LEE Westwood chose the eve of his first tournament of 2013 to announce a new Close House golf scholarship scheme for boys and girls aged 12 to 16.
The world No 8 is remaining attached to Graham Wylie’s golfing emporium at Heddon-on-the-Wall in Northumberland even though he has moved home from Nottinghamshire to Florida.
Today, Westwood tees off in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at the Emirates club.
Yesterday, he was recalling his own times as a youngster making his way in golf.
Eventually he became part of an England Golf system which has produced three players among the current world top-ten professionals in Westwood and Ryder Cup colleagues Luke Donald, ranked third, and Justin Rose, fourth.
Westwood said: “I am delighted these new scholarships are bearing my name.
“The young golfers who earn them – one boy and one girl – will be able to enjoy the finest practice facilities in the North East.
“More importantly, it is people who make places and I have got to know the staff fairly well at Close House having played there a few times.
“The atmosphere is spot-on, there is a great feel about the place.
“They pay enormous attention to detail and they have an excellent main coaches in Jonathan Lupton and Sally Hinton, who really know their stuff.”
The scholarship scheme is organised by Jonny Greenwood, the Close House golf operations manager.
He said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for good young golfers to develop their game at one of the UK’s Top 100 courses.”
