Hopefully the gender gap in prize money will one day be a thing of the past.
It’s a really exciting time to be following women’s golf and I noted that just last week they increased the prize pot for the British Open to its biggest ever.
That came after the CEO of the R&A (Martin Slumbers) spoke about being on a ‘direction of travel’ towards equal pay.
That is something female athletes deserve.
We are really lucky in Curling. In the major grand slam events, they have equalled the prize money.
I think we are moving in the right direction across sport and it is important that continues to happen and no-one rests on their laurels.
It is a slow process but as more people speak up about it, and more major sponsors come on board with women’s sport, the more progress will be made.
Those sponsors are only interested if you have the TV coverage and the publicity, which seems to be happening — certainly in golf.
That’s a trend that needs to keep going forward.
Being at the Scottish Open last weekend and watching the standard of so many of the Asian and European players, the quality is increasing globally and these events are becoming tougher and tougher.
And that just shows how well Kelsey MacDonald did by finishing as top Scot in the tournament.
What an event she had.
Then to have the accolade of being first on the tee on Thursday for the British Open in Carnoustie must have been such a surreal feeling.
What a great accolade for @K_Mac_59 hitting the opening tee shot @AIGWomensOpen 👏🏼 https://t.co/WyXopyZdMR
— Eve Muirhead MBE (@evemuirhead) August 18, 2021
But that is the reward for all her hard work — she goes the extra mile; the extra inch — and she is just waiting for something really great to happen.
Kelsey is a close friend and I see first-hand how much work she puts into being the best athlete and person, inside and out, that she can possibly be.
I used to play golf with her back in the day and she was at University in Stirling when I was training there, and it’s wonderful to see how far she has come.
But what I would say is: it is absolutely nerve-shredding watching her play. I would much rather be out there myself — although I’d probably not fare as well as her on the golf course!
I can only imagine how her mum feels.
The Euro Super Series comes to Stirling
Things are starting to feel a little more normal on our circuit.
In the first weekend of September we have the Euro Super Series at the National Curling Academy in Stirling.
That will bring together the top teams — men and women — from around Europe.
It will be fantastic to have that level of competition again.
The week after that event, we are going to St Petersburg in Russia, then to Switzerland and Canada.
Just to see these events taking place, and looking at flights again, all feels a little bit surreal.
However, we need that competition and to get games under our belts in such an important year, with the Olympic qualifiers coming up in December.
We had May and June off but it has been pretty full-on for the last few weeks — but we all really appreciate the opportunity more than ever.
It’s weird to be practicing for events now.
We know how lucky we were to even be on the ice last year and able to train, compared to other countries, but it felt like you weren’t prepping for as many events as you usually would.
It got a little tedious.
But because we know we are building towards something, you have that excitement every time you step on the ice and you can’t beat that feeling.
