A DUNFERMLINE artist has showcased the city’s American golfing roots by creating a giant painting as part of the Ryder Cup celebrations.

Ian Moir, who is part of the Fire Station Creative project set to turn the former building in Carnegie Drive into a creative arts hub, painted the tableau to mark Dunfermline’s contribution to the game on the other side of the Atlantic.

Dunfermline men John Reid, a member of Dunfermline Golf Club, and Robert Lockhart were part of the “Apple Tree Gang” who first demonstrated the game in New York’s Central Park by setting up a hole in an orchard in 1888.

During that year, Reid, known as the “father of American golf”, set up the first US golf club in Yonkers, of which Andrew Carnegie became a member.

Moir’s painting features the Dunfermline pioneers playing golf alongside ancient kings in a local ravine, with the stream symbolising the Atlantic Ocean, while also showing Dunfermline Abbey.

He said, “Out of civic pride, I always wanted to celebrate the local characters who founded golf in the US. 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 Dunfermline Golf Club.