An American golf organisation, recognising the excellence of six of East Lothian's historic courses in and around Gullane, has joined forces with Gullane Golf Club's Head Professional Alasdair Good to launch its first European Championship for youngsters.

The U.S. Kids Golf Foundation, in its first event outside North America, will hold the tournament for young players, both boys and girls aged 7 to 14, at Craigielaw, Kilspindie, Luffness and Gullane golf clubs from May 27-30. The tournament has attracted the best young players from 34 Countries.

The Foundation conducts more tournaments for young golfers than any other U.S. organisation. Its 8th annual Golf World Championship held at Pinehurst, North Carolina in 2007, attracted more than 1100 players from 33 countries.

“Our experience shows that golf's popularity shows no age barriers or geographic boundaries,” said Dan Van Horn, founder and president of U.S. Kids Golf. The European Championship is an exciting opportunity to bring positively reinforced, high-quality competitive events to youngsters around the world. We believe this tournament will be an inspiration for youth golf throughout Europe and especially Scotland.”

Sheena Richardson, Provost of East Lothian and a keen golfer said: “We are delighted that U.S. Kids Golf has chosen East Lothian for its inaugural European Championship. Our county is a golf leader in Scotland which is the game's historic home, and I am sure the young players will enjoy meeting the challenge of six testing courses. I wish all the participants good luck in the tournament and hope they find time between rounds to enjoy East Lothian's many other visitor attractions.”

Alasdair Good, who is also founder of Wee Wonders, the leading competition for youngsters in Great Britain and Ireland: “Hosting 500 young players will be a memorable occasion for all. The opportunity to play on some of Scotland's finest links courses will be an experience that they will surely want to repeat.”

The courses being used for the competition will be shortened to allow for age and gender. The field for the three-day, stroke-play tournament will include players who finished among the leaders in the 2007 world championship and the 2007 HSBC Wee Wonders Championships. The six courses chosen to host the kids tournament are a mixture of young and old. Three of the clubs - Kilspindie, Gullane and Luffness - were established in the 19th century with Craigielaw opening in 2001.

Kilspindie Golf Club dating from 1867 is the one of the oldest clubs in the world. It is situated beside picturesque Aberlady Bay with several of its holes bordering the shoreline. It is a medium-length course but nevertheless a good test of golf and a challenge to all players.

Golf has been played around the village of Gullane for more than 300 years and Gullane Golf Club was established in 1882. It has three courses called appropriately - 1, 2 and 3. Each course provides its own special test for golfers. The club has a long history of hosting international championship events, including the Open Championship Qualifying, Scottish Amateur Championship, Ladies British Championships, Seniors Open Amateur and the European Boys Championship in recent years.

Luffness New Golf Club, despite its name, was designed by Old Tom Morris and established in 1894. A challenging traditional links course, recently lengthened with a second par 5 hole introduced, it is host for qualifying rounds of the Open Championship. The course can be hard - mighty hard - when the wind blows down the Firth of Forth and rough is set thick.

Youngest of the quartet is Craigielaw, a magnificent links course designed by Donald Steel & Co and opened in 2001. As testament to its quality, in this short period it has been host to many national events, including the 2006 Scottish Amateur Strokeplay Championship, and was a qualifying course for the 2007 British Seniors Open at Muirfield.

ENDS
Issued by Rob Sinclair, Corporate Communications, 28 April 2008
T. 01620 82 7741 M. 07887675547 email rsinclair@eastlothian.gov.uk