Highlands and Islands students come second in national golf tournament

The University of the Highlands and Islands student golf team has had its best ever result in a national competition. The team came second in the Scottish Student Sport Golf Team Matchplay Championship, which took place at Moray Golf Club in Lossiemouth last week.

It is the first time the team, which is mostly made up of players from around Scotland, has made it to the final. The students beat off competition from Strathclyde and Aberdeen universities over the course of the six day tournament, before facing competition favourites, the University of Stirling team, in Friday’s final.

The Highland team were eventually defeated 11 - 4, but coach Alan Fleming believes the players can be proud of their achievements: “The team is selected from a small number of students, but has produced some excellent results this year. The students have worked hard and compete well with teams from larger universities. They are a close team and have developed a great spirit amongst some very talented golfers.

“The last three years have seen some great consistency from the team which has established itself as one of the premier teams in Scotland and reached the semi-final at this event in the last two years. The team members should be proud of themselves and I’m sure staff and fellow students are also proud of them.

“I hope the university’s golf programme can continue to grow and encourage students to engage in the sport.”

The Scottish Student Sport Golf Championships is an annual competition which pits teams and individuals from higher education institutions from around Britain each other. This year, students from 17 institutions entered the tournament, including players from Northumbria, Birmingham and Royal Holloway, London.

The University of the Highlands and Islands team was captained by Callum McNeill from Lauder. The other team members were: Jamie Whittet from Muir of Ord, Ross Black from Alness, Derek Ramsay from Elgin, Darren Leith from Garmouth, John Mackinnon from Oban, Charlie Hickling from Kent, Oscar Hein from Finland and Sameer Bahl and Prashob Nair who are both from India. Many of the players are studying on the university’s golf management degree at North Highland College UHI’s Dornoch campus.

To find out more about the university’s golf management degree, visit www.uhi.ac.uk/golf

Media contact

Susan Szymborski
Communications officer
01463 279222
susan.szymborski@uhi.ac.uk