Well, the New Year is now well aired and the golf tours are all up and running again as some of us decide to keep our own clubs under wraps for just a little while longer.  The sister’s new irons have arrived at long last so I expect she’ll be out swishing and swinging fit to burst.

Seamus Power’s game doesn’t appear to have too much rust on it at the moment.  The lanky 6′ 3″ Irishman from Waterford has had a card on the PGA Tour since 2017 and with his maiden victory last year in the Barbasol Championship he bounded up the world rankings.  His latest performance last weekend in Hawaii, where he finished third in the Sony Open to Hideki Matsuyama, has helped him force his way into the top 50 for the first time.  He’s currently nestled in there at 49th spot, one behind his fellow countryman and good buddy, Shane Lowry.  This is a serious move for Power as it brings an invitation to the Masters into sharp focus.  There’s nothing he’d like more than a first trip down Magnolia Lane and if he maintains that coveted top 50 position until the week before the tournament he’ll achieve a significant milestone in his career.  Fingers crossed.

Another person I have my fingers crossed for in 2022 is the immensely likeable Bob MacIntyre, the softly spoken, shinty-playing Scotsman from Oban.  Currently 58th in the world rankings, MacIntyre has already received his coveted invitation to Augusta in April, courtesy of birdieing his final hole in the 2021 tournament and securing a share of 12th place.  He was disappointed to miss out on last year’s Ryder Cup team and will be keen to have a fast start to this season.  He has plenty of game and plenty of class and is more than capable of major and Ryder Cup success.

Turning to the women’s game, one or two significant advances have been made over the Christmas period.  The US Women’s Open purse has catapulted  from $5.5 million to a whopping $10 million with a commitment to reach $12 million in the next five years.  Step forward and take a bow that man Mike Whan, formerly the extremely effective and successful commissioner of the LPGA and now the new boss of the United States Golf Association (USGA), who run the championship stateside.  There is arguably no one who has done more to elevate and drive forward the women’s game in terms of exposure and increased prize funding and this latest increase is seismic.  It’s a great move in the right direction.

Let’s now address the most important stuff of all – your own golf.  With some courses closed or, at the very least, on temporary greens, it’s time to think of just keeping things ticking over ready to burst into spectacular form when spring and the competitive season finally arrives.  My intention this year was to put in the blog a few more video tips, as requested by so many of you.  Alas, it’ll be a while before I can manage this.  At the risk of turning this into a medical blog I have been hors de combat since contracting Covid in mid-November.  I am suffering from joint pain which has rendered me unable to play golf, drive a car or, in fact, do much of anything.  Perhaps I can wrestle Patricia into shape to appear in the instructional videos?  After all, with her new irons she’ll surely be a sight to behold!

Anyway, here’s a written tip to keep in mind until we all get fully back into the swing of things.

The idea of this is exercise to become accustomed to making a backswing while remaining fairly central.  Note, I said FAIRLY central.  Don’t beat yourself up if you move off the ball slightly.  Keeping a still head is great, but NOT if it inhibits all other movement in the backswing and you become static.  You DO want the rest of your body under your neck to move.  Most of us at this stage of our lives will not have the flexibility to swing around a completely still head.  Our aim with this exercise is to have a free-flowing swing while remaining reasonably central.  Just do what your body can do.  Moving a foot off the ball going back makes a decent strike more likely than if you move two feet off the ball.  A small improvement in this one area over the winter will improve your ballstriking.

1.  Take your address position (preferably with a club but not essential) looking into a mirror or, if outside, a window.

2.  Fix your eyes on the bridge of your nose and slowly perform your backswing, keeping your eyes on that point.  Only go back as far as is comfortable – it won’t be your normal length of backswing as your neck is in a non-golfing position.  Keep your head as steady as possible.

3.  Look back down to the ground to where your golf ball would be sitting and swing through freely to your finish.  (NEVER attempt a full follow through while looking in the mirror/window as your neck is in a non-golfing position and you could hurt yourself.)

4.  After a few of these rehearsals take a normal practice swing (i.e. starting off looking at the ground) and see if you can maintain that feeling of staying more central on the backswing.

Take it EASY, take it SLOWLY……..and ENJOY!  Good luck.

You know, I haven’t had a real rant for a long time – when you spend most of your life in hoodies and trackie/tracky bottoms, the dress code has lost its power to incense….Mmm, having re-read that statement, it doesn’t ring true.  As long as there’s a dress code it will always incense someone but fortunately it’s pretty well in hibernation at this time of year.  If we’re out on the golf course at all in this neck of the fairways (our woods are disappearing as we start the long process of reverting to proper heathland), we’re muffled up to the eyeballs in waterproofs and woollies or fleeces or some sort of multi-stretch, windproof, high-tech outfits that deflect all criticism.

Just out of interest I rooted out the trusty Chambers to check the spelling of trackie/tracky (I know, I know, beyond sad – and as it turns out beyond the scope of the dictionary) and found myself reading the definition of tracksuit.  “Loose warm suit intended to be worn by athletes when warming up or training, but sometimes worn by others in an error of judgement.”

Wow, that comment’s more than a bit judgemental surely and certainly written well before the pandemic when even the most stylish of us – and the fashion industry – had succumbed to the allure of comfy clothing.

No, the rant wasn’t about anything sartorial, it was about something audible rather than visible.  Our grand (some would say grandiose) new clubhouse doesn’t really have a ceiling, so the sound tends to reverberate and we oldies with deteriorating hearing sometimes have to concentrate really hard to follow conversations.  A few days ago I was chatting to one of our older members, who was having lunch with his wife and a couple of friends and he was recounting a great story about a coup involving some rare 1927 port.

He was sitting down, I was standing up, leaning in, listening intently when I realised that it wasn’t his soft voice, it wasn’t the acoustics that were making it so difficult to keep track of the details….It was the blankety-blank MUSAK/MUZAK on a continuous crapola Christmas loop.  NOOOOO!  Whose idea was that?

We’re all getting older – well, do you know a single soul who’s getting younger?  We’re all getting deafer but we still enjoy getting together for a natter and a catch up and we don’t need Slade and Noddy Holder – or whoever – buggering things up.  Even worse, December was still in single figures, so who had decided that it was time to roll out the Xmas loop and drive us all demented?

I made my feelings known to all and sundry – including, I think, one of the people responsible – and I’m hoping it won’t be necessary to send for the friend with experience in such matters; the friend who took direct action when his favourite pub discovered Muzak and refused to switch it off.  His solution?  He approached the speakers with malice aforethought and ripped out the wires.  My only worry is that his method could be outdated.  The wireless age might have rendered his wire ire inconsequential, of no consequence or value, impotent.  Might have to resort to jamming…(And I don’t mean sending for Jools Holland and his band.)

One January, many years ago, Dai and I were at the President’s Putter and were thrown out of a restaurant in Rye because we asked – very politely – if they could turn the Muzak down, or, preferably, off, please.  As she handed us our coats, our hostess said, “My husband’s been running this restaurant for 20 years, he doesn’t need you to tell him what to do with his music….”

Oops.

We were the only people in the restaurant at the time and fortunately Dai was so shocked that he had lost the power of speech and allowed himself to be ushered out without complaint.  We found somewhere else to eat and it only took a day or two for the story to make the rounds, with added extras.  Rye’s a small place and tends to be very quiet in the winter…..

Talking of music, have you heard Rod Stewart’s latest?  Initially I thought it was a bit of an odd sentiment but assumed it was because he’d been married several times, though I’m not even sure of that, don’t think he’s in the Liz Taylor, Mickey Rooney league of multiple marriages.  Anyway, I thought the chorus/sentiment was that he wouldn’t want to be “breaking up with anybody else but you….”; turns out my ears deceived me and it’s “waking up….”   Ah.  Sorry Rod.  Hope it’s a hit.

It’s good to hear that Tiger Woods will be having a bit of a competitive hit when he plays in the PNC Championship at the Ritz-Carlton GC in Orlando next week.  After his car crash earlier in the year, even Woods, whose will is a force of nature, has expressed doubts about his ability to reach the heights of winning major titles again; his body is battered and by all accounts he’s lucky to be able to play at all.

“Although it’s been a long and challenging year,” he said, “I am very excited to close it out by competing in the PNC Championship with my son Charlie.  I’m playing as a dad and couldn’t be more excited and proud.”

Nelly Korda is playing with her dad Petr, Padraig Harrington is playing with his son Paddy (the lad who wanted to put ladybirds in the Claret Jug – where do the years go?) and Nick Faldo is with his son Matthew.  The field features 20 major champions, playing with a relative in a 36-hole scramble over two days.  Justin Thomas and his father Mike are the defending champions.  It’s fun but fierce.

Wishing everybody who’s kind enough to read the blog a very happy and healthy Christmas and New Year and lots of fierce fun on the fairways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last weekend was a pretty good one for sports fans from the Emerald Isle.

Firstly, there was the thrilling, resounding, relentless excellence of the national rugby team in defeating, nay, trouncing, the wonderful All Blacks at the Aviva stadium, which was full to bursting for the first time since pre-Covid days.  The outstanding All Blacks defence was responsible for keeping the scoreline close for the majority of the match but the men in green were dominant and deservedly triumphed by 29 points to 20.

Never, ever believe anyone who tries to tell you that armchair sport is not exhausting.  I was completely wrung out by the end of the eighty minutes – but I’d still have given an arm and a leg to have been in Dublin for the celebrations.  There’s nowhere quite like the fair city after an Irish rugby victory of that magnitude.  The pubs are so full that newly purchased pints of the black stuff are passed overhead by one customer to another until they reach their destination – there’s simply never room for bar staff to navigate their way through the mass of wall-to-wall people.  It’s completely joyous and evenings like that are filed away under the “never-to-be-forgotten” label.

After a good night’s sleep I was back on my Meadow/Maguire watch in the LPGA’s Pelican Women’s Championship at Belleair in Florida.  Leona Maguire was the more relaxing of the two to keep tabs on because I was just hoping that she might cap a superlative season with a first LPGA tour victory.  It became obvious that her fans would just have to wait a little longer when she struggled in the final round but she will have rested up for her tilt this week at the CME Group Tour Championship at Naples in Florida.

Stephanie Meadow (picture at top) was another matter altogether.  She was playing last week on a sponsor’s invitation and arrived at Belleair in 101st place in the rankings.  This was the final full field event of the season after which the top 100 would keep their playing privileges for next season.  There is stress and pressure at every level in sport but to have one round of golf determine if you have a job next year is brutal.  Meadow had successfully weathered just such a battle two years ago and she was triumphant again, her four under par weekend total ushering her safely into that 100th spot.

At the start of the week Stephanie declared her plan was to “chill and pray that I don’t have to go to Q-Series”.  Part 2 of that plan was accomplished in style but was she really, really able to chill?  I doubt it very much indeed.  Golfers become very adept at subjugating their true feelings when in the playing arena – usually because those very feelings can lead to negativity if given house room.  There is no time for a post mortem during the round and when you are playing to keep your card there is as much grit and resilience needed as there is up at the top end of the leaderboard.

Talking of the top of the leaderboard, world No 1 Nelly Korda looked to be coasting to her fourth tour win of the season – and then she tripled the17th, giving oxygen and hope to a trio of major winners on her tail.  Indeed, Nelly had to birdie the last just to make the play-off.  She birdied it again twenty minutes later to take the title, a wonderful display of mental resilience after seemingly throwing away a winning position.  It was yet another example of the really great players being able to banish from their minds thoughts of any errors committed.

It’s not that the top men and women don’t hit poor shots – they do.  It’s just that the best of them then proceed to produce tournament-winning shots while others slide into a funk of self criticism.  Nellie’s control of her mental game was supreme and allowed her physical game to shine without interference, resulting in a finish on top of the podium yet again.

Meanwhile, my own winter golf is under way and I’m managing to get out for a few holes a couple of times a week.  My golf, as always, leaves a lot to be desired but I’ve learned not to bother too much about that.  There is something that really does rile me, however, and it is more apparent at this time of year than perhaps it is in the summer:  Have folk forgotten the art of repairing a pitchmark?

Our beautiful greens are awash with them and there is simply no excuse for it.  It must be galling for the greenstaff and it’s so disrespectful to your fellow golfers and is, quite frankly, the height of bad manners.  One of the first things we were taught when we started the game was to leave the course in better shape than you found it.  Repairing a pitchmark is one thing that can make you feel like a decent golfer even if you’re not.  Perhaps a few more could be encouraged to try it?

REPAIR THOSE PITCHMARKS.

Ok – rant over.  And breathe………………

There are never-ending debates in the golf world about how to get more folk into our sport and about how to make golf more accessible to all.  Back in the day most towns in Ireland had a public putting green, usually alongside a number of tennis courts and a children’s play area.  In the summer, particularly in school holidays, these places were mobbed.  Many of the kids who idled away a few hours on these putting greens moved on to play pitch and putt (a sport in its own right in Ireland) before graduating to the full game.  Scotland had a similar set-up but the putting green in Hamilton, which provided hours of entertainment for my husband and his friends, suffered the same fate as many other facilities and was sold off to developers for houses, shopping centres and the like.  When these putting greens disappeared so too did the opportunity for youngsters from non-golf families to have any experience of the game.

Now comes the welcome news that some in the industry are keen to reverse that trend and provide opportunities to all.

Padraig Harrington (above), one of Ireland’s finest, three-time major champion, Ryder Cup captain and all round top guy,  grew up learning his golf at Stackstown in Dublin.  The course overlooked Marlay Park where there used to be a 9-hole par 3 layout, which was much used by the young Harrington.  That disappeared a number of years ago but Padraig is intent on bringing back a public golf facility to the area and, what’s more, it’ll be free to play.

These projects don’t happen on their own and many big hitters are contributing with time, money and expertise.  Padraig’s own charitable foundation, the R&A, Golf Ireland, Sport Ireland, Turfgrass, Atlantic Construction and the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council all are involved.

Padraig’s inspiration for the 3000 square metre putting green he has designed comes from the world-famous Himalayas putting green in St Andrews, home of the St Andrews Ladies’ Putting Club which was founded in 1867.  The club members still play for prizes that were presented at the very first competitions more than 150 years ago.

Consider for a second the name of the putting green and that will tell you all you need to know about the terrain.  It’s terrific fun and good luck in finding a level spot on the whole green!  Weekly competitions are held from spring to autumn and visitors can book tee times and pay £4 to play a round – £2 if you’re a senior or under 16.  If you ever find yourself in the Home of Golf don’t miss this opportunity to test your skills on the Himalayas.

Padraig readily admits his love of the quirky Scottish layout was his inspiration:  “I have always been in awe of the popularity of the Himalayas putting course and wanted to be involved in providing something similar for the people of Ireland, to allow them to experience golf in a fun and family-focused setting.”

Work is under way in anticipation of a grand opening next spring and I, for one, just love to hear of this kind of golfing environment being created when too many seem to want to annexe their names to yet another so-called “championship course”.  This strikes me as a much more essential and relevant facility.  Good for you, Padraig, for always giving back.

The Himalayas putting green may have been in existence for a century and a half and more but it is only relatively recently that decent practice facilities were deemed essential in St Andrews.  Back in the mid-1970s when I went to university in the old grey toon there was only a short practice area of around 200 yards and it had zero protection from the elements.

As a first year student living in Andrew Melville Hall of residence, my preferred area to hit shots was in the grounds below my own bedroom window.  I had, however, to keep a beady eye out for the groundsmen who were always chasing me off their precious grass, so it wasn’t exactly conducive to a deeply concentrated or focused session.  You always had to be poised to pick up your gear and run!

In those days, we all very much preferred playing to practising and I recall that a student St Andrews’ Links ticket, which allowed me to play on the Old, the New, the Jubilee and the Eden courses, cost the princely sum of £12.  This was for a whole year!  I was trying to remember if I truly appreciated my good fortune at the time but I expect with the insouciance of youth that I took it all for granted.

I certainly regret not playing the Old Course in reverse, which was quite common at that time, thinking I’d have loads of chances.  I never have played it that way round and it’s a rare occurrence now – what an opportunity missed!

Hopefully, there’ll be an awful lot of folk wiser than me who’ll take advantage of the opportunity that Padraig’s new putting course will provide.  It may inspire another major champion from Ireland.  Who knows?  But even if it doesn’t, it will afford hours of fun and enjoyment for individuals and families, and that is infinitely more important.