Former Hollandbush professional Ian Rae has been appointed to the role of Head Golf Coach at the Scottish National Golf Centre, Drumoig. The 39-year-old will be in charge of coaching development at the SNGC, working closely with the Scottish Golf Union to set up the national coaching programmes.

Rae has been involved in the SGU set-up for the past five years at Area and National level but will now take overall control of the coaching budgets and strategies as well as developing research programmes at the SNGC. To that end he has already been working with sports scientist Brian Ewing of Dundee University and his Edinburgh University counterpart Malcolm Fairweather, looking at new ways to teach and develop golf.

Rae will also continue to expand his personal coaching database which at the present time includes many of Scotland's leading professionals and European Tour hopefuls such as Graham Rankin, who will be competing in the Final Qualifying School at San Roque from 17-22 November.

"I'm excited about the opportunity I have here. I have lots of ideas and can't wait to put them into practice to hopefully benefit Scottish golf at all levels. The facilities we have here at the Scottish National Golf Centre are second to none and I'll make sure they are utilised to their full potential", said Rae.

An encouraging sign in that direction already is the fact that the Golf Facility at the SNGC is already fully booked at weekend from now until the end of April 2000. Parties attending include the Ladies Golf Union Curtis Cup Squad and a Rules Course run by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club.