Council plans for major golf event

Council to pull out stops for
Highland Euro-tour golf event


Highland Council is to pull out all the stops to ensure a warm welcome is offered to visitors attending the Barclays Scottish Open golf championship at Castle Stuart Golf Links 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 - 60,000 spectators expected to attend the prestigious European Tour event at Dalcross, near Inverness.
They want a festival feel during the event and that everyone, including BID and the Festivals Working Group work 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.
Members were told the event will be televised to a world wide audience of 451 million households on Sky TV on the Thursday and Friday and the BBC on Saturday and Sunday.
Provost Jimmy Gray, chairman of the Inverness City Committee and a native of Caithness, praised Castle Stuart Golf Links for the marvellous coup of attracting the major sporting event to the area within three years of opening the course.
He 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 it’s best.
Grant Sword of Castle Stuart Golf Links thanked the Council for its ”fantastic” support for the event. The links would host the event for three years.
He said preparations were well in hand for the event, 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 overwhelmingly positive and we are looking forward to welcoming the world’s best golfers to our links.”
Noel Donaldson writes...I purposely added Jimmy Gray's local connection as you never know, he might be able to do something for his mither county in collaboration with Caithness golf clubs. Just a thought.

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