Golf Festivals, at each event over 220 boys and girls attended, enjoying fun games, receiving a free Golphin4Kids golf club and being entertained by an amazing trick shot show. In the wake of the festival, there were well attended Summer and Autumn camps in 2018 which included a mixture of group tuition and fun games.

In December 2018 the Professional Team introduced a pilot project at Troon Primary School providing all 360 children from Primary 1-7 with one golf lesson per week for four weeks within curriculum time. This was followed by eight weeks of after-school Clubs early in 2019.

This programme followed the Scottish Education Curriculum of Excellence and was focused on education, health and wellbeing and participation in sport for all.

The initiative has produced some excellent results with 70 children, a third of whom are girls, signing up for The Royal Troon School of Golf.