Ryder Cup: Painting celebrates Dunfermline links to American golf

An artist has created a giant painting commemorating the Scottish roots of golf in the USA as part of Ryder Cup celebrations.

Ian Stewart Moir painted the tableau to celebrate the shared history of US golf and his hometown of Dunfermline.

Several of the "founding fathers" of the game in America also hailed from the Fife town, and are depicted playing golf in the painting.

The Ryder Cup tournament is being hosted at Gleneagles this week.

A pair of Dunfermline men, John Reid and Robert Lockhart, were part of the "Apple Tree Gang" who first demonstrated golf in the USA by setting up a hole in an orchard in 1888.

And when Reid set up the first US golf club in Yonkers, New York, one of the first members was Andrew Carnegie, a famed industrialist and philanthropist - also from Dunfermline.

Mr Moir's painting shows these pioneers playing golf alongside ancient kings in a local ravine, with the stream standing symbolically for the Atlantic Ocean.

The picture also features Dunfermline Abbey, where Robert the Bruce is buried.

Mr Moir said the input of Scots hailing from Dunfermline had made "a massive contribution to the history of the game".

"Out of civic pride, I always wanted to celebrate the local characters who founded golf in the US," he said.

"The more I looked into it, the more I discovered - I found out that ancient kings such as Charles I and James VI played a rudimentary form of golf on the very same hill where I live.

"The only fictionalised aspect is the time frame. I wanted to capture the whole story of Dunfermline's golf legacy which, of course, spanned across hundreds of years."

The painting is currently on display at Pitfirrane Golf Club.