It’s been a funny old week.  It didn’t get off to the best start when my better half went out for his regular cycle ride with some of the neighbours.  All went well until they arrived back into our road and he signalled he was turning right down our driveway.  As he was making the turn he heard a car engine revving and managed to swerve to the left just as a car overtook him and with a glancing blow knocked him off his bike into the road.  The driver did stop and tried to defend herself saying he was calling her on.  Hmm, last time I looked at the highway code a right arm held straight out indicated a right turn but apparently not to her.  Happily, there wasn’t much damage done – apart from a badly sprained thumb – because of the riding armour he wears to protect his hips and elbows, all casualties of previous accidents.  Note to self, maybe it’s time I redoubled my efforts to get him to fall in love with golf, an infinitely safer pastime.

As we once again ease into a time of increasing restrictions most of my pals in Wales and Ireland find themselves unable to go to the golf course.  It’s at moments like these that I really appreciate all that golf offers us on a plate each time we go out on the course.  Leave aside the never-ending challenge of improving your ball-striking, your strategy and your scoring, the fresh air and exercise golf provides, normally in the company of good friends, and the mental health benefits that it bestows make it the sport that keeps on giving.

If you can’t get to the course for a few weeks, why not make a bit of a plan to keep those golfing muscles awake and active?  Now, I don’t expect you to embark on a regime a la Rory or Bryson and bust a gut to increase the speed of your swing so you are unrecognisable when you emerge back on to the links, but how about a plan to reinforce good habits and feels that can be taken to the course when golf resumes?  Try the following with a 7-iron:-

1  Five swings with your feet together.  Keep your balance at the end.

2  Five swings, normal stance.  Pause at the top, count to 3 and then swing to a full follow through.

3  Five swings, normal stance.  No pause at the top but hold your finish for a count of 3.

Repeat this sequence with a different club.  These little drills will help you stay centred in the swing (exercise 1) and find good balance (exercises 2 and 3).  You can only deliver the power of which you are capable from a point of balance, so working on this is beneficial to your game.  If you really want to test yourself try a swing with your eyes closed and see if you can remain stable.

Meanwhile, as ever, there are other golf-related matters to keep us interested and energised, most of them with an eye to future events.  We are now only three and a bit weeks away from the Masters where Tiger will be defending.  The usual questions will abound – can he win his 16th major?  (No, not in my opinion, although Augusta is by far his best opportunity for another victory of any sort.)  Can Rory win and, at the sixth time of asking, complete the Grand Slam?  (Of course he can win, but WILL he?  Not this time, I suspect but I’m optimistic about next April.)  What on earth will Bryson look like and play like after this last month of more bulking up and adding speed to his swing?  And will we recognise Augusta dressed in autumn colours?

Back in April the Masters was to be the first of four sorties of mine to the States this year, none of which, of course, have actually taken place.  Patricia and I have planned that she will come over to me so we can plonk ourselves down together in front of the box with a decent bottle of red and watch the action unfold in our own little support bubble.  We enjoy watching the golf together – we know (still) a great many of the players, nearly all the broadcasters and media and the machinations of how Masters tournaments are run.  One advantage to not being on site and working there is that it’s extraordinarily liberating to be able to use normal golf terms.  We can refer to the rough, not the first cut, talk about the pin positions and not the hole locations and bemoan the fact that this year there are no galleries as opposed to patrons.  I’m interested to hear if they change the suspected mechanised tweeting-bird soundtrack to an autumn version.  I’m sure they will, nothing is ever overlooked.

So as the clocks change and winter draws on do your best to keep something golf-related in your life on a daily basis.  Reading always has the power to provide a bit of escapism from the dreary endless news that abounds everywhere, so consider also seeking out some of the great golfing biographies that will help while away a wet winter day.  You won’t regret it.

 

 

 

My first taste of any sort of International golf at all was almost half a century ago, way back in 1971, at the wonderful links of North Berwick in East Lothian in Scotland.   I was there as a wide-eyed, open-mouthed onlooker at the Girls’ Home Internationals.  Big sis Patricia was making her debut for Ireland and it was watching the wonderful golf on display that week that cemented a number of my early ambitions.

The opening morning also proved to be an introduction to a well-known North Berwick, indeed British east coast, phenomenon, namely the haar, a cold sea fog that meant even the most puny golfing muscles could propel the ball out of sight.  Out of the sea fret emerged the first two players on the course that morning.  England were playing Wales, each side represented in their top match by their respective champions, on this occasion Mickey Walker and Pam Chugg, nee Light.  In my young eyes they were already giants of the game but both went on to achieve hugely on their individual platforms.  Mickey was a trailblazer in so many ways and was awarded the OBE in 1992 after leading the European Solheim Cup team to an amazing victory over the Americans at Dalmahoy.  And then, last weekend, in the Covid-delayed Queen’s Birthday Honours list, Pam was awarded an MBE for Services to Golf.

There are a few of us who have been around for large amounts of Pam’s journey along the numerous and diverse paths that encompass golf and her breadth of experience in these varying arenas is impressive to say the least.  As a player she has had an exemplary record spanning five decades, mostly as an amateur, during which time she led Wales at both girls’ and full International level as the champion.

Despite golf being largely an individual discipline, Pam always displayed support and generosity of spirit towards her fellow competitors.  Her awareness of the bigger picture has always been one of her strengths and in 1979 she was one of a handful of pioneering players who turned professional, forming what is now a multi-million pound industry, the Ladies’ European Tour.  This has inspired thousands of players, myself included, to strive to follow suit and has opened up for many global opportunities that didn’t exist forty years ago.

With her serious playing days behind her Pam has continued to give back to golf, giving freely of her time and expertise.  Over a number of years her roles have been many and varied and I have had the privilege of working alongside her in several of them.  Appointed as manager, then selector, then captain of several of the international teams and squads she herself used to play on, Pam has had the perfect platform from which to pass on her knowledge, leading by example with her meticulous approach and preparation.  Her friendliness and approachability have been paramount in her successful mentoring of all the teams and squads with which she has been entrusted.  And it was always a given that were you a member of one of those teams you were in for a fun-filled time.

At this point I must draw attention to some dubious car driving/maintenance skills that saw her (according to my father) ruin the engine of his car, which he had kindly lent her to assist her in her role as manager of the Welsh Home International team at lovely Royal Dornoch in 1999.  She claimed to be only using the vehicle for short hops, ferrying her players to the practice ground and for running errands.  Whatever, the result was an unfixable breakdown for me and my folks on the way home and we ended up being driven 350 miles back to base on the back of a low-loader.  Obviously, Dad never let her forget it!

The most high profile of Pam’s administrative roles was undoubtedly her appointment as chairman of the Ladies’ Golf Union, the governing body for women’s golf in Great Britain and Ireland, in 2006.  Back then her support and passion for the vision of one governing body in golf for both men and women was not universally popular but, to general acclaim, this is now where our sport finds itself in the UK and Ireland.

Boundless energy has meant Pam has managed to cram in enough activity for several lifetimes and when not prowling the fairways at various championships in her capacity as an R&A qualified Rules official she can be found either on the ski slopes, the tennis courts or on a saddle leading the way in the charity bike ride she organises around Cardiff each year in support of Velindre hospital.  As an honorary life member of two clubs, Whitchurch (Cardiff) and Royal Porthcawl, her own set of sticks doesn’t normally have too much chance to get rusty, so it is wise to have your best game when you decide to take her on.

Golf seems to be blessed, sprinkled as it is with wonderful people who give selflessly to the sport.  Wales is particularly fortunate in this regard and Pam joins a revered list of men and women from the Principality who have done golf proud.  I didn’t realise all those years ago just what I was witnessing emerging from that North Berwick haar – a special person who would go on to be pioneering as a player, pioneering as an administrator……. and annoyingly difficult to take money from on the golf course!

With the autumn chills having seemingly, all of a sudden, arrived in a rush I settled down last weekend by our first log fire of the winter to watch Mel Reid in the Shoprite LPGA Classic, hoping with all my heart that she would win her first LPGA title.  And she did – with great style and class, ultimately acknowledging the accomplishment of this long-held ambition as a “life-changing event”.  To the golf follower from this side of the pond there will undoubtedly be pleasure at learning Mel is the second consecutive English winner on the LPGA tour, following hard on the heels of Georgia Hall’s own maiden victory in America.  This feat has only been achieved on one other occasion – by Trish Johnson and Caroline Pierce, way back in 1996, when Mel was a slip of a nine-year old.

There has always been something about Mel that made us all think she was destined for superstardom and a shiny amateur career did nothing to dispel that notion.  She joined the paid ranks at the end of 2007, with a host of successes bolstering a naturally positive outlook on life and normal service continued in 2008 when she won Rookie of the Year honours on the Ladies’ European Tour.  I saw a lot of Mel’s play in the years either side of her departure to the paid ranks – firstly when she was representing England on the European stage and then her first confident strides into the professional arena.  The sky was the limit.

Every successful person in life has an army of support as they plough their furrow to the top and it seemed that Mel was particularly blessed in this regard.  She was chosen by Sir Clive Woodward to be part of a project that put athletes at the centre of their own development, with a dedicated team of specialists built around them.  All very common nowadays, but 15 years or so ago the athlete, or in this case, the golfer, tended to follow the lead of the national body or whoever was funding the programme.  There would be one dedicated team of experts to whom dozens of athletes would plug in.  Sir Clive’s idea was to turn this model on its head in golf and put the player at the heart of everything.

With her customary joie de vivre Mel threw herself into what was then largely an experiment.  She had access to some brilliant people, two of whom immediately spring to mind.  She worked on her full swing with Lawrence Farmer, one of the finest coaches around, who was then based at Moor Park golf club in Hertfordshire.  In the putting department she was introduced to another expert, Dr Sherylle Calder, the eye and vision specialist who had worked with Clive’s winning England rugby team in the World Cup win.  Sherllye also worked extensively with her compatriot Ernie Els in the lead up to his second Open Championship win at Royal Lytham.  This was groundbreaking stuff in the world of golf but an awful lot for a young player to absorb, with information coming at her from all angles.  That was when I truly started to appreciate how resilient Mel was.

The expected wins on the LET tour arrived, along with a first Solheim Cup cap before tragedy struck Mel’s family with the death of her Mum, Joy, in a car crash in Germany where she was watching her daughter compete.  It is well documented how one month later Mel won her fourth title in her first tournament back and the world marvelled.  Understandably, this superhuman effort signalled the start of a decline that permeated her professional and private life.  She admitted she was lost.

There’s an old proverb, Chinese I believe, that says, “When the student is ready, the master appears.”  And so it was that in 2014, Mel’s great friend and fellow professional Breanne Loucks was responsible for arguably the most important intervention in Mel’s career.  Breanne phoned Mel up, told her it was time to get back on track and suggested she have a fresh start with Scottish coach Kevin Craggs.  That phone call may just have saved Mel’s golf career as she took her pal’s advice and spent the next while working with Kevin who became her coach, friend, counsellor and mentor.

Re-dedicating herself to the routined grind of an athlete helped Mel regain her natural self-confidence and along with more Solheim Cup appearances and LET wins, she became more outspoken on subjects close to her heart, namely equality within the game of golf itself and sport in general.  In the last few years she has come out as gay and dealt with the adverse social media comments with a deft touch. Then, in 2018, still seeking success in the States on the LPGA, she uprooted herself from Britain to live in Florida.  I’m sure some of her fierce money games with Brooks Koepka in the last year have helped her on her journey…..and yes, she has taken money off him!

One of the final, and most important, pieces of her jigsaw would appear to be when she started working with sports psychologist Howard Falco a couple of months back.  With him she has addressed any latent demons and the resultant inner serenity and peace I see in her is showing in the quality of her play.  Long may it continue for one of the most popular players in our game.

This is your time in the sunshine, Mel, so step out and soak it all up, as ever with Joy in your heart.