Investment is why we are named ‘best golf experience’

A golf club that has undergone a period of significant investment has won three key accolades at the Scottish Golf Tourism Awards.

Gleneagles, host of the 2014 Ryder Cup, won ‘Best Golf Experience’, ‘Best Pro Shop’ and ‘Best Large Hotel’. The awards were decided by 33,000 votes from golf consumers across Scotland.

The accolades follow the resort’s hotel manager and golf courses and estate manager both being profiled this year in The Golf Business, and its director of golf, Gary Silcock, featured on the cover in May.

He said: “Our new owners, Ennismore, continue to invest in both our people and our three 18-hole championship golf courses and our customers are now seeing new levels of service and experience when they visit Gleneagles.

“We have invested heavily in our team and our product to ensure we remain one of the great golf experiences of the world.

“People sit at the heart of this investment, whether it is creating the green-keeping stars of the future through the expansion of our apprentice scheme; having Scotland’s largest team of fully-qualified PGA professionals at our PGA National Academy, or our consistently high delivery from our golf operations management team, that all come with five-star hospitality experience.

“Receiving monthly consumer insights and satisfaction statistics from across our golf business is crucial in our drive to constantly push the golfer experience forwards. This service-related data is helping us fine-tune all key aspects of day-to-day operation, from the service in The Dormy Clubhouse through to the experience on our three golf courses.”

These consumer insights come as Gleneagles prepares to host two more significant events over the next two years on its PGA Centenary Course – the 2018 European Golf Team Championships and the 2019 Solheim Cup.

The latest awards also coincide with the completion of a detailed renovation project on The King’s and The Queen’s courses. The King’s Course has been taken back to James Braid’s original design vision and similar work was undertaken last winter on The Queen’s Course.

Gleneagles – Queens Course

“You could be forgiven for thinking that being host venue for the 2014 Ryder Cup was the pinnacle of the journey for us. We, in fact, see it as the beginning, and our story will continue to get stronger and stronger.

“Illustrating this is the fact that all three courses will host major events in 2018. In addition to the European Team Championships on The PGA Centenary Course, the King’s Course will stage the 100th playing of the Scottish Stroke Play Championship, and the Queen’s Course will welcome the second ‘Mixed’ event for Scottish Golf,” concluded Gary.