Scotland should feel proud and lucky to be home of new Golf It! facility

“Stuffy, crusty golf, eh? Not any more.” The words of Phil Anderton, The R&A’s chief development officer, as coloured smoke billowed into the air to mark the ceremonial launch of the new Golf It! facility in Scotland that is set to become the envy of countries around the world.

Young people from St Paul’s Youth Forum hit tee shots from a 52-bay double-decker driving range to mark the launch of Golf It! in Glasgow.

Make no mistake. Scotland already has some outstanding family-orientated golf facilities, with Martin Slumbers, The R&A’s CEO, mentioning Wellsgreen in Fife, for example, when he first hinted that the Golf It! concept was in the pipeline as part of the ruling body’s bid to grow the game at grass-roots level.

There can be no denying, though, that this new offering on the golfing menu in the sport’s cradle is on another level in terms of being able to achieve an ultimate target of “revolutionising the sport” and “make it more accessible and inclusive”.

For starters, Golf It! is located in a perfect spot and not just because it is close to both the M8 and M80. It’s been created on the south bank of Hogganfield Loch, which sounds as though it could be in the Highlands but is actually close to Glasgow city centre.

The R&A's Golf It! facility in Glasgow will open to the public on Saturday.

On arriving for that launch ceremony ahead of the doors opening to the public on Saturday, this correspondent’s initial thought was about the absence of anything to indicate the facility had actually been delivered by The R&A. Indeed, though Anderton turned up sporting a jacket that had a logo on it, he was soon among a small army of people wearing Golf It! hoodies.

The reason for that, though, makes complete sense. While The R&A is one of the most recognisable and respected names in the game around the world, it means nothing to the target audience for this project, the primary aim of which is to introduce people to golf in a fun environment and give them an opportunity to grow into the game.

For some, the journey will start in a short-game area that boasts three adventure golf courses, a twist on pitch and putt and a putting green. The next step could be hitting full shots for the first time on a 52-bay floodlit double-decker driving range before having the confidence to tackle the ‘real thing’ on an existing nine-hole course that has received a major overhaul.

Everything about Golf It! is bold and bright, helping create a feelgood factor the moment you set foot in the place. While Jock MacVicar, the dearly departed ‘doyen’ of Scottish golf writers, wouldn’t have liked hitting balls to the sound of loud-ish music, background noise is part of fabric in life these days. It certainly didn’t bother the group of local lids as they battered balls on the range at the launch. One, in fact, already has talent as the group standing in what had been deemed a safe distance away had to move back when a ball landed a few feet away.

Members of St Paul’s Youth Forum enjoy playing Adventure Golf at the launch of Golf It! in Glasgow.

It remains to be seen if the Golf It! brand is rolled out around the world and sites for facilities may not be as perfect as this one, but, with the aim to provide in-curriculum golf experiences to 42,000 children across Glasgow as part of a long-term education programme, Scotland should feel both proud and lucky to be home of the first one.