Madeira restart after Iain McGregor’s death was crass

By Ewan Murray/theguardian.com

Finishing the Madeira Islands Open after Sunday’s shocking  death of a caddie painted those responsible in a dreadful light.

 Thankfully, there is not much that happens in professional golf that is worthy of outrage. Not least on a basic human level, far removed from the nuances of professional sport. And it is sport; therefore by definition separate from life itself.

 The European Tour appears to have a problem with such a concept. The move to restart and conclude the Madeira Islands Open on Sunday evening after the shocking death of the caddie Iain McGregor on the 9th hole painted those responsible in a dreadful light. This was a moment when people within and outside golf looked on in horror and rightly so.

 It was a horrendously crass and insensitive move, no matter how the tour attempts to justify it. It shamed this sport. The subliminal message was clear: just get the tournament finished and move on. After a minute’s silence by the clubhouse, that is.

 The event should have been cancelled immediately as the only appropriate tribute to the 52-year-old McGregor. No discussions with players, caddies, those in high-golfing office or sponsors were needed. This should have been a simple case of doing the right thing.

 Other sports that are subjected to considerably more negative publicity than golf would never have contemplated continuing an event in identical circumstances. When Fabrice Muamba collapsed after a cardiac arrest in the first half of a FA Cup quarter-final, Bolton and Spurs didn’t just restart the match.

 As a string of professional golfers took to social media to air their disgust at events in Madeira, those in senior positions at the European Tour should have realised what an error they had made. Too late, alas.

 Scott Arnold, an Australian professional who was in the room when discussions over a restart were taking place, tweeted on Monday: “Majority of players yesterday didn’t want to go back out but got told by the TD [tournament director] ‘it’s a professional sport and the show must go on.’” You may need to read that more than once to comprehend it.

 Photographs of caddies distraught after hearing what had happened to one of their own showed clearly that they would not have been of a mind to carry on, either.

 Peter Lawrie, one of the most experienced players in the field, withdrew from the tournament immediately after the restart was confirmed. He did not miss those responsible, either.

 “In my opinion it was shocking, absolutely shocking, they played on,” Lawrie said. “I have never withdrawn from a tournament before. I wasn’t going well but that had nothing to do with it. A man died. I believe it’s totally wrong what they did.”

 By close of play, the European Tour’s website printed a story hailing a “bittersweet victory” for the Englishman Daniel Brooks, as if he had snapped his beloved sand wedge when playing the 15th.

 The tour has displayed a recent fondness to promote two things: the sense of community and family around it, added to the wonderful financial health it is now in. Presumably if a weekly key constituent of that family, which a caddie is, drops dead on the course then there is no justifiable cause to halt proceedings? That is an appalling attitude to take; if it was for the sake of complicating sponsorship or prize revenue, it can surely be assumed that riches earned from showboat events later in the year could swiftly have remedied that problem.

By Tuesday morning, the tour’s chief executive George O’Grady had been heavily implicated. He should now have some explaining to do. Alastair Forsyth, for whom McGregor was caddying, told the Daily Record: “I honestly didn’t know what was the right or wrong thing to do but George O’Grady came on speakerphone. His opinion was we should go ahead and complete it. We didn’t argue but it was the tour’s decision.”

 Next Tuesday night, the European Tour hosts its annual gala dinner on the outskirts of London. There, and during the subsequent BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, it will again attempt to tell the world or, principally, potential sponsors  what fantastic shape things are in.

 Last year, those events were wrecked by a racism storm. This time, the backdrop is similarly distasteful.