Our campaign in Scotland now features more than 30 of the country’s greatest links courses: from iconic Turnberry on the Ayrshire coast to Royal Dornoch, ‘the star of the North’ - via the likes of Prestwick, Royal Troon, Machrihanish, The Machrie, Muirfield, North Berwick, Kingsbarns, St Andrews, Carnoustie, Royal Aberdeen, Cruden Bay and Castle Stuart. Each of these golf clubs has been invited to periodically fly a Global Golf4 Cancer awareness flag on its 4th hole and to occasionally host or facilitate cancer fundraising activities.
Nick Edmund, a three-time head and neck cancer survivor and the founder of Global-Golf4-Cancer, launched the ‘Turnberry to Dornoch’ Campaign on 14th October 2018 by embarking on a 400 mile awareness-creating ‘golf-walk’. Setting off from beside the famous lighthouse at Turnberry, and finishing on the 4th green at Royal Dornoch on 22nd December 2018, Nick walked the entire route carrying a set of golf clubs and played the 4th hole at each of the 25 featured courses along the way.
Notwithstanding the many challenges created by the pandemic in 2020, we were able to grow our Scottish campaign during the summer and raise our GG4C 4-Flag for the first time at 5 very special links courses: in July at the superb new Dumbarnie Links near St Andrews in Fife; and in August at a quartet of legendary layouts in the south west of the country: Machrihanish and Machrihanish Dunes on the Mull of Kintyre, Shiskine on the Isle of Arran (only 12 holes, but what a 4th hole!) and The Machrie on the whisky-famous island of Islay.
Golf club members, visiting golfers and the wider golfing community can all participate in the on-going campaign - particularly by spreading the word (e.g. via social media) and through fundraising or making donations to the cause. In developing the ‘Turnberry to Dornoch’ 4-Flag Campaign, we have been able to call upon the kind support and expertise of IAGTO, the Global Golf Tourism Organisation, and GEO – the North Berwick-based Golf Environment Organisation, as well as VisitScotland and various regional golf associations. This assistance has helped us maximise the awareness and fundraising potential of the campaign and to publicise it both nationally and internationally.(Watch a short video here)