Erskine picked up the Sir Henry Cotton Lifetime Achievement Award – and is delighted to see the growth in the junior game in the region.
As a talented young golfer James Erskine dreamed of one day being among the big hitters heading off to the Ryder Cup.
When he realised his career wasn’t going to pitch up at that level, he turned his attention to helping the next generation tee-off on their own journey in the sport.
More than two decades on and the Dumfries and County professional is finally reaping the rewards for his devotion – to the point he was mingling with this year’s Ryder Cup stars before they jetted out to New York for this weekend’s showpiece event at Bethpage Black.
Erskine was this month the recipient of the Sir Henry Cotton Lifetime Achievement Award – a prestigious national honour presented by the Golf Foundation to individuals who go over and above to help grow the sport at grassroots level.
It was a reward for his tireless work with encouraging thousands of school children across Dumfries and Galloway to take up the sport and inspiring more than a dozen to become fellow PGA professionals.
He was described as a “visionary, mentor and incredible champion of junior golf” by former DP World Tour star Dean Robertson at the awards ceremony at Wentworth during this month’s BMW PGA Championship.
On top of that his efforts to plan, fund and create a state-of-the-art practice and four-hole short course facility, which opened at his club this year, has been hailed by former Ryder Cup winner Stephen Gallacher as a “template” for clubs across the country.
But for the 41-year-old, who hails from Portpatrick, the biggest reward is seeing the next batch of juniors – 120 of them at his club – falling in love with the game.
Erskine said: “It’s really a great honour. Ands thanks are due to the many staff members, sponsors and donors who have made it possible to deliver these opportunities – often at no cost – for more than 20 years.
“As I was trying to make my way in the professional game and had dreams of becoming a tour player, there was no support, no access to professional coaching and the facilities for kids to play golf were poor.
“When I failed to make it as a player I kind of felt that I should give something back to the area I grew up in.
“I’ve taught over 10,000 kids for free in the schools during that period of time, and I’ve kind of taught at nearly every club in the South West of Scotland, giving junior coaching for little or no cost through that period of time.
“The big thing that I wanted to do in Dumfries was to create a facility that would help generate an environment that kids could grow and evolve in the sport because there’s no short courses or short game areas or cover bays really at a club in the whole region.
“I managed to bring in about £150,000 to make it happen, we built a four bay range, a four hole wedge course, artificial grass and an artificial chipping and putting area.
“We’ve now over 120 junior members and they come along for free coaching every week that’s provided by myself and my staff, so it’s been good.
“If we don’t bring in young golfers, none of our golf clubs are going to survive, these are our future members or the future green keepers or the future captains.
“If we don’t do our bit, we’ll have no golf clubs in the south of Scotland because the demographic of the membership is elderly.
“You’ve got to give that gift and try and get them to a decent level. Twelve of my juniors are now PGA professionals and 15 are now professional golfers from a little bit of help that I’ve given them, so that’s rewarding.
“Just giving kids the opportunity, and who knows what can happen. You look at Scottish players like Bob McIntyre who is away to the Ryder Cup again, Ewen Ferguson, Grant Forrest, Calum Hill and Connor Syme, they’ve all taken the bull by the horns and progressed as golfers, and if one golfer can go and become successful on the tour, then that would be amazing.
“But my main goal is to get as many kids that stay members and play golf somewhere across the country, that’s my ultimate goal.”
Erskine was one of the guests at Wentworth this month where he received his award from Golf Foundation president and former Tour star Nick Dougherty.
And he managed to grab a word with some of the European team who are this weekend tackling the US in New York.
He said: “Yeah, they were all there, I spoke to a few of them.
“There were some nice words, the feedback nationally has been off the charts. But it’s an effort everybody’s put in and it was just really nice to get some recognition for South West Scotland.”
