IT's all about sustainability here at the eco-friendly Open. Well, apart from this diary, of course. “It really is unsustainable,” muttered the sports editor as he pored over my latest emission while glowering like Greta Thunberg watching someone shove 90 quid of diesel into a gas-guzzling 4X4. In order to minimise The Open’s carbon footprint, The R&A has expanded its Greenlinks programme. There’s a reduction in single use plastic, water re-filling stations are dotted over the links, 65 to 70% of produce is sourced within 150 miles of St Andrews and electric vehicles are used to shuttle players and high heid yins around. As readers will appreciate, this scribe has always been actively aware of my environmental responsibilities. Every day this week, for instance, I’ve been recycling the same auld codswallop in the diary.
*The old Claret Jug is the ornate drinking receptacle that everybody wants to get their hands on. As for the diarist? Well, I’m just as happy to get my clutches round my chipped mug of Chateau Lafite Rothschild on a nightly basis when the shift at the media centre coal face is done. The handsome silver pitcher the Champion Golfer of the Year gets presented with was first dished out at the 1873 championship here in St Andrews. Golf’s most venerated trophy is 20.75 inches high and weighs 5.4lbs. As one cooing commentator once gushed, “ahh, the Claret Jug, five-and-a-half pounds of solid silver that’s worth its weight in gold.”
*Talking of gold, you can spend as much as the value of the bullion in Fort Knox at The Open’s merchandise tent. All sorts of paraphernalia is up for sale including an officially-branded dog bowl. “You can use it to serve up this bloody dog’s breakfast of a diary,” barked the sport editor.
