It was no surprise to read a flood of warm tributes following the death of the hugely respected and cherished north-east sports journalist Colin Farquharson.
Colin, who was aged 86, was very well known in the north-east, especially in the golfing community. He began working as a copy boy at the Press and Journal in 1953 and was made sports editor in 1974.
He retired from the P&J in 1997 but found a new lease of life as a golf freelance reporter, working for the David Begg Sports Agency and then his own Cal Carson Golf Agency and launching the highly popular Scottish Golf View website.
Colin provided extensive and unrivalled coverage of Scottish golf and was a real champion of Scottish golfers, especially those from the north-east of Scotland.
I was fortunate to meet Colin on many occasions at golf tournaments and he was someone I always viewed as being ahead of the curve.
When most reporters covering golf tournaments were filing stories back to their sports desks to appear in the next day’s newspaper, Colin had already embraced online journalism.
He was getting 175,000 page views on Scottish Golf View in a single month in 2015 at a time when some newspapers were still wrestling with how much of their content they wanted to share online.
He wasn’t just a sports reporter, either. Colin did a bit of everything.
He would spend the morning out on the course taking pictures. Then after a quick lunch, he would get to work on processing his images and writing his report of the day’s golf, ending with the painstaking process of in-putting the results for every single player in the field.
Champion of women’s golf
A relentless operator, it would be tiring watching Colin in action but he always made time for a cup of tea and a blether with a younger reporter, especially one who worked for his former paper.
He had an incredible work ethic but also a genuine love and passion for golf which shone through in his writing.
Another way in which Colin was ahead of his time was as a true champion of women’s sport, especially girls and women’s golf, and he fought hard to get it the prominence and coverage he felt it deserved.
Colin Farquharson went above and beyond
He was quite the innovator.
I remember being flabbergasted when digging through the Press and Journal archives one day to discover our paper once offered a hotline where readers – for a small fee – could phone the sports desk and receive the latest American football results.
This was in the days long before such information was so readily accessible on the internet.
But the American football scores were available on the news wires and Colin spotted a gap in the market with the explosion of interest in American football at the time and an influx of Americans in the north-east through the booming oil industry.
Colin would answer the calls to the hotline and read out the latest American football scores, which must have been a slightly onerous task if you were trying to complete the final pages of a sport section against a tight deadline.
Journalism, especially sports journalism, has continued to evolve over the years but Colin always seemed ready to try new ways of serving his readership.
But the one thing that stood out was his passion for golf and he was desperate to see local golfers doing well.
It was sad when he announced he was finally stopping writing about golf in March 2020 but nobody would have begrudged him finally hanging up his notepad and pen after so many years of service.
I’m sure there was no prouder moment for him than seeing his daughter Elaine Farquharson-Black twice representing Great Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup before becoming the non-playing captain on two occasions.
Colin’s death will undoubtedly be a hugely sad time for his family but he will be remembered as someone who contributed so much to Scottish golf through his writing by helping raise the profile of players and celebrating their achievements.
He was recognised by the Association of Golf Writers in 2018 during The Open Championship at Carnoustie with lifetime membership.
A fitting accolade and rightful recognition for someone who dedicated a major part of his life to covering the sport.
His death is a sad loss to the north-east golfing community, in particular Deeside Golf Club where he was a member for more than 50 years, but Colin will be very fondly remembered by those who were fortunate to meet him.