Katrina Tweedie, The Scotsman, 12 July 2000

Colin Montgomerie yesterday helped launch a government initiative to make golf the saviour of Scotland’s declining tourism industry.

Europe’s top golfer paired up with Henry McLeish, the tourism minister, and Rhona Brankin the deputy minister for sport and culture, in a bid to increase the number of sporting enthusiasts visiting the country.

Although Scotland is the home of golf, they admitted that promotion of the sport has been miserably lacking, allowing other nations with less impressive portfolios to attract tourists.

An aggressive £500,000 marketing strategy, launched at the venue of the Loch Lomond Invitational tournament which starts today, aims to increase golf spending - currently worth £100 million a year to the economy - by 4 per cent next year.

Acting as Scotland’s ambassador for the game, Mr Montgomerie, Europe’s top earning player, said: “We are the home of golf and it is now time to live up to that by promoting and marketing it properly.

“Scotland has been great for golf but I’m not convinced we have made the most of our qualities here on home soil. We have been complacent and now need to wake up to the fact that competition is taking over.”

Attracting major competitions is an integral part of boosting tourism and Scotland’s bid to host the 2009 Ryder Cup is vital to the overall promotion of the country.

Famous courses such as Carnoustie, Loch Lomond, Gleneagles and Turnberry are regarded as ideal attractions for overseas visitors, but with more golf courses per square foot in Scotland than anywhere else in the world, smaller clubs will also benefit.

Mr McLeish said golf already attracts 200,000 visitors a year but he said he believed with new technology and investment in marketing “we could do a whole lot better”.

The aim of the plan is to make the world aware not just of the attractions of the top courses, but of the 500 other public and private courses.

He blamed a lack of national self-confidence for a state of affairs in which the Irish Republic now considers itself ten years ahead of Scotland in golf tourism. “We have got a tremendous opportunity to do much better,” said Mr McLeish.

Reports have criticised food and accommodation in Scotland’s hospitality industry and last week it was revealed that the number of foreign tourists visiting Scotland is down by 10 per cent.

“We can’t just improve the golf courses without improving infrastructure. Some of our hotels and restaurants are the best in the world and that will be a big part of our focus,” he said.

Ms Brankin, said the increasing number of women players should not be ignored. ‘This is a wake up call for Scottish golf and we’d like to see the remaining obstacles to equality in some golf clubs which operate a discriminatory membership removed.”