WALKING THE WALK
We hear from Jenny Brown, The R&A’S director of business operations, about the governing body’s bold vision for Lethamhill Golf Course
Having secured approval to redevelop the existing public course at Lethamhill in north-east Glasgow, The R&A is pushing ahead with exciting plans for a multi-faceted community facility that will act as a ‘new pathway’ into golf. The wide-ranging development, set to open in the spring of 2023, will feature a nine-hole course as well as adventure golf and other shorter formats of the game, as part of a family-focused venue. Jenny Brown tells us more...
In a country of fertile golfing land, why did The R&A choose Lethamhill as the site for this venture?
Martin Slumbers [chief executive of The R&A] talks a lot about golf being the game that started in Scotland and how it was a game for the people. If we were going to do one of these as a blueprint then it was going to be in Scotland. Lethamhill is in the heart of the country, it’s easily accessible, it’s got the population of Glasgow and it’s right in the community of the city. The right things collided to make this work.
What was the driving force behind the scheme?
In 2016, The R&A had a kind of eureka moment. That was a turning point when we really defined our purpose. We had talked a lot about making golf appealing and inclusive, but, at some point, you
have to walk the walk. This is probably the physical manifestation of our plan for the next ten years. It’s about a lot more than golf. The work we are doing in community engagement with the Active Schools Network and our relationship with Glasgow City Council is essential to this working and another big reason why we did it here.
We know we have access to 90,000 kids through the Active Schools Network and we have a fantastic local community group in the St Paul’s Youth Forum, which is going to integrate with the site from the start. It’s about bringing golf back to the people and making it something they would love to go to, where they can feel welcome.
Golf lost its way with becoming elitist. My own welcome to golf, for instance, was turning up and being told my shorts were too short. We need to make it relevant and fun.
What market is The R&A targeting with the development?
The main audience is the active family; those families with kids who would be likely to play some kind of sport. That’s 70 per cent of our target market. The other 30 per cent is time-starved golfers or lapsed golfers. We are trying to look at all the barriers that are currently there and align this facility with The R&A’S purpose to make golf more accessible, appealing and inclusive 50 years from now.
What will make Lethamhill different to other golf facilities?
It’s about creating a destination that people want to come to, so it’s looking at activities that will add appeal. That could be something as simple as putting a nursery operator in the main hub, so families can drop off kids and then go out and hit balls.
We also have a partnership with the Seven Lochs Heritage Project.
It’s basically Scotland’s biggest urban park and it will have its visitor centre within our facility. On the banks of Hogganfield Loch, we have designed nature trails where you can come out and do a three- or five-kilometre run. There’s a wetlands area to explore and the St Paul’s Youth Forum is going to help plant an orchard. It’s all about bringing people into the golf course, not making it feel like you get to the 1st tee and it’s a no-go area beyond that point.
How are young people helping to shape the development?
We have set up a new kids’ panel, and through a team from publishers DC Thomson called Beano Brain [a youth-based insights consultancy], they are helping design the adventure golf. Instead of a team of adults saying ‘this is what we will design for kids’, we are getting the kids to design it as they will do a better job than we would.
What are your hopes for the project and do you envisage a wider roll-out?
I’d hope in two to three years we will have a flourishing community vibe going on, with golf thriving, kids in local schools being delivered education programmes that involve nature as well as golf and people playing all formats of the game. We would like to work with local clubs, too, to encourage people to make the step to formal clubs and membership if they desire. It’s about building the whole golfing ecosystem.
We’d love to have more of these. We hope this will be a blueprint for a new type of golf facility.
“We hope this will be a blueprint for a new type of golf facility”
This is an excerpt from Golf Business Quarterly. GBQ, The PGA’S new golf business journal, provides thought leadership that is applicable to all disciplines in the golf industry. Find out more at pga.info/pga-2020-vision/ golf-business-quarterly