Dumbarnie Links Continues its Work with The Caddie School For Soldiers

The world’s first and only Caddie School for Soldiers was established in 2019 and David Scott, General Manager at Dumbarnie Links and president of the Caddie School for Soldiers has helped shape the program with the founder of the Caddie School, Don Snyder in its initial stages and continues to be a part of this transformative experience for many.

Established in St. Andrews, Scotland, and with the support of the Kohler family and Peak Scientific, each session the school welcomes veterans from the U.S., U.K. and Canada to participate in a month-long program in which the veterans can leave their real-world responsibilities behind to learn the skills needed to find work as a caddie.

Based at The Duke’s Golf Course, each session the veterans initially train by caddying for each other and then with a little experience under their belts, with Duke’s members or members from local golf clubs invited to the club.  However, at the end the month they end it with a final test where they caddie for golfers who haven’t seen the course which they are about to play.

Kohler Company have recently invested in a house, adjacent to The Dukes golf course, where the majority of the training takes place, which will be the perfect home for 6 soldiers joining this years-program, starting in March.

This year, the program will run 3, month-long sessions and Dumbarnie Links will be hosting the soldiers, and giving them experience on a links course. At the beginning of the session, David Scott will be sitting down with the soldiers and reassuring them, that the school is here for them.  It’s a safe and relaxed environment where they are amongst people that care about them.

A Master Professional of the PGA, David will also be taking sessions on the Range, giving demonstrations to the recruits about common swing faults, and so giving them some ideas, should a golfer be really struggling with their games, a quick ‘Elastoplast’ to fix their swing enough that they can enjoy the remainder of their rounds.  Other pointers will be playing a ‘knock down’ shot for playing in the wind, and getting out of deep bunkers, typically found on links courses.

David Scott commented, ‘For me, it’s been a life-changing experience helping these battle-weary heroes.  Many of the participants have been involved in traumatic situations and experienced first-hand, the horrors of war.  Through the school, we have seen shells of men, gradually find themselves again and start to rebuild their zest for life, and the belief in themselves to take on new challenges.”

Learn more about the Caddie School for Soldiers

https://caddieschoolforsoldiers.com/about/