Tartan Tour will be main focus for trainee Raitt

PROFESSIONAL George Raitt (Whetstone) has lined up a wide range of tournaments for his first full year as a trainee.

His main focus will be on the Tartan Tour which has tournaments on many of the well-known Scottish courses.

But he will also be looking to compete in PGA national and Midland regional events in the coming months.

He competed for the first time this year in the county golf Alliance meetings and made a real impact, but unfortunately this programme was hard hit by the wet weather which saw so many cancellations.

Last summer he competed on the Tartan Tour and did quite well, making several cuts and gaining valuable experience.

Now he hopes to do even better on that tour, which is owned and organised by former Open champion Paul Lawrie, as a development tour for young professionals looking to follow in his footsteps and progress to major events.

George, above, whose parents own Whetstone golf club, said: “I really enjoying playing and aim to do well.

“My opening tournament will be in Montrose in mid-May and the schedule includes events at Gleneagles and the Trump International which has gained much acclaim since it opened. There is also a Tour event at St Andrews in mid-September.

“The Tour runs basically from May until October and I hope to compete in almost all the tournaments.

“They are 54 holes over three days, with a cut involved for the field on the final day.

“But I will also play in the regional PGA Assistants Championship and hopefully qualify for the national tournament stage.

“For me it is all about making progress this season and I hope that the weather begins to improve.

“It has been extremely difficult to practice as much as I would have liked in the conditions.

“Fortunately Whetstone was fully open apart from just one hole in the last few days.

“I enjoy playing and competing, so the better I can do in tournaments, then hopefully the more successful I will be at the end of this year and that would be really pleasing.

“But I appreciate it is not an easy stage on which to do well and there is a great deal of fierce competition around these days.

“But I will give it all my very best shot and make every effort again to progress further this year.”

George’s brother, Harry, won the county golf union’s men’s pro/am foursomes championship last year with his amateur partner Martin Mayes.