Alistair Tait reports that incoming R&A Chief Martin Slumbers, who takes over this fall for Peter Dawson, is already beating the grow the game drum.
Don't worry, he'll learn soon enough. In the meantime...
“I think we have to get back to grassroots. We have to find something that appeals to different generations. I think the answer for under 15- to 20-year-olds is going to be different than the answer for 30- to 40-year-olds is going to be different than the answer for 50- to 60-year-olds.
“Absolutely I think the R&A can help. What we want to make sure is we help the unions, help the PGA, do everything we can, use the benefits of the commercial success of the Open and really work to go, over a number of years, find a series of solutions that get people wanting to play this game."
Mr. Slumbers need not look far: The Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson opens his weekly column with a look at the struggles of noted instructor and all-around nice guy Pete Cowen, who has developed many top golfing talents.
Cowen's Rotherham-based academy hosts all kinds of aspiring players, from disabled children to elite amateurs, but has been broken into recently and faces funding issues.
Picture a British tennis coach so good he pulled off the equivalent of tutoring the top three the last time The Open was staged at St Andrews. This is a man whose teaching skills are so respected 11 of the 12 players who contributed to Europe’s Ryder Cup victory at Gleneagles last year were coached or asked for his help at some point. The untold largesse the Lawn Tennis Association would lavish in his direction.
In golf? ‘I’ve been in touch with the various bodies but when you ask for help it falls on deaf ears, unfortunately,’ says Cowen. ‘I’m not looking for any massive handouts. I don’t think you produce great sportsmen and women that way. But we do need a helping hand.
‘My fear is golf is dying at grassroots level. If places like mine are forced to close, what hope is there?’
Sounds like a perfect place for the R&A to spend its new Sky money!
Oh and on that topic, it seems Slumbers' predecessor and mentor for the next six months, Chief Inspector Peter Dawson, has been hearing from his constituents about leaving the BBC for Sky.
In a roundtable with reporters, Dawson suggested the BBC did not even make a final offer (or cynics might suggest the Beeb saw where things were headed and didn't want to help drive up the price).
James Corrigan reports on this and the hate-mail received by Dawson.
“We have had plenty of hate mail, mostly from people who clearly haven’t read our rules regarding etiquette judging by the intemperate language they contained,” Dawson said here at the R&A clubhouse.
“It is a natural reaction for people to be upset, but when you analyse the two bids we received, they shouldn’t be. If they could see what those bids involved, everyone would have made the same decision that we reached.”
Everyone! He will be missed.
Ewan Murray of The Guardian noted Dawson's stance that moving from BBC to Sky would not in any way matter with regards to the state of the game, and sadly, Dawson probably is right. Though I can picture some serious jaw-clenching as he says this...
“I think it is actually borderline absurd at this stage to suggest that, given where we are at in golf and broadcasting, four days of the Open is going to make a dramatic difference in participation in itself,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the case, frankly."
But as The Scotsman's Martin Dempster writes, Dawson also contradicted himself in defending the BBC's decision.
He was asked if the BBC had lost interest in golf due to the game losing some of its appeal, a fact backed up by a drop in both participation and membership numbers. “I think it’s certainly something that crosses one’s mind from time to time. I think BBC, as anyone does, has to make choices as to their priorities,” replied Dawson. “I think it’s down to the economics of it all and the commercial pressures that free-to-air TV is under.”
Lawrenson, in his column also took on the R&A's stance after surveying golfers.
Rarely in 30 years writing about golf can I recall an announcement provoking the depth of anger that has followed the Royal and Ancient Golf Club’s decision to take live coverage of The Open away from the BBC.
Indeed, you’d probably have more luck finding business CEOs who support Ed Miliband than golfers who think our leaders have got this one right. I’ve had emails from readers asking me to organise petitions, even a boycott of this year’s Open at St Andrews.
At my local club on Saturday, the verdict was unanimous. ‘Even my friends who are R&A members think it’s a dreadful decision,’ said one influential member, who really would know plenty of R&A types.
Meanwhile, as Brian Keogh notes based on a radio interview Peter Alliss gave today, this year's Open may be the last for the announcing great.
