Paul Lawrie, who is sponsoring the event, said he is looking forward to watching the cream of Scottish junior golfing talent compete at Banchory Golf Club and Inchmarlo Golf Centre.

He told the Piper: "It's obviously a huge event and I'm looking forward to it immensely. I'll be walking around and watching them all play and I'm sure the standard will be very high. I know some of the kids who will be playing through our junior programme so I'm looking forward to coming out and watching a bit of the action."

And Paul had some simple advice for any youngsters taking part who have ambitions to play golf professionally – keep practicing.

"My advice to any youngsters is just to work hard. You only get out of this game what you put in. I'm probably working harder right now than I ever have in my whole life because I'm struggling a wee bit and I'd like to be higher up the world rankings. Hard work is the only cure."

The 39-year-old is likely to witness a feast of golf on Monday with some of Scotland's most promising youngsters making the trip to Deeside.

The girls event will be played over 36 holes at Banchory Golf Club while the Laird's Course at Inchmarlo Golf Centre will be the venue for the boys event.

Recent winners of the Scottish Schoolgirls title have included Alford's Laura Murray in 2005 and Curtis Cup star Michele Thomson from Ellon in 2006.

Banchory Academy's Louise McGillivray, Samantha Leslie (Westhill Academy) and Lauren Duncan (Aboyne Academy) will represent South Aberdeenshire in the team competition.

Fifteen-year-old Louise McGillivray, a 10-handicap, said: "I'm really looking forward to the competition as it is at my home course and hopefully I can put in a good performance."

South Aberdeenshire will also be well represented by promising Inchmarlo prospects Chris Robb and Callum Trahan along with Mearns Academy's Chris Bremner.

The individual title will be a hugely competitive affair with Adam Dunton (North Aberdeenshire), Paul Shields (South Lanarkshire) and Oliver Huish (East Lothian) all in good form. Aberdeen City's Nick McAndrew and David Law, a member of the Paul Lawrie Foundation, will also be hoping to do well.

The 1999 Open winner believes that the North-east already has some of the best facilities in Scotland to help junior players get to grips with their golf game.

Paul also believes that young golfers in the North-east will be given a further boost if the championship course he is designing at Blairs College is granted planning permission when the application goes in front of Scottish ministers in the final stage of the planning process.

"It is certainly getting an awful lot better for juniors in the North-east with places like the Kings Links and Aspire," said Paul.

"I believe that the course I'm designing at Blairs College will have some of the best facilities in Scotland and the more places we have like that and the more opportunities children get to play golf the better. I have been up there several times and it is an exceptional piece of land. I think it is going to be an excellent course and I'm sure it will be one of the best courses we have."