Expect a rush on tee times, chaps. For even as the crews dismantle the marquees at Turnberry, amateur golfers of a certain age, Tom Watson in their dreams, will be rushing to recreate last night’s drama. The swoosh and glamour of professional golf has the power to inspire.

But these days it is only temporary. Amateur golf is in dire straits, with clubs all over the US and UK reporting shrinking memberships and unsustainable outgoings. Some are teetering on the edge of insolvency; greenkeepers are being paid off; and the previously unimaginable sight of “New Members Welcome” and “No Joining Fee” signs are appearing outside stuffy clubs where once one waited ten years to join.

Now the decline in a sport that has been a watchword for elitism and discrimination arouses little but glee, I’m afraid to say. It is very hard to feel sympathy for those who have, through snobbery and chauvinism, largely determined their own destiny.

Over the past 25 years, while the rest of the world embraced equality, informality and diversity, not to mention the power of youth, golf fundamentally failed to move with the times. It has been left behind: a fascinating, compulsive game betrayed by those who control it.

There are now too many courses seeking too few golfers. Only about a quarter of players belong to clubs; the rest are nomads, preferring pay- to-play on new nine-hole courses. The old school frowns at this, failing to understand that in an age where gym membership changes on a whim, lifetime loyalty to any one club is history. Just as the blazers don’t get that young, time-poor executives, seeking to unwind, are more likely to enjoy a speedy snort of cocaine than a leisurely 18 holes.

So there has been no Twenty20 revolution and little attempt to meet the demand for fast golf, friendly golf, nor family golf. What triple heresy! What breach of etiquette! Enlightened individuals try to effect change, but it is uphill work in one of the most conservative social groupings outside the Monday Club.

The recession has hit golf hard. But not as hard as the modern wife, who will no longer tolerate a partner who disappears for most of the weekend. Men are now expected, and genuinely want, to spend more time with their families. The trouble is, women and children are not really welcome on golf courses, except through gritted teeth. You hear of children turned away because they are wearing tracksuit bottoms.

Symbols matter. Until the professional game changes, and places such as Muirfield and Augusta start give-golf-a-try days for black single mothers (with crèches, of course), these attitudes will endure. And golf will atrophy.

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