Brian Hennigan - It's heroic to give up if you're a bit below par

Published on Tuesday 22 July 2008 11:07

LAST weekend saw the birth of a great Scottish hero. This moment might have been eclipsed by Greg Norman, hogging the limelight with his ridiculous over-50s golf heroics as if he didn't understand that only telegenic youngsters are worth national coverage.

Our new national hero should have been Sandy Lyle. Sandy has won two of golf's majors but that isn't why we should now be cheering his name; those triumphs were a few years back and he has not done much since, although there was a magnificent round in the driving rain of St Andrews at an Open a while back.

The spirit that inspired that round was missing at the weekend. The weather down south was appalling; Sandy was having a horrendous round and decided to jack it in; jack it in, that is, without any form of excuse. Plenty of sportspeople have decided enough is enough when taking a whumping and suddenly suffered a convenient sprained wrist, finger or lip. Lyle simply stopped playing and went home. He may or may not have said sod this for a game of soldiers.

This honest decisiveness can be found elsewhere in Scottish culture. The great actor Nicol Williamson once walked off a stage production of Hamlet, allegedly through the audience. None of this gels with the Braveheart image we wish to believe represents our national spirit. But it's probably a bit more accurate and perhaps we should embrace and indeed celebrate this trait.

We are constantly extolled to persevere regardless of adversity. This sounds great when you're reading about the Siege of Stalingrad or watching Archie Gemmill re-runs but when you're standing behind yet another person at the ATM who doesn't seem to have been in touch with technology since Tonka toys, the temptation to say "sod it, I'll use that expensive machine in the corner shop" is enormous. Most of the time the "sod it" option overwhelms us. Whether it's showing those bus people who is in charge by storming off along the pavement after a whole ten unreasonable minutes of waiting, or listening to the inane banter at Greggs while your macaroni pie gets colder by the second – most of the time steadfastness isn't our principal characteristic. And where is the hero to show the world that there's nothing wrong with that? Step forward Sandy Lyle.

His heroic take on things can be measured by how he has been savaged by press and pundit alike. Many of these people have never done anything more adventurous in public life than get their hair cut in the seat nearest the window. They haven't strived in a highly competitive sport over many decades, achieved great things in that sport, then felt their powers slip away until that one day when – faced with what could be described as will-sapping conditions – a highly public, highly televised humiliation is about to occur. And so – "sod it".

It is not an avenue that should be taken at every opportunity, that would merely diminish its value. But when it is taken – and taken with brazen openness, with no hint of disguise – then perhaps we should, if not applaud, then in some way sympathise. And if it hadn't been for that pesky Greg Norman, we might have had a debate on this subject over the weekend. Then again, at least Norman was quick to point out that he wasn't too upset with not winning – as that would have meant he'd have had to play more golf, rather than just waking up and seeing what he felt like each morning. Now there's a competitive spirit to aim for.

Missing the point

Can someone please do something about knife crime soon? Sure it's an urgent problem but it's fast becoming an incredibly boring one.What is stopping the enforcement of mostly existing laws that would allow those carrying knives on the streets to be treated the same way as those found accidentally packing a knife in their carry-on baggage at the airport?

Allowing a problem to become the latest chest-beating anthem of opportunistic politicians – who collectively must take responsibility for allowing the situation to arise in the first place – is hardly a triumph for democracy.

Trouble brewing

Should it really be up to a brewery to simply close a historic tavern that is an integral part of our local heritage like Jenny Ha's? And can our council not act to ensure such closures – temporary or otherwise – go through some form of approval process? Either we have a history worth preserving or we don't.