‘It bugs me!’ Robert MacIntyre hits out at huge problem facing Scottish golf

Robert MacIntyre is worried that golf is eating itself alive in Scotland by outpricing regular players.

Two golf clubs were forced to shut their doors within a matter of days last month, with Hirsel Golf Club in the Borders and Torrance Park in Motherwell both going to the wall.

The collapse of these clubs – which also act as community hubs – has raised further concerns that more courses are in serious jeopardy of closure in the coming months.

And at a time when many agree that the professional game has been enveloped by greed, MacIntyre is particularly concerned about the future of the amateur game and what it could mean for the pathway of talented Scottish youngsters.

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“Like anywhere, the worry with the golf industry right now is the prices go too high and outprices a lot of people,” the world No.16 told reporters ahead of this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, where is playing on home soil with his father Dougie.

“It bugs me, but there are a lot of business decisions, a lot of people want to make a lot of money and it’s going to damage a lot of local communities within that to try and play the game of golf.

“But I think you pull back and you go to the smaller towers and the smaller areas, that’s where you see a lot more people playing golf.

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“It’s an area that’s up for discussion within world golf, Scottish golf. The opportunity within the Central Belt in the main areas is great. You’ve got so many golf courses, you’ve got so much support .You’ve got the driving ranges, gyms, you’ve got this, that you’ve got everything you need.

“You go to the local communities and there’s not as much funding going to them. There’s not as much support for them and that’s fine.

“There’s probably less people playing golf in that area, but, for the size of town Oban is, the number of members, the ratio is quite high. The give and take side of it within the funding side to help clubs come up, they still get clubs in the Central Belt closing down because there’s so many.

“But, for me, coming from Oban, the support you get in the smaller communities. Yet we didn’t have a junior county team in Argyll & Bute this year, and it’s sad.”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.