It was wet for much of the day, but all smiles from Stephen and Nikki (Image: Supplied)

Welcome to The Herald's weekly snapshot of golf business news in Scotland.

A shout-out this week for the professionals at my home club, Cathcart Castle's Stephen Duncan and Nikki McLeish, who slogged through five and a half rounds of golf in a single rainy day to raise £4,000 for the Carnwadric WIN Project on the south side of Glasgow.

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Their zeal in grinding through 100 holes in "proper" Scottish weather is a classic example of something golf does quietly and consistently well: raising money for good causes.

Across Scotland, from big-name championship venues to small members’ clubs, charity is woven into the fixture list. Pros, captains and committees use the game’s natural formats – fourballs, Texas scrambles, marathons and Pro‑Ams – to turn a day on the course into a fundraising engine.

(Image: Damian Shields)

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The range of events is wide. At the top end you have organised charity days for national causes or corporate partners, with full fields, sponsorship, auctions and raffles attached. When well-supported, these can bring in five‑figure sums in a single outing.

At the other end are member‑driven efforts like Stephen and Nikki’s 100‑hole challenge, captains’ charities, memorial trophies, juniors’ sponsored walks and informal raffles in the clubhouse. Most clubs will also donate fourball vouchers or tee times to outside charity days, so their contribution goes beyond what happens inside their own gate.

Because there is no central register of activity, the numbers can only ever be estimates, but the pattern is clear enough.

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Nikki putting out on the 99th green (Image: Supplied)

A typical Scottish club is likely to run at least one or two formal charity days each year, plus a scattering of smaller fundraising drives. When you add sponsorship, entry fees, raffles and online giving pages together, many ordinary clubs are probably raising in the low five figures annually, with smaller ones still comfortably into the thousands.

Scale that up across Scotland’s 500‑plus clubs and you are looking at several million pounds a year flowing from golf into charities – everything from cancer support and armed forces organisations to local community projects like Carnwadric WIN.

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In that context, two pros raising £4,000 in a day is not just a nice story about stamina and sore feet; it is part of a broader tradition in golf which, following a 30% decline in all Scottish charitable donations during the past five years , has never been more vital.

BIGGA's membership includes more than 6,000 greenkeepers and turf professionals (Image: BIGGA)

Two greenkeepers from courses in Scotland have been shortlisted for national awards recognising the most promising up-and-coming talent in the industry.

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Nick McEley, deputy head course manager at Milngavie Golf Club and a student at Gosta Training, and Taymouth Castle Golf Club's Tyler Rogers have been singled out in the 2026 Greenkeeper of the Year Awards run by the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA).

Mr McEley has been shortlisted along with four others as the Top Student Greenkeeper of the Year. Mr Rogers, an apprentice greenkeeper at Taymouth and student at Askham Bryan College, is among five vying for the title of Toro Young Student Greenkeeper of the Year.

"These awards continue to showcase the breadth of talent coming through the greenkeeping industry, and this year's finalists are another outstanding group," said Deb Burnett, head of professional development at BIGGA. "Whether they are at the beginning of their careers or have already taken on significant responsibility within their teams, they have shown the commitment, knowledge and ambition that will help drive the profession forward."

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The 2026 awards will take place at Rockliffe Hall in County Durham from September 8-10, when the finalists will compete in a series of challenges designed to test their technical knowledge and passion for the greenkeeping profession.

Irrigate App in action at the 13th green at Prestonfield Golf Club in Edinburgh (Image: Supplied)

It is estimated that around three-quarters of UK golf courses are running irrigation systems at or beyond their typical design life, meaning thousands of facilities are facing the looming prospect of seven-figure replacement costs. New retrofit technology developed in Scotland could offer a far less expensive solution.

Read the full story from Around the Greens here.

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