The world’s golfing elite will be closely watching Thursday’s Scottish Independence Referendum, with the fate of St Andrews at stake.
The home of golf will never see the British Open again if the ‘Yes’ vote gets up.
The home of the oldest golf tournament in the world, that first teed off in 1897, will no longer be a member of the British Isles.
Other famous Scottish golf courses will suffer the same fate – Carnoustie, Gleneagles (where the Ryder Cup will be played later in the month), Muirfield, Royal Troon, and Turnberry.
As it sits, the 2015 British Open is scheduled for St Andrews, Royal Troon for 2016, and Carnoustie for 2018. Those venues will have to be changed if the ‘Yes’ vote wins.
So how will a ‘Yes’ vote affect other sports?
Scotland has always competed in its own right at the Commonwealth Games, but will then compete as Scotland and not an integral member of Team Great Britain at the Olympics.
But latest reports suggest there won’t be enough time for Scotland to get its act together for the Rio Olympics in 2016.
On the other side of the coin, a ‘Yes’ vote won’t affect the Six Nations rugby tournament, the northern hemisphere’s Holy Grail, but it will affect British and Irish Lions – word has it there will be a rebrand, with the team to simply be called ‘The Lions’, taking nationalities out of it altogether.
In tennis Andy Murray will at last have (SCO) after his name, instead of (GB), and Scotland will contest the Davis Cup in its own right for the first time, and not worry anybody.
There’s only been one Scottish-born cricketer to captain England, and that’s Mike Dennis in the 1970s. Scotland will then compete on the open cricket market, and again worry nobody.
The biggest downside will be Scotland’s ineligibility to receive sport funding from the national lottery, and that will be very very costly, in the millions.
But there are a whole lot more vital issues if the ‘Yes’ vote wins.
Watching Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, over recent weeks, has been looking at a rabbit in the headlights.
The 59-year-old has been so uninspiring and has happily dodged such vital questions as what currency an independent Scotland will use, how Scottish will banks handle the new order, whether Scotland will be admitted into the European Union, and border protection.
They are just four of many unanswered questions. We will know the outcome sometime Friday, or at least have a more clear-cut answer.
At the moment the referendum is too close to call, as the golfers worry about the future of St Andrews, the home of golf.
An “unshakeable” Scottie Scheffler has claimed his second Masters green jacket in three years, carding a four-under-par 68 to finish four shots clear of…
A day after setting a tournament record in the Masters, Tiger Woods has suffered an unwanted milestone at Augusta National. Woods insisted he could…
2007 Masters winner Zach Johnson had a heated exchange with patrons on the 12th hole after a triple-bogey, though he later claimed he was…
Tiger Woods is on the prowl for a sixth green jacket after penning another glorious chapter in his storied career with a record-breaking 24th…
Bryson DeChambeau has laid some demons to rest with a stunning back-nine birdie barrage to seize the first-round lead at the weather-hit Masters. The…
A year after being persona non grata at Augusta National, Australian golf legend Greg Norman is back at the Masters, declaring "the boss is…
