The DP World tour (or European tour as I still call it in my mind) has come to the end of an exhilarating season with a nail-biting finish out in the desert at the Earth course in Dubai.  Matt Fitzpatrick (above) eased through on the first extra hole against Rory McIlroy to lift the DP World Championship trophy while Rory won his seventh Race to Dubai Order of Merit title.

For me last Sunday morning was divided between the dusty desert that is my new, emerging kitchen and running in to the sitting room to catch up on proceedings in the final tournament of the year.  The reason for the multi-tasking was the arrival of the painter on Monday morning and my endeavours to provide him with a clean, dust-free canvas on which to work his magic.  Ceilings, walls and skirtings all need to be done – who knew there were so many shades of white? – and I’ll do anything to help hurry the process along.

Meanwhile, the mountains of glassware, crockery, cooking utensils, recipe books and all the paraphernalia of a kitchen and utility room litter the rest of the house and at this point everything has the air of being very forlorn and unloved – and, oh yes, dusty.  We’re eight weeks in since I first started shifting stuff in preparation for this project and in that time we have felt like we’re camping in our own home.  Lacking anything to cook on we invested in an air-fryer – and suffered through a few days of overcooked food.  No one told us how seriously fast it is to cook this way.

It was at this point that our builders appeared from the war zone that was the kitchen and confessed that they had mistakenly taken our hob (which we intended to keep) off to the tip along with the old dishwasher and sundry other things.  “I guess I owe you a hob,” they said, to which we agreed and then we promptly forgot all about it.

So, last weekend, in the lull between builders and painter, we decided to celebrate by christening the new hob……..and discovered that (unlike the old one) it was an induction one.  Now, which, if any, of our pots and pans were going to be compatible?  A quick scour of the instructions informed us that if a magnet sticks to the bottom of the pan then you’re good to go.  Just who has a magnet handy when you need one?

I had a minor brainwave, recalling my golfing days and the times I put my ball marker on a magnet on the brim of my cap.  Cue scuffling around in the bottom of golf bags for such a device but all I came up with were pitchforks with markers adhering to them.  Trouble was the magnets were all recessed slightly so not fit for our purpose.  Fortunately, hubby decided to continue reading the instructions (not one of his usual forms of behaviour) and learned that if the pan were unsuitable the hob would switch off after a minute.  Phew!  We now don’t have to replace all of our pots and pans – just some.

Exciting as the new hob turned out to be it was as nothing compared to the real highlight of the week, which was a return visit to the UK for Sri Lanka’s first-ever female professional golfer, Tiru Fernando.  Tiru was an early member of the tour in the eighties and I was fortunate enough to have overlapped on tour with her and last week this marvellous year of reunions continued apace.

Liz Kahn, that formidable trailblazer for women in sports journalism, hosted the most delicious lunch at her home for a get-together of some of Tiru’s erstwhile colleagues.  It was a lovely, relaxed atmosphere and fascinating to learn something of Tiru’s life over the last three decades or so.

Golf played no part at all after her marriage to a minister as she downed clubs in order to aid him in his work, caring for his flock and cooking lunch and dinner every day for huge numbers of needy people.  Sadly, her husband was a very early casualty of Covid in 2020 and slowly Tiru felt it was time to return to the game she loved and to a dream she had nurtured since a young woman – that of finding land and building a golf course in her own country.

Well, she has now found that land – a beautiful, coastal plot – up in Jaffna towards the northern tip of the country, where her husband was from.  She has her investors, she has a very renowned course architect on board and she has her dream.  Undoubtedly, big challenges lie ahead.  The locals, who are predominantly Tamil, don’t like change and there’s nothing like the proposed resort near them.  They want to keep “their” land for future generations.

It will take every bit of Tiru’s diplomacy to smooth the way and to get everyone on board.  It certainly won’t be her style to railroad anything through but I can’t think of anyone better placed to be successful.  She has the serenity, the gravitas and the desire to see this project through – and to take everyone with her.

I can still see in her eye that same ambition and sense of adventure that made a young girl golfer travel thousands of miles from her home and all she knew to become her country’s first female professional golfer.  It’s going to be so interesting following her story to what I’m sure will be a stunning outcome.

The European tour, after all, doesn’t have a monopoly on stunning outcomes.

 

It’s a funny time of year as far as the golf goes.  I think the Ryder Cup has left me spent and lacking interest in tournament play – although I do admit that there are many engaging storylines looming on the horizon with the imminent playing of various Qualifying School competitions.

I had the experience of playing once at Q-school and it’s every bit as bad as everyone says it is – especially if you are there because your previous season’s results meant you had played like an idiot and lost your card.  I must be still trying to erase the whole week from my mind because I couldn’t for the life of me tell you which course we played, but I do know there was one hole which was a potential card-wrecker and it gave me nightmares.

It was a long, uphill par four early in the round (about the sixth, I think) with a sharp dogleg from left to right.  It was a narrow, tree-flanked hole with water on the inner elbow of the dogleg on the right.  You could elect to play a three wood off the tee and hope for a straight one down to the corner.  This, however, meant the green was pretty much out of reach in two.  If you hit driver off the tee and didn’t shape it, you would run through the fairway, which was not a good idea. Anything starting a smidgeon right was history as you couldn’t carry the trouble.

This hole worried me – and it worried me a lot.  Doubles were not out of the ordinary and frequently it could be worse.  I had played the course previously in a tournament so knew what to expect before going.  Sitting at home I decided I was going to work as hard preparing mentally for the task ahead as I was on the practice range.  So, day after day, several times a day I visualised the tee shot, selecting driver and moving the ball sufficiently through the air to tease it round the corner and far enough up the hill to enable me to reach in two.

Lots of times my imagination would see the ball careering water-wards so, following all the training I’d ever had, I would gently bring my mind back to the tee and start again until, in my mind’s eye, I’d see the perfect flight and roll of the ball in vivid detail.

It’s not easy controlling your mind.  Sometimes, mid-visualisation, my grasshopper mind would suddenly jump to items I needed to add to my shopping list or a friend I needed to ring later.  Visualisation is not a particularly difficult thing to do but it is tedious, which is exactly why so many of us don’t do it – or don’t do it enough.  However, like any skill, the more you hone it, the better you become at it.

When the week of Q-school arrived I wouldn’t say I was confident but I was certainly more adept at painting vivid, positive pictures in my mind, flooding my entire being with the sights, smells, sounds and feels of success.  Day one and I arrive on the tee of this testing par four.  I pull out my driver and look down the hole and suddenly my over-riding feeling is not of apprehension or fear.  I find myself thinking, “I can do this.  I’ve done this hundreds of times.”  And, indeed, I had – in my mind.

Four days later and with four inch-perfect tee shots tucked away on this bogey hole I had finished twelfth overall and regained my card.  It was worth all the mental effort that had gone into it.  Having strong mental skills will not imbue you with technical skills you don’t possess.  It will, however, set the foundation for you to produce the very best of which you are capable.  So, if your sights are set on winning a turkey in the upcoming Christmas competitions – get visualising now.

The feelgood story of the last wee while has been the re-emergence of Chinese Taipei’s Yani Tseng in the winner’s circle after an absence of over a decade.  Yani won the rain-shortened Wistron Ladies Open, her seventh Ladies’ European Tour title, in her home town in front of family and friends.  Sport throws up the most incredible stories and Yani’s career has been as scintillating as it has been perplexing.

By the age of 22 she was already the holder of five major titles and was busy occupying the top spot in the world rankings for over two years.  She was a tour de force, skilful, athletic, fearless and pretty much unbeatable.  And then, suddenly it seemed, her touch left her, her confidence crumbled and in no time at all she was a shadow of her former self.  Her total loss of form was swift, dramatic and startling in its speed.  Her assault on the record books had come to an abrupt stop.

Yani was a battler, however, and the now 36-year old kept going for more than a decade – but with scant reward.  She was crippled with the putting yips and her search for a solution led to her switching to putt left handed, which she did last year for the first time.  And it finally paid off last week.

It’s a story of remarkable resilience, courage and grace under fire.  I’m not convinced you can ever completely tame those inner demons but my fervent wish is the game, at least for a spell, gives her back some pleasure and pride.

Goodness knows, she’s earned it.

 

A pal of mine sent me an email this week to see if I had any suggestions re membership categories at golf clubs and avoidance of stagnant waiting lists.  This is an area in which I have zero knowledge or experience but it did cause me to ponder the dilemma facing many folk who want to join a club.

This is not a problem I have ever faced.  My parents made Patricia and me members of both Portstewart and Portrush as children and other memberships in later years were of the honorary variety.  After turning professional I had no reason to join a club and then much later in my career, when I wanted to play a bit more again, I joined a club that had a small section for professionals.  It was all very straightforward as far as I was concerned.  You can see my naivety sometimes knows no bounds!  It reflects the very privileged journey I’ve enjoyed through this game.

Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest there is currently positive discrimination towards women joining clubs, which I applaud, feeling that, on the whole, this is a good thing – at least until the male/female numbers even up a little bit.  There also seems to be a bias to attracting and accepting brand new players, which I find a bit strange because this must surely be at the expense of those who already play and are perhaps doomed to occupying many years on a waiting list.  Have we forgotten to look after those who already play the game in favour of lassoing in brand new souls?

Apparently some clubs use a points system rather than a straightforward waiting list.  So, you accumulate points for having a partner already in the club, or perhaps a relation.  A low handicap, number of  years played, your service to golf and so on will all help to bump up your score.  That seems to be a good idea but it must still be really hard to make headway if you are not a particularly good player and new to an area, perhaps having relocated because of changing your job.

I know some of our blog readers own and run golf clubs as well as working in them and many of you have served or are serving on membership committees.  Please tell me, just how do you keep the life blood flowing through a club with an ideal mix of membership categories?  Perhaps you abandon all categories?  (Ooops, poor juniors and students!)  I’d be very interested in your suggestions………..and so, I’m sure would my pal who, surprise, surprise, got a very short email in response to her plea for input.

It’s autumn now, the clocks are about to change and another golf season is winding down.  It’s also a time of year when I reflect and ponder (more pondering!) on the golfing highs and lows of the past few months.  One thing golf and sport has taught me over the years is that incredible performances can be delivered by generating, and then riding that most nebulous, will ‘o the wisp thing called momentum.

But what is it?  And how do you summon it when it is glaringly absent?  It arrives as a subtle shift in your favour, an altering of the universe, a change in the air that is almost tangible.  Sometimes it is generated by a change in your own self, in your attitude, in your expectations.  Positive emotions become so heightened you feel you can reach out and touch them.  Harbour the slightest bit of negativity and momentum will leech away from you in an instant.

Suddenly the bounces are kinder and you skirt the flanks of a bunker instead of  running up the face;  a couple of putts drop in from the low side of the cup;  you get a feel of something on one particular swing and your confidence soars.  The tide has turned.  You may have spent months trying to unlock the secret to your backswing or whatever and seemingly got nowhere and yet all that can alter in a heartbeat, even in one practice swing.

We witnessed the power of  momentum aplenty in the Ryder Cup.  The first couple of days it was all with the Europeans.  Don’t think the Americans played poorly on the Friday and Saturday – they didn’t.  Our boys were phenomenal and simply everything went their way, with momentum moving like an energy between the different pairings on the course.  The result was Europe appeared to have built a totally unassailable lead come Sunday.

And then, fickle old momentum decided to don the red, white and blue colours of the good, ole USA and suddenly Europe’s domination evaporated like a puddle in a desert resulting in a nail-biting finale that certainly left me spent.

The player in world golf successfully riding a wave of momentum right now is England’s ever popular Tommy Fleetwood.  He has been magnificent over the last few months with oodles of high finishes (and disappointments) in America until at last he broke through to the top of the podium by winning the Tour Championship.  He followed that up by being leading points scorer at Bethpage Black and last Sunday he won the DP World India Championship at Delhi Golf Club.  When things go your way like that, take a deep breath, don’t question it, keep working hard and don’t interfere.

Who knows how long Tommy will ride this streak?  Golf is a tough game and there are many more lows than highs.  One high he’ll remember for ever, though, is seven-year old son Frankie running on to the final green to congratulate him at Delhi.  That fulfilled an item on Frankie’s bucket list and was the coolest thing for Tommy to be able to deliver to him.

Now, just how to bottle that momentum?  Suggestions welcome.

The sister’s blog from last week, which mentioned an impromptu visit to Brancepeth Castle golf club, blew the dust off some memories which are locked away in my mind like little treasures.  The visit was in an ultimately futile attempt to track down my name on a non-existent honours’ board for having won the British Ladies’ Amateur stroke play championship there back in 1980.  Despite the club having played host to several prestigious national championships in its past no such record seems to have been kept and alas, no such board exists.  That, I think, is a shame for the club as it’s all part and parcel of the fabric of its history.

I was made an honorary member after my win and have revisited the club but not, alas, for many years.  If you find yourselves up Durham way, do drop in – it’s a really lovely place.

During the week we received a note from Keith Ridgway, who was a member of Brancepeth at the time (1980), then was a fellow member of Patricia’s at Whittington Heath before joining lovely Hollinwell a few years ago.  Keith admitted to leaving the office early to watch the golf and he chanced to come across an impressive sixteen-year old Scot, Pam Wright.

Pam is the daughter of Innes. who played for Scotland before turning professional, and Jeanette, a four-time Scottish champion and four-time Curtis Cup player.  It’s a great start to your golfing life to have genes like that!  Keith said he played his best golf after watching Pam play.

It was also the first time that I had come across Pam and we were paired together for the final 36 holes which took place on the last day of the championship.  In fact, we ended up in a play-off for the title, said play-off taking place in torrential rain with the greens in danger of disappearing completely under water.  Thankfully for all of us, but probably mostly for the Ladies’ Golf Union who were running the championship, we settled the matter at the first extra hole where my four-footer for the win managed to slalom across the water and float into the hole.

At the time I was using a putter made for me by Harold Swash, the first real putting doctor in the British Isles.  It was called an Align 5 and had two blue dots on the face which I used to tell folk lit up whenever I holed a putt.  It was wonderfully balanced and if you managed to make a smooth backswing the putter then did the rest of the job for you and, as long as you didn’t interfere, the ball would more often than not disappear into the cup.  Occasionally I had spells where I almost felt it was like cheating it was so easy.  (Those were the days!)

Pam was at the start of her stellar career when we met and she went on to represent Scotland, following in her parents’ footsteps.  That was only a springboard, however and she turned professional, joining the LPGA in America and then ultimately representing Europe in three Solheim Cups.  On one occasion when our paths crossed she was struggling on the greens and I ended up lending her my precious Harold Swash putter which she took back to the States with her.  The one proviso was that when it outlived its usefulness to her (as putters always do with us all) she would keep it and return it to me.  It had delivered two British titles to me, so I was understandably rather fond of it.

This she did after a few years and that well-travelled putter now has its home up in St Andrews in the World Golf museum where it is on permanent loan.

Mentioning the Solheim Cup reminds me that I read the other day that England Golf are spearheading a bid to get the 2030 Solheim Cup to their green and pleasant land.  Considering that there have been more English players on the Solheim than from any other country it’s a surprise that England has never yet hosted the most prestigious event in women’s golf.  Scotland have been hosts on three occasions, all of them triumphant for the home team; Ireland have been hosts once – another win; and Wales have also welcomed the visitors once but, alas, they allowed them to go home with the cup.

At this point I am not going to repeat my error of a few weeks ago when I had the temerity to attempt to list all the English women who had won on the LPGA tour.  I settled on a list of nine but for some unknown reason failed to include the irrepressible and normally unforgettable Helen Dobson.  Humblest apologies, Dobo, and thanks to Sue Pidgeon for the reminder.

So, I’m not going to total up the number of English who have played in the Solheim Cup.  Pidge, I’m relying on you for more accurate info please.

The mooted venue seems to be The Grove just outside London, which I suppose makes sense from a location and accommodation point of view.  I’d love to see the match played somewhere like Woburn or Wentworth [pic at top] but it’s a very long time indeed since the quality of the course has been a consideration when selecting a Ryder or Solheim Cup venue.  The bottom line is the thing nowadays and the golf is secondary to that.

I do hope England Golf are successful in their bid.  I’ll certainly be keeping my fingers crossed for them.