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.

 

Just as I was wondering what to write about this week, someone asked me:   What is your connection to madillgolf.com?  Wow!  How to answer that?  Without resorting to the words that I’m trying to eliminate from my vocabulary?

My eventual reply was, I thought, succinct, measured and polite:  Maureen’s big sister and co-founder of the blog, Madill being our maiden name.  After all, why on earth would the questioner have bothered looking at the blog in the first place and discovered the connection?  Far too simple.

Now that the over-70s automatically regard me as one of their own the time for delusions/illusions is long gone and I leave the big questions to others:  Why am I here?  What’s it all for?  Who knows?  As my aunt used to say:  Just get on with it, dear.

So, that still begs the question:  What am I going to write about!

Well, Paul Lawrie is as good a place as any to start – and finish.  Now 51, he’s playing in his 620th – and last – European Tour event, the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club, near North Berwick, not too far from Muirfield.  The 1999 Open champion felt that finishing at home was spot on and said:  “There are a lot of factors behind the decision, the main one being that I don’t feel I can be competitive week in, week out at this level.  My back is not very good.  I’ve got a herniated disc and I struggle to practise enough.  I’m not able to hit the amount of balls I need.  I’m not particularly talented so I lose my game quite quickly.

“It’s not a bad innings considering I turned pro [in 1986] with a 5 handicap and didn’t think I’d play any European Tour events.  I haven’t been a great player but I’ve been decent and that’s all you can ask for.”

Lawrie’s first win was the Catalan Open of 1996 and he went on to win six other tournaments plus the big one, his major championship at Carnoustie.  He played in the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline and he and Colin Montgomerie played together in the foursomes and fourballs, winning two matches, halving one and losing one.  In all the mayhem of the final day singles, playing in the anchor match, Lawrie kept his head and his nerve and beat Jeff Maggert by 4 and 3.  It was an impressive effort, overshadowed by all the whooping and the hollering of the American comeback from 10-6 down.

He won the Dunhill Links Championship in 2001 and the Celtic Manor Resort Wales Open in 2002 but didn’t win again until 2011.   In 2012 he won twice and skipped the US Open, even though he was exempt, to concentrate on securing his Ryder Cup place at Medinah.  “The US Open was never an event I did well in,” Lawrie said.  “It wasn’t my type of golf.  I’ve never been the straightest off the tee or the strongest getting balls out of the rough……There was no point in me going there and with travelling I thought that was basically three tournaments I was taking out of my schedule….I got a lot of stick for the decision…..but I stuck to my guns, decided it was the best thing for me and it worked out perfectly because I got to Medinah.”

This time it was the Europeans who resurrected themselves on the last day and Lawrie, who’d lost his two fourball matches, defeated Brandt Snedeker 5 and 3 in the singles, one of the highlights of his career.

“When I look back,” he said, “the Ryder Cup at Medinah and my win at the Open stand above the rest…They were both special.  Medinah was huge because I hadn’t played for Europe in 13 years.  I’d lost my game completely in that spell for a wee while, so to come back from lower than 400th in the world to a place in the Ryder Cup team and get back into the top 30 in the world rankings again was a huge effort.  I did a lot of work, so to get back into Team Europe and to play with guys I hadn’t played with for a while was amazing for me.  And then to come back on Sunday from 10-6 down, to win my singles match, it doesn’t get any better.  Medinah was magic.  The Open will always be the biggest thing I ever achieved but Medinah was close.”

Proud as he is of his success on the course, Lawrie, an Aberdonian born and bred, is even happier with the work he and his wife Marian have done off the course.  “She’s been with me every step of the way and as soon as we got to a level where we thought we could give back we did because it was always something we wanted to do and we really enjoy it.  Things have just snowballed since.”

There’s the Paul Lawrie Golf Centre, the Paul Lawrie Foundation, the Five Star sports agency and the Tartan Pro Tour – Neil Fenwick, who won that tour’s order of merit recently, is playing at the Renaissance Club in his first European Tour start and Lawrie couldn’t be more chuffed:  “To see Neil playing this week is huge for us.  That was what the Tartan Pro Tour was designed for, to give guys like him the opportunity to step up.”

Lawrie won’t be abandoning the practice ground altogether, however, because he’s an ambassador for the Legends Tour and will be putting in some work over the winter.  “I’ve definitely got ambitions,” he said.  “I’m not saying I’m going to beat them all, all of the time but I feel as if I can win a few and do well.  It’s got some huge potential, so I’m going to put all of my attention into that and what I do outside of the game.”

A decent man who’s had a more than decent career.

 

 

We appear to be awash with golf tournaments at the moment with men’s and women’s majors coming thick and fast.  Despite the undoubted talent on display and the exciting playoff victory for South Korea’s Mirim Lee in the ANA Inspiration, the second of the women’s majors, it was another tournament altogether that set my heart racing last weekend.

I was looking forward to a quiet Saturday afternoon doing a little cooking in preparation for friends coming round for dinner.  I decided to put the telly on to keep an eye on the European golf from Switzerland (the women) and Portugal (the men).  The next two hours passed, on the one hand, in a blur and, on the other, excruciatingly slowly, as I watched Amy Boulden achieve her dream of winning on the Ladies’ European Tour.  It took me by surprise – no, not that she won – but because I was unaware at first that it was a Saturday finish.  I was busy thinking Amy was setting herself up nicely for Sunday when the penny dropped and it became a television broadcast that demanded more than half an eye on it.  This required full attention, concentration and proper undivided support.  The kitchen didn’t see me again until the final putt was holed and Amy was holding the trophy as the VP Bank Swiss Ladies’ Open champion.

Not many will be surprised by Amy’s victory, rather the surprise is how long it has taken her to win on the main tour.  An extremely accomplished amateur record led seamlessly into a great opening year on tour, winning Rookie of the Year honours in 2014.  Then the pause button was pressed and it stayed that way for quite a long time.  And some players never do manage to hit the “play” button again.

“Nothing weighs you down like great potential,” my sister is always saying to me.  Possibly, for Amy, that huge expectation, well-founded though it was, began to affect her negatively the more tournaments she played without that expected first victory.  And once a little bit of confidence seeps away it can be hard to stop that trickle turning into a waterfall.  So many of us, no matter our level of skill, have experience of fighting our demons.  It’s not easy… and OUR livelihoods don’t depend on it!

As I listened to my better half clashing around in the kitchen, having taken over dinner duty, my phone was blowing up with text messages and WhatsApps from the length and breadth of Wales.  Most of them were from folk who had known or been involved with Amy at some stage or other during Golf Wales’ coaching back in the day.  All were biting their nails, holding their breath and were totally invested in the result.  I think Amy would be completely astonished at the pleasure that her win has brought to so, so many people who in the past have walked a small bit of her golfing journey with her.

How I wish my great friend, the late Sue Turner, could have been here to see Saturday’s win.  Sue and I took a ten-year old Amy and some other Welsh Juniors to the Under-16 Championships in St Andrews.  It was blowing a proverbial gale and the rain started soon after.  No player was allowed a caddy and in those days the trolleys were ones you pulled, not the push ones or electric ones of nowadays.  Amy was hardly the size of her bag and my abiding memory was of this little mite bent double into the storm hauling her clubs after her.  Amy didn’t win that day but she displayed there and then the quality of every champion – stickability.  Talent is secondary to staying in the arena.  You’ve got to be in it to win it and Sue and I both saw that desire all that time ago.

Fast forward to the breathtaking scenery of Switzerland and seventeen years later there’s Amy, once again caddy-less – but this time because of COVID-19.  The trolley, however, is electric, thank goodness.  Not many flat spots in Switzerland.  The opposition was intense, with Swiss left-hander Kim Metraux, the local favourite, reeling off five birdies in a row from the 9th.  Amy responded with four birdies of her own in a five-hole spell from the the 10th and Aussie Steph Kiryacou couldn’t make any inroads even with a scorching 65.

When Amy tapped in for a final round 64, the waiting and wondering were over.  The whole family is absolutely steeped in the game with both Dad Simon and elder sis Kim highly-respected professionals.  Mum Gill and middle sister Hayley have both had low single-figure handicaps and I believe the competition for a spot in the family fourball only lessened when Hayley began to concentrate on her nursing career instead.  Such a talented family whom I have had fun knowing.  Boy, do I hope they are enjoying these celebrations!  It’s been a great week for them all……….and a great week for quite a few of the rest of us too.