SWITCH on the television, tune in the radio or boot up the laptop at the minute and what do you see and hear? That’s right. Tennis. And maybe a bit of Trump. But mostly tennis.
Anyone for tennis? No? Well tough, because that’s what you’re going to get. Tennis, tennis, tennis, TENNIS. I’m convinced Five Live is now being hosted by a talking Dunlop racket operated by an elaborate system of cranks and pulleys.
Wimbledon was never always this fevered was it? Then again, the winning of a mere set by Jo Durie or Jeremy Bates back in less prosperous days for British tennis was enough to prompt flotillas down the Thames and the commissioning of a variety of commemorative dish cloots.
Amid this welter of Wimbers this and Wimbers that, golf continues towards the high season although there are constant reminders on our various media platforms that folk have taken their eye off the ball. Or never even had their eye on it in the first instance.
A snippet on a Radio Scotland sports show on Sunday simply illustrated the general lack of golfing awareness. “So how’s Rory McIlroy been getting on?,” asked the host as the programme cut to a live update on the final round of the Irish Open. The fact McIlroy had missed the cut some 72-hours earlier had clearly not been relayed. Oh well, back to the tennis.
As touched on a number of times in these weekly haverings down the seasons, golf is often treated with a shrugging, nonchalant indifference. “When you look at golf from a UK perspective, I thought it would be higher in the psyche than it is,” suggested the European Tour chief executive, Keith Pelly, recently.
Despite the achievements of British players in general, golf still lacks the superstar attraction afforded to many tennis players, cricketers, racing drivers or even rugby players. That, in itself, is a disservice to a battalion of terrific, engaging performers.
Here in the cradle of the game, meanwhile, we have had to settle for more modest offerings. Many folk mutter and mumble on that Scotland has only two players, Martin Laird and Russell Knox, in the leading 100 on the global pecking order.
Then again, if we had a couple of Scottish players in a list of the world’s top 100 footballers we’d probably all self-combust in an explosion of gasping, drooling reverence. It’s all relative.
This week, the home of golf takes centre stage with the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open teeing-off at Dundonald Links.
From a selfish, patriotic point of view, we could really do with the Scots shining on home soil, particularly after the encouraging showing in Ireland at the weekend where we got two in the top four and four in the leading 20. Of course, peaks and troughs are part and parcel of this topsy-turvy game and it’s not the first time – and it won’t be the last – that we’ve been embroiled in a fairly barren spell at the top end of the pro game.
In times of hardship, I’m always reminded of my dear old colleague Dougie Lowe, the much missed former golf correspondent of The Herald, as he quietly raked over the debris of a fairly futile weekend covering the hum-drum exploits of the Scots contingent at a tournament a few years ago.
“These buggers are playing us out of a job,” he whispered with a sombre, withering assessment of affairs before reaching for the soothing elixir of a large dark rum and diet coke to temper the grumbling anguish.
While Jon Rahm ultimately ran away with the Irish Open title, the sight of Drysdale and Ramsay mounting a rousing final day assault stirred those senses that hadn’t been stirred for a while. As we come into two of the biggest weeks of the season, that’s what the Scottish game desperately needs just now.
Well over 90,000 attended the Irish event, prompting one commentator to suggest that Irish golf fans are the “best in the world”.
With the Scottish Open crowd figures dipping in recent years, it will be interesting to see the numbers coming through the gates at Dundonald this week. One or two home hopefuls making a sturdy challenge at the top would help on that front.
Then again, everybody will probably be watching the bloomin’ tennis.
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