At Nairn Golf Club in the Scottish Highlands, Murray Urquhart has become a driving force behind golf’s growth at grassroots level.
The former European Tour player and Head PGA Professional has boosted participation at the club through hugely successful Get into Golf schemes, junior camps and school outreach programmes.
With nearly 200 junior members now at the club and strong uptake among both male and female beginners, Urquhart has built a pathway into the game for many players, at one of the best golf courses in Scotland.
Here, he discusses how Nairn is attracting new golfers, building long-term momentum and making the sport more accessible for all.
With Get into Golf (an initiative to get beginners into the game), how does that manifest itself at Nairn?
The R&A came up with the drive of getting women into golf.
We thought, what can we do at Nairn Golf Club to do the same thing, to drive the whole thing forward?
Because of the makeup of the facility here, we’ve got a nine-hole course, a really good practice area, a good practice putting green. We thought it’s a perfect environment for a beginner to learn to play golf.
We thought to put together a package where if they signed up to it, that person would get 10 one-hour group lessons with me, but they would also get 20 visits to the club. That visit could entail spending a day on the nine-hole course, on the practice area, having lunch, or they may just come for an hour and hit balls.
Throughout the year, they get 20 visits to the club. For example, this year is £299, it’s a really good deal.
Golf sometimes gets a tag of being very expensive to get into. This is a way of introducing people into the game for what I would see as good value, and giving them a fairly relaxed attitude to it. (With) our nine-hole courses, you don’t have to book tee times, you just come along.
If they’re learning how to play golf, it’s quite a straightforward course to learn to play and it’s in a pretty relaxed environment. We’ve got a great initiative that started three or four years ago.
Last year, we had 20 women and 19 men. The first two years had been really popular with ladies, so we thought, there’s quite a few men asking about it as well.
Let’s offer it to men – it’s proving really popular. This year, we’ve got just under 20 again in both groups for men and women.
Let’s talk about the junior camps too…
Prior to that, I interacted with the local primary schools and did a one-hour introduction to golf sessions for kids who’ve never played before. I took them down the practice area, provided the clubs, got them hitting balls, showed them the basics of how to hold it, and what they’re looking for in their swing.
In the Easter holidays, I do camps which are open to six- and seven-year-olds, in a one-hour session, and then eight- to 12-year-olds for a two-hour session, and that’s three days a week. We do them in Easter holidays. I did a couple of camps this Easter, so there were two groups of 10 in the eight- to 12-year-olds, and a group of eight in the six- and seven-year-olds. It’s 28 kids.
They had a great time and there was 20 to 25 kids that signed up for that. On the back of that, we’ve had three or four juniors join the club. Those little sessions that we did in March have proven really popular.
We’ve got a big junior section at Nairn.
We’ve got nearly 200 junior members at the club. That progression has a bit of momentum now we’re a few years into the programme of getting more kids into golf, doing what I was talking about with camps, and then interaction with local primary schools.
Once you get a few kids, it just builds momentum in the club. If a couple of them enjoy it, then they take another two or three along, before you know it, they’re joining as members. We’re lucky with the committees at Nairn, they’re very supportive of junior golf.
I’ve been here for 10 years now, and they’ve been very supportive of the whole junior programme, and trying to move it forward, because they’re aware of the benefits of having the junior section, and they’re the future of the club.
What do you think it says about the growth of the game at a local level?
It’s really good. Kings Golf Club in Inverness – they’ve really developed a junior section in the last few years. They’ve got over 100 junior members. Locally, there’s definitely been momentum in getting kids into golf.
The Active Schools coordinator up in the local primaries in Nairn, they’ve been very keen to get golf involved. We’ve just built on that year on year and what I’m seeing with some of the people that are joining the adult Get into Golf groups are parents whose children have got involved in golf in the couple of years, and they don’t play golf themselves.
They’ve just thought what a great opportunity for us to have a go at golf. Hopefully, if they’re comfortable enough, and they’re wanting to commit a full membership, they can come down and join and play with their kids.
What would you say to someone who was thinking about starting golf, but was hesitant?
You’ve got to find the right facility where the club is quite relaxed, and it’s not the golf course itself that isn’t overly challenging. We’re lucky here in that we’ve got a really challenging championship course, which all the juniors aspire to go and play on.
They want to get better and go and play on that as they get older. We’ve got a lot of the local adult golfing population that really admire Nairn and want to play there, whether it be in an open competition if they’re not a member, or if they have aspirations of joining the club as a member.
With the nine-hole course, it offers a bit of a blend of both, because there is a nine-hole membership on its own. That acts as a pool for the beginner golfer, because it’s a golf course which isn’t going to be overly intimidating for them.
They’re not going to go out and lose loads of golf balls. Certainly in the Highlands of Scotland, like anything else, if you commit to using it, you’ll get really good value. It’s like the old story of paying £50 a month to be a member of a gym, and you never use it.
But it’s exactly the same in golf. If you want to use it, then the value is actually really good.
Where does your passion for coaching come from?
I did my PGA training in my early 20s and then played full time for 10 years. I played on the European Tour in 2003. After that, I wasn’t making enough money to keep my card.
I started coaching at Spey Valley golf course in Aviemore, and then moved into the management side of it for four or five years. I was continuing to coach, but I was turning quite a lot of lessons down, because I was busy in the management side.
The opportunity to teach full time at Nairn came along and I jumped at it. I’ve always enjoyed coaching.
I’ve always enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed seeing getting kids into golf, seeing their progression in the game. With my experience, learning as a kid and coming through coaching programmes, and then through the amateur level and professional level, I’ve got a good idea of how it all works.
I’ve always had a general interest in the golf swing itself and the technicalities of how to get better at golf. That’s all been something I’ve generally had an interest in.
There’s a lot of really nice folk here (at Nairn), and a lot of support from the club with what I’m doing.