Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

TEE TO GREEN, STEVE SCOTT: The shame’s on us if the AIG Women’s Open doesn’t get the crowds it deserves

Ashleigh Buhai with the AIG Women's Open trophy.
Ashleigh Buhai with the AIG Women's Open trophy.

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

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

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

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

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.

Conversation