Fractured landscape is damaging Scottish golf at elite amateur level
Why it’s time for someone to take the bull by the horns because something is clearly wrong on performance front
It’s time to set off the alarm bells because it is clear for all to see that something is badly wrong in Scottish golf, meaning action needs to be taken sooner rather than later to try and rectify what has become a grim situation.
Quite frankly, it’s been an abysmal season for Scottish players at an elite amateur level and something needs to change to at least give youngsters in particular a chance of reigniting some of the glory years for golfers flying the Saltire in events that still carry clout and rightly so.
Finishes across the board in the European Team Championships last month were awful and that included an unflattering effort by the men’s side in Division 2, which in itself highlights where Scotland as a country finds itself in terms of its current standing in the amateur game.
It was a similar story in the recent Home Internationals, with the Men/Women picking up the wooden spoon at Woodbrook in Ireland while the Boys/Girls only avoided the same fate after beating Wales on the last day at Monifieth.
On the individual front, there hasn’t been much to shout about either apart from Carly McDonald, an exciting young talent, winning The R&A Under-16 Girls’ Championship, emulating both Hannah Darling and Grace Crawford in the process after their successes in 2018 and 2022.
Events like the Helen Holm Women’s Scottish Open, Men’s Scottish Open, Scottish Boys’ Open and Scottish Girls’ Open are all gauges of how talent is developing and, from a home perspective, only McDonald, again, delivered something tangible as she triumphed in the latter at Luffness. Two of those titles fell to English players and the other to a Pole.
What about this one, though? In last week’s The R&A Boys’ Amateur Championship at Gailes Links, only two Scottish players were deemed good enough to secure spots in a 144-player field while the Caledonian contingent in the girls’ equivalent at Craigielaw was sparse as well. Even McDonald couldn’t come to the rescue there.
Take a look at the World Amateur Golf Rankings and you will see for yourself that something has gone amiss in terms of the pipeline that had functioned fairly well for a long time, hence why it is time for heads to come out of the sand if that is, indeed, what has happened here.
In the men’s standings, California-based Niall Shiels Donegan and Blairgowrie’s Connor Graham are both sitting inside the top 25, which they certainly deserve credit for. They both look to have bright futures ahead of them and it was a pity that, for one reason or another, neither played in the European Team Championship while, unfortunately, the Home Internationals just don’t seem to be of any importance to the top players these days.
Scroll down from Shiels Donegan and Graham, though, and it really is disturbing that the next highest-placed Scot in the men’s ranking is 355th-placed Andrew Davidson then George Cannon, who sits 562nd, after that. Sheridan Clancy, meanwhile, is the top-ranked Scottish women in 262nd spot. If that is down to something that is causing our players to suffer when it comes to just getting into top events, then let’s do something about it, for goodness sake.
The irony about all of this is that there are way more playing opportunities for young Scottish golfers on the domestic scene than there has ever been. Scottish Golf runs a flourishing GolfSixes programme while the likes of the Paul Lawrie Foundation, Stephen Gallacher Foundation and Junior Tour Scotland are all providing lots of well-run events on great courses.
My question would be: ‘Is there a structure in place that is allowing all of this to deliver the best outcome possible in terms of developing young talent?’ Sorry, but the answer would appear to be ‘no’ on the evidence we’ve seen this year alone and, on that basis, the time has come for someone to take the bull by the horns.
Ultimately, of course, it is the responsibility of Scottish Golf as the governing body to give promising players the best opportunity to flourish in the amateur ranks then turn professional feeling confident they can take what, let’s face it, is a huge step.
Unfortunately, the resources that were there to support the likes of Grant Forrest, David Law, Connor Syme, Ewen Ferguson and, to a lesser extent, Bob MacIntyre are no longer there, which is something that really needs to be looked at by Scottish Golf CEO Robbie Clyde and his chairman Alan Kilpatrick because and, I’m not going to beat about the bush here, a concerted bid to grow the girls’/women’s side of the game should not be the governing body’s apparent sole main focus alongside supporting affiliated clubs.
I’m sure that the response to that will be a rap on the knuckles for this correspondent, but, as someone who keeps arguably the closest eye on the Scottish game from top to bottom as anyone out there, I feel I can question whether the performance programme currently in place is working as efficiently as it should be and needs to be.
No-one is doubting whether or not people are working hard enough in that respect or have the level of passion that is required to give our players a platform to shine, and I actually believe there are a lot of talented Scottish youngsters out there at the moment despite this being a year that might suggest otherwise.
What is surely needed, though, is for the people who can play a part in helping to turn the current situation around to get around the table and thrash out a unified structure that kills off the theory that a fractured landscape at a time when so much good stuff is being carried out is potentially damaging Scottish golf as opposed to letting those current Saltire bearers to shine on the game’s biggest stages.
Believe me, this column has been brewing for some time and isn’t just a random rant. It comes from the heart of someone who loves to see the Scottish flag on leaderboards, something that I’ve been fortunate to enjoy most of the time I’ve covered golf and, in particular, Scottish golf.
Right now, though, it’s become pretty painful checking those leaderboards and I know that there are lots of people out there who feel exactly the same. So let’s do something about it, please.
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