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Madill Golf - Two Sisters. One Sport. One Passion.
Home
Our Journey
People
Tournament Travels
    The Masters 2016
Coaching
Other Stuff
  • Home
  • Our Journey
  • People
  • Tournament Travels
    • The Masters 2016
  • Coaching
  • Other Stuff
Our Journey

Are Europe’s Women Worth Saving?

The Ladies’ European Tour is not currently in good health.  The 2017 schedule looks set to be completed with a mere 15 tournaments on the roster, not nearly enough to provide the members with enough playing opportunities from which to make a living, never mind elevate their game to greater heights.

Sadly, this is not a new scenario.  The pinnacle of the tour’s existence was arguably around 1987 when I remember we had 27 guaranteed tournaments and as players we could plan our schedules to suit ourselves – four weeks on and then a week off was a popular format.

Karrie Webb, one of many world-class players to benefit from playing in Europe.

However, by the early 1990s we were in trouble as a tour with purses stalling and tournaments being cancelled as an economic downturn hit us badly.  As players we were told we had to step up to the plate.  We had to work harder in pro-ams to ensure the enjoyment of our amateurs, some of whom were potential sponsors; we were told to dress more smartly; and quite bluntly told we had to improve the level of our golf.  Collectively we rolled up our sleeves and did all that was asked of us, understanding that the product had to be right for the opportunity of attracting bigger and better sponsors for tournaments.  And then, in 1992, against all the odds, we won the Solheim Cup.  Surely that would set us off on a long, elevated, upward curve?  Sadly not, and even more sadly, that pattern of building up, then losing tournaments, then exhorting the players to give more, more and more, all the while keeping the problems “in house”, seems to have continued to this day.  I experienced this first hand, both as a player and as a member of the Board for five years.

And here we are, some 25 years on, yet seemingly, no further on.  A few weeks ago the players were criticised when their frustrations bubbled over and the financial ill health of the Tour was openly talked about.  There have been so few tournaments this year there is no planning required nowadays – the players must play everything they can afford.  In the first six and a half months of this year there were ultimately only five tournaments on offer, but the funds needed to compete in all five were significant as the venues were scattered from Australia to China to Morocco to Spain to Thailand.  That is, quite frankly, not good enough.

So, now comes news that the men’s European Tour chief Keith Pelley and LPGA commissioner Mike Whan have jointly proffered a helping hand to the beleaguered LET.

Does Keith Pelley have the vision the LET needs?

No help should be spurned – but a note of caution here.  The Seniors Tour and the Challenge Tour come under the auspices of the men’s European Tour and are surely direct competitors with the LET for a share in a finite pool of sponsorship on offer.  And it certainly wouldn’t be ideal to become a satellite tour exclusively feeding the LPGA, would it?

If Mike Whan is talking, should the LET be listening?

It would be very naive to think that any offer of help is purely altruistic.  Suggestions have been made of much smaller fields in the schedule and those players playing for more money.  Not a bad idea, but is that not a short-term fix?  Let’s look 10, 20 years down the road.  We want full field events (144 players) and a schedule of 30 tournaments or so that means a player can make a living in Europe. To accomplish that we mustn’t create a future for only the top part of the pyramid.  The entire LET pyramid of players has the depth and talent to merit playing opportunities.  As many tournaments as you can muster are needed, even if it’s at lower prize funds.  Opportunities to tee it up are key for any player’s development.  As a good friend once pointed out to me – if you want to win the top medal in the Chelsea Flower Show, you plant thousands and thousands of seeds.  You don’t limit your chances of success by only working with a small number.

Twenty-five years ago we were at the forefront of women’s sports in the UK.  Now we get less exposure and interest  than women’s cricket, football, tennis, rugby, hockey and athletics – to name but a few.  These sports have been where we currently are.  Surely we can learn from them?  Often, someone somewhere has walked the walk before you.  Just read Judy Murray’s inspiring book, “Knowing The Score”.

And……..something else that makes my blood boil.  This talk of the LET players not being able to make the Solheim Cup a real match.  Yes, the European team will always be partly made up of purely LET-based players and yes, while the schedule is so paltry that is very difficult indeed for us, but the depth of talent in Europe is terrific.  Remember, until a fantastic day’s singles play from a pumped-up US team in 2015 the Europeans were on course for a third consecutive victory.  What short memories the critics have!

One thing we have lacked is a far-seeing, charismatic leader at the helm, someone with a long-term vision and understanding of the landscape of sport and business, who can look beyond establishing their own, limited personal fiefdom.  To attract the quality of individual required a top-rated salary needs to be on offer.  Perhaps this is where any concrete “help” should be directed – in finding and paying for this individual.  This is a tough, tough world but one thing I can guarantee this person – the product you will have to work with is fantastic.

September 1, 2017by Maureen
Our Journey

Are Golf Club Subs Worth Paying?

Recently it hasn’t been too hard to find something to write about but I was struggling this week – until an envelope was extricated from the post box.  It was in with a couple of bank-related missives (credit card statements as it turned out) and it looked similarly official but had a proper, real stamp on it.  Mmmm.  It was addressed to me all right.  I have to try and remember to check before ripping stuff open because I still get post for a mystery woman who used to live here years ago, long before my time and the time of the people I bought the house from.

What delights lurk within?

Anyway, I opened it dear reader – and found the bill for my golf club subs.  Ah.

It wasn’t exactly a shock – it’s that time of year – but I hadn’t read the details in the email that came in a few days ago, informing me that the subs had gone up (didn’t have the strength that day).  This time I took in the figures – and threw the tempting stuff about that big pro-am in Pinehurst into the recycling.

Dai, contrary as always but possibly right, as he was occasionally, thought that we – and golfers in general – paid too little for our membership, that it was remarkably good value.  And that was before retirement, in the days when we were working away so much that we were the perfect members:  we paid our subs on time, in full and hardly every cluttered up the course.  There was the occasional disruption, for instance when my partner and I (not Dai – we were not compatible in foursomes or greensomes, having completely different approaches to the game) were thrown out of one major competition, after winning our first match, because someone noticed that I had not put in three qualifying scores in the previous year.  Oops.  I felt sorry, not for us but for the poor souls we’d beaten.

Whittington Heath: a club worth paying for.

In those days getting the three scores in was tricky beyond belief.  Tuesday was usually a travelling day and Sunday was a working day, so playing in comps was harder than you’d think.  How times have changed.  Flicking through the diary, I totted up more than 40 games at Whittington Heath so far this year.  Not excessive but at the new subscription rate that works out at just under £32 an outing – and there are still four months to go.  Play twice a week and you’re down to just over £12.  And that’s not counting playing in club matches – home and away – or trips to the club for draw nights, meetings, chit-chat and asking advice in the pro’s shop, playing a few holes on a lovely evening, coffee (or wine) and chat in the clubhouse and general putting-off-doing-the-blog visits.

The joys of being a club member:  trolley-pushing in the pouring rain in an away match!

I count that as outstanding value for money and you can’t put a price on the friendships made and the support from those friends over the years.  Bloody hell, it’s a snip at £1,270 a year:  sub 1,190; bar/catering 50; full locker 30 (vital when you haven’t got a garage).  Where are those bank details again?  And do I really need to put the heating on in August? (Paying in instalments adds 3.5%, which is more than my Scottish/sensible streak can bear.  Even though it’s only £3.70 a month extra by my phone’s calculation.)

I do object to being designated an FL – Lady Full Playing.  I am a full playing/paying member full stop – and patently no lady – but categories of membership are still struggling to catch up with the modern world.  I’m a fan of family memberships, to try and attract and keep the 25-45 year olds who are working hard and starting families and may not even be able to play once a week, so £1,000-plus is more than an item.  It’s a minefield out there but if we want to survive and thrive, we have to learn to navigate it.  All suggestions gratefully received.

Yesterday, during my post tai chi, blog-delaying visit to the club, I looked at a friend’s copy of The Times, working from the back as usual.  I flicked through the umpteen pages of football (not even looking for who Spurs might be buying at the last minute), paused for a happy moment on the cricket (is this a welcome real revival of the Windies?), tennis from Flushing Meadows and checked to see what golf was on – the season is still in full swing isn’t it?

No golf.  Not anywhere.  Not that I could see.  That’s one of the reasons I no longer buy a newspaper on a regular basis, much though it pains me.  They haven’t the room or the inclination to cover golf week in, week out.  They cherry pick, leaving us to scrabble for info elsewhere.  Fortunately, the owner of the paper (not Rupert Murdoch) – and someone else who overheard our discussion – was clued up enough to inform me that Robert Rock, who’s a local lad (my friend Barb was his mother’s hairdresser), wasn’t playing in wherever it is this week and finished well enough in Denmark last week to move up to 80th-odd in the order of merit.

I might have found all that out on the internet but it was more fun finding out at the golf club.  And isn’t that what clubs are for?

Good exercise and good company – club golf’s hard to beat.

 

 

September 1, 2017by Patricia

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