GULLANE PGA TRAINING CAN BE GOOD FOR McNICOLL'S CAREER

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Gullane Golf Club head professional Alasdair Good (pictured left) – the founder of the Wee Wonders Championship – recently added Carnoustie's Keir McNicoll to his team of assistants.
Yes, the same Keir McNicoll who was the first Scottish amateur golfer to earn a +6 handicap, winner of the St Andrews Links Trophy and Leven Gold Medal in 2008 and a Walker Cup team candidate whose form and confidence have been on a downward spiral since he became a tournament pro in October 2009.
The move is unconnected to but follows on from the decision of another past Scotland amateur international Peter Latimer (St Andrews New) to opt out of the lemming-like rush to the self-employed tour pro ranks and join the staff of Felixstowe Ferry GC’s head pro Robert Joyce to start four years of PGA training.
Alasdair Good says:
“Many of our leading amateurs could benefit from the PGA Training Programme. The key is to find the right job that provides adequate opportunities to play, with a facility to learn about the very latest equipment and to be able to study and teach the golf swing.
“I'm keen to employ the best staff and to continue raising the standard of service I offer. As well as Keir, all of my other assistant professionals – Emma Fairnie, Ian Rowlands and Jordan Ramanauskas - are university graduates.
“Their further education is an advantage to them in preparing for the PGA Degree Programme and will also benefit them as they look to their own futures. With Keir's experience he's an asset to my business and to Gullane Golf Club.”
After a stellar amateur career, it just has not happened for McNicoll in the pro ranks. He was running out of places to play and the money to finance an increasingly unpromising future.

McNicoll, pictured right, made just one cut in 10 outings on the PGA EuroPro Tour in 2011 and then missed the cut at the Alps Tour School. It was probably then that the Scot realised that his tour pro career was in free fall and a big decision had to be made.
“I’d lost a lot of confidence in my own ability and I knew I needed to try to build my game and self-belief back to where it once was – and I couldn’t see that happening if I continued to play on the EuroPro Tour,” said the Scottish amateur championship runner-up of 2007.
“Signing up as a PGA trainee was a thought at the back of my mind and when I went down to see Alasdair Good at Gullane, he told me that he wanted me to join his staff sooner rather than later.
"I decided it was time to try and do things a different way, take a different direction, hopefully reaching my original goal in the end and collecting PGA status along the way."
McNicoll still aims to be a full-time tournament player again some day. But in the meantime he is going to give his PGA training his best shot with the hope that four years' working in a new golfing environment can rekindle the competitive flame that once burned brightly within him.
“The PGA training programme is good and it gives me a chance to learn about the game in a slightly different way. It’s great to be working for Alasdair Good and Gullane has the best pro shop in Britain as far as I’m concerned,” said McNicoll whose father Dave, who played professional football for Hearts, Dunfermline and St Johnstone, owns and runs the Carnoustie Golf Shop.
“Alasdair Good knows that I am still desperate to play and I will get opportunities in assistants’ events, but, for the meantime, the PGA training comes first.”
McNicoll, like two contemporaries who did earn Walker Cup honours - Lloyd Saltman and Gavin Dear, has somehow lost the skill that had him averaging six under par scores as an amateur.
But McNicoll has not lost the brain that earned him a business administration degree as a student at Lynn University, Boca Raton in Florida.
Full marks to Keir for taking a reality check, and, yes, eating a bit of humble pie as well, in deciding to become a PGA trainee instead of pursuing the dream of becoming a successful European Tour player.
As Alasdair Good says, many more of Scotland's leading amateurs in recent years would have been better off becoming PGA assistants than plunging out of their depths in the highly competitive world of pro tournaments.

LETHAM GRANGE BACK IN FULL SWING, THANKS TO MEMBERS

LETHAM GRANGE Hotel which serves as a clubhouse for the two courses at the golf venue near Arbroath. Image by Cal Carson Golf Agency.

AN AMAZING SUCCESS STORY - says club captain 

FROM THE SPORT.SCOTSMAN.COM WEBSITE
Just under a year after fearing they’d become golfing nomads as the doors slammed shut at Letham Grange, a decision by members to take over the running of the two courses at the Angus venue is proving hugely successful.
A membership target of 300 this year was exceeded by more than 200 and now the members have been given the go-ahead to continue operating the courses until March 2013.
“It has been an amazing success,” said club captain Nick Jackson of a venture that was launched in the wake of the facility near Arbroath going into liquidation due to a long- running saga over disputed ownership.
That has still to be resolved but, in the year it celebrated its 25th aniversary, the golf club members took on the running of the courses and managed to get them open again for the start of the season.

“Some of the Letham Grange residents contributed financially and we sought every opportunity we could think of to raise funds. Our budget and operating plan (which was based on a membership of 250 and a skeleton greenkeeping staff) worked. We are financially stable and able to meet all of our commitments, including some significant improvements to the drainage of both courses.
“We hoped we might be able to stretch the membership beyond the 300 mark but over 500 is far beyond our expectations,” added Jackson. “We are now looking to do the same again in 2012, bring in more members and have another great golfing year."

+Lower picture is the view from the 18th tee on the Old Course, playing to the green beside the hotel. Image by Cal Carson Golf Agency.

LEWIS WOULD LIKE DONALD OR TIGER AS PLAYING PARTNER

FROM THE BT YAHOO SPORTS SERVICE
European Tour Rookie of the Year Tom Lewis, pictured right, is hoping he can further his golfing education by partnering World No 1 Luke Donald or 14-times Major winner Tiger Woods at next month's Abu Dhabi Championship.
The Middle East tournament offers a prize fund of $2.7 million and has attracted a high-class field including US Open champion Rory McIlroy, US Masters winner Charl Schwartzel and Open champion Darren Clarke.
World No 2 Lee Westwood, fourth-ranked Martin Kaymer, No 8 Jason Day and 15th-ranked K J Choi will also be chasing the attractive Falcon Trophy.
"The field is amazing and I am crossing my fingers I get paired with one of the top names like Luke Donald or Tiger Woods at some point during the week," said Englishman Lewis from Welwyn Garden City.
Lewis, 20, won on his third professional start at the Portugal Masters in October, having burst on to the scene at the Open Championship in July when he became the first amateur since 1968 to lead golf's oldest Major.
Italian teenager Matteo Manassero, the 2010 Rookie of the Year, is looking at the January 26-29 event to kick start his bid to earn a Ryder Cup debut in Illinois in September.
"The Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship is one of the biggest tournaments we play in all year outside of the Majors and the World Golf Championships so I am hoping to make a good start to the year to help my quest for Ryder Cup qualification," he said.

LEXI THOMPSON'S BROTHER CURTIS WINS DIXIE AMATEUR TITLE

FROM THE GOLFWEEK WEBSITE
Chalk up another title for the Thompson family. Curtis Thompson won the Dixie Amateur on Thursday, less than a week after his younger sister, Lexi, won the Dubai Ladies Masters.
Curtis Thompson shot 13-under 274 (69-69-69-67) to finish a shot ahead of Daniel Berger (71-71-66-68 for 276). The final two rounds were played over Heron Bay Golf Club's 7,234yd course at Coral Springs, Florida.
Charlie Bull (Wentworth) finished T24 on 287 with rounds of 72-71-76-68.
+To view all the final totals
CLICK HERE 

The field was split during the first two rounds between Heron Bay, former site of the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic, and Woodlands Country Club’s East Course in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Peter Uihlein, winner of the Dixie Amateur for the past two years, did not attempt to complete a hat-trick. He recently announced his intention to turn professional within the next few weeks and to campaign in Europe.
Lexi Thompson won the 2007 Dixie Amateur women's title at the age of 12. The Thompsons are the first sister-brother duo to win the title. The Thompson family lives locally at Coral Springs, Florida.
This was the first big amateur title for Curtis Thompson, who also was medallist (leading qualifier) at the 2010 U.S. Junior and runner-up at this year’s Players Amateur. Thompson, a Louisiana State University freshman, ended the fall season ranked 65th in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings.
"That was a lot of fun, but I have to say there was some pressure," said Thompson, who turned 19 nine days ago. His family, including Lexi and older brother Nicholas, followed him during the final round. Nicholas Thompson, a former member of the U.S. Walker Cup team, recently regained his full Nationwide Tour card at Q-School.
Lexi Thompson, 16, won the Ladies European Tour’s Dubai Ladies Masters and the LPGA’s Navistar LPGA Classic in 2011. She is the youngest professional to win on either tour. She will be an LPGA member in 2012.
The Dixie Amateur women's championship will be held from December 30 to January 2.
+Gavin Dear from Murrayshall, near Perth won the Dixie Amateur Championship in 2008 before he turned professional. He is one of the few British competitors to win the prestigious American title and, almost certainly, the only Scot to have done so.