Why Heather MacRae is shining Scottish light for International Women's Day
Dunblane woman proud to be PGA professional and is also now wearing a Scottish Golf hat
With International Women’s Day on the horizon - next Sunday marks that global celebration - Heather MacRae is a shining example in Scotland of someone who continually pushes to not only better herself but also help other female golfers make progress in the game.
The Dunblane woman is a proud PGA professional and will create history later this year when she leads Great Britain & Ireland into battle in the first staging of the PGA Women’s Cup outside of the US as it takes place at Carden Park in Cheshire.
She’s also wearing a Scottish Golf hat these days, having been enlisted by David Patrick, the national women’s coach, to initially help out on a training trip before being officially appointed as the assistant coach of the Scotland women’s team.
Oh, and MacRae used her vast experience to good effect as well when, in a caddying role, she helped Hannah Darling come through two stages in last year’s LET Qualifying School in Morocco to secure a full card on the circuit for this season.
“Yeah, I’ve been busy,” MacRae, laughing, told The Scotsman and, in truth, there are probably few people in the home of golf who are more passionate about the game and flying the Saltire around the world.
She won the Scottish Girls’ Championship in 2001 at Glenbervie before claiming an eye-catching victory four years later in the British Ladies’ Stroke-Play Championship at Nairn, joining the likes of Belle Robertson and Jane Connachan in landing that coveted crown.
In 2009, MacRae became just the second woman to compete in the Scottish PGA Championship and has been locking horns with her male counterparts in the Scottish Region on a fairly regular basis since then. Indeed, she earned a place in the record books when becoming the first woman to win on the Tartan Tour when, helped by shooting a course-record ten-under 62, she triumphed in the 36-Hole Strathmore Challenge in 2022.
‘I feel lucky to be doing lots of things’
Add in the fact that she won a battle with cancer after being diagnosed almost exactly seven years ago and there can be no denying that MacRae is a fantastic role model for every single young Scottish girl golfer. “Yeah,” she admitted in reply when it was pointed out to her that the passion she has for the game always shines through, as it did in her chat with this correspondent.
Referring to a Scottish Golf trip to the Bahamas earlier in the year that was made possible through a partnership with the Sean Connery Foundation, she added: “One of the guys I played with out there said that it was so nice to see how much I love the game and that was good to hear as I feel like I have been dealt some nice cards at times.
“When I stopped playing on tour, I didn’t really know what I was going to do. But I still get nice opportunities to do things with the Scotland team while I also have my own business now that mentors kids who want to go over to college in the States. I still get to play and compete and what I love doing. I feel lucky to be doing all of those things.”
Not all the cards she’s been dealt have been good ones. “Yeah,” she agreed of being hit with the awful news about her cancer diagnosis and feeling her world had fallen apart. “But I think it also makes you appreciate things. I think what I have learned is that everyone has something going on. There’s always struggles or stress.
“I always said to people that, in golf, there’s a lot of things you can’t control, but you can control how you react. Yeah, when I look back and how I reacted to that, it still sort of blows my mind how I did it. But, as a result of that, I am grateful for and enjoy all the things I am doing.”
Though no-one seems more appropriate for the job, she described her PGA Women’s Cup captaincy as a “big surprise” and is determined to play her way into the GB&I team for a fourth time, with this year’s event also set to feature professionals from Australia, Canada, South Africa, Sweden and the US.
MacRae is also delighted to see the likes of Hazel MacGarvie, Gabrielle Macdonald and Hannah McCook all follow in her footsteps by going down The PGA route after finding it a tough slog trying to make headway as a tour professional.
“It is probably something you are disappointed about,” she observed of players being faced with a tough decision like that and giving an impression of how she felt herself after failing to get through the LET Q-School, “but it has worked out reality well and I am glad I made that decision back then. There’s definitely more and more doing it, which is great.”
With Darling having moved on to the paid ranks, where MacRae is confident the three-time Curtis Cup player will find her feet then shine on the LET before eventually moving on to the LPGA Tour, the current crop of top Scottish women amateurs include Grace Crawford, Freya Russell, Rosie Maguire and Abigail May while Carly McDonald is the shining star in the girls’ game.
‘I can still play alongside them’
“It is really nice,” said MacRae of her role with the governing body. “I feel it is a good time for me to be able to help them. I can still play alongside them. They swing it faster and probably hit it further most of the time. But I can still compete against them and, hopefully, teach them a lot. But a lot of it is just being able to share experiences. Most of them are at college in the States and I’ve been through that side of it as well. The good sides and the bad sides that people don’t always see or hear about.
“It’s nice because it’s a group that is pretty much at the same level. With Hannah having moved on, there’s no-one way better now than anyone else. They all get on well together and work hard to push each other on. It’s nice to be working alongside them and helping them.”
They couldn’t really have anyone better to fill that role and, in Heather MacRae, Scotland certainly has someone to salute on International Women’s Day.
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