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Golfers have reacted furiously after footage of a group of men playing football on the greens of the world’s oldest golf course was shared on social media.
Top golf coach Oliver Morton posted a short video clip to Twitter which appears to show four men kicking a ball around on one of the putting surfaces at Musselburgh Links.
The course, like all others across Scotland, is currently closed due to coronavirus-enforced restrictions.
“No golf allowed on the #MusselburghOldCourse @MusselburghRace but it appears people seem to think Football is ok,” tweeted Morton.
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“Despicable considering the tireless work the @MusselburghOld Team are doing to keep the Worlds Oldest Golf Course so immaculate (at personal risk I might add)!”
Check out the footage for yourself…
No golf allowed on the #MusselburghOldCourse @MusselburghRace but it appears people seem to think Football is ok .
Despicable considering the tireless work the @MusselburghOld Team are doing to keep the Worlds Oldest Golf Course so immaculate (at personal risk I might add)! pic.twitter.com/TY0iXAnb6r
— Oliver C. Morton (@ChangeTheGame54) May 11, 2020
Morton added that the footage was filmed this evening (Monday, May 11) at around 5.30pm.
In follow-up tweets, he said that he had seen other incidents on the course.
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Fellow coach Gary Nicol described the behaviour as “shocking” whilst another Twitter user said: “I hope the ghost of Mrs Forman haunts them.”
Musselburgh Links claims to be the oldest golf course in the word, with “documented evidence” showing that golf was played as far back as 1672. Together with Prestwick and St Andrews, it was one of the three courses which staged the Open on rotation in the 1870s and 1880s, playing host to the event six times in all.
Musselburgh Links is the latest course to be misused since restrictions designed to contain the spread of COVID-19 were introduced by the UK government on March 23.
The Bishopbriggs Golf Club, Crow Wood and Nairn Golf Club as well as Walton Heath, Ballumbie Castle and Cowglen have reported incidents of their own, whilst a couple was caught having sex in a bunker at Glenbervie.
Following the most recent update by the Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon last Thursday, golf courses in Scotland remain closed for play.
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