Lee clocks up the miles to spread his PGA expertise

Golf can be full of gadgets, gizmos and gee-whiz thingamajigs. If there’s not a simulator here, then there’s a GPS rangefinder there or a Trackman launch monitor somewhere.

The ancient, and in some cases infernal, process of trying to get a little, dimpled ball into a small hole is now aided by the kind of elaborate wizardry, widgets and what-do-you-call-thems that would make the CERN Large Hadron Collider look about as high-tech as a turnip.

Amid all this innovation, Craig Lee assembled his own cutting edge contraption which has helped him take his vast PGA knowledge to a variety of nooks and crannies in Scotland.

Rather like an old episode of the A-Team, when the boys would cobble together a fortified, fully-armed 4x4 Jeep from odds and ends kicking about an abandoned garage, Lee’s all-singing, all-dancing travelling golf shop on wheels has got him motoring.

“Originally, the plan was for it to be a camper van with the shop inside where I could do my custom fitting and all that,” said Stirling-based Lee of his mobile, Heath Robinson-style contrivance. “But I would’ve needed a 7.5-tonne wagon and I didn’t fancy driving one of those round the narrow lanes leading up to some of the golf courses I visit.

“It’s been a busy old summer and there’s been a lot of tyre on the roads. “I’ve been covering up to Wick on a regular basis and over to Skye, the Isle of Seil and Orkney. Most trips can be 250 odd miles. And it’s not motorways or straight roads either. It can be four or five hour trips each way. I’ve clocked up a fair few miles.”

Lee has never been afraid of a challenge. Back in 2007, and aided by a local scrap merchant who paid his entry fee, he came through all three stages of the European Tour’s qualifying school to earn a place at the top table.

When he lost his card and returned to competition on the domestic Tartan Tour, the 43-year-old showed terrific resolve to haul himself back up through the ranks, regain his European Tour spot and flirt with victory only to be denied in a play-off by Thomas Bjorn at the 2013 European Masters.

Now retired from full-time competition – he’s still a dab hand though and was runner-up in the Loch Lomond Whiskies Scottish PGA Championship in September - Lee remains eager to put some 25 years of professional experience to good use.

“I’m offering a professional service to the small clubs in Scotland who don’t have these things,” he added. “Some of them don’t even have a practice area. For a lot of people in places north of, say, Inverness, it’s two hours into the city. Out on the west coast, it’s the same getting to Glasgow. It almost becomes a day out just to get a dozen balls or a regrip. I think people have appreciated somebody making the effort to go to these places.”

Spreading the golfing gospel to a new generation through his own Foundation is another string to Lee’s bow. “We’re trying to get junior coaching on a regular basis for kids who probably wouldn’t see any PGA pro,” said Lee, who is often joined on the road by fellow PGA pro Heather MacRae.

“I learned on the course and I sometimes think kids miss that. You can get them along to do junior classes for an hour but I’d like to get them more involved in the society of a golf club. When I was starting off, we had 50 kids playing in junior medals. I was 12 and playing alongside someone who was 17. That was great for your development, not just as a golfer but as a person. It remains a great passion of mine.”

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