The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Victims of golf’s schedule squeeze
This should be a week to treasure everything that is great about our national game.
At Kingsbarns Links, one of the best new courses built anywhere in the world in the last 25 years, the RICOH Women’s British Open is being staged. It’s a championship rapidly gaining in international significance and this week for the first time comes under the umbrella of the R&A’s excellent championship management team.
Meanwhile across the country at “Old” Prestwick, maybe the true heart of the organised competitive game in Scotland, the Scottish Amateur is being staged.
I can’t be at two championships at once, as much as I’d like to be. At my first Scottish Am in 1994, there were eight correspondents from different newspapers in attendance. This week, I doubt there will be one, certainly not for the entire duration of the week.
This reflects both the changing nature of the media and the interest in the Scottish Am. But it also reflects golf’s Gordian Knot of the moment, the schedule.
The professional game is about to undergo a major overhaul with the well flagged news – probably to be confirmed at Quail Hollow in two weeks – that the PGA Championship will move from August to May from 2019.
The effect of this change will undoubtedly see the Players Championship move back to March, and probably see the European version of the PGA Championship at Wentworth also move from its usual slot in May, maybe even as far as September.
In the meantime in Europe we seem to be cramming all the top men’s and women’s professional events into July. From the Irish at the start of the month, through the Scottish Men’s, The Open itself, the Men’s Senior Open, Scottish Women’s and the British Women’s, there’s barely time to do the laundry.
The Scottish Am has traditionally been in this week, the last days of July and first of August. In the old days the more relaxed atmosphere was a blessed relief for the beleagured pressmen. Maybe that’s why there was eight of us covering it.
But coverage has been squeezed, and so has the relevant importance of what should still be a signifciant national championship. This year the three leading Scottish amateur players of the moment, Connor Syme, Robert MacIntyre and Liam Johnston, will all be absent.
They can’t be blamed; they’re preparing for the US Amateur next week. Qualified by virtue of their lofty world ranking, why wouldn’t they play historic Riviera in Los Angeles, and all the doors that would open for them in the future if they had a strong week there? It’s a no brainer.
If it is to retain value, the Scottish Am probably has to move out of this congested week. Scottish Golf moved their Boys Championship earlier this year but they probably moved the wrong event; a Scottish Am in the peak amateur period of May-June makes much more sense, and would at least be subscribed to by the best players.
As for July, we have to be prepared to accept that the golf public – especially in Scotland – can actually be exhausted of interest.
Next year, for example, we’re going to have a Scottish Open at Gullane, an Open at Carnoustie, a Ladies Scottish at Gullane and a Senior Open at St Andrews crammed into three weeks. That’s putting considerable strain on even the most golf-obsessed fan’s wallet.
Even with the Open at Birkdale this year there was probably a hit on the spectators numbers at Dundonald for the LSO and down at Porthcawl for the Senior Open. Maybe we need to take a breath and enjoy the amateur championship in their traditional place after all.
Throwing away the stereotypes
After a week at Dundonald, the women move up to Kingsbarns for their biggest championship. It’ll be very interesting to see the course play in proper championship order with such a quality field of the world’s best.
Yet the women’s game has a problem, I repeatedly hear. Too many Koreans. No one for the golfing public here to “identify” with.
Quite apart from the fact that this view is more than just borderline racist – the old “inscrutable” Asian thing – it also doesn’t bear even token examination.
Confusing focus on the golf course with actual personalities is not something we do so readily with European or American or Australian players. More than a few I’ve known for years can still “block” reasonable questions with one-word nothing answers if the mood suits them.
There was more inscrutability about some of them last week than any players of Korean heritage, such as Lydia Ko, who even after her awful 79 on Friday to miss the cut was accommodating, cheerful and honest when she spoke to me.
And few winners I’ve ever seen had the unabashed joy of champion Mi Hyang Lee, whose English is not quite perfect yet but whose enthusiasm and charm won over all who spoke to her.
Hopefully fans take the time to engage with all the players at Kingsbarns this week. They might get a surprise.
“… we have to be prepared to accept that the golf public – especially in Scotland – can actually be exhausted of interest