Golf stalwart’s dedication to the fore after winning national volunteering award

Stewart Fotheringhame’s role in ensuring golf was at the heart of Orkney’s successful staging of last year’s Island Games has been recognised through the Spirit of Golf Volunteering Award for 2026.

The Orkney Golf Club stalwart has taken on every volunteer role imaginable since he first started coaching youngsters at Kirkwall Grammar School in the 1980s.

From coach to junior committee member, captain to greenkeeper, barman to caddie, there isn’t a job that Fotheringhame hasn’t undertaken with gusto in his quest to make sure Orkney Golf Club thrived.

However, last year’s efforts to ensure golf formed a part of the Island Games — a festival of sport featuring 2,500 athletes from 24 islands across the globe — took his levels of commitment to a new level.

The judges agreed that Fotheringhame’s commitment to golf on the island for the past 45 years merited this award.

Fotheringhame collected the honour at the 2026 Scottish Golf Awards ahead of two other exceptional candidates who have also dedicated much of their free time to helping others in the sport.

He said: “This is amazing. I never thought it would be my name read out.

“I accept this award on behalf of all the people who have worked so hard to develop golf on the island.

“I get great satisfaction from volunteering and this is the cherry on the cake.”

During 2025, Fotheringhame chaired the committee overseeing the planning and preparation for golf at the Island Games hosted for the first time on Orkney.

Over 100 volunteers were recruited and trained while course renovations and adaptations at Orkney and Stromness were carried out in advance of play.

The six days of Island Games golf were a huge success and for Fotheringhame it was a crowning moment in his 45 years as a volunteer.

The 66-year-old said: “Without doubt the successful hosting of this event was the highlight of my golfing life and a major achievement for Orkney and the associated golfing community.”