Boys head for Abu Dhabi to prepare for new season

AS THE senior squad settles in for an eight-week winter performance programme in South Africa, the best young golfers in Scotland are about to head out to Abu Dhabi to prepare for the new season.

Nine members of the national boys’ squad are off to the United Arab Emirates next week for an eight-day training camp at Yas Golf Links, where four of the players already spent four weeks towards the end of last year.

On this occasion, Greig Marchbank (Dumfries & County), Bradley Neil (Blairgowrie), Ewan Scott (St Andrews) and Anthony Blaney (Liberton) are being joined by Scottish Boys’ champion David Wilson (Troon Welbeck) as well as Calum Hill (Tantallon), Ben Kinsley (St Andrews), Jamie Savage (Cawder) and Euan Walker (Kilmarnock Barassie).

“With four of us having already been there, we’ll be able share our experiences with the other boys,” said Blaney. “The facilities are fantastic and everything we’re working on this winter can be added to and then finalised in Abu Dhabi to make sure we are ready for the new season.”

The players are being accompanied by national under-18 coach Neil Marr and his under-16 counterpart, Kevin Hale, while staff from the Scottish Institute of Sport will also be involved in the camp.

“I know that the boys’ golf games will improve by spending time at Yas. The weather is guaranteed which is great,” said Marr.

“There will be more focus on their playing and scoring ahead of the new season and less on technical input and changes.”

Meanwhile, the schedule has been confirmed for the 2012 Scottish Hydro Junior Tour. It tees off at Gullane at the end of April and finishes in September, when Elgin stages the Paul Lawrie Foundation Junior Jug Final.

Full schedule: 31 March-1 April Scottish Hydro Junior Tour Event 1, Gullane No2; 9-14 April Paul Lawrie Foundation Scottish Boys, Murcar Links; 11-13 May Golf Data Lab Scottish Youths, Ladybank; 26-27 May Scottish Hydro Junior Tour Event 2, The Roxburghe; 10 June Dunfermline BS Scottish Boys Area Team, Cowglen; 16-17 June Scottish Hydro Junior Tour Event 3, Rowallan Castle; 3-4 July Loretto School Scottish Boys Under-14s, Buchanan Castle; 11-13 July Scottish Boys Under-16, Strathaven; 24-26 July Scottish Boys Stroke Play, Cardross; 14-19 August British Boys, Notts & Coxmoor; 21-22 August Faldo Junior Series Scottish Qualifier, Panmure; 1-2 September Paul Lawrie Foundation Junior Jug, Elgin.