Loretto School

Loretto School Golf Academy, Nr Edinburgh, Scotland

Our aim is to foster golfing skills in as many pupils as possible and to play a significant part in producing Scottish, British and World Champions.

Now in its eighth year, The Golf Academy at Loretto School has had considerable success and is now widely recognised as one of the top golf schools in the UK.

As a member of the Golf Academy pupils have an exceptional opportunity to develop their golfing talent in tandem with a first-class all-round education.

The academy operates from the School's practice facilities and local world class golf courses and is directed by the School's resident Golf Professional, Rick Valentine, and a team of top class external coaching professionals. Scotland is the birthplace of modern golf and Loretto School, perhaps because of its superb location next to the world's oldest playing course, has a strong tradition of top level golf, dating back to its founding in 1827.

The Golf Academy operates alongside the School's rigorous academic schedule and is open to girls and boys from the age of 12 years.

Winners of Scottish area for ISGA Schools Matchplay

Recent Achievements

Loretto ISGA Schools Matchplay Finals ( Runners up)

The Programme

The programme offered is unique in Britain and the academy attracts pupils from the UK and the rest of the world. One and two year golf programmes are popular with our international students.

d_SGU_logo_for_web.jpg"Loretto encouraged me to make the most of myself in every aspect of my life, uncovering not only a competitive edge, but a love of sportsmanship that has been a guiding influence in my life ever since." Graeme Simmers, 2001/02 Captain of The Royal and Ancient Club, St Andrews.

"Loretto's ties with golf go back a long way and The Golf Academy is a most exciting initiative, linking young aspirants of the game with golf's historic origins in Musselburgh." Alex Hay, the BBC's voice of golf.

Runners up in the ISGA Home Internationals held in Northern Ireland

Over the past few months, Loretto have been playing in the inaugural Intercollegiate Tour which is run by College Golf UK. The competition is open to all colleges/schools in the UK that run a golf programme in their institutions and is certainly a step up in quality from standard schools golf. The UK is split into 5 regions with Loretto competing in the North Division alongside Myerscough, Gateshead, Cheadle & Marple and Huddersfield New College. Each college hosts one round of the event and the schools are ranked in a league format in both gross and net scores. In each round the schools have 8 team members with 6 out of the 8 scores counting in the competition. Alongside the team event, a gross individual event takes place. In the team event, Loretto finished in 2nd place behind Myerscough and in the individual event Philip Bueckendorf finished in 1st place by a considerable margin. Lewis Gregory also performed well in the individual event by finishing in 6th place overall. These two students will now compete in the Players Championships at Collingtree Park in May alongside the 48 other qualifiers with a chance to become a member of the College Golf UK team

Loretto  qualify for the ICT Team championships to be played at Stonebridge on the 6th of May 2009

ISGA Grand Finals at St Andrews Bay 2009

Teams from all over the UK descended on St Andrews to play for the Schools Championship. Loretto team came a creditable 3rd place behind Wellington College and RGS Worcester. The Individual title went to Lorettos Phillip Bueckendorf who won a Galvin Green waterproof and a lesson at the World famous Butch Harmon School of Golf

 

ISGA Home Internationals 2010 third time lucky for Loretto

The top finishing schools from last years knockout which had over 120 schools competing, qualified to play for their country.

Wellington College as winners of the matchplay tournament qualified to represent England and hosted the event at the magnificent Berkshire course.

The Loretto School Golf Team (pictured) qualified as the best Scottish school, Monmouth as the best Welsh school and Campbell College as the best Irish school.

A scratch strokeplay event over 2 days to decide the winners. Each school fielded a 4 man team.

Day one started with rain, which carried on during the day. A fine first score of 76 from the young Irishman Scott Johnstone set the pace, 75 and 76 from Scotland’s George Munsey and Lesley Atkins put them slightly ahead of England's 76 and 77 from Jordan Mann and Sam Williams.  At the end of day one with the best 3 scores from four to count Scotland were ahead by 3 shots

Day two was played on the Blue course at The Berkshire with the weather clearing scores were expected to be better. Sami Bouzabia from Scotland was the first in with a 72 which put the pressure on the England team who were now 12 shots behind.

Scotland ‘s Loretto kept their nerve and closed out with a total score of 454 for the two days leaving England's Wellington 8 shots behind on 462. Wales and Ireland had their own battle for third and fourth with the young Irish team coming in with 487 against Wales’s 522.

Rick Valentine Loretto’s coach said “It was third time lucky for us in the ISGA Home Internationals. After competing in both Ireland and then at home last year it was a fantastic achievement to finally get our hands on the trophy. The tournament was played in tough conditions over two fantastic courses and we look forward to hopefully defending our title in Wales next year.”

Trophies were awarded to:-

Best Individual tournament score Sami Bouzabia 72

Best 2 day scores from each country: Jordan Mann Wellington England 149;  Lesley Atkins Loretto Scotland 151; Scott Johnstone Campbell College Ireland 153; Joe Park Monmouth Wales 161

Team scores: Scotland 454; England 462; Ireland 487; and Wales 522

 

 

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