Nobody likes change. My old habits, for instance, are now so deeply entrenched they can only be shifted by the process of fracking. Ask me to clamber out of my comfort zone and I’ll tentatively totter about like a horse trying to balance itself in the middle of a see saw. And as for embracing the new? My dumbfoonert reactions to a variety of gee-whiz gadgets resemble the boggled-eyed, slack-jawed nicompoopery you’d get if you asked a medieval serf to stop oohing and aahing at a turnip and operate Caxton’s printing press instead.

Here in the world of golf, meanwhile, the phrase ‘stuck in its ways’ often gets trotted out when haverings and hashings are made about this Royal & Ancient pursuit.

In these times of all-singing, all-dancing interaction, innovation and instant impact, there have been numerous calls for change and, for those consumers who demand fast-paced, easily digestible sporting fare, golf tends to be about as cutting edge as the stovepipe hat.

Of course, it’s not this fine game’s fault that society has become so fevered in this technological age where speed and convenience are demanded and attention spans seem shorter than the step ladder Ronnie Corbett uses when he’s painting the skirting boards.

With its staple, and often bland, diet of 72-hole strokeplay competitions and wrap-around schedules that means the so-called ‘season’ never really stops, the question of how golf presents itself in this frenzied environment is a challenge that remains high on the agenda of some of the game’s main movers and shakers. Last week, at the ‘Time for Golf’ forum in St Andrews, Haydn MacKenzie, a big hitter with Sky Sports, unveiled some viewing figures for golf on the satellite channel. “Only five per cent of viewers are under 25,” he said, before adding the fairly predictable summary that “our average viewer is a 57-year-old white male.”

We all know that the Open will be going to Sky as of next year after the BBC rather shamefully managed to weasel its way out of its own live coverage and, essentially, gave the R&A little choice when it came to negotiating a new television deal. The task for Sky, in terms of attracting viewers, is going to be a tough one as they launch a full-scale assault to capture hearts and minds. MacKenzie stated that golf viewing figures in general on Sky have gone down by 24 per cent since 2008 and that the average time they get viewers for during a live session is a mere 40 minutes. “People crave fast paced items,” he added.

It was inevitable, therefore, that cricket would crop up in discussions. There are obvious parallels; a game of history and tradition, which requires the participant to thrash at a ball over a prolonged period of time during which the spectacle can often be about as action packed as Constable’s ‘Hay Wain’.

Since the shortened Twenty20 format of cricket was introduced in 2003, the three-hour, crash, bang, wallop formula has gone from strength to strength. “In 2005, it was kind of a hit and giggle approach from the players,” reflected Geoff Allardice, the general manager of the International Cricket Council. “They wore retro kits and wigs, it was fun and they engaged the crowd. Three years later they were being offered $1 million to play for six weeks in the Indian Premier League. It quickly developed into serious sport.”

With the traditional five day Test in decline, T20 has helped to galvanise the game without changing the fundamentals of the sport. As Allardice points out, “be true to your sport, don’t go for gimmicks.”

The advent of something like foot-golf, where you boot a football round a golf course, may be good for bringing in a bit of extra revenue at the club but it ain’t golf and the biggest strength of golf is the game itself. That’s not to say it shouldn’t move with the times. Like cricket, it’s a scalable pursuit and in an age where leisure time is squeezed, 12, nine or six-hole options should continue to be vigorously promoted and pursued at club level.

At the top level, meanwhile, the need for golf to offer something different grows. Keith Pelley, the new chief executive of the European Tour, is an up and at ‘em type of character with a passion for both sport and the way it is packaged, promoted and presented. In a competitive sporting market place, golf has to battle for attention.

“We are looking at everything, from a six-hole matchplay to a par-3 (event) to different ways the prize purse is dispersed through the week based on the success on a daily basis,” he said at the weekend. Quite how he’ll work this into the tour’s schedule remains to be seen but Pelley’s progressive thinking and his awareness of the need to engage with fresh audiences on a variety of media platforms should be welcomed. Old habits die hard but golf can ill afford to stand still.