I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been much of a technophile. Yet, despite this shrugging indifference to gadgets and gizmos, I still have a number of musty drawers that are jam-packed with technological antiquities, redundant chargers and tangled flexes that used to serve a valuable purpose in everyday life but now lie twisted, coiled and useless and resemble something you’d unearth after a rummage around Heath Robinson’s garret.
What this proves, however, is that even if you think you’re not very technically minded, you actually are technically minded and the clutter of obsolete technology merely reinforces the fact that you’re constantly consuming and updating your bloomin’ technology.
Which brings us nicely into last weekend’s Scottish Golf national conference, a production so high-tech, you half expected to walk into the auditorium and get a USB port carved into your neck.
As documented in these pages over the past few days, the governing body’s big showstopper was a state-of-the-art, centralised digital platform which will be free of charge to all affiliated clubs and will include features for tee-time bookings, handicap and membership management and integrated payment processing.
In a nutshell, it will supposedly allow clubs to take control of their business and exploit their revenue, especially in the potentially lucrative market of the nomadic, pay-as-you-go golfer, a vast battalion which makes up 80 per cent of Scotland’s golfing population.
Paul Lawrie gave the concept a glowing endorsement. Those mired in crotchety, cynical fustiness – and there remain plenty like that – will say he was just spinning the party line. But Lawrie is a course owner and a businessman who has always had the game’s well-being at his very heart. His facility in Aberdeen operates at a slight loss. If he is willing to adopt the new system, who are we to argue?
Apparently, within a few hours of the seminar, some 50 clubs had registered an interest to embrace the digital age and try to capitalise on the broad, instantly obtainable online community it has spawned. Of course, change in this game can often be a clunking, clanking, laborious process on a par with renovating a dilapidated steam roller.
The general, and often wide-of-the-mark, assumption is that clubs are so backwards and stuck-in-their-ways, if you put a laptop in the hands of a committee member, he or she would try to toast a sandwich in it. But, as we were told on Saturday, even computers are declining.
“People only use Apps,” said the techie dudes of these thingymebobs you have on your smart phones which will form a major part of Scottish Golf’s aforementioned digital drive.
It’s all about reach, efficiency and ease of access. In days gone by, it took 62 years for the car to reach 50 million users. Not so long ago, an App of Pokemon GO, an augmented reality smartphone craze which this scribe will not even begin to explain, reached 50 million users in just 19 days. We’re not saying you’re going to get 50 million nomadic golfers downloading a tee-time at Pumpherston but you’ve got to be in it to win it. All it is, is an opportunity.
And what do you do with opportunities? That’s right, you try to seize them.
A quick squint around the 450 or so delegates in attendance on Saturday showed there was an enthusiasm for doing something positive while it also highlighted one of the problems the game has; its ageing demographic. Let’s face it, the turn-out wasn’t what you’d call a club 18-30 gathering.
The statistic, meanwhile, that just over 83 per cent of clubs in Scotland still have a Saturday reserved for the main men’s competition once again put the spotlight on the stifling gender imbalance in the game’s cradle.
And as for juniors? Well, that remains a sizeable work in progress too. “To be a strong club takes bravery and boldness,” said one speaker of a flourishing, all-embracing club.
As a governing body, Scottish Golf will always be damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Whichever way you view what those in charge have opted to do, there is one thing most clubs can’t do . . . nothing.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here