The new position of Golf Development Secretary has been created by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews to strengthen the management's of policies and funding for the development of the game in the United Kingdom and throughout the world. Grants and loans are made by the R&A from funds generated by the financial success of the Open Championship.

Duncan Weir moves from his post as Assistant Secretary (Championships) to take over the new appointment from 1 January 2000. He will be responsible for ensuring that funds are used to maximum advantage and will work closely with administrative bodies in all areas of golf and in all countries affiliated to the R&A.

Coaching and development of junior golf will continue to be a priority and more than 40 countries have already received grants to improve the quality and availability of golf teaching.

Funds will also be used for the preservation and improvement of championship courses, for greenkeeping and ecological research and the wider development of golf through club and municipal facilities.

Duncan Weir was born and brought up in Fife and has twice been county champion. He was Scottish Boys and Scottish Schools champion in 1979 and a member of the Great Britain & Ireland team which played against the Continent of Europe that same year. He reached the semifinals of the Scottish Amateur in 1989 and plays to a handicap of one.

He graduated in 1984 with a BA in Economics from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia where he had gained a golf scholarship and joined the R&A the following year in the Rules Department, transferring to the Championship Office in 1987.

On the same date that Duncan Weir takes up his new appointment, Rhodri Price will move from the Rules department to become Championship Assistant. Having represented Wale at boys, youths and full international level, he was Gwent stroke play champion and a member of the 1998 Great Britain & Ireland squad. At the Simon Bolivar Cup at Caracas in 1997 he was a member of the two man Welsh team. He also plays to a handicap of one.