In these times of apparently rampant progress, it seems we are going backwards.
For the first time since 1949, there will be no Scot in the 10-man Great Britain & Ireland team for the defence of the Walker Cup against the United States next month. There's not even one on the reserve list.
The delivery of the news from the Royal & Ancient selectors yesterday was hardly a jaw-dropping surprise, given the underwhelming displays of the candidates in the big events on the amateur circuit during the campaign, but it is still a major embarrassment for the Scottish Golf Union. English players, who have accumulated an impressive bounty on the international stage this season, fill seven of the places, with the side being headlined by Matthew Fitzpatrick, who won the silver medal at the Open and captured the US Amateur title on Sunday night.
Ireland have two picks, Gavin Moynihan and Kevin Phelan, while the Welshman Rhys Pugh, who won three out of three in the 2011 match at Royal Aberdeen, retains his place despite having dropped out of the top 300 in the world amateur rankings.
In that sense, Glenbervie's world No.95 Graeme Robertson, beaten in a play-off for the Irish Open earlier in the year and with a decent pedigree in international matchplay, can feel somewhat disappointed not to have made it. In truth, though, the consistency of performance during 2013 from the main hopefuls has simply not been good enough. A run to the final of the European Team Championship, where they lost to England, illuminated an otherwise dour season at the senior level. One swallow doesn't make a summer, as they say.
As part of an elaborate high performance strategy, which states that "by 2020, Scotland will be the world's leading golfing nation", some of the fundamental objectives scribbled down include at least two players earning selection for the Walker Cup. The news will provoke much agonising in the corridors of the SGU.
Steve Paulding, the SGU's performance manager, admitted last year that he had been left "embarrassed" by Scotland's lowly finish of 44th in the World Amateur Team Championship, a title they had won in 2008.
It's safe to assume the man charged with making Scotland a global golfing force must be feeling deflated today.
TEAM. Great Britain & Ireland (v USA, Walker Cup, National Golf Links of America, Sept 7-8) Matthew Fitzpatrick (Hallamshire), Nathan Kimsey (Woodhall Spa), Gavin Moynihan (The Island), Max Orrin (North Foreland), Kevin Phelan (Waterford Castle), Garrick Porteous (Bamburgh Castle), Rhys Pugh (Pontypridd), Neil Raymond (Corhampton), Callum Shinkwin (Moor Park), Jordan Smith (Bowood)
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