The general consensus of opinion is that nothing seems to be working very well for Scottish Golf at the moment, with one of the main storylines in last week’s papers – away from Nicola Sturgeon's decision to step down as Scotland’s first minister – that the organisation is looking for a new chief executive.
It is a job which seems to come up as often as any other in the Scottish golf industry. Indeed, as from 2017, golf’s governing body in Scotland has had six chief executives or acting C.E.s. The latest move involved Karin Sharp, who is no longer the interim C.E. and has returned to her role as chief operating officer while Fraser Thornton, a former non-executive board member, has been installed as the latest interim while headhunters pin down a new top man or woman. The hope, here, is that whoever it is will be in situ for long enough to be seen as a permanent fixture. (The salary is said to be at least £120,000, or about $144,500.)
As you would expect, all of the above has prompted unfortunate comparisons with the DP World Tour, formerly the European Tour. The tour has had no more than four supremos – John Jacobs, Ken Schofield, George O’Grady and Keith Pelley – since 1972, the year which is recognised as the organisation’s first.
The World Handicap System and the setting up thereof has been another source of trouble for Scottish Golf. When England, Wales and Ireland agreed they should go with WHS system-recommended software, the Scots went with their own app.
They felt it could outstrip any rivals, at least until they discovered it was something of a disaster. Eventually, they had no option but to change it at a cost, according to sources, of £1.5 million (about $1.8 million) and any amount of all-around hassle. “The easiest way of putting it,” said the manager at a West Lothian golf club who preferred to remain anonymous, “is that they spent a fortune on a system that failed.”
Still on the subject of money, another problem centres around news that Scottish Golf is angling to get the go-ahead for a £1.25 rise – from £14 to £15.25 – in the annual levy every club golfer must pay to his or her national body. (A decision will be taken at the annual general meeting in North Queensferry next month.)
It might sound like a trifling addition, but it was only six years ago that Blane Dodds, the then-chief executive, was asking for the £11.75 which club members were paying at that time to go up to £25. Hardly surprisingly, the said members were up in arms, even if the organisation had just had, as reported by the Edinburgh Evening News, its annual £1.5 million SportsScotland grant cut to about £700,000.
No one is gasping at the proposed £1.25 add-on to the present levy. Instead, what people want to know is why the governing body is asking for any money at all at a time when they have plenty of it in the kitty.
Scottish Golf made a profit of £192,000 in the year ending 30 September 2021, while the surplus for year to 30 September 2022 was a not dissimilar £191,000. (Much of it was accumulated during the pandemic when they cut down on staffing levels and had no tournaments to run while being on the receiving end of government grants.)
When the next news to hit the streets was that Paul Lawrie, the former Open champion, was leaving Scottish Golf’s board, the golfing fraternity immediately wanted to know why. As it is, the explanation, as furnished by Michael MacDougall, who works for the player’s 5 Star Sports Agency, would seem to be entirely straightforward: “Paul chose to resign because he is too busy with other interests (on and off the course) and cannot commit sufficient time to it.”
Lewine Mair