The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Scottish Open rises in prestige
Keith Pelley, the hyperactive chief executive of the European Tour, was pretty unequivocal when quizzed at the Irish Open at the weekend. The Irish Open, bouyant again thanks to Rory McIlroy and the input of sponsor Dubai Duty Free, wants the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open’s slot in the European Tour schedule, the week prior to the Open Championship.
Given that the Irish, after years in the financial doldrums, has only just managed to match the Scottish in terms of prize fund – both are part of Pelley’s $7 million-a-punt Rolex Series – this may be regarded a trifle presumptuous, but our Irish cousins are nothing if not bold.
In any case, the idea that the Scottish may even share the prized pre-Open week with the Irish on an alternating basis year-on-year was dismissed by Pelley as “not on our radar”.
In truth, he couldn’t say much else. The Scottish has been one of the most financially secure events on the European Tour since Martin Gilbert’s Aberdeen Asset Management group came on board in 2012, in concert with the Scottish Government.
They have upped the prize fund every year and taken the event across the country from Castle Stuart to Royal Aberdeen to Gullane to this week’s new venue at Dundonald Links. And when Pelley asked them to up the ante even more to make it a Rolex Series tournament, they did that as well.
Much of this commitment pre-dates Pelley’s tenure as chief executive, but he’s certainly not in the business of alienating one of his most loyal partners.
That commitment deserves to retain this prime week, which manifests itself in the best field for a European Tour this year. There’s no Phil Mickelson – who seems to be the only one who doesn’t like the Scottish being moved around – but Rickie Fowler is back, as is Henrik Stenson, and McIlroy, in need of some reps after another missed cut at Portstewart last week, has signed on.
Still, the event has somewhat handcuffed itself in the insistence it has to be staged on a links course, and not one of those which hosts the Open Championship.
To my mind the occasional trip back to Loch Lomond or even Gleneagles – great venues which have been genuinely and consistently popular with the paying public – would do no harm at all. Plenty of players just want to play the week before the Open, not necessarily on a links course.
But restricting the choice to links only makes for some difficult decisions, hence the rumours of a dalliance with the Trump course at Menie Estate.
Aberdeen Asset would like a venue in the north east (hence the name, after all) but it appears that Royal Aberdeen three years ago was a onceonly option.
The Trump links – even though it doesn’t really have any sort of spectator facilities at the moment – is apparently the preferred option.
However, it’s impossible to believe that the Scottish Government, given their associations with the course owner in the past, could possibly tolerate any kind of connection with Trump while they have such a stake in the event. Where are the other options? It doesn’t fill their Aberdeen requirements, but I’d imagine the Scottish Open partners will be watching the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns very closely in three weeks’ time.
Perhaps they can also take a leaf from the bold Irish, who are going to the isolated but beautiful Ballyliffin links in Donegal next year.
They’re prepared to play in a place not that easy to get to and far away from the hospitality hub.
Royal Dornoch? You’d certainly get a bunch of Americans prepared to play in a Scottish Open there.
Whether you could get a crowd that far north is another question. A question of degree
In the old days it was clear – in golf, an inch was as much as a mile.
Less than that. If your ball moved on the green by a dimple, imperceptible to the naked eye, it could mean as much as you moving it a foot closer taking out a break in the process.
Was that reasonable? In real life, of course, such a standard would be regarded, correctly, as ludicrously unfair; like manslaughter being the same as cold-blooded murder.
But now there is the new “Lexi rule” which allowed Jon Rahm to escape any censure for apparently misplacing his ball on his way to victory at Portstewart.
Rahm was off by half an inch, if that (certainly not by two or three inches, as claimed by the hysterical US commentator Brandell Chamblee). There was clearly no intent to gain advantage.
Under the terms of the new ruling, established in response to Lexi Thompson’s far more blatant misplacing in the ANA Inspiration event earlier this year, there’s nothing to see here.
The truth is that even a properly and carefully marked ball under the old ruling could be out by as much as Rahm managed in Ireland.
Penalising players for inexact replacements when it’s actually impossible to be absolutely exact is clearly daft.
The new rule allows a degree of leeway that is entirely acceptable. Where it’s obviously not blatant, no penalty.
It’s impossible to believe the Scottish Government could possibly tolerate any kind of connection with Trump