Minister for Sport Jamie Hepburn, with Simon Payne immediately behind him, in this picture  at the formal opening of the refurbished Cowglen GC clubhouse

MINISTER FOR SPORT OPENS 

COWGLEN'S NEW CLUBHOUSE
 NEWS RELEASE
Cowglen Golf Club in Glasgow  has welcomed Jamie Hepburn MSP, Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health to formally open their newly-developed clubhouse and take a golf lesson, courtesy of resident Advanced PGA Professional Simon Payne.
The newly refurbished clubhouse marks the culmination of what has been a busy period for the club, based in Glasgow’s south-side, in which they have invested heavily in improving the golf course and developing their practice facilities.
This includes the new Cowglen Golf Academy, a new six-bay covered driving range and teaching centre to add to the existing short-game area and putting green.
The club is now recognised as a Scottish Golf Development Centre and the facilities are the envy of clubs locally and nationwide.
These new facilities, coupled with a vigorous approach to challenging traditional golf club stereotypes, has also led to the club reporting membership growth for each of the last three years, one of only a handful of clubs nationwide to do so.
Club secretary and Advanced PGA Professional Simon Payne, said:
“It was a privilege to welcome the Minister to Cowglen this morning, a reward for a lot of hard work that the members have done over the past few years to transform the club.
"We are rightly proud of the facilities we now have at our disposal but more so, of the positive family-orientated culture which we have created which has been the catalyst for our fantastic year-on-year increase in members.
"For juniors taking up the game in particular, I honestly can’t think of a better place to start playing than Cowglen.”

Jamie Hepburn MSP said:
“It was great to visit Cowglen and get some expert tuition from Simon Payne. The new clubhouse is looking fantastic, and the facilities are a real asset to the club. The 2014 Ryder Cup will leave a great legacy for Scottish golf, but it’s crucial that young people all over Scotland have a chance to be involved, at clubs just like Cowglen right throughout Scotland.
“Through Club Golf, over 350,000 children have been introduced to golf at school. The Scottish Government is fully committed to the development and implementation of Scotland's Junior Golf Strategy that will provide new opportunities for every child in Scotland to take up this great game.”