Alcohol is the problem not the solution

It was the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie, after a wee wander around I had decided that the par 3 13th would be a nice place to settle in for a few hours.

It's a nice wee hole, nothing spectacular, but just to the left of the tee there's a raised area with some trees that gives you a great view of the tee and the green, so it seemed a good spot.

A well known American PGA tour player, I won't name him, hit his tee shot about 45 feet from the pin, there was sparse but polite applause, the player looked baffled by this, he turned to his caddy and could be clearly heard "jeez I hit the green, what's wrong with these people" to wish a deep Scottish brogue replied from the crowd "we only applaud good shots up here son".

This seemed to aggravate the American but brought howls of laughter from the gallery.

In a nutshell I think this is the difference between a tournament held in Britain or an event held in the U.S.

Predominantly British golf crowds are made up of people who play golf, American crowds are not.

People who play the game are more aware of golf etiquette and the finer points of the game, they also tend to go along to watch golf, not one player, but golf.

But let's be honest there have been issues with British crowds in the past, we are not whiter than white, you only have to look at last years Open Championship, but like rugby fans golf fans seem to be pretty good at self policing and handle the more "difficult" fans by ourselves.

There is a growing problem in U.S. Events with crowd behaviour and it needs to be tackled by the PGA tour now before a major incident happens.

I have attended many Opens and other professional events in Scotland and have yet to consume alcohol at any of them. Why do people feel they need a drink to watch golf ?

I have seen people at a well known champagne manufacturer tent in the Open tented village blootered, but they seem to just to stay in the tented village and watch on the big screen, I will never understand that, ever.

At last years Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen there was a "corporate" tent alongside the 15th where few, if any, were interested in the golf it was purely the free drink.

I don't get that, I really don't.

I learned at the weekend about the "7th innings rule", apparently this is a rule in baseball were alcohol can't get served after the 7th innings and some were asking if a similar rule should be introduced in golf, for the record I have no idea how many innings there are in a baseball match.

If we must, and it seems we must, serve alcohol at golf tournaments then let us restrict it to "tented village" areas and keep it off the course.

Because if we don't tackle this now then we will have a major incident involving a player.

There is no such thing as a good drunk there is only a drunk!