The countryside all around us is bursting with life and colour and, wonders will never cease, so is Shane Lowry.  Thanks to Ian Poulter for getting Shane out of his ubiquitous black trousers and black shirt and into something with a bit of life about it when they played together in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Not saying I’m a great fan of the checked trousers, but really, anything is an improvement on black, black and more black.  Mind you, it must make packing easy.  I used to have a friend on tour, Helen Wadsworth, who wore nothing but black or white and it took her only seconds to pack her case for a tournament.

I’m not sure how much input the Curtis Cup team gets into their playing and dress uniforms but I’m sure it’s much more than in my day.  The Great Britain and Ireland team was announced at the start of the week and six of last year’s team are back to see if they can exact some revenge for the defeat at Conwy last year.  Emily Price of Ludlow and Amelia Williamson of Sheringham are the two new caps, rounding out a team comprising five English players, two Scots and one Irish.  Elaine Ratcliffe, the captain, has high hopes:-

“I am delighted to have six of the girls from last year back in the team for the 2022 match and I believe this gives us a strong base to build upon. The two new players to the team will strengthen that talent base and we very much look forward to an exciting match.”

This is Ratcliffe’s second go at captaining the team and it’s hard to think of anyone more qualified to lead the side.  An accomplished player in her own right – English Amateur Champion, Curtis Cup player and Rookie of the Year on the Ladies’ European Tour – she has mixed it with the best throughout her playing career.  After regaining her amateur status she combined her business degree with her extensive golfing background and, with family members, purchased and now runs Essendon Country Club in Hatfield.  She is passionate about introducing more people to the sport, particularly women and girls, and she will be a wonderful representative for us out in the States.

Regaining her amateur status was something Ratcliffe presumably did so she could play in club competitions again as she raised her family.  If she hadn’t we would not be able to have her as Curtis Cup captain as the rules state the captain must be an amateur golfer.  Time for a change, methinks.  We are missing out on so much wealth of knowledge and expertise because we are so keen to hang labels on folk.

“Amateur” and “professional” are two such labels.  We are just people and all play the same sport and with more players trying their hand on tour now and making a living within the industry, it seems crazy to cut ourselves off from such a deep pool of talent for future captains and administrators in the amateur game.  Ditch the labels and access the very best for the job in question.

Talking of talented administrators in the game, Ireland has been fortunate to have had more than its fair share of trailblazers in this department of the game over the years.  Spending thousands of hours over the years spotting and nurturing talent and voluntarily serving on a myriad of committees and panels is not for the faint-hearted and over the years Brigid McCaw of Royal County Down has tirelessly worked for the good of the game.  She has been active from club and district level all the way to the heady heights of international golf and the coveted distinction of qualifying as an R&A rules official.

So when an email thudded into the inbox this week from Brigid with a request for an outline of my career in amateur golf I knew it would entail a dusty visit up the ladder into the attic.  Her latest project is putting together a timeline of achievements of Ulster women golfers.  Now, I always thought you would only be able to forget what tournaments you’d won and teams you’d played on if you were super-duper successful and the sheer volume of triumphs meant you couldn’t recall everything.  Wrong!!

The passage of some forty years meant I’d forgotten most of my sparse highlights but leafing back through old scrapbooks with yellowing cuttings loosely cramming the pages brought the memories all roaring back.  Gosh, those were the days of extensive newspaper coverage and some wonderful writing by golf journalists who knew their stuff.

I had taken a scrap of paper with me up to the attic to jot down salient dates and before I knew where I was a couple of hours had passed and I had to scoop the now mostly detached cuttings back into the relevant scrapbooks, of which there were a couple of dozen.  As I descended the ladder back into 2022 and civilisation I decided the tidying of the attic was the next lockdown job – but I knew Brigid would be pleased with me for making the effort.

When I sat down to email her my findings, I realised that the scrap of paper with my carefully-made notes on it had been bundled back into one of the aforementioned scrapbooks, goodness knows where!

And no, Brigid, much as I love you, I’m not going back up that ladder until the next lockdown!

 

It’s been a busy week, an unusually busy one for me these days, not least because it involved a trip to Scotland, where I played golf, attended a memorial service and caught up with friends.  Brill.  Must get out and about more often.

The golf was at Dundonald Links in Ayrshire, not too far from Troon, albeit not so venerable, on a glorious day.  I played most of the round in shirt sleeves despite so many years in the Midlands, as far from the sea as it is possible to get in England, that I’m probably now classed as a southern softie.  My golf was less wonderful than the weather but it was a joy to be on a links again and we even got to play a hole with Catriona Matthew, of Solheim Cup fame.

 

 

Catriona has retired from the day-to-day grind of tournament golf – it’s usually the travel that takes its toll – but is far from done with the game and one of her many roles is as tournament ambassador to the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open.  It’s at Dundonald at the end of July, 28th-31st, with a prize fund of $2 million.  Dr Prin Singhanart, the physicist who founded Trust Golf, part of a Thai-based technology enterprise, said, “We look to enhance and grow this historic event to sit alongside the best tournaments on the schedule….we aim to to grow the game and create the best opportunities for female golfers.”

There were two other very special females – not golfers – on hand to support the tournament, taking a brief break from their countrywide tour with their manager Andrew Cotter.  Yes, it was the global social media stars Olive and Mabel, labs without limits.  They’d been performing in St Andrews and, I think, Troon and were preparing to head for the ferry to cross to Belfast and then, passports permitting, Dublin.

With the labs, very down to earth for superstars, busy scavenging for food – don’t forget they’re the breed that put the nick into picnic – Andrew said, “With a lot of their family nearby in Troon, they look forward to this sporting event above all others.”

After a lovely, luxurious night at Dundonald Links, it was off to St Andrews for Renton Laidlaw’s memorial service.  Renton, who died last October at the age of 82, spent his life on the move as a writer and a broadcaster, radio and television, supreme.  He had the gift of the gab – everything invariably beautifully judged and paced, rarely lost for the mot juste – but above all he had a gift for friendship.  In a notoriously bitchy, backstabbing business, no one had a bad word to say about Renton.  Occasionally he’d be teased for his propensity to go on a bit – whenever he was accepting an award, say, or hosting a dinner – but he had a never-ending fund of great stories, so why not tell them?

He was a multi-tasking workaholic who wrote, broadcast, edited (The Golfer’s Handbook of blessed memory, a great resource) and still had time to be secretary, chairman and president of the AGW.  I used to joke that he was like a shark – he had to keep moving to keep breathing.  He’d fly to Phoenix for the day, then the south of France, Sunningdale, St Andrews, Augusta, Australia, there was nowhere he wasn’t known.  He was kind, generous, twinkly and was much loved.  He never married – he never stayed still long enough – but his friends, female and male, were devoted to him and gathered from all over the world to pay tribute to him.

The stands are already going up around the Old Course in preparation for a very special Open, the 150th, this July and nearly 300,000 spectators are expected during the week (10th-17th), with the whole show expected to generate around £200 million in total economic benefit to Scotland according to the SIRC (Sport Industry Research Centre) at Sheffield Hallam University in a report commissioned by the R&A.

This is an all-ticket Open – not quite so open then?  Gone are the days when you could pitch up on the day and buy a ticket at the gate.  Apparently when the ballot opened there were more than 1.3 million applications.

 

One of the great things about St Andrews is how compact it is and how cosmopolitan – it’s packed with students from all over the world as well as golfers.  It’s also home to hordes of gulls, big buggers who swirl around with malice aforethought, ready to outdo the greediest labradors as nickers of picnics and, afterwards, splatter whatever lies beneath – be it pavement, pedestrian or car.  If you’re a driver, make sure you have a big bottle of water and some kitchen roll to hand.  You’ll need it!

Some of the golf writers were on the tee on Tuesday, part of the pre-Open briefing and recce and they got a dry, grey and chilly morning for their game.  I was lucky enough to capture Derek Lawrenson’s opening drive (below).

Derek, golf correspondent of the Daily Mail, former chairman of the AGW and a happy Liverpool supporter anticipating an unprecedented quadruple, has been on my road-to-hell conscience for nearly three years.  He won the Golf Writers’ Championship in 2019 (at Royal Liverpool, Hoylake), for a record-equalling fourth time and I meant to send him a note welcoming him to the club – but never did.  Sorry Derek. Well done.  Welcome.