Hutton gets his kicks from golf
(And Rangers’ Scottish Premiership title win)
East Kilbride star Kyle Hutton admits brushing up on his golf game with six-yearold son Brodie has got him through the lower league football suspension – as well as watching old club Rangers win the Scottish Premiership.
Lowland League Kilby remain sidelined, despite Leagues One and Two and Scottish Women’s Premier League One being given the green light to return last week.
Those clubs are back training ahead of a return to the field on March 20, but Hutton and his team-mates remain in the dark over their season.
No games have been played since January and ex-Rangers star Hutton revealed playing golf – which is permitted in pairs in lockdown – with his six-year-old son has got him through days without football.
Hutton said: “I’ve been playing a lot of golf and going out runs.
“The wee man is six, he’s been seeing me going out and I took him to the driving range for the first-time the other week so that’s been good.
“But there’s only so much you can do. “It’s that, 5ks and work, waiting to hear what’s happening.
“We’ve not heard anything at East Kilbride yet.
“We were confident we might get back to training by the middle of the month, but the things we are hearing now is the league isn’t going to start back at all.
“Hopefully someone can come forward and give us an answer, tell us what’s happening.
“From a selfish point of view, you just want to be back, but you have to look at doing it safely.
“The cost of that is big and a lot of teams can’t afford to test.
“If there was a way to get back as safely as possible, we’d be all for it, but we have to leave it to others to make the decision.”
Despite the woes of the shutdown, Hutton did have something to cheer about over the weekend as his old club Rangers won the Scottish Premiership title.
The 30-year-old won four trophies during a five-year spell at Ibrox either side of the club’s liquidation in 2012.
But the Ibrox side completed their journey back to the top of Scottish football on Sunday, as they were crowned champions for a 55th time when Celtic failed to beat Dundee United.
Since leaving Ibrox, Hutton has played for Partick Thistle, Dumbarton and now East Kilbride, where he has linked up with Rangers legend Ian Durrant.
Durrant is assistant to EK gaffer Stevie Aitken, but Hutton admitted he didn’t even bother wasting his time trying to get a hold of the Ibrox hero at the weekend.
Hutton, now a site-coordinator for a railway software solutions firm, joked: “I’ve not spoken to Durranty, but I’m sure if I did get a hold of him I don’t think I’d have got much sense out of him.
“I’m sure he’d have had a right few good pints in him or whatever.
“But I’ll give a few of the Rangers boys I still know there a text.
“I’m delighted we are champions again. All my mates sent me some of the daft videos and when the news came through that the final whistle had went at Tannadice at 0-0 it was brilliant.
“There’s been a lot of tough moments for the fans during that – especially having to watch me play for them! – but I’m just delighted for everyone involved at the club, everyone in the background as well.”