The resignation of Blane Dodds from Scottish Golf is not entirely a surprise, although the timing certainly is.
The 50-year-old was the public face of the new strategic plan Scottish Golf were attempting to push through the clubs and areas in a three-month charm offensive that appears to have charmed no-one.
There’s no specific evidence the reaction to the over-ambitious plan – which involved establishing a customer management database and a mandatory tee booking system while more than doubling the annual levy paid by all club members – has been what’s made Dodds jump ship.
Dodds, a former Scotland internationalist at tennis, was always more attached to that sport. He retained – more than a little oddly – his post as the non-executive chairman of Tennis Scotland throughout his time with Scottish Golf.
The post as chief executive of Tennis Scotland became available and was obviously too tempting. Fair enough, the Scottish Golf job wasn’t a vocation, it was just a job. He found one he liked better.
For the beleaguered board of Scottish Golf, Dodds’ departure might even represent an opportunity. Such has been the negative reaction to the strategic plan, they can now simply retreat from many, if not all, of its contentious elements, saying it was all Dodds’ idea.
That still leaves that yawning funding gap of nearly £400,000 a year to be filled, of course. But the radical elements of the strategic plan were always too much for the conservative base of Scottish golf clubs to deal with.
Something less creative and more pragmatic needs to be hammered out. Perhaps the clubs and areas have something in mind.
