Castle Stuart Golf Visitor Welcome Assured

According to press reports Highland Council is to “pull out all the stops” to ensure a warm welcome is offered to visitors attending the Scottish Open golf championship at Castle Stuart Golf Links, Inverness, between 7-10 July, and that they leave with a favourable impression of the area.

Members of the Inverness City Committee pledged to “put on a show” for the 50,000 to 60,000 spectators expected to attend the prestigious European Tour event at Dalcross, near Inverness.

They want a festival feel during the event and hope everyone is working in partnership to ensure that Inverness is in a pristine condition, with “welcomes” at entry points to the city, as well as floral tributes, bunting and banners and street entertainment in the city centre.

The idea of building more around golf events is nothing new but you get the sense that there is enough private sector input and influence in the Inverness and Nairn area that it will in fact happen the way it should. There is little doubt that at a local level Castle Stuart's team understand the importance of the visitor experience and if there knowledge and passion can be adopted within Inverness itself it will truly be a golf event worth attending.

When you go abroad there is quite often so much going on around the event that adds value to the core reason for the visit and if Inverness can achieve this and create a festival atmosphere in the city then it will score very well.

I recall suggestions being made to do something similar with Dundee the last time the Open was at Carnoustie but not sure what came of it. I also remember some of the roads being closed off to traffic in Troon last time the Open was played there and that created a buzz as well with a street party type of atmosphere.

Inverness Provost Jimmy Gray said: “The event provides us with a marvellous opportunity to showcase Inverness and the Highlands to the world. We want to ensure that the event runs smoothly in terms of transport and accommodation; that visitors are given a warm Highland welcome and enjoy their time in this world class destination.

“We also want to make sure that visitor’s preferences and needs are clearly understood so that local businesses are given every opportunity to make their visit to the Highlands a memorable one. We will do everything we can to ensure it is a big success.”

The council is providing £33,000 in the form of event sponsorship, with some additional expenditure envisaged to ensure the area is seen at its best.

And of course it is not just the 2011 Scottish Open which will be at Castle Stuart – they will also host the 2012 and 2013 Opens. Grant Sword, of Castle Stuart Golf Links, thanked the Council for its “fantastic” support for the event. He said preparations were well in hand for the competition, with most of the 500 volunteer marshals and scorers in place. Advance sales of tickets were very encouraging.

He said: “The response from everyone we have approached for help in staging this event has been overwhelming.”

Good luck to those involved anyway it could turn out to be a great week for golf in the Highlands.

Everyone urged to welcome Scottish Open visitors

Published:  22 April, 2011

Move to the Seaside For Golf's Scottish Open?

According to The Scotsman, "The Scottish Open, which has been held at Loch Lomond since 1996, could be heading to a new venue after the European Tour confirmed it is in discussions with "four or five" links courses at the request of sponsors Barclays."

 

"The news is a blow to Loch Lomond Golf Club. It posted pre-tax losses of £45.5 million for 2008 and has been on the market for the past two years."

Apparently, the tournament sponsors, Barclays would to see the event played ton a links course in the hope of attracting all the world's top players the week before The Open and a decision on a prospective new venue could be made in the next month.

You have to feel a little for Loch Lomond which is a splendid spectacle but it does make sense certainly for the organisers to have the event as a warm up for the links based Open Championship which follows on the week after. From a Scottish perspective it could be good for other tourism areas who find early July a perennial struggle to fill rooms.

East Lothian has apparently been mentioned but the problem of the number of available rooms would push visitors into Edinburgh, Ayrshire's obvious candidate could have been Dundonald Links as the sister course of Loch Lomond. It does look however from the outside look as though the change of ownership plans may have inadvertently contributed to the course losing the event and that in turn would mean that Dundonald could be ruled out also.

My choice? Let's be brave and go to somewhere fresh to areas that would directly see the benefits. If you want tradition go to Royal Dornoch, if it wasn't where it was it would have hosted half a dozen Opens already; if you want something new and challenging make it Castle Stuart between Nairn and Inverness.

Go on European Tour show some innovation...