Headline: Three wins by Scottish golfers in two weeks on major professional tours. Sound like something worth writing about? The tour void left by Braveheart, a.k.a., Colin Montgomerie may signal a welcome sign of life from the Scots, but hardly the war cry of revolution.

Past months Triple Crown saw Scottish golf players Paul Lawrie and Sandy Lyle bringing home respective victories from the European Tour’s Open de Andalucia and ISPS Handa Senior World Championship. Then Scott Martin Laird earned his title at the PGA TOUR’s Bay Hill invitational. Are these wins are a sign that Scottish professional golf has made a resurrection?

Colin Montgomerie

After his victory Laird was quoted as saying, “When I graduated Colorado State, I had a group of sponsors that gave me some money to play and I didn’t have to worry about paying my bills and entry fees. I could just go work on my game and try and get better.” Okay.

Laird also said, “When I first came over here, I hit it really low. I just hit a low draw, kind of a low, trap draw that a lot of guys from Scotland play. I think going to school in Colorado, when I went out there, and a lot of the guys on our team were from Colorado and all hit it into orbit, because you want to do that there so the ball goes farther. I think that helped me. I gradually started hitting it higher and higher.” So by his own words, Laird was not only a student of an American university, but of an American style of play.

St.Andrew’s, the birthplace of golf, is teed up with local Scots. How many visitors leave the The 19th Hole Pub with their pride or the contents of their wallet fully intact! The Scots have golf in their DNA and there are plenty of great golf players in Scotland.

Full of talent and success on the golf amateur circuits, the trouble comes because the courses they grow up playing teach a different kind of golf game. A golf game which does not seem to produce wins across the pond (e.g. Colin Montgomerie)

American professional golf is all about playing to targets, flying the ball to elevated greens, driving the ball high, and getting paid lots of money. The Scottish golf game is a low, crafty, rolling, visually muted form of the game that has evolved on courses linking land and sea. What other explanation is there for the lack of performance on major golf tours by the Scots? Their style of play has become outdated on the major money tours. Scots like Laird, fortunate enough to attend a university in the States, are the ones who will learn to adapt – and be rewarded.

Maybe one day that golf revolution will come to pass, and an international tour will develop that encourages a showcase of skill on a variety of golf courses, terrain, and conditions. Until then the entertainment value, the beauty, and the money behind the American golf game has developed a gravitational pull of it’s own. Keep an eye on the golf courses being built for the 2016 Olympics – they will surely be a sign of what is to come, and of how the game of golf has evolved since its humble creation on the shores of Scotland.









Images by flickrtickr2009, Steven Newton, Hermann Kaser