The Provost of Fife, Councillor Frances Melville has once again given her support to the Scottish Disability Golf Partnership, on this occasion by providing a Welcome Dinner during their Pan-Disability Open Golf Championships held recently at Scotscraig Golf Club in Tayport Fife.

Steve Bramwell the SDGP Secretary said, "Both Frances and her predecessor in the post of Provost have given brilliant support to disabled golfers across the Kingdom and this combined with Fife Councils Culture 2010 Programme and their Community Investment Scheme, have given us the chance to provide a comprehensive golf and golf training package for participants this year".

Pictured from left to right are Scotscraig Golf Club Captain, Graham Watson, Scottish Disability Golf Partnership Chairman, Jim Gales MBE, Provost of Fife, Councillor Frances Melville, Scottish Disability Golf Partnership Secretary, Steve Bramwell and Scotscraig Golf Club Council member Ian MacMillan.

The Welcome Dinner was attended by several of the Scotscraig Golf Club officials and some event sponsors including Val Shepherd who represented Sidey windows who kindly provided all the winners trophies for the championship, Helen Rorrison from the local Council for Voluntary Service, VONEF (Voluntary Organisations of North East Fife), who have provided administrative and advisory support to the SDGP for many years and Gavin Fisher from buyit4golf, whose generosity helped the SDGP provide a substantial Goody Bag to the players at this event and several other competitions.

A presentation was made to Jim Gales for his "Hole in 1" during the Championship.

The SDGP "tour" now moves on to Wellsgreen in Fife for its inaugural Golf Festival where three days of free golf tuition and practice will be provided after receiving substantial funding from Comic Relief and several small grant donators, to provide PGA Supervised lessons, on course golf practice, catering and some accommodation to anyone with a disability or serious health problem.

The Golf Festival also includes two golf competitions at Elmwood and St Michaels Golf Clubs, for the more established golfers and their coaches.

John Ambrose of the United States will attend the Festival to demonstrate his new invention, The L2 Lateral Line Putter.  John, who is a pilot, will be accompanied by his son, who will also be teaching the correct stance and use of the Lateral Line.  Both have been instructing this particular style for several years and have given many demos and clinics around the states.  They have kindly
agreed to attend the SDGP's Golf Festival and will provide free demonstrations to all the disabled golfers and their coaches, carers or partners.

Jim Gales, the Chairman of the SDGP and someone who has used the putter said, "We played in the McCulloch Cup in June and Some of the American and Canadian players, used the L2 during the Ryder cup of blind golf competition.  The L2 putter is one of the first putters that are truly designed for this style. The size, weight, and balance of the L2 is revolutionary and will change the way golfers putt. Coaches will find alignment and swing tempo for distance adjustments very easy and effective to see when aiding their golfer on the green. Both the L2 and the Lateral Line style are USGA approved. This year, KJ Choi and Johnny Miller have both used the side-saddle style on the tour
and Jim Nantz, a popular golf commentator, called it "the style of the future", so it won't be long until it begins to grow in popularity."

One commentator said, "As the great Sam Snead  said when asked what he was doing on a green at the 1976 masters while facing the hole to putt," they don't ask you how, they only ask you how many."

More information about the L2 Lateral Line Putter can be found at www.laterallineputter.com. and the SDGP's website is www.sdgp.co.uk.

+ SDGP Media Release