It’s been a busy five weeks of golf in Scotland, and personally, I’ve still got the Boys and Girls Amateurs at Carnoustie this week to go. Seriously, doesn’t anyone play tournaments in May or June anymore?
We’ve had the Scottish Open, The Open, The Seniors, the Hero Open/Scottish Women’s and the Women’s Open, all within driving distance of the clubhouse. It’s been a memorable month and a half, but has it been all too much, especially for my petrol expenses?
Spectator fatigue?
The 33,303 official total for the week of the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield was half that of the men’s Scottish at Renaissance at the start of the month.
It was obviously nowhere near the legions of nearly 300,000 for the men’s version at St Andrews, even if that was a reasonable comparison to make.
The figure was, unquestionably, disappointing. Was it spectator fatigue? Residual distaste for the venue? (please folks, if this was a factor, we really need to move on from that).
The dreadful policy of playing until near dark for, it appears, the benefit of TV viewers on the West Coast of the USA?
All of the above, probably.
Value, appeal…and sweetness
Hinako Shibuno is as excited as we are!#AIGWO pic.twitter.com/Jaar9yV4AL
— AIG Women’s Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 7, 2022
What it should definitely not be is because of the value of this particular product, and the appeal of those competing. And if either of those is a reason for lower crowds, then shame on us.
It’s easy to get caught up in the “shucks, aren’t they all so nice” vibe of women’s golf. Maybe a little edge here and there might help stir a bit of extra interest.
But I’ve been around the positively toxic arena of men’s golf this season, what with LIV, civil wars, unabashed greed and self-important entitlement that is way off the bloody scale. And the sweetness of the women’s scene was a reminder that it doesn’t have to be like that.
I truly believe if you took just a little time to follow In Gee Chun, Jeongeun Lee6 and Jin Young Ko, you’ll find appealing characters rather than the basically racist stereotype of inscrutable Koreans.
As for Hinako Shibuno, with her blinding smile, amazing warm-up routine, incredible sense of sportswomanship and her double jointed power swing, it’s virtually impossible not to pull for the girl.
She’s an international treasure, as someone on Twitter said this week. No wonder she’s WAY more popular in Japan than Hideki Matsuyama.
And new in this week – Savannah de Bock. Her name might be like a female Bond villain but she’s a 16-year-old prodigy from Belgium who is now just about everyone’s new favourite golfer.
Playing Muirfield like it should be played
What an experience for 16-year-old Savannah De Bock 👏
We look forward to seeing her at the @AIGWomensOpen again soon 👍🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/3CRgEsfHLM
— The R&A (@RandA) August 5, 2022
And they played Muirfield – at a modest 6600 yards – just as it is supposed to be played. Long clubs being hit into the greens! I hadn’t seen the like since 1992.
Ten-under – thanks to winner Ashleigh Buhai’s wobbles – was a perfectly satisfactory outcome.
R&A CEO Martin Slumbers likes to say “big-time” – in terms of championships, venues and crowds. The AIG Women’s Open qualifies on all but the last, but the R&A and the title sponsors are content to play the long game on that.
Next year they’re at Walton Heath, hoping to tap into a London audience. The year after it’s St Andrews and the Old Course.
Can we actually double this past week’s attendance then? It should be the very minimum this world class sporting event gets.
The Late Show
Take it in, @ash_simon.
You're a major champion. 🏆 pic.twitter.com/GDzLCQVPRd
— LPGA (@LPGA) August 7, 2022
By the time I wandered back to my car through a copse of trees in a field south of Muirfield’s first green on Sunday night, it was pitch black.
I’m not so obsessed with the bruise on my right knee from tripping over a protruding root that I’m going to make a big thing of it, honest. Nor that it was past midnight when I finally got home.
A final putt at 8pm was the aim at the Scottish Open, Saturday at The Open, and the Women’s. They only just got the play-off in before dark on Sunday, and they’d been tempting that dark fate all July.
I understand the importance of the American TV audience. But are we really that much in thrawl to them that they absolutely need to be watching the end of our championship beyond their midday?
It certainly has an effect on spectators. Numbers at the play-off on Sunday were not what they might have been, nor were they at the conclusion at Renaissance.
Wimbledon would never do such a thing with their finals. Why should golf?
No escape from LIV, part 43
Spent a couple hours with the 105-page 'Mickelson et al' lawsuit.
Here are 11 things I think you should know: https://t.co/9TIq5Gi6NZ
— Sean Zak (@Sean_Zak) August 4, 2022
Even at Muirfield. In what should have been a quiet week in the civil war, the lawsuit from LIV signees to the tour they walked from made the noise.
There are also recurring rumours about LIV buying into women’s golf. The LPGA would talk to them, they say. But I struggle to think that the Saudi presence in golf right now is anything but a hostile takeover of the sport.
But what they should do is blinding simple, if they were truly honest about changing attitudes in their country.
You know, where women are basically owned by their fathers and husbands, and murdered in “honour killings” in their hundreds with the ‘modernising’ authorities doing little or nothing to stop it.
Just give the women the same money as the LIV men are getting.