BLANE TRUTH
Dodds’ decision to ditch golf for tennis is no big loss and he should have been binned for choosing Wimbledon over the Scottish Open Euan McLean
IT should have been game, set and match for Blane Dodds when Scottish Golf’s chief executive snubbed our home Open for a trip to Wimbledon.
So we shouldn’t mourn his decision to leave golf in the lurch six weeks before a vote proposing major changes he devised is put before Scotland’s 587 member clubs.
Bad enough that the man paid well to revive the flagging fortunes of the nation’s amateur game should moonlight as (unpaid) chair of Tennis Scotland.
But when he abandoned the day job for a fortnight at the height of the golf season to attend a junket at SW19, alarm bells should have been ringing.
What a slap in the face for the struggling golf clubs that paid his wages to see Dodds at Centre Court, proclaiming his delight at the £15million investment put into tennis by the LTA and sportscotland.
This coming when golf ’s funding from the same body is set to be more than halved next year to £750,000.
And this on a week the Scottish Open at Dundonald gave him a chance to meet with golf ’s movers and shakers to persuade them to consider fresh investment in his organisation. No wonder there is anger towards Dodds after he resigned his chief exec post to fulfil the same role at Tennis Scotland.
Presumably a chunk of that government funding he trumpeted at Wimbledon has found its way to his newly-created role.
By leaving now he has torpedoed his own manifesto for change – and let down volunteers on the board who believed in THE VOICE OF GOLF IN RECORD SPORT him. He is due to stay in place until January but should go now. The longer he hangs around where he’s not welcome the longer it will take for the governing body to repair relations with member clubs.
Even before his decision to quit, Dodds was a divisive figure. His declaration that he would make a £400,000 cut in next year’s budget if his changes are not voted through was considered by some clubs as blackmail.
He was simply making clear the financial problems golf is facing so, regardless of the outcome, raising the annual levy clubs pay to the governing body – £11.25 per member – is a necessity members cannot ignore.
But Dodds’ call to more than double it to £24 was always going to be a hard sell to rank-and-file golfers.
Bigger issues came from a call for every club to have a universal IT software system for tee-time bookings – plus the right to flog contact details of every golfer on their books to sponsors for marketing purposes. A diluted version will be tabled at a Special General Meeting on December 2. Even then it may be booted out. Scottish Golf must then move on, starting by mending fences with members and rebuilding bridges burned by Dodds.
At a time when stability is needed, Scottish Golf must choose a leader willing to give his or her all to the sport. KYLE EDMUND beat Spain’s David Ferrer in straight sets to reach the second round of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
The 22-year-old British No.3, saw off the former world No.3 Ferrer 6-2 7-6 (7/5).
Edmund sealed his progress to the last 16 by clinching his second match point in a hard-fought tie-break.
Next up for the Johannesburg-born big server is a last-16 clash against Austria’s Dennis Novak or Italian Thomas Fabbiano. POLYTRACK: STANDARD TO SLOW