New mentoring role for Catriona Matthew

Hopes that the women’s game will be the big beneficiary from Scottish Golf have been boosted with Catriona Matthew taking up a mentoring role with the new unified body.

The 2009 Ricoh Women’s British Open champion joins former Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart in offering her expertise to the next generation of 
talented Scottish golfers.

“Catriona brings valuable knowledge and experience to our programmes,” said Stephen Docherty, the man tasked with overseeing Scottish Golf’s Performance Committee in a new non-executive post over the next two years.

“While our male amateurs have performed consistently well in recent years, the women have gone through a more challenging time and we need to focus on supporting our best female players to 
compete at the top of the amateur game.”

No-one comes close to Matthew, Scotland’s standard bearer in the women’s game for the past 20 years, in terms of having the knowledge and experience to help promising youngsters such as Shannon McWilliam from Aboyne.

“I look forward to assisting the Scottish Golf Performance Committee going forward and doing all I can to help, fitting in the role alongside my full-time golf commitments,” said the North Berwick woman, who will receive a richly-deserved lifetime achievement accolade at the Scottish Golf Awards in Edinburgh next March.

Karyn Dallas and Clare Queen, both former LET players , are also part of the new performance team at regional and national level. Dallas, who boasts over 20 years experience as a PGA professional, will work alongside George Boswell, Kevin Hale, Ian Muir, David Orr and David Torrance at regional level.

“We have just held our first joint winter training camp in the UAE, with Hannah McCook already benefiting when she finishing runner-up in the Argentine Women’s Amateur on Saturday,” said Scottish Golf performance director Steve Paulding.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s leading Tour professionals and top performing amateurs are to battle it out for the coveted Player of the Year Award honour, with golf fans invited to vote for their favourite.

One of the highlights of the Scottish Golf Awards, which will take place on 11 March at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange, the Aberdeen Asset Management-sponsored Player of the Year recognises achievements at the top end of the professional and amateur game over 2015, for both male and female golfers.

Past winners include Matthew, Paul Lawrie, two-time Scottish Amateur champion David Law and last year’s victor, Stephen Gallacher, with a host of candidates lining up to join the prestigious roll of honour.

Online voting is now open at www.scottishgolf.org, with all participating fans going into a prize draw to win two pairs of tickets to the Scottish Golf Awards. Voting closes on 12 February 2016.

To vote in the Aberdeen Asset Management Player of the Year poll, visit http://www.scottishgolf.org/who-we-are/golfawards/vote-for-the-player-of-the-year/