In these health conscious times, there is always some conceited, culinary crusader wagging a finger and witheringly suggesting that “you are what you eat” with a dismissive snort of superiority.
Shuffle up to the supermarket check-out and you half expect to be confronted by some hand-wringing harridan who proceeds to rummage through your basket while tut-tutting, guffawing and hissing with disgust at the piles of cakes and dine-in-for-two microwaveable mulch that forms the basis of your messages.
The less said about your fitness regime, meanwhile, the better. Thankfully, this correspondent has a robust, daily exercise routine which is performed every morning. “And up, two, three, four and down, two, three, four,” comes the rallying cry of exertion. And then I do the same with the other eye lid. Now, there’s a cornball gag that’s so old it actually appears on the Bayeux Tapestry.
It’s all about being in rude health these days. Which is exactly the state the Scottish Open seems to be in at the moment on the basis of its field at least. The latest entry list for the Aberdeen Asset Management-backed event shows that 17 of the world’s top 50 are competing at Dundonald Links in a couple of weeks’ time.
The fact that Rory McIlroy has been so lightly raced this year due to injury has had added spin-offs for the organisers of the Scottish showpiece and his decision to add a trip to Ayrshire into his diary must have been a bit like being handed a winning lottery ticket from Santa.
The Scottish Open is now set to be the strongest field on the European Tour this season. There was a feeling that the Irish Open, which is hosted by McIlroy and played the week before the Scottish, would be the go-to event in the build up to the Open Championship.
Three weeks of robust links golf was always going to lead to a kind of one-or-the-other approach – there are not many of the main movers and shakers playing in all three – but the Scottish Open has certainly emerged with the bragging rights with Ireland attracting 11 of the global top 50 in comparison.
Flinging a number of these high-profile events into the new Rolex Series, and dipping into its own reserves to prop up the$7 million purses, was always going to be a risky strategy for the European Tour. It needs the marquee players to buy into it and make this gamble pay off. As far as the Scottish Open is concerned, it’s a case of so far, so good.
The players are coming and let’s hope the paying punters come too. Last year’s event at the delightful, welcoming links of Castle Stuart saw a drop in attendance of some 23,000 on the figure for the last time the Scottish Open was held there in 2013. The weather certainly didn’t help and, in some ways, the lucrative deal with American television has its drawbacks too with the tee-times for the leaders now being pushed back to after 3pm. In 2016, the last groups during Saturday’s third round were greeted by empty grandstands and the kind of low key atmosphere you’d get at a Husband & Wife Rosebowl.
Across the board, spectator numbers for a variety of golfing occasions on Scottish soil have been trending downwards in recent years. As the cradle of the game, Scotland is always going to have a jam-packed itinerary but that in itself breeds its own problems. Golf fans are a loyal and stoic bunch but they can’t got to everything. With the Open Championship being staged in England this season, that at least gives some breathing space.
Given Dundonald’s location near the big population hub, access for the masses will certainly not be an issue compared to the relative remoteness of Castle Stuart. In golf’s fight for publicity in a frenzied sporting market place , though, the challenges remain. The Wimbledon men’s final and the British Grand Prix both take place on that closing Sunday of the Scottish Open while the all-consuming tentacles of football will already have been uncoiled on a variety of fronts. With some of the world’s best players teeing off on Scottish soil in round two on the Friday, the golf will probably be relegated to the news in brief should the Celtic versus Linfield European qualifier, scheduled for that same day, come to pass and the media reverts back a few centuries to stoke up a “potential powderkeg”.
And folk say golf is outdated?
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