The diarist has never been very technology savvy. My idea of a cutting edge contraption, for instance, is the pumice stone.
As you can imagine then, yesterday’s global IT outage had no impact whatsoever on my Open labours. You don’t need a fancy system to operate a feather quill, after all.
Amid the high-tech hoopla, the diarist was reminded of a great declaration of advancement by the R&A at the Hoylake Open of 2014.
As the then chief executive, Peter Dawson, waxed lyrical about the virtues of “our groundbreaking Wi-Fi network”, a ham-fisted workman thundered a spade through a vital fibre optic cable outside and brought the entire media centre to its knees.
The diarist and his quill had the last laugh.
*Friday was cut day at The Open, with the leading 70 and ties progressing to the closing 36-holes and the rest saying ta-ta. Like a corny, end-of-the-pier comedian, meanwhile, the diarist is here all week.
Peering down the drawsheet ahead of the second day of play, I noticed the name of Denwit David Boriboonsub of Thailand and was reminded of the hoary press centre gag about golfers from that Southeast Asian country never missing the cut in The Open.
“Really?,” chirped an intrigued colleague. “Aye,” the diarist replied. “Because the qualifying mark is always 70 and Thais.” I’ll get my coat.
*It’s not just The Open that’s in full swing this weekend. Apparently, hundreds of, ahem, racy revellers have gathered down in Lincolnshire for a carnal carnival called ‘Swingathon’.
According to reports, irate residents of the sleepy village where this coital curiosity is taking place have complained about ‘screaming and moaning’ coming from the site.
The racket sounds like the din the golf writers created the other night when Dan Brown pinched The Open lead at 9:35pm and we all had to re-write our bloody copy.
The Herald’s coverage of The 152nd Open at Royal Troon is brought to you in association with Fairmont St. Andrews.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here