Selecting teams in amateur golf has never been an exact science. In recent years, though, those involved in the performance side of things at Scottish Golf have attempted to devise an almost E=Mc2 formula for getting into a squad.
Amid a variety of aims, objectives, strategies and complexities, a selection policy was set in place which took into account a whole host of factors including historical records of players in tournaments, world rankings, fitness, medical conditions and climatic considerations at said event.
It seemed to be something of a box-ticking exercise and the whole thing came under withering scrutiny last year when Ailsa Summers won the Scottish Ladies Amateur Championship but wasn’t included in the Scotland team for the Home Internationals. In many ways, the decision did little for the integrity of the national championship. At the time, Scottish Golf’s now-departed performance manager, Steve Paulding, said that “work commitments restrict Ailsa in being able to practice and compete more regularly and consistently, however we commend her decision to follow her career rather than play full-time golf.” Many claimed the traditional, working amateur was being penalised for, well, working while the whole episode sent out the rather negative message that unless you’re a full-time, elite level performer then you can forget about playing for your country. It all seemed to be a bit of a closed shop and was hardly encouraging for those not harbouring ambitions of a future career in the paid ranks.
Mercifully, those involved at Scottish Golf have changed the policy and, as of this season, the winners of the Scottish Men’s, Women’s, Boys’ and Girls’ Amateur Championships will all secure automatic spots in their respective Scotland Home Internationals sides. “In all of our Scottish Amateur Championships, the winners will have come through head-to-head match-play format, which mirrors the style played at the Home Internationals,” said Stuart Clayton, the acting head of performance at Scottish Golf. “We therefore feel the champion will have demonstrated the capabilities required to perform well at the Homes and thus would be deserving of an automatic place.”
In a further new addition for 2017, domestic Order of Merit points will now be awarded at both male and female level for the leading 16 players in strokeplay qualifying for the Scottish and British Championships.
“The awarding of points will offer a small bonus for the players, rewarding good performances in the strokeplay stages, underlining it as being a key area for player development,” added Clayton.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here