Three months ago I’d never heard of Zoom but it’s provided a lifeline for so many of us during lockdown.  We’ve had a regular couple of scheduled Zoom chats each week with different branches of the family and it’s been a wonderful way to support and check in with each other.  Let’s face it, there hasn’t been a lot of news to report because none of us has been doing too much but it’s so important to keep in contact with folks to support them through these bizarre times.  Sometimes it’s the most unexpected people who struggle.

My better half, Brian, is almost Zoomed out at the moment with several additional lengthy meetings a week as a trustee of a local, regional charity.  And, of course, the wheels of commerce have been able to keep turning to some degree because of online platforms such as Zoom.  But that is not without its pitfalls.  Brian was telling me he’d heard about an intensive, dozen-person business call which was beyond boring.  The wife of one of the Zoomers realised her hubby was losing the will to live so when she passed by she lifted her sun top and flashed him in an effort to make him laugh.  He struggled manfully to keep a straight face – as did the other eleven people on the call.  The wife had forgotten there was a mirror directly behind her husband and the whole meeting had got an eyeful!!  Amazingly, not one single person mentioned or referred to this unexpected intrusion into the call but safe to say all participants were a little more alert till the end of the meeting!

I had a Zoom call the other day with two Irish PGA professionals, Ian St John from Tramore and Harry Ewing from Carlow, who co-host a new golf podcast called “The 3 off the Tee Podcast”.  I discovered their show during many long, reluctant lockdown hours in the garden and found it endlessly entertaining as well as informative.  Their guest list so far has included, amongst others, Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley, mind guru Karl Morris, Andrew Coltart, Peter Alliss and Graeme McDowell, so it was most flattering to be invited to record an episode with them.

I set my laptop up in the dining room and suggested to Patricia (who had joined our bubble for a long weekend) that it might be a good idea not to be drifting past too often during the recording as it might be distracting.  She was also aware of the above Zoom story with the mirror and she didn’t want to appear on screen.  All was going well until I was aware of the kitchen door opening and the two boys looking off stage right and then starting to crack up.  I looked round to see Patricia inelegantly crawling past the back of my chair on all fours, desperate not to appear on camera.  It was too late!  Harry and Ian sent me the video clip later which clearly showed Patricia appearing from the kitchen, realising she was in view and dropping like a secret agent out of sight!  It was hilarious and very tough to ignore and sound reasonably sensible.

Patricia making an appearance from the kitchen and clearly seen over my shoulder. Now you see her…….

I can’t help imagining this to the soundtrack of Mission Impossible as P drops to her knees!

Ian, top left, begins to lose it. Harry just looks perplexed and I’m wondering why my sister is on all fours.

Long term colleague and friend Shane O’Donoghue has also been prolific during this pandemic in the podcast arena.  A global reporter, observer and commentator on all things golf for over two decades, his podcast “Shane O on the Radio” has a wealth of archive highlighting some of the most personal and insightful interviews with many of the most fascinating people in the game.  Is it any wonder my new 2020 hobby is listening to golf podcasts?

Alongside two of the greatest broadcasters it has been my privilege to work with, Peter Alliss and Shane O’Donoghue.

One of the questions I was asked by Harry and Ian was to name my dream fourball.  Now, I absolutely adore fourball golf and have enjoyed so many of them down the years.  There are, however, a couple of recent ones that spring to mind that most definitely will NOT make the grade of achieving the moniker “dream”.  One of my “not dream” fourballs is with three of my Delamere clubmates below, Maria, Julie and Chris.  They get far too many shots from me and I cannot cope with the flurry of net birdies and eagles they throw at me on a weekly basis!  Don’t they realise they’re eroding my fragile confidence??!!!  So, no, guys, sorry – you beat me too often to be named in my dream fourball!

L-R Maria, Chrissie, Mo and Julie. Please, please no more 2 nett 1s!!!

What about my mates in the July Club?  I’ve written about them all before and that fourball is certainly a candidate for my dream team.  I thought, however, that perhaps my response to Ian and Harry should contain a degree of impossibility and improbability about it.  My answer may surprise you – and if your interest is piqued you’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out who does, indeed, make up the fourball!

With Sandra Ross, Gillian Stewart and Mary McKenna. Champions all but still not the dream fourball!!

As some of you will have noticed, this is not an informational blog – I think that’s a proper word (informational, not blog, for my ultra picky friends out there – and, believe me, I have a few; don’t we get the friends we deserve – or is that the leaders?  Aaaaaagh….).  I did look up the dictionary (my trusty Chambers) but couldn’t find my glasses and am now getting to the (st)age where squinting is inadequate, so I’ll elaborate:  this is not the place to come if you want to know what’s on where, when.

There are, of course, exceptions and I am pleased to confirm that the Curtis Cup, conked by Covid this year, has been rescheduled for 2021, at Conwy, north Wales, from September 3rd-5th.  This is OFFICIAL.  Not an unchecked acceptance of a friend’s dates for the rescheduled match, which I passed on a few weeks ago, only to get ticked off from on high – well, St Andrews, which may be at sea level but is pretty elevated when it comes to matters golfing.

An official press release, so it must be true.

The Women’s Amateur and the Amateur Championship are scheduled to go ahead in August but who knows?  Anything could happen between now and then.

Watching the golf from Hilton Head on the telly last week, I couldn’t really understand why the players – and officials – felt the need to fist bump or elbow bump or whatever.  Why touch at all, especially now that several players and caddies have tested positive for the virus?  I can understand footballers hugging in a fit of excitement after a goal, though perhaps even they could learn a bit of restraint – and managers have no need whatsoever to touch at the end of a game.  A bow or a bit of a wave should be more than enough.

Now, going against the grain, here’s another bit of information.  It’s aimed at the golf-playing senior women who read this blog – there are a few, thank you all.  The Brenda King Foursomes, ditched by England Golf before the virus hit, have been resurrected by Janet Davies, nee Melville and friends and is due to be played at Minchinhampton GC in Gloucestershire on October 1st and 2nd.

Janet, British champion in 1987, was very disappointed that England Golf had decided not to run the event any more, particularly as there are so few national events for seniors to play in.  In addition, Janet said, “Brenda was a Lancashire lass and being a Lancashire lass myself, I did not want her memory to be lost.”  She set out to “save the BK Foursomes”, set up a tournament committee, rounded up 30 entries before lockdown and is keen to persuade more people to enter, in the hope that life will have returned to something approaching normal and the competition will be able to go ahead.

Julia Gaunt (right) and Julie Brown, winners of the Brenda King Foursomes at Pleasington last year.

I played in the event in 2017, at Harrogate, drafted in as a late sub and it was great fun.  Hard work but great fun.  I love foursomes but foursomes stroke play might well be the toughest format there is.  There’s no hiding place.  If one of you isn’t quite on her game, returning a decent score is well-nigh impossible but you just have to grind it out. In the first round, my long-suffering partner played well but my mediocre play wasn’t helped by an inability to hole a putt of any length.  We did manage to break 100 – a lot of pairs didn’t – and fortunately my partner, a bit of a putting guru, who was still speaking to me, gave me a tip that worked, so we improved on the second day despite the monsoon-like conditions and finished respectably in the middle of the field.

Solheim Cup, Ryder Cup, any number of team captains spend hours agonising over their foursomes pairings but I’ve always thought that the key is compatibility – at some level the partners have to get on.  They don’t have to like each other necessarily, their games don’t have to match necessarily but they do have to rub along, there has to be a connection of some sort and it’s probably best that they don’t deeve the life out of each other.  For instance, Ronnie White, a fairly quiet, intense Englishman, who hit the ball pretty straight and Joe Carr, a much more outgoing, flamboyant Irishman, who knew where the boondocks were, made a formidable Walker Cup partnership.

Dai and I, married for nearly 25 years, played a lot of golf together but foursomes?  Forget it.  We’d be lucky to last a hole.  We just approached the game in a completely different way and sharing a ball didn’t work.

All sweetness and light in Monte Carlo after flying in from San Francisco; just don’t ask us to play foursomes together…..

That’s another of my favourite photos of Dai and me, taken on a long-ago birthday (of mine).  Since it was my birthday on Wednesday, I could probably work out how many years ago it was but some calculations just aren’t worth doing!  Jet-setting is no longer on the agenda but I did play golf – 9 holes early in the morning before it got too hot – and it set me up for the rest of the day.  Thanks to everyone for their cards and good wishes, though, come to think of it, not a single card mentioned golf.  The example below is more representative….

Slainte.