Kevin Markham: Clubs keep moving with the times

“Time and tide wait for no man…” wrote Robert Frost, the American poet, “… but time always stands still for a woman of 30.”

For several years after the Celtic Tiger ended, Ireland’s golf courses were caught in a never-ending storm. Membership numbers declined, green fee income fell, societies reduced their playing rotas… an air of doom and gloom descended.

Today’s situation is different: for every club still trying to right the ship, there is another already steering for calmer waters.