The decision by Scottish Golf to snub their own national champion, Ailsa Summers, for the Home International matches is difficult to comprehend.
The decision by Scottish Golf to snub their own national champion for the Home International matches is difficult to comprehend.
Ailsa Summers, having been crowned Scottish Ladies Champion and currently sitting second in the Ladies Order of Merit should have been a shoo-in for the team. Yet when the matches get underway today at Conwy Golf Club, her name, despite the player declaring her availability, won’t be on the tee sheet.
When asked by long-time Scottish golf writer Colin Farquharson as to their reasoning behind their selection policy, Scottish Performance Director, Steve Paulding justified the panel’s decision by contending that Ailsa’s work commitments had meant that she had been unable to play much competitive golf.
Having taking up a position at Edinburgh Airport since graduating from St Andrews University in May, it may well be that Summers has not accumulated the same amount of tournament rounds as some of the other golf girls. That this is reason alone not to select the twenty-two-year-old seems blatant discrimination against those ladies attempting to compete at the highest level, but who (like most of us) have to work for a living.
Moreover, Paulding’s second argument, that other players selected ‘have better overall performance record,’ appears to completely undermine the organisation’s Order of Merit, in which Summers currently sits second. Surely the whole point of this ranking is to determine who are the best performing players in the country.
The decision may be easier to get your head around if Scottish Golf had established a winning formula at the Home Internationals, from which they were reluctant to deviate. As it is the team have only triumphed once in the last half century, and have claimed the wooden spoon on the last four staging’s of the event.
If Scotland are crowned champions this week, then Paulding can rest his case. If the team yet again finish bottom of the leaderboard however, he needs to answer some serious questions as to why one of Scotland’s most talented players wasn’t on the team sheet.
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