On arriving at one more DP World Tour event, Iona Stephen, the Sky Sports Golf commentator, is apt to make the practice range her first port of call. Back in 2020, when she was starting out in the TV world, she would probably have been assessing the moods of the various players and wondering how she should start the necessary conversations. Today, that happens rather less often; many of the professionals only have to see her coming to interrupt their practice sessions and ask after her dogs.
In recent weeks, they would probably have gone on to request an update on how Iona and her two Labrador pups, Dealas and Las, fared in the ‘dog-on-course’ trial which is taking place over the Queen’s Course and the Wee Course at Gleneagles between now and the end of the year.
Iona Stephen with her pups Dealas and Las at Gleneagles
(Image credit: Iona Stephen)
Andrew Jowett, the Head of Golf at the five-star complex, said he was unable to comment on specific dog behaviour before acknowledging that the initial feedback had been “relatively good… All the dogs thus far have complied with the required golfing etiquette.” (Their number would have included Dealas and Las who, in their owner’s opinion, behaved decidedly well for a pair of pups who must have seen golf as a painfully slow version of the crazy ball-chasing games they had known in their first nine months.)
Iona, incidentally, has been campaigning for more dogs in golf on the grounds that dogs and golfers get as much fun out of a golf course environment as each other. Meanwhile, the anti-dog faction, who will have a say on what happens at Gleneagles, will tell you that there are enough hazards in the game without stepping on dog waste. Where the two sides are in agreement is in believing that the dogs need to be on leads.
Following on from her Gleneagles experience, Iona took Dealas and Las to St Andrews for the Sunday of the Dunhill Links championship. There, she met Eddie Pepperell’s canines whose on-course etiquette was in a class of its own. Not only did they walk the links with one of…
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