Dawson calls on Scots amateurs to resurrect home of golf's challenge

Published on Monday 20 July 2009 22:44

THE onus lies with Scotland's up-and-coming amateur prospects to breathe new life into the faltering home challenge at future Open championships, according to Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the Royal and Ancient.

With no Scots finishing inside the top 40 at the Open for the fourth championship running, Dawson was asked for his views on the slump afflicting the nation which gave the ancient game to the world.

"We've been funding plenty of programmes in Scotland at the grass-roots and amateur level," he replied. "I don't know what the answer to it is.

"I have to be honest, why the Scots pros don't do better than they have been, goodness knows. The Scottish amateurs won the World amateur team championship and the European amateur team championship during the last 12 months so they're on top of the world in the amateur game. And they're very good links players, these particular guys. Over to them is all I can say."

Bearing in mind how Paul Lawrie raised the Claret Jug at Carnoustie ten years ago and Colin Montgomerie pushed Tiger Woods closer at St Andrews in 2005 than anyone else (Lloyd Saltman also claimed the silver medal for leading amateur four years ago), recent Scottish performances in the Open can only be described as abject.

In 2006 at Hoylake, four Scots took part – Monty, Lyle, Lawrie and Scott Drummond – but none made the cut. In 2007 at Carnoustie, the batting order consisted of Richie Ramsay, Drummond, Doug McGuigan, Lawrie and Monty who only played 36 holes while Alastair Forsyth, 67th, Lyle, 65th, and Ross Bain, 45th, stumbled on.

Last year's championship at Birkdale was no source of joy either. Lyle, who didn't complete his opening round, Barry Hume and Lawrie all missed the cut while Monty was 58th.

The encouragement of nine Scots taking part on the Ailsa last week, alas, was quickly undone by the failure of seven of them (Monty, Lyle, Gary Orr, Ramsay, Lloyd and Elliot Saltman and Martin Laird) to play four rounds. Lawrie was top Scot in 47th place and David Drysdale, on his debut, shared 60th.

In other words, since Monty was runner-up at the home of golf, the highest-placed Scot in four successive Opens, two of which were held on home turf, was Bain, who has spent part of his life in the Gulf.

Given there was only one Scot in the field for the Masters this year, where Lyle raised a smile by claiming 20th, and one, Laird, at the US Open, perhaps we should be growing accustomed by now to this increasingly low profile in the majors.

The dearth of Scots in the world's top 100 even prompted the American magazine Golfweek to pose the question last week in its Open preview issue: "Where are all the great Scots?"

To paraphrase TS Eliot, the answer is they are not Prince Hamlet, nor were meant to be; there merely to start a scene or two, or in Lyle's case at Turnberry, to throw custard pies at Montgomerie.

If things are to improve, Dean Robertson, a former Tour pro who now coaches Europe's Palmer Cup side, believes up and coming amateurs need a broader network of support once they join the paid ranks. "You can't argue with Scotland's accomplishments in the amateur game," he reflected, "but we seem to produce European Tour journeymen."

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