Golf’s brave new world seems to have been a success at the weekend.
The razzmatazz will have appalled some traditionalists but the GolfSixes event is aimed at the ever-increasing number of sports viewers who have an ever-decreasing attention span. I would imagine it, or its offspring, will be here to stay.
Not every departure from the norm deserves to be applauded, though.
Organisers of an LPGA Tour event last week decided to put a sponsor’s invitation spot at the mercy of a social media popularity contest.
One of the four competing female golfers chosen for the gimmick was Perthshire’s own Carly Booth.
The winner of the Twitter vote gets the chance to potentially transform their career. But at a time when equality in golf is a high profile issue, is this really the sort of image the women’s game wants to portray?
Booth has won two European Tour events and set records in junior golf that have still to be surpassed. It’s a proper golfing CV.
When celebrity friends like David Haye and Denise Van Outen are “campaigning” on her behalf on social media to get her into the ShopRite LPGA Classic, and she is posting clips online in support of her claim that are a cross between a girlband video and a shampoo advert, it’s no surprise that Judy Murray’s reaction to the whole thing was less than enthusiastic.
She said on Twitter “All about ££££ these days – sponsorship, TV rights, branding, image. What about growing the love of playing, teaching + watching the game?”
Booth and the other three ladies reaching out for social media love may not find this process demeaning but you can understand why her peers and the wider female sporting community might see it differently.
* Nobody needs educating about the reasons for athletics governing bodies wanting to wipe the slate clean.
Many track and field records can’t be trusted and if any sport needs a rebrand it is this one.
But there is one slight problem – the modern day records can’t be trusted either.
You can only cut your ties with the past when you can be sure of a cleaner future.
Athletics is nowhere near reaching that point.
* Sir Alex Ferguson is the standard by which all Manchester United managers will be judged – even someone with the trophy-count of Jose Mourinho.
What would Fergie have done? It’s a question that will be asked time and again when Old Trafford bosses are judged on their behaviour and achievements.
I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be whining week after week about the gruelling schedule his team are having to endure at the end of the season.
And I’m even more certain that he wouldn’t have pronounced battling on two fronts in May was beyond United, even if it was a bluff.
There was no self-pity back in 1999 when United were chasing the treble. Had there been, they wouldn’t have secured it.
* The fall and fall of David Moyes in recent years has been quite something.
Even putting aside the off pitch controversy, his sure touch as a manager has deserted him spectacularly.
This time last year Scotland and Celtic supporters wouldn’t have got their hopes up about the possibility of Moyes taking over from Gordon Strachan or Ronny Deila. If either job came up now, you might not get a majority of supporters who would want him.
