A word of warning at the start:  I’ve just had my vaccination and who knows what kind of reaction there might be, so if this blog peters out halfway through, that’s probably the reason.  The possible side effects include fatigue, chills, nausea, vomiting, fever, dizziness, headaches, so who knows if I can stagger to the end?  Fingers crossed.  And don’t think that I’m not aware of those going, “Please God, make her stop now….we can’t take much more of this….”  Or, as the old-time, late lamented copytakers, rendered redundant by technology, used to say to the reporters desperately trying to make the words sing but decomposing at the end of the phone:  “Is there much more of this?….”

You had to be on the receiving end to hear the ennui and disdain, delivered with immaculate timing that would have done justice to Dorothy Parker at her most haughty and dismissive.  Ah, the good old days!

I suppose I’d better start with a bit of golf to get it out of the way.  The good news is that Mike Whan, who transformed the LPGA in almost every way in his record-breaking spell (a mind-boggling 11 years) in charge, will not be lost to golf.  He’ll be taking over as CEO of the USGA (United States Golf Association) in the summer and the world’s junior governing body, traditionally sedate and buttoned up – its idea of casual is dispensing with a tie – knows it’s in for a bit of a wild ride.

Whan knows golf but he’s not afraid to take risks and what makes him effective is that he takes people along with him.  He’s already told his future colleagues that he’ll make many more mistakes than Mike Davis, the man he succeeds but he’s good at learning and doesn’t usually make the same mistake twice.  “I’m really not that great at very many things,” Whan said, “but I’m really good at bringing people together for a common purpose.”

I hesitate to describe him as a miracle worker – I really don’t know him but he seems to be well aware of his strengths and isn’t scared to admit his weaknesses and appoint people who are better at certain things than he is – but anyone who has run a women’s tour for more than a decade and leaves with praise raining down on them from every angle (and no sharp implement in their back) has to inspire shock and, above all, awe.  Whan really will have performed miracles if his successor is appointed in a civilised manner, proves a success and stays in post for a decent amount of time, building on what are now very firm foundations.

He’s a man who doesn’t like to feel too comfortable in his job, which is perhaps something we could all learn from, especially those of us who are rather fond of our comfort zone and don’t feel the need to challenge ourselves too much.  Whan revealed that his wife Meg (I got her name off the internet so hope it’s right) knew 18 months ago that they’d be moving, she just didn’t know where.  Why? How?  Because he’d stopped waking up at two in the morning and reaching for his notepad!

“I’m taking this job because I’m really uncomfortable,” he said of his move to the USGA.  “This makes me nervous.  I know I’ve got a lot to learn.  I’m excited because of all the things I don’t know……I need first tee jitters to play my best.”  Fortunately, as he said in another interview somewhere – and I paraphrase – he’s never suffered from stage fright, he likes an audience and he likes nothing better than a bit of collaboration and persuading people that it’s in their best interests to work together.

I don’t know if the sainted Rory (well, we know he’s only human and not perfect but the blog is still a McIlroy fan) has met Mike Whan yet but it won’t be too long before he does.  Rory has been very outspoken, scathing even, about the USGA and R&A’s distance initiative and the Ulsterman has just become the first player not born in the US to be elected to the PGA Tour policy board, pipping Russell Knox and Kevin Streelman.  Rory is currently chairman of the Player Advisory Council (PAC) and he’ll take up his position on the policy board next year, replacing Jordan Spieth.  Ah.

Those of us who’d like Rory to complete the Grand Slam by winning the Masters and go on to win more majors and lots of other tournaments aren’t too sure we want him taking on more committee work and neglecting his core business, so to speak.  How much good did it do Spieth’s golf?  Perhaps it’ll suit Rory, who is not built like a Woods or a Faldo, single-minded individuals who pursued titles with little thought for anything else in their lives.  Perhaps Rory will pitch up at Augusta – soon I hope – thinking about something else, find himself playing well (goodness, that fierce, concentrated practice seems to be working) and end up wearing a green jacket. Ah well, we can all dream.

The pandemic is still playing merry hell with scheduling and events like the West of Ireland, the men’s home internationals and the Girls’ U16 Amateur Championship, have already been postponed until later in the year.  If the Walker Cup at Seminole goes ahead at the beginning of May, GB and I, most of whose players will nearly have forgotten what competition is, will have to perform miracles not to get mangled.  And once May comes, July can’t be far behind.  If the Open goes ahead this year, will any of us be allowed to be there?

Ah well, back to the jigsaws.

 

 

 

Peter Alliss had an influence on my golfing life long before I met him.  It all goes back to the early 70s when Patricia was about to set off to uni in Edinburgh and Mum wrote to Peter asking him if he could recommend any good coaches in the Scottish capital.  That summed up how Peter was viewed – an ordinary golf viewer like Mum felt she could quite easily correspond with the famous Peter Alliss, a prolific tournament winner and eight-time Ryder Cup player.  In no time at all, a handwritten reply arrived and the great man suggested John Shade.  Patricia acted upon his advice and I soon followed in beating a path to Duddingston Golf Club to spend many delightful hours with JS, as we came to call him.  It was Mr Shade who laid the foundations for my two British Championship victories and it’s an eternal regret of mine that he passed away a few weeks before my win at Nairn.

Many years later, but still pre email, I’d find myself in a TV compound somewhere with Peter and I’d see huge amounts of mail, bundles of the stuff, arriving for him.  I thought perhaps he’d have a secretary to send out a generic reply but no, as he did with Mum, he considered every request and wrote back in his own hand.  Seeing the innate kindness and consideration with which he dealt with people has always stayed with me.  It was something I witnessed every time I was in his company.

I suppose our paths really began to cross when I turned professional.  Peter was the first president of the Women’s Professional Golf Association (now the Ladies’ European Tour) and it was massively important to us and a great boost to have someone of his stature in the game fighting our corner and believing in us.  He gave us credibility at a vitally important time and sponsors felt encouraged to step forward simply because Peter himself was so involved.  He was never just a name on headed notepaper.  He was a foot soldier, in there with us, striving and fighting for opportunities for women to play the game professionally in Europe.  We owe him a lot.

The most time I spent with Peter and with his wonderful wife, Jackie, was, of course, at tournaments where I was fortunate enough to work alongside him.  On one of my very early ventures into the commentary box I was rostered on to have a break immediately after lunch.  Being very new to that world I decided the best use of my break would be to stay at my position in the box and listen in to, and observe, Ken Brown and Peter at work.  It was an education and an early introduction to me of the importance of silence at critical times, an art that Peter felt was being lost in modern day commentary.  Imagine my mixture of delight and terror when Peter suddenly gestured at me to put on my headset, pick up my mike and take part, despite the fact that I wasn’t due on for another twenty minutes.  With a few more encouraging “on you go” gestures from him I took a deep breath and waded in, slightly giddy with the knowledge that the greatest commentator of all felt I may have something of interest to say.  Five minutes later I heard a grunt coming from Peter’s direction and fearing I’d dropped a clanger I turned to look at him.  There he was, headset off, mike down, chair pushed back, hands folded in his lap, ankles (inevitably encased in red socks) crossed, eyes closed……….taking a nap!  Boy, did that bring me back to earth with a bump!

Ken always claimed that Peter reserved his best commentary for when there was no golf being shown – you know the sort of thing, a boy eating an ice cream or a dog running up a sandhill.  His humour was very observational, completely spur-of-the-moment and always apt.  He was a raconteur extraordinaire with an impeccable sense of timing, wonderful recall of past events and a light touch.  His commentary career spanned decades, starting with clambering up scaffolding to draughty commentary positions alongside Henry Longhurst to 21st Century broadcasting from his own home, as he did only a few weeks ago during the Masters.  It’s pretty fair to say he saw it all.

One of my favourite parts of a working day with Peter was the sound checks, carried out just before going on air.  When called upon most of us would uninspiringly manage a “Good Morning” and a count to ten while still checking over notes and research.  Not Mr Alliss.  He’d heartily clear his throat, regard the TV monitor to check the early pictures the cameramen were showing and launch into five minutes of wonderful, stream-of-consciousness stuff that had us all helpless with laughter.  In all my time beside him the only note I ever saw in front of him was a reminder to mention a particular club or person – usually requests that had come from his adoring fans.

A direct, tell-it-as-it-is approach did sometimes land him in hot water, however.  He had some very fixed notions about things and he and I used to have what in my family are called “spirited discussions”.   In other words we would each fight our corner on the topic about which we held opposing views.  Our mantra was we could disagree without being disagreeable and I certainly learned a great deal more from these sessions than Peter did.  He was always interested in what you had to say and keen to understand the opposite point of view but a well constructed and reasoned argument was essential to winning him over to your side.  I think he enjoyed these sparring matches – I hope so.  I certainly did!

Little did I realise that my last opportunity to spend any time with Peter would be at the 2019 Solheim Cup at Gleneagles.  Jackie, his wife, a tour de force in her own right, was also there and we had pretty much a perfect week with the thrilling finale topping it all off.  Unbiased as we try to be on air we are all simply golf fans at heart and I know Peter was immensely proud of the strides taken by the LET, the fledgling tour he helped to nurture.  In the happy snap below Jackie and I are celebrating with Sam Maynard, the beating heart of the BBC production, while Peter was concluding an interview.  A few minutes later he joined us and safe to say we had a few scoops that evening!

The greatest writers and broadcasters of our time have been prolific this week in writing and talking about Peter and endeavouring to catch the essence of the man.  There have been so many lovely words and I’m sure an avalanche of correspondence is currently engulfing Jackie and the family.  My heart and love goes out to them, as well as my thanks for sharing this marvellous man with us all.  He was, quite simply, the best.

 

Emily Pedersen is an inspiration, she really is.  “Who she?” I hear some of you mutter.  I’m sure plenty of you will know exactly who Emily is but I realise many of you do not follow the professional tours quite as closely as the nerdy Madills, so allow me to enlighten you a little.

Emily was a member of the European 2017 Solheim Cup team which lost to the Americans at Des Moines Golf & Country Club in Iowa.  A former British Amateur champ and the 2015 Ladies’ European Tour Rookie of the Year, Pedersen was worth her place on that team.  However, instead of it being the highlight of her career to that point it turned into a nightmare for her.  She played in three of the five matches, losing each one relatively comfortably.

Annika Sorenstam, Europe’s captain, was found to be lacking the skills required to handle a shaky athlete on a world stage and Emily felt marginalised in the most pressure-cooker week she had hitherto faced on a golf course.  It was the worst time in her golfing life.  A crisis of confidence ensued and Pedersen fell into an abyss of self-doubt and loss of form with the result that at the start of 2020, just before the March lockdown, she was outside the top 500 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

As I write, Emily is arguably the hottest female player on the planet.  She has won four times on the LET this year, including the last three tournaments.  This is only the second time in the history of the tour that a player has achieved the feat of winning three consecutive tournaments.  The trailblazer in that particular regard was the inimitable Marie-Laure de Lorenzi of France – 31 years ago.  I know, because I was there playing at the time.  It was so long ago that some of the commentators don’t know how to pronounce her name correctly!

Pedersen has been dominant all season and showed her class on Sunday in winning the Andalucia Costa Del Sol Open De Espana at Real Club De Golf Guadalmina.  A bogey-free weekend and a final nine of 32, culminating in three birdies on 16, 17 and 18 saw her win by four shots and also add the season-long Race To Costa Del Sol title to her haul of trophies.  However, her greatest prize, arguably, was having her Dad on the bag for Sunday’s win.  He had suffered with her through all the lows and she was understandably emotional to have him by her side as she capped an incredible year, which, by the way, also included winning a men’s event back in her home country of Denmark.

Not that Emily is a player who overly relies on her caddy – and for good reason.  She simply hasn’t got a regular bag carrier.  Her coach caddied for her when she won in the Czech Republic and she “borrowed” Mikey Patterson, So Yeon Ryu’s caddy, for her two wins in Saudi.  Then in Spain last week it was Dad’s turn.  So now she heads to Texas for the US Women’s Open next week – and I just hope Mikey will have sorted out someone good for her.  She may be European No 1 but it pays to have a good dose of experience beside you in a major.

Catriona Mathew may well have the Danish player’s name already inked in on her team sheet for next year’s Solheim Cup encounter in the States and she may be certain of one thing.  This time it’ll be a very different Emily pulling on the European colours – it’ll be a player scarred by this game, certainly, but  one who has come through adversity and who has learned to curb her frustrations with herself.  Most importantly of all she has learned how to win.

Finally, one more thing that struck me forcibly about our new European no 1 and is very obvious in the photograph below……….come on, you corporates, surely you can do better than this?

Earlier in the week I was lucky enough to attend a fascinating online seminar featuring astronaut Tim Peake as the keynote speaker.  In December 2015 Tim became the first British astronaut to visit and spend six months on the International Space Station, conducting a space walk during the mission.  He emphasised the need for a training programme that encouraged the making of mistakes, claiming that “failure is the best teacher.”

An appropriate mental attitude and an all-important flexible mindset cannot be developed or acquired if training in a risk-free environment, he insisted.  These principles resonate through every walk of life – whether that walk is around a golf course or around a station out in space!  It was fascinating and illuminating and a reminder of qualities we should all strive to hone, no matter our path through life.  Valuable lessons for all and sundry.

Here in England we are coming out of lockdown just as several of our friends and family in other parts of the globe are moving back into that strange world we have all inhabited so much this year.  Fingers crossed that we ALL find ourselves back out on the links next year, enjoying the challenge of the game and the company of our pals.  I know that one lesson I’ll take away from 2020 is that I’ll never take golf for granted again.

Well, that’s it for us now too.  It’s our turn again to enter this strange, lockdown world that we are periodically required to inhabit.  It means, of course, no golf, so last Tuesday our fourball endured every sort of weather imaginable to complete 18 holes, knowing it’d be our last for a while.  The final six holes were played in a whirlwind of hailstones which meant there was no reluctance whatsoever to leave the greensward and we pretty much ran up the hill to the clubhouse to get dry and have a bowl of soup.  The clubhouse, however, is not the welcoming place it used to be.  The lounge is set up with a dozen or so tables for one, all suitably distanced, with chairs all facing forward.  It’s reminiscent of a school examination hall and woe betide any person who turns their chair through 90 degrees for any reason whatsoever.  That, we are assured, is breaking the law.  Four weeks away from the course will be difficult; four weeks away from the clubhouse with its current regulations will not.  Roll on more normal times.

Once again most of us are going to be left with a little more time on our hands than usual.  The other day I saw on Facebook that a great pal of mine from Oz, Dennise Hutton, was celebrating a birthday.  (I think there’s a very good chance that I won’t be using FB too much in the future.  I’m starting to read the book, “Zucked:  Waking up to the Facebook catastrophe.” by Roger McNamee.  Big sis tells me I’ll never use FB again after reading it, because of how they use your data……but I digress…..)  Back to Dennise.

We met way back in the 1970s when D came over with the Australian team to play in several European tournaments, including the British Amateur and we have remained firm friends ever since.  I’m convinced all Australians are born with the travel gene in them.  Or perhaps it’s just that their beleaguered parents start brainwashing their little horrors from an early age with phrases such as, “WHEN you leave to go overseas…..” and “You WILL be visiting Aunt Susie in London….”  Whatever the reason, loads of talented Aussie players beat a path to the Ladies’ European Tour in the early days and it was on tour that we really cemented our friendship, often staying in the same place and frequently enjoying dinner and a nice glass of something together, along with a veritable barrel-load of laughs.

D worked hard on her game and it paid dividends when she won back-to-back titles on the Ladies’ European Tour.  Her first win was a matchplay tournament in Spain when she beat yours truly in the final on the last green.  I don’t remember much about the match except we halved the first sixteen holes of the 18-hole final with D breaking the deadlock on the 17th.  She rode the wave of that victory to a win the following week at Biarritz in France, home ground of the multi-talented Marie-Laure de Lorenzi.  I thought I had a photo of her wins somewhere but having just been up to the attic to look, I have beaten a hasty retreat back down, totally defeated by the mountain of boxes, old suitcases and abandoned holdalls with faded logos, all overflowing with junk. That task may well have to head my “lockdown list”.

Another talented Australian pal, who came straight from college in the US to play in Europe, was Anne Rollo, nee Jones.  Anne also won on tour – at the, sadly, recently closed Patshull Park near Wolverhampton, where we had a tour event for a number of years.  Softly spoken and blessed with terrific looks, Anne was a sponsor’s dream and was never less than immaculate on the course.  I seem to remember she got very nervous in tournaments at one time but she overcame that to become a winner.  After living in England for a number of years Anne returned to Australia and Sydney and, like Dennise, forged a tremendous business in the hitherto male-dominated world of top-class coaching.

Earlier this year Anne and Dennise decided to join forces, forming a company together, ProGolfGals, to further their love of coaching and helping people improve their golf games.  Their mission statement would appear to include having maximum fun at the same time.

I urge all of you with time on your hands (and I don’t know anyone who hasn’t at the moment!) to look up their ProGolfGals site and their YouTube channel for brilliant tips, entertaining chat, equipment advice, fashion info and much, much more.  They run a number of coaching weeks and I’ve never seen a pair who seem to surpass even their pupils’ capacity for the amount of enjoyment they get!  It’ll cheer you up no end on what Dad used to call the LDDBC, (the long dark days before Christmas).  They bring boundless energy to everything they do and shame me with how much they are still learning, still expanding their knowledge and still improving.

In this world, which seems to have grown larger again since travel restrictions were imposed, it’s fun to be able to check in with your pals’ lives and see how much success they are enjoying on the other side of the globe.  They both still play a pretty mean game, as you will see on one of their YouTube videos but my all-time favourite was when they filmed themselves watching the denouement of the 2020 Women’s Australian Open.  I fear alcohol may have been involved – but Aussies are spoiled for choice when it comes to a decent drop of wine!

Watch and enjoy.  It’s nice to know that something good thing has come out of 2020.