News

Blairgowrie Set For Memorable Year in 2014

14th January 2013

Blairgowrie has been confirmed as the host of the 2014 Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship, the final of the pinnacle event of the PGA national tournament schedule.

The club's Lansdowne Course will stage the blue riband tournament from August 5-8 to kick-start a landmark summer for golf in Perthshire, with the Ryder Cup taking place at Gleneagles just under two months later. The Landsdowne's sister course, the Rosemount, will also stage the Junior Ryder Cup in the lead-up to the main event

In what promises to be a memorable year for Scottish sport, the Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship gets underway just two days after the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, with the women's championship taking place from August 7-8.

Reacting to the new, Blairgowrie's PGA head professional Charles Dernie said: "The Lansdowne course is one of the most testing inland courses and the club is absolutely delighted to be hosting the flagship event of the PGA and the cream of the players on the golf course.

"It will be a very big year for golf in Scotland with the Ryder Cup, while it is also our 125th anniversary, which we will also mark by hosting the Junior Ryder Cup. To have two events of such high calibre on our course is an honour."

Blairgowrie has never staged the Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship before but has a rich tournament pedigree and was the scene of Greg Norman's first European Tour victory in the 1977 Martini International tournament where the then 22-year-old Australian held off the challenge of South African Simon Hobday and England's Howard Clark, to win by three shots.

The 2012 Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship was won by West Linton's Gareth Wright at De Vere Cardon Park. The championship was last staged in Scotland in 2009 when James Leer triumphed at Dundonald Links.

Next year will be the 42nd staging of the championship, the past 21 of those sponsored by Glenmuir, the leading golf apparel manufacturer based in Lanark.

This year's tournament, meanwhile, will take place at De Vere Slaley Hall in Northumberland from June 11-14 where the field will battle it out for the five remaining places on the GB&I PGA Cup team, ahead of the September clash against the United States at the same venue.