“With all the progress golf has made with force plates, titanium, radar, graphite, agronomy, clubhouses, golf operations, apps etc,” he wrote, “Have we glossed over the simple act of hitting a ball being outdoors with friends? Covid highlighted it but have we grasped it? Have we changed?”

It’s a fascinating question and one the golf industry should be asking itself on a daily basis.

If the headlines around the game were the measure then grassroots golf might as well not exist, such is the attention presently being heaped on the controversy at the top end of the men’s professional game.

But there was a gentle reminder of what’s important about golf from the top of the women’s professional game this week in Scotland.

"Even at the very top levels, golfers forget the simply joy that hitting a ball at a target with a stick can bring." - Rod Morri.

As has happened at several European Tour events, the social media team at the LPGA/Ladies European Tour co-sanctioned Scottish Open set up a fun experiment during one of the practise rounds at Dundonald Links.

A bag of hickory shafted clubs awaited players on the tee of the par-3 11th and a video of some of the best (and worst) shots and reactions followed.

A couple of quite telling things stood out from what was essentially a light-hearted experiment, not the least of them being how much fun the players had messing around with the old equipment.

Also obvious is the skill level at the top of the game. Despite the implements being completely foreign, most produced something resembling a golf shot with some results being more than acceptable.

But perhaps the most interesting reactions were not to the clubs themselves or how they performed but to the bag of equipment from which they were drawn.

Anna Nordqvist, Yuka Saso and Atthaya Thitikul were all genuinely – and apparently pleasantly – surprised by the simplicity and lightness of the bag.

All were impressed at how little the entire set up weighed compared to the monstrous advertising billboards their loopers lug around every week.

It seems a small detail but it speaks directly to the point Sandy makes about how complicated we have made the game.

Even at the very top levels, golfers forget the simply joy that hitting a ball at a target with a stick can bring.

For professionals, that’s at least understandable but for the rest of us – and the golf industry as a whole – it’s a lesson we need to remind ourselves of constantly.