Trending Away From Specialization

South Africa’s Brandon Stone, the defending champion in this week’s Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, did not take long to issue a cheerful warning. “I think we might be the biggest mob out here but, if you think that 15 or 20 of us is a lot, be prepared. There’s a larger batch of guys coming through.”

When the question was posed as to whether the latest crop of South Africans were as their predecessors in growing up playing rugby, cricket and tennis as well as golf, Stone mentioned the great debate back in his homeland as to the best way ahead for an aspiring golfer.

“It's kind of a weird topic back in South Africa right now,” he said. Apparently, South African officialdom, with their Golf RSA project, have been doing their best to encourage a change of emphasis following a spell in which there were a rising number of kids being home-schooled and turning professional at the end of their schooling. According to Stone, those who had concentrated on their golf to the exclusion of all else had tended “to get stuck” in So...