It was 50 years ago this week that one of the greatest golfers ever to grace the greens set out on his quest to win his first US Masters championship.

To say that amateur golf in Scotland has been slow to adapt to change is putting it kindly. But where the rise of the nomads, the Equality Act, the credit crunch and repeated faltering reform efforts have failed, perhaps Covid-19 will finally be the shock that thrusts the sector into a meaningful if seriously belated overhaul.

THE Open Championship will not take place at all this year.

IF you’re under 40, or as I like to call it these days, "pre-arthritis", you probably won’t remember the dark days of malbec when you had a 50-50 chance of opening something that would be as rough as sandpaper.

Chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association Karen Betts explains why she thinks the Scottish 'water of life' is so special.

While lockdown has seen some people turn to DIY, it doesn't all have to be on the home or garden.

On Feb. 3, all students, faculty and staff members at every Penn State campus location will receive an email to take the Penn State Community Survey to share their attitudes and experiences of community, diversity and inclusion at Penn State. Every 100 survey takers will have a chance to win an Amazon or Starbucks gift card.

If Scotland really does have such fabulous seafood, why do ordinary citizens find it so hard to tap into this much eulogised catch? The problem has been that subsequent governments have fixated on international exports, not food for citizens.

It’ll be five years next month since Gerry Cinnamon released his debut single Kampfire Vampire on Glasgow-based micro-label First Run Records, a half decade in which the Castlemilk-born singer-songwriter has gone from jobbing gig jockey on the city’s DIY scene to a bona fide musical phenomenon with combined Spotify plays of well over 100 million.

IN April 2004, the Victoria & Albert museum in London staged an exhibition of the work of Vivienne Westwood. The show was a celebration and a culmination of the fashion designer’s move from the margins of the industry in the 1970s, where she was creating clothes for the punks who hung around the King’s Road, to her 21st-century incarnation as first among equals in British haute couture.

THE Through the Keyhole Pandemic Special has certainly given rise to some entertaining sights.

The Rolling Stones have released their first new song in eight years. Unlike everything else they've done in the last three decades, it's bang up to date. It even references the coronavirus crisis.

A FEW weeks ago, Wendy James was trending on Twitter. It’s been happening quite often over the last few months, a result of BBC Four’s repeats of Top of the Pops reaching 1988 and 1989, the years in which a pink-lipsticked, bra-flaunting James launched herself on the public consciousness as the brash, blonde frontwoman of Transvision Vamp.

WE start at the low point. “It’s hard doing music,” Jill O’Sullivan admits. “I love it. I feel compelled to sing and play and write. But I was thinking of quitting.”

I’m not sure it was wise for Nicola Sturgeon to invoke Nelson Mandela in her speech on the next steps (sic) to independence. He was a revolutionary who pursued a campaign of non-violent direct action, including strikes, boycotts and other acts of civil disobedience. That’s what many ardent Yessers were hoping against hope she might authorise.

It was a normal Friday night in the Red Lion pub in Whitehall, where journalists gather to gossip about the week. Charlie Whelan, former chancellor Gordon Brown’s personal spin doctor, was holding court as usual, white wine spritzer in hand.

The Scottish political world is holding its breath this weekend.

Writers have been ransacking the Brainy Quotes website looking for inspiration for their coronavirus think pieces. But there is really only one that matters: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”. Franklin D Roosevelt’s epigram is appropriate because it is as disingenuous as it is paradoxical.

“It's not the end; it's not even the beginning of the end; but it is perhaps the end of the beginning”. Churchill's famous wartime speech after the battle of El Alamein in November 1942 was an ambiguous rallying cry. After all, by saying it was only the beginning, he was suggesting that there could be worse to come.

FACE it – we are going nowhere. Even if we had a particular place to venture the regulations would not permit. For the foreseeable we shall have to contract out our travelling to others. On the upside, no airport hassle. On the downside, no giant Toblerone.

One of the country's most-loved couples returned to Channel 4 this week with Richard & Judy: Keep Reading And Carry On. The presenters talk to Georgia Humphreys about marriage, their love of books, and filming in lockdown.

Co-hosts Keith Lemon and Anna Richardson talk to Gemma Dunn about their new show, The Fantastical Factory Of Curious Craft.

One of the biggest pieces of unfinished business for education groups when it comes to federal help with the coronavirus is connectivity and online learning. But what's the state of play?

The director of teaching and learning for a Minnesota district talks about putting e-learning days into action under difficult circumstances.

Northshore School District teachers, parents, and students practiced remote learning in advance of the district's closure for two weeks.

Schools and tech companies in the U.S. and abroad have experience deploying virtual learning should a coronavirus emergency arise.

States are adjusting the policies and strategies designed for short- term remote instruction—like snow day plans—to support students for the rest of the school year.

EDUCATION Secretary John Swinney does not expect schools to reopen overnight as he stressed they would only do so when it was safe for public health.

HELP is on hand for parents hoping to inspire their children at home during the coronavirus lockdown – and it’s all free.

SCOTLAND’S universities must play their part in adapting to the “new normal” amid warnings that institutions could be forced to merge in return for government support.

Everyone who knows anything about education seems to now be running a livestream from their room, and the explosion of home-schooling resources can be enough to send a busy parent into lockdown meltdown. That's why we've created a check-list of some of the books and sites that could help. It’s not all about BBC Bitesize and the Khan Academy – it can be all the more fun when you go a little off the beaten path.

THE SCOTTISH Government “does not consider it likely” that schools will fully re-open “in the foreseeable future” - while working from home is “likely to persist as part of the new normal”.

The slur isn't appropriate for school personnel or students of any race to ever use, writes Tyrone C. Howard.

Building science lessons around phenomena that students know equally and can see in their own lives is making the subject more relevant and interesting.

By automatically enrolling all students in high-level courses, schools in Washington state are working to erase a long entrenched form of inequity.

Quiz yourself: What do census statistics reveal about school enrollment, classroom diversity, and education outcomes, and how could the 2020 Census impact school services?

A pair of new studies find that, when given a choice, white parents tend to send their children to schools that are predominantly white.

The evidence that culturally responsive teaching can fix the nation's schools for children of color is promising, but woefully incomplete, writes Heather C. Hill.

Here are five takeaways on the teaching profession from the newly released 2017-18 National Teacher and Principal Survey.

The staff union for the National Education Association is threatening to strike over contract negotiations.

Within days of the Supreme Court’s decision to abolish union fees for nonmembers, conservative groups—including ones with ties to Ed. Secretary Betsy DeVos—launched email, social media, and billboard campaigns to try to convince teachers not to join their unions.

"This lawsuit will enable teachers like me to recover the agency fees that we were wrongly forced to pay against our will," said one of the plaintiffs.

With the Janus case looming before the Supreme Court, teachers' unions are knocking on doors to try to boost membership and mitigate financial loss.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is partnering with think tanks and advocacy groups across the country in a campaign encouraging public employees to consider dropping their union memberships.

With the first charter school strike in the books—and teachers coming out victorious—experts say both unions and charter schools may need to rethink how they’ve long operated.

The UK looks likely to operate under slightly different lockdown rules next week after announcements by the leaders of the Welsh and Scottish Governments suggested deviation between nations.

PEOPLE who are not positive for Covid-19 could be told to isolate from their families before test results are issued as a precaution, Scotland’s national clinical director has warned.

With the first charter school strike in the books—and teachers coming out victorious—experts say both unions and charter schools may need to rethink how they’ve long operated.

Your cheat sheet to the ESEA rewrite's teacher provisions.

The answer is unclear but "the threat is real," English-language-learner advocacy groups say. The advocates say the Education Department has evaded their questions about the future of the office of English-language acquisition.