Martin Dempster: Scottish Open needs sponsor it can bank on

LAST week’s announcement that Barclays had decided not to renew its sponsorship of the Scottish Open has thrown up more questions than answers regarding the future of the event, which is particularly disappointing at a time when it seemed it had just embarked on a bright new era on links courses.

Barclays had backed the tournament since 2002, working in partnership with the European Tour to provide a tasty appetiser the week before the Open Championship. Under the Barclays banner, it attracted a world-class field, first for nine years at Loch Lomond then once, earlier this year, at Castle Stuart.

George O’Grady, the European Tour’s chief executive, said Barclays had cited “market factors” as the basis for their decision yet, in the same press release, Tim Peat, the managing director of Barclays Capital, talked about how the company would “continue to have a significant presence in professional golf” through its sponsorship of Phil Mickelson, The Barclays event on the PGA Tour and the Singapore Open.

So why is the Scottish Open the one that has been dropped from the Barclays portfolio? In all honesty, that is extremely puzzling, especially when we were led to believe that the banking giant had been the driving force behind the move to a links course and, in particular, taking the European Tour further north than it had ever ventured before in the home of golf.

It was a bold move and it would be very interesting indeed to get Barclays’ take on an eventful few days on the banks of the Moray Firth close to Inverness. As the likes of Mickelson and three-time major winner Padraig Harrington sang the praises of Castle Stuart in the build up to the event, there seemed little doubt that Barclays would be signing on the dotted line again.

So what effect, if any, did the weather-related problems that followed, on the Saturday in particular, have when it came to O’Grady sitting down with the Barclays big-wigs to discuss a new contract? There was no mention of that in the press release, but it has been rumoured that the company were unhappy with “some of the negative publicity” the event attracted.

If that’s the case, then Barclays are obviously turning a blind eye to the masses of positive publicity the event has attracted over the years. The Open – and, of course, the Ryder Cup – apart, no other golf event is afforded the space given in this country to the Scottish Open in newspapers or given nearly as many soundbites on television or radio.

O’Grady and his team will be hammering that point home to potential new sponsors, but this new headache is surely something the European Tour supremo could have done without at a time when he is in exactly the same situation with the Irish Open. What happened with that event, incidentally, could prove cause for concern for the Scottish Open.

With phone company 3 as its title sponsor, the Irish Open carried a prize fund of £2.6 million in 2010. But, after it pulled out last year and the Tour ran out of time in its bid to secure a new backer, it was left to Failte Ireland, the tourism agency, to step in and ensure the event stayed on the schedule, though the prize fund was slashed to £1.3 million. “It was Failte Ireland’s decision to support [the event] this year and we would be very supportive again next year if we don’t get a commercial sponsor,” said its chairman Redmond O’Donoghue. “But this is a great product. It should be easy-ish to sell, even in these stressful times.”

The Scottish Open is a great product, too. You would also like to think it would be easy-ish to sell to potential sponsors. It has been pencilled in again next year for the week before the Open and, though it has not officially been confirmed yet, it seems certain the event will be heading back to the Highlands.

What makes the event’s short-term future even more important, of course, is a Ryder Cup at Gleneagles looming on the horizon. Which is why the four partners involved in the delivery of that event – EventScotland, VisitScotland, Scottish Development International and the Scottish Government – will see the focus turned on them if O’Grady is unsuccessful in fixing up a new Scottish Open title sponsor. Could the door have been opened for Donald Trump? His new course at Menie Estate isn’t due to open until next summer, but it could be ready for tournament play as early as 2014. He’d surely jump at the chance to stage the Scottish Open and also sponsor it.

Will Mickelson, a Barclays-backed player, be back at future Scottish Opens? So many questions yet so few answers. Just when the move to a links venue had created a new wave of excitement about it, let’s hope Barclays haven’t thrown the event’s future into too much doubt and O’Grady has the answer for one of the European Tour’s flagship events.