It's not quite OMG or LOL but amalgamation - or should that be AMALG - seems to be the popular phrase doing the rounds in Scottish golf circles these days.

The process to merge the Scottish Golf Union (SGU) and the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association (SLGA) remains on-going but the clock is ticking down. The women have done their bit - again - by voting 204-0 in support of the latest proposal that was pieced together from the debris created by the rejection of the initial blueprint by the men's Areas in 2011. On March 30, the Areas will vote again at an egm in Stirling. By all accounts, the proposal should go through this time but nobody is rummaging in the egg basket looking for chickens just yet. This Friday at 5pm, an independent poll of all the SGU's affiliated clubs will close and the findings will go a long way to guiding the 16 Areas - who represent these clubs - on how to vote. It's hardly surprising that the SGU has embarked on a fairly robust publicity campaign to push the motion of merger through. If this second attempt falls flat on its face - and, again, it shouldn't - then the whole idea could be binned for "a generation." It would be an embarrassment on an astonishing scale and the consequences - notwithstanding the backward way Scottish golf would be perceived in the wider world - would be highly damaging. Imagine if the Royal & Ancient, a male only bastion for 260 years until last September, and the Ladies' Golf Union merged before the SGU and the SLGA? Last week's announcement that the R&A and the LGU were in discussions about some kind of union probably arrived at the perfect time. You could almost picture an R&A official tapping his SGU counterpart on the shoulder at the buffet of a pleasant soiree and saying "pssst, we're now thinking of doing it so get yer finger oot" before tucking into his swan tartlet.

Catriona Matthew yesterday added her weight to the campaign and said: "an amalgamated body is long overdue and, after the ladies' unanimous support for the proposal at their agm, I would hope the SGU Areas also support it."

Stephen Gallacher also expressed his opinion on the matter. "My own Foundation supports both boys and girls and I would love to think the two governing bodies can come together as one for the benefit of the game in this country," he said.