YOU AND YOUR FAMILY CAN ENJOY SPORTING

Scottish golfer Carly Booth hopes the European Golf Team Championships at Gleneagles will be a big draw for families and boost the women’s game

EXPECT lots of surprise appearances from Bonnie the Seal, the official mascot of the 2018 European Championships.

The mascot joined rower Karen Bennett, swimmer Ross Murdoch and golfer Carly Booth to encourage families to get tickets to the Championships this summer.

And children attending the Glasgow 2018 action will be able to see the friendly seal popping up at every event. SHE was a golfing child prodigy whose father built her a golf course in the back garden but Carly Booth says her sport should be accessible to everyone.

Active from an early age, Carly began golfing at five and got her first handicap of 20 by the time she was eight – a world record, she thinks. She loved swimming and gymnastics, too, and could have pursued either.

But with a big brother, Wallace, also a talented golfer and her own growing trophy haul, opting for golf was an easy choice.

Scholarships to both a Championship ambassador talks about the opportunity Glasgow 2018 will provide to encourage more people into sport golf academy in America, then Glenalmond College in Perthshire were also golden opportunities that she took with her firm golfer’s grip. She was lucky, she acknowledges, but she stood out on ability as well as being a girl. Now she hopes the European Championships in August will inspire a new generation of youngsters – especially girls – to take up a sport.

We have an obligation in Scotland, as the home of golf, to make sure all kids try golf, she thinks.

“Most schools seem to stick to football or rugby but never really golf and it should be introduced to all schools as a priority,” says Carly.

Golfing history will be created as part of Glasgow 2018 when the European Golf Team Championhsips are staged on the iconic PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles and some of the