Dozen golfers make trip to North Carolina for one-off experience

Twelve junior golfers who regularly play in the East Lothian Junior Golf League visited Pinehurst, North Carolina, for the near-two-week trip.

This was the fifth time the league had taken their players to the area, with youngsters only having one opportunity to go on these trips, taking the total number of East Lothian juniors to have ventured to North Carolina to 84.

Pinehurst No. 2 is now preparing for the US Open in June and has five more Men’s US Opens before 2047 and a US Women’s Open in 2029.

The golfers making the trip were: Ryan Pirie (Haddington), Angus Waddell (Gullane), Rory Leishman (Royal Musselburgh), Scott McAdam (Kilspindie), Joe MacPherson (Kilspindie), Rory Leitch (Haddington), Kate Thomson (Winterfield and East Lothian Girls), Louise Martin (Gullane and East Lothian Girls), Katie Mackenzie (Gullane), Anna Zonova (Royal Musselburgh), Riley Porterfield (Kilspindie) and Jamie Barker (Longniddry).

After travelling from Edinburgh, via Heathrow, to Raleigh-Durham, the team were put up by friends across three different addresses.

After a day’s rest, the golf started on the Pinehurst No. 1 course in the ‘Winternationals’, a series of seven 36-hole events played in the mild North Carolina winter on various courses at the Pinehurst Resort and nearby.

For many players, the first exposure to US golf courses was hard to handle, with different types of grasses, and hard-to-read grainy greens, so scores were high.

A dozen talented East Lothian golfers swapped the Garden County for a trip to North Carolina

Dave Warren, secretary of East Lothian Junior Golf League, said: “All of our players were in the ‘junior/senior’ division, and 84 competitors in total competed in the various divisions.

“Joe MacPherson, a scratch player from Kilspindie, coped extremely with jet lag and the unfamiliar greens, and scored 74 and 70 to tie for first place.

“Katie Mackenzie was our top girl.

“Almost all of the players improved their scores on day two.

“The players had a total of nine rounds of golf in nine days and enjoyed social mixed fourball golf at Pine Needles (the host course for four US Women’s Opens), Mid Pines and Forest Creek South.

“The eight boys had our annual match against the local Pinecrest High School over Pinehurst No. 4, where we came a distant second to the state champions.

“Meanwhile, the girls ventured back to Mid Pines for another round.

“Then on the second weekend, there was a practice round and two more rounds in the Winternationals at Longleaf, the HQ of US Kids Golf.”

A dozen talented East Lothian golfers swapped the Garden County for a trip to North Carolina

Weekdays were filled with various activities, including playing the nine-hole Cradle course at Pinehurst, using all the practice facilities and the six-hole ‘Bottlebrush’ short course at Longleaf, visits to the Donald Ross Museum and to the research and development centre Golf Pride.

Warren added: “We were given guided tours of each facility and some players had clubs re-gripped at Golf Pride.

“We had a talk from Jaime Diaz, a renowned golf journalist and TV pundit for the Golf Channel in the USA.

“Jaime donated a huge box of brand-new Golf Channel shirts which he had built up over the years. Our players were delighted to get these.”

Each junior and leader was given a dozen golf balls by the league and souvenirs – a Pinehurst No. 2 pin flag for boys, a Pine Needles pin flag for girls, and a No. 2 course planner for all.