Frank Rennie gets a John Panton to go with his award
Frank Rennie is a member of the Professional Golf Association of Prestwick. At 75, Rennie received the John Panton Award in a ceremony at a lunch organized by the Professional Golf Association in Glasgow, Scotland.
Rennie received the award on the 21st of December this year, the date some believed to be the apocalyptic ending of the world. No such luck.
Rennie’s career began at the Gleneagles. He moved to Prestwick in 1962. He made Prestwick his home for the next 42 years.
In 1971, he won the Northern Open. He played the last two rounds of the Open Championships at Muirfield with the revered John Panton.
At the luncheon Rennie revealed that he had first been introduced to the sport by the great, late John Panton, who had inspired him to pursue the chosen career.
He had continued to be an inspiration For Rennie, even long after he had passed away.
“It’s quite an achievement to receive this award and it was John Panton who was my inspiration to become a professional. He also gave me my first golf lessons at Glenbervie.
“It was quite emotional receiving this honour because we were good friends. It was also nice that many of my members from Prestwick were here as well”.
John Panton was quite the legend he was. Although of Scottish descent himself, he did represent Great Britain on a number of occasions.
He won the Professional Golf Association Seniors Championship twice and was an honourary member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, until he retired in 2006. It runs in the blood: his daughter is a founding member of the Ladies European Tour.
The man, no doubt following after Arnold Palmer, even has a drink named after him! Walk down to a bar in Scotland and ask for a John Panton. Go ahead.
What you will get is a pinch of lime cordial in your ginger beer and there you go, you have your John Panton. Drink it up!
Colin Montgomerie was the guest speaker at the luncheon that evening. He was given a £10,000 cheque for the generous services, no doubt in his golfing capacities, he had offered to The Elizabeth Montgomerie Foundation.
He spoke at the event thus:
“I am very proud to be a Scot The rest of the world still treats Scotland as special. Wherever you travel in the world, the words St Andrews are mentioned an awful lot and they do understand we are the home of golf.”
Montgomerie added that the proud Scots that they were (Robert the Bruce anyone?), they ought to be going up on the rooftops and shouting it out up there and not just accepting praise as it comes trickling down from abroad.
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