Like whisky, golf is “intertwined with Scotland’s identity, economy and global reputation”, so at first blush it comes as no surprise that the Scottish Government is committing £11 million towards staging 14 championship events to be held in this country between 2024 and 2034.

The agreement with the game’s governing body, the R&A, was announced in conjunction with new figures produced by Sheffield Hallam University’s Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) on the economic impact of the 152nd Open held at Royal Troon earlier this year. As ever, the numbers are chunky.

More than 258,000 fans came through the gates at the event in July where Xander Schauffele eventually emerged the winner, the most ever to attend The Open in Troon and the third-highest in the competition’s history. The top slot continues to be held by the 150th Open at St Andrews in 2022 (290,000), followed by the 151st at Royal Liverpool in 2023 (260,000).

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According to SIRC, this year’s event generated more than £303m in economic benefits for Scotland. The amount of new money entering the economy – a measure of the spending that wasn’t diverted from elsewhere – was calculated at a bit more than £87m, along with a further £216m in “destination marketing benefits” from the event being broadcast on television and digital platforms around the world.

The 10 stagings of The Open in Scotland since 2005 have thus, by SIRC’s calculations, generated a total economic benefit of £1.36 billion with more than two million fans attending during that time, a quarter of a........

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