SITTING on the bus shuttling the media back and forward from car park to media centre at the Open, it was impossible not to overhear the chat between the two old English golf writers sitting directly behind.
They were having a lovely wee grumble, one complaining about the fact that he does not have any work any more, potentially begging the question what was he doing with a press pass, the other griping about how he now has a weekly column to write which he finds quite burdensome.
“It’s fine once you get started,” he observed. “The problem is just coming up with a subject. There aren’t that many controversies in golf.”
Really? My mind was immediately transported back to the previous week’s Scottish Open and Phil Mickelson’s pre-tournament press conference.
Big Lefty, as some golf writers love to call him, is well liked but was clearly anticipating trouble on his first visit back to Scotland since the Ryder Cup. That competition ended with his brutal attack on the captaincy of Tom Watson, a man revered in Scottish golf circles, not to mention some other claims that had recently emerged – so he tried to set the agenda.
“Before we get started there's two things that I thought would probably come up, probably the report that came out last week,” he said, referring to reports linking his name to enquiries into money laundering and betting.
“Feel free to ask about it. I probably won't say anything but feel free to ask. I understand you have editors and you need to ask questions.
“But the other thing is, I thought I would get asked about Tom Watson and just the only thing I would say is that he's one of the greatest champions this game has ever had and I hope next week is a celebration of that greatness.
“It's his last Open Championship and I'm certainly appreciative of all he's done for the game of golf and admire it and that's all I really wanted to say on that. So if we go down that road, I'll probably just say . . . just so you know. All right.”
To his credit Michael Gibbons, the European Tour press officer chairing the Q&A session, made light of the situation, saying, “We have no questions . . .” prompting laughter before he opened the floor – and it was not “all right” as it transpired.
Mickelson was, quite rightly, asked a bit more about Watson and praised him warmly, but very specifically, as a great champion golfer. The following week Watson would describe their relations as “cordial” and expressed understanding for the “sour grapes” that motivated Mickelson’s post-Ryder Cup outburst.
As to the report to which he had referred, Mickelson was also quizzed further and had quite a speech rehearsed which concluded: “When I started to understand that I was more of an object to be discussed, it took out the personal element of when people say things. People are going to say things good, they are going to say things bad, they are going to say things true, they are going to say things not true. The fact is I'm comfortable enough with who I am as a person that I don't feel like I need to comment on every little report that comes out.”
Fair enough, but that was by no means the only controversy that confronted Mickelson in his 20-minute session. He was also asked to address questions being raised about the quality of golf’s drug-testing programme on the day it was announced that fellow US Tour pro Scott Stallings had been suspended for taking a banned substance only because he had reported it himself, having apparently undergone testing that had failed to detect a problem.
Then came the matter of the controversy raised by Donald Trump, a man growing ever-more influential in the sport, but whose comments about Mexican immigrants had resulted in a the PGA Grand Slam of Golf being taken away from his Trump Los Angeles course.
“Okay. You're stumping me now with all these questions off-topic,” Mickelson admitted.
Not that many controversies? All that was without a murmur about out-dated attitudes in single-gender clubs.
However, I thought about it again from a different perspective during the press conference attended by Jordan Niebrugge, who had just won the silver medal awarded to the best amateur at the Open and noticed, when he was asked an odd but slightly relevant question about whether he thought it should be amateurs who contested Olympic golf, a monthly-magazine golf writer sat shaking his head in dismay.
Either because they started out as enthusiasts or because their own fates are linked to its success, those who write solely about any one sport can naturally tend to become protective over it.
However, I have adopted something of a mantra whenever administrators, sponsors or participants thank me for my support following what they consider to have been positive coverage.
Curmudgeonly as it doubtless sounds, the reply is that the press is not there to support but to report, which means there may well be times they are not as appreciative of what they read.
There can be a thin line between the two but talking points are always available in every high-profile sport if people are open to discussing them.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article