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The make grim reading for Scottish golf fans. For the first time since the standings were introduced in 1986, there is no-one from the home of golf in the world's top 100.

Alistair Forsyth has dropped to 102nd and with languishing in 114th place, , according to the rankings at least, has become a golfing backwater at the top of the game.

Yet which country currently holds the ? Which country now holds the world amateur championship - the ? Scotland.

So, it's not all doom and gloom, and this is a story littered with anomalies. For a start we should not read too much into Scotland's status as World Cup holders.

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Professional golfers have the reputation of being more interested in green jackets than green issues, but that is starting to change.

In the week that the European Tour announced a 2009 calendar that will take its players to more than twenty different countries all over the world, the winner of last year's Order of Merit has revealed he has become as environmentally friendly as possible.

Justin Rose has committed to a scheme that carbon offsets all the travel he makes as well as that of his caddie, coach and fitness trainer.

"Obviously there's been a lot of talk about the environment recently and it's something that my wife and I are very much aware of," Rose says in an interview for Five Live Golf.

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As we know these are extremely difficult times in the financial markets but the economic woes of the world haven't prevented the European Tour from .

The reason, of course, is the backing of the and the introduction of the $10m season-ending Dubai World Championship along with the $10m bonus pool for the "Race to Dubai" which will next year replace the .

But it would be wrong to assume that golf is impervious to . While no expense has been spared in the lavish announcement at Turnberry of the 2009 season, there are still plenty of I's to be dotted and T's to be crossed before the calendar is confirmed.

Indeed, the list is peppered with TBA's for the new campaign and there's an awful lot more hard bargaining to be done on sponsorship and venues for many European-based events.

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