Exclusive:Scottish Golf scraps plan for new format for Scottish Boys' and Girls' Championships

Governing body takes feedback on board about losing match-play element

Scottish Golf has reversed a controversial decision to effectively roll the Scottish Boys’ and Girls’ Championships into one event after taking on board feedback when it had become evident that the move was being deemed as a mistake.

A plan to play the Scottish Boys’ and Girls’ Championship as a 54-hole stroke-play event with no cut in 2024 was announced in the autumn as part of a number of proposed changes to the schedule of events organised by the governing body. That led to Scottish Golf coming under fire, especially in respect of the Scottish Boys’ Championship after it was felt a mistake had already been made when it was moved from its traditional easter date to a new summer slot in 2017.

In light of that, new chief executive officer Robbie Clyde, with the full backing of chair Martin Gilbert, revealed last month that the latest plan had been “paused” and now, after gathering feedback, it has been taken off the table completely. “We will not be moving ahead with the proposed changes to the Boys and Girls’ Championships,” Clyde told The Scotsman. “They will be as they were in 2023. They will not be moving from match play to stroke play, so the match play element will remain. Because of the logistics of that, it means we will not be able to combine the two events. So we have been out looking and I think we have identified a venue for the Girls’ Championship.

Robbie Clyde, Scottish Golf's new chief executive officer, believes the correct decision has been made but insists it can't just be about history and tradition. Picture: Scottish Golf.

“I think it’s fair to say there was a lot of feedback because of the history and tradition of the Boys’ Championship. It is important to recognise that history, but that in itself is not a reason not to try and improve our schedules and types of events. What was clear to me, though, was that events are there to provide the best platform for our young players to improve and qualify for selection to national squads and that’s primarily why we have retained that match-play element to make sure they are getting that experience and retaining that at the right time of the year.”

Meanwhile, the Rosyth-based organisation is proposing to shake up its selection process for both boys’ and girls’ teams in 2024 after a working group was tasked with making it “up to date, transparent and robust” following issues arising this year. A consultation period has now started after it was recommended that the selection panels for boys’ and girls’ teams be increased from three to five but not include Scottish Golf staff members and also an independent chair being appointed to “ensure integrity of selection and address any areas of potential or perceived conflict of interest”. At the behest of the Scottish Golf Board headed by Gilbert, the recommendations have now been shared with clubs, Areas and Counties and other stakeholders.

“I don’t think there is anything there that is controversial. It’s what people have been asking us to do,” said Clyde, who took up the reins at the start of September after board member Fraser Thornton had held the post on an interim basis since February. It’s just for the boys and girls’ teams for next year and at the end of 2024 we’ll look to see for the men’s, women’s and seniors if there is anything we need to further tweak. It’s generally felt at the boys’ and girls’ level that on our selection processes it needs to be tightened up.”

On the performance front, Clyde is looking to add two new members to his team after posts for both a head of performance and performance programme manager were advertised recently. “The previous head of performance, Stuart Clayton, left to go back to the north-east of England,” he said of that role. “I wanted to make sure I was getting a good sense of what we were doing in terms of performance before making the decision to recruit a new head of performance. I’ve slightly tweaked the role. I’ve actually made it a bit more focused on performance than the previous role Stuart took on. That’s been out for about two weeks and closed on Sunday. I’ve had some really good interest, lots of people ringing me up and asking me about the role. So hopefully we will get some strong applications in. The second role of performance programme manager is part of that team. One of the performance team decided to leave the team within the last couple of months, so it’s just replacing that role.”