I suppose we’re only getting started in the conflict that has been brewing between the Saudi backed LIV Golf series and the established American and European tours.  The first punches and counter punches have been thrown and the opening salvos of litigation have been fired by Ian Poulter, amongst others.

Against this backdrop of discontent it was more than refreshing to tune in to the JP McManus pro-am being played at Adare Manor at the start of the week.  JP and his wife Noreen are arguably Ireland’s greatest philanthropists and over the years JP’s pro-am has raised millions and millions of euros for charities in Ireland.  Once again a world-class field – in this instance ten of the top twelve in the world were playing – plus a host of A-list celebrities.  Many consider it a badge of honour to receive an invitation – and not a penny piece was paid in appearance money.

Adare Manor, venue for the 2027 Ryder Cup, was looking magnificent but even more magnificent were the 40,000 fans that attended on each of the two days.  Jay Townsend, one of the Sky Sports commentators summed it up beautifully when he said the players “came to play a pro-am and a major championship crowd showed up.”  Jordan Spieth was in full agreement when he said, “I’ve never played in a pro-am like this before, that’s for sure.”

For the McManuses it’s all about community and giving back.  In the current golfing climate that does rather help restore your faith in the human race.

I know you shouldn’t wish your life away but I’m really looking forward to Monday when Patricia and I set off for a couple of days at the  150th Open at St Andrews.  We’re staying with a couple of pals on the way up and plan to arrive on Tuesday morning when I’ll be meeting up with some of my American broadcasting colleagues, none of whom I’ve seen in the flesh since the Portrush Open in 2019.  Amazing how the time flies by.  Covid, then travel restrictions and then my subsequent tussle with ill health since catching the virus last November have meant I’ve been unable to work with them at any majors for what seems like an awfully long time.  This won’t be a working week for me either – just a chance to dip a toe in the water and see how I cope with three days away and a full social diary – which will probably be more busy than the whole of the last eight months put together!

Aside from the golf (and it’s a big aside) it’s never a hardship going to St Andrews, my old alma mater.  I spent a very happy year and a half there at university before transferring to the States to take up a golf scholarship and finish my studies out there.  I did love my time in America and there’s no doubt it changed the course of my life but, deep down, I still have a sneaking regret I didn’t get the four years at the home of golf that I was expecting.  Totally pointless, I know, regretting something that didn’t happen almost half a century ago but it has made every visit since to the Fife town all the more special.

This will be my fifth attendance at a St Andrews Open.  In 2000 it was Tiger’s dominance that was the most enduring memory with an eight-shot victory and the completion of the career grand slam – the youngest ever to do so.  In 2005 it was Tiger again but it was also Jack Nicklaus’ final major and his birdie on the final hole of his final major will live long in the memory.  South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen had the week of his life winning in 2010 by seven shots.  His secret weapon was a bright red dot painted on his golf glove which served to remind him to keep bringing his attention and focus to the present.

In 2015 Tom Watson took his final major championship bow at the Old Course; there was a Monday finish and an enthralling spectacle as Jordan Spieth, winner of the Masters and the US Open that year tried to add the third leg of the calendar grand slam to his resume.  He failed by a shot to join the play-off of Oosthuizen (that man again), Marc Leishman and Zach Johnson, the latter triumphing in the four-hole play-off.

My own last playing visit to St Andrews was in 2017 and, of course, you just have to do what all the great players down the years have done before you ……… and get your photo taken on the Swilcan/Swilken bridge after teeing off on the final hole.  It’s a bucket-list item no matter how many rounds you play at the Old Course.

I just wonder who will be there on that iconic bridge in ten days’ time clutching the Claret Jug.

 

To start, love and condolences to the family and many friends of Lady Angela Bonallack (above), who has died at the age of 85 after a long illness.  Angela’s golfing heyday started in the 1950s and in 1956, as Angela Ward, before her marriage to Michael Bonallack, she made her debut in the Curtis Cup, at Prince’s and won her singles to help GB and I to a 5-4 victory over the USA

In 1958, at Brae Burn, as Mrs Bonallack (Michael’s knighthood was a few decades away), she won her foursomes with Elizabeth Price and halved her singles with the formidable Barbara McIntire, to more than play her part in a dramatic tie:  4 1/2 – 4 1/2 (36-hole matches in those days).  Then came the 1960s and a very long period of American dominance.  Angela played in 1960, 1962, 1964 and 1966 and kept meeting the Great Gundy, JoAnne Gunderson (later Carner) in the singles.  Unfortunately for Angela, JoAnne, a self-confessed “fire and fall back” belter, loved playing the sweet-swinging Englishwoman because she admired – and absorbed – the rhythm of her opponent and raised her already considerable game to meet the challenge.

Angela, who had four children in between matches, won the English Championship twice, in 1958 and 1963 and reached the final of the British (now officially the Women’s Amateur Championship instead of the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship) twice, losing to Marley Spearman in 1962 and Carol Semple in 1974.  Marley, a dancer before she discovered golf, had the utmost admiration for her friend and compatriot:  “I was lucky to play in the time of Angela,” she told Lewine Mair.  “I liked her enormously.  She was a terrific golfer and I had the utmost admiration for her tenacity.”

Bridget Jackson, another great friend and contemporary, has some lovely memories of Angela’s off-course exploits – heading the wrong way up an escalator in Belgium; travelling to events in a caravan with her sister-in-law Sally (Barber, nee Bonallack); having to get out and push an overloaded car and caravan on the way to Harlech; the list is endless and there was always laughter.

Above all, as Bridget said, “Angela was great fun.”

St Andrews next week won’t be quite the same without her – she and Michael made their home in Scotland and she became a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club in 2015 when women were admitted as members at long last, so the place was in her blood and she’d have revelled in the 150th celebrations.

An Open at the Old Course is always a treat (though it’s a bugger for spectators) and I’m expecting this year’s edition to be completely bonkers, a wonderful celebration of “the marvellous mania”, as Alistair Cooke called his passion for the game.  Luckily, I was successful in the ballot and secured a ticket – for Tuesday.  It’s so long ago that I’ve forgotten how much it cost and it might take me until Wednesday to work out how to download it.  Think I have to get an app first and start from there, then remember to keep the phone charged and avoid getting mugged.  Some poor soul who had his entire life on his phone was robbed and had the devil’s own job sorting things out as the bruises healed.

For your delectation and delight, here’s another Harold Riley special, also from the 2000 Open, which I came across on my never-ending sorting campaign – it’s one of the reasons I can’t just scoop everything up and lob the lot in the recycling bin!

 

Finally, to change the subject, thanks to Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols, indefatigable, well-informed and always readable (the biggest of compliments in my book, just to ensure that there are no doubts) for giving us a thoughtful take from Beth Daniel and Meg Mallon, Hall of Famers both, on the LIV Golf debacle.

It’s easier, they conceded, to look at the bigger picture when you’re many years retired but Daniel still has vivid memories of the time she was blacklisted by the United Nations in the early 1980s for playing in the Sun City Million Dollar Challenge in South Africa (well, Bophuthatswana).

“It ended up being a tremendous learning lesson for me,” she said.  “You can call it naive, ignorance but I didn’t realise going over there the apartheid policies and how it affected the people of that country.  When I went over there and saw some of it, I was mortified by it.  I grew up in the South and what I saw over there was worse than what I saw growing up.”

Armed with that knowledge and experience, Daniel said, if she was still in the prime of her career and offered an invitation (and appearance fee) to compete in Saudi Arabia, she wouldn’t accept because of human rights violations.  “Now that’s easy to say from here,” she admitted.  Still the right choice, though.

And, a laugh to finish, one of my birthday cards, a classic.