Surfing legend Kelly Slater presents Dunhill School Golf prizes

A group of aspiring young golfers, representing schools across Scotland, attended a prize-giving ceremony in St Andrews today after securing titles at this year’s Alfred Dunhill Schools Golf Challenge, and had the chance to meet 11-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater who presented prizes to them.

A total of 200 aspiring golfers representing schools from Fife, Tayside and other regions of Scotland signed up for this year’s schools’ competitions which Alfred Dunhill has proudly supported for more than 20 years.

With professional partner Matt Jones of Australia, Kelly recorded a score of 13-under-par in the Alfred Dunhill Links Team Championship, and he offered some words of inspiration to the competition winners.

He told them: “It’s a real honour for me to be at St Andrews and to be a small part of this great golfing community. I congratulate all of the young golfers who competed in the School’s Challenge this year. You’ve got to put in a lot of time and work, but most importantly you need to love the sport. If you love your golf, you will you enjoy the process and you will learn as well.”

The first leg of the annual event, held in the run-up to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, was staged on Carnoustie’s Buddon Course on 22 September. Archie Cargill, aged 14, a pupil at Arbroath High School, carded an impressive level par to win the competition’s scratch prize. In the following week, Cameron Brown, a 15-year-old from Ross High School in East Lothian, took the scratch prize after shooting a two over par score of 73 on the Fairmont St Andrews’ Torrance Course.

Further winners from the Carnoustie competition included Cameron Galloway from Blairgowrie High School, who took honours in the Senior Boys category. Fellow Blairgowrie pupil Jessica Sievwright won the Junior Girls category while Heather Strathdee from Arbroath High School won the Senior Girls competition, and Montrose Academy pupil Elliot Scott took the Junior Boys title.

Category winners at the St Andrews event were Leander Remes from Dollar Academy and Lois Reid from Aberdeenshire’s Mintlaw Academy, who won the Senior Boys and Senior Girls titles respectively. Fergus Iversen from Aberdeen’s Cults Academy won the Junior Boys competition while Jessica Wood from Balwearie High School in Fife took the Junior Girls title.

As well as receiving prizes, the young golfers attended an exclusive golf clinic with internationally renowned coach Robert Baker on the practice range of the Old Course.