Seems a reasonable plan, but...

Overlooking the leafy visages of Ratho Park Golf Club outside Edinburgh, in the boardroom of their grand old clubhouse, seemed a strange sort of place for the presentation of a revolutionary plan.

Blane Dodds – newish CEO of Scottish Golf, the amateur governing body that was the old SGU – doesn’t appear to favour blazers, which immediately makes him a clear departure from the old ways.

What he was proposing last Monday isn’t really radical, although in the cosy antiquated world of golf, it’s the equivalent of a Red October.

The surroundings were very much ‘old’ golf. Most of those playing Ratho last Monday fulfilled that description quite easily. It’s a ‘tie and jacket in the lounge’ kind of place.

The tie-less Dodds was making an imaginative plea for the greater good, something that usually goes down in golf clubs with the same enthusiasm as a suggestion that subs are going to rise. And of course, he was proposing exactly that, too.

He didn’t have an exact figure, but it seems likely that the levy from Scottish Golf from every member of every club could at least double from the present £11.25.

I’m sure most club members don’t even know this fee is taken from their annual subscription. Those who do generally wonder what the governing body does with the money.

Well, they finance their national events, they have six development officers who try to help clubs in various ways – mostly these days how to diversify their appeal as membership numbers slide – and they finance elite amateur players they hope will turn into top professionals who will be ambassadors for our game.

They want to continue doing all this, and they’d like to have more DOs than one for every 100 clubs. But government funding is about to be slashed in these strained times, and Dodds faces cutting his budget by possibly £500,000 next year.

Rather than just plug that gap, and face another crisis down the line, he wants to shore up Scottish Golf’s finances for the foreseeable future with a big rise in the levy that will allow the organisation to expand its services and do a whole lot more.

That means forming a complete and detailed database of Scotland’s 200,000 club members that can be used to attract sponsors.

He also wants to centralise the tee booking system which will allow Scottish Golf to charge a nominal fee to international visitors on top of their green fees.

All this extra revenue can be ploughed back into the game, shoring up struggling clubs; Dodds estimated 500 of the 600 are just getting by or struggling outright.

It can also be used to raise development programmes to address two heinous facts about our membership – that just 11% of all Scottish golf club members are under 35, and that just 14% are women.

Dodds’ concept may run into difficulty. Some clubs have only recently been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, and expecting them to adhere to a kind of golf socialism sounds more than fanciful.

And Scottish Golf are asking the 100 “thriving” clubs in the country to give up a significant element of their autonomy, their existing tee booking systems.

Whatever the benefits of a centralised system – it would be free to affiliated clubs, with insurance cover – why would the big clubs and organisations most attractive to visitors – the Royals, the Links Trusts, the ultra private clubs like Loch Lomond, Skibo and the Renaissance – consider it worth changing?

Dodds and the Scottish Golf board want to force this plan through by December.

I think it’s going to take longer convincing everyone this is the way forward. Remember, an easy thing like amalgamation with the SLGA took three years.

It’s actually a reasonable plan. But these are not reasonable people. Dodds has his work cut out. Best of luck to him.

We’ll see you in Paris . . .

The most interesting thing about the Presidents Cup was the actual presidents. The golf was a no-contest procession of little entertainment to anyone.

The American team certainly looks formidable. But in the brave new world of the task force that has apparently transformed their team golf fortunes, it should always be remembered that the US has not won a Ryder Cup in Europe since 1993.

The strange example of the Dunhill

Some 60,000 showed up at the British Masters at the weekend.

A lot of tickets were given away, but the weather was often foul and the crowds still came.

This week entry to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is free until Sunday, but if it gets 15,000 spectators over four days I’ll be shocked.

Close House hosted a proper golf tournament. The Dunhill is really a corporate golf day stretched to four days.

But it’s lucrative. A whole career could be made in the $5 million prize fund this week. Hopefully it’s one or more of the Scots in the field who end up benefiting.

Just 11% of all Scottish club members are under 35 and just 14% are women

Picture: Getty. Scottish golf clubs like the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers have only just been dragged into the 21st Century. Scottish Golf CEO Blane Dodds has his work cut out convincing them to accept a funding plan which espouses a kind of golf socialism.