I actually gave a golf lesson last week.  Well, a sort of a one.  It lasted the sum total of two minutes, was given in two bits several hours apart and the pupil, whose attention span is limited, was big sister Patricia.  Very unlike when I did “proper” teaching or videos – see picture at top.

Patricia had been over staying with me and was driving me to my weekly lymphatic massage, which has become part of my armoury to defeat Long Covid, and was saying how little she had played and how dire her efforts were.  Panic was setting in as she had a couple of matches coming up.  I asked her to describe her shots to me (facts only, no opinion) and gleaned the information that her iron shots were thin.  This seemed to concern her a lot, which surprised me, as most of her golf at this time of year requires woods – and plenty of them!  This exchange took precisely 92 seconds and off I went for my massage.

Much later back at home, around the time you’re wondering if it’s too early for a first gin and tonic, we remembered we hadn’t finished the lesson.  It was now nearly dark and pouring with rain so I stood at the kitchen door and sent her out with my 7-iron for a couple of swings. It was as I expected – her old fault of hitting up from “underneath” the ball instead of delivering a sideways on blow.  This action of hitting up makes it difficult (impossible really) to get a good, online strike hence all her thin shots.  This part of the lesson took the remaining 28 seconds that made up the two minutes – more than enough for both of us!  The lesson concluded, we opened the bar.

The photograph below was taken several years ago at the height of her hitting-upward-through-the ball skills,  A new improved version will be posted once procured!

The day of Patricia’s inter-club match dawned, a home venue, with seven-a-side playing off handicap.  Sis was the anchor match – or perhaps the captain was hoping the result would be decided before it got to her.  The latter is very probable as Patricia had announced to her team before the off that she was retiring from club matches after this one as “her nerves were shot!”  Not what any captain wishes to hear before sending her troops into battle.

Anyway, as Patricia and her opponent made their way down the last the other team members were all gathered at the back of the 18th green with three matches apiece.  They nervously enquired as to the state of the match only to be informed that it had already finished on the 15th.  The two-minute lesson had done the trick and efforts to bring Patricia out of competitive match retirement have already begun!  She, however, is determined to go out at the “top”.

Now here’s something for those who do play golf nearer the top of the amateur game.  It was brought to my attention by Ken Schofield, former executive director of the European Tour (now the DP World Tour).  Ken was at the tour’s helm for almost thirty years and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2013 for his services to the game.  He is still mightily involved with the sport and has taken over as patron of Surrey golf after the death of Peter Alliss last year.

The Peter Alliss Memorial, a new mixed event, will be held at Hindhead golf club in early July and all the details are on the poster below.  Please spread the word far and wide – what an honour it would be to win the inaugural playing of the trophy that bears Peter’s name.  It promises to be a great event and will hopefully grow into one of the “majors” on the amateur circuit.

One of the questions I am frequently asked is which is the greatest golf event I have been privileged to be present at.  I haven’t been to a quarter of the number of my sister but my top events (in no particular order) would include:  Woosie winning the 1991 Masters;  Tiger’s first Masters win in 1997;  the first away win for Europe in the Solheim Cup in Colorado in 2013;  the Duel in the Sun between Watson and Nicklaus in the 1977 Open at Turnberry;  Shane’s win in 2019 at Portrush.  I could go on and on.

Whenever Patricia is asked the same question she faithfully comes back time and again to the same answer – Alison Nicholas’ historic win in the 1997 US Women’s Open at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon, where she held off the darling of the Americans, Nancy Lopez, denying her the opportunity to win her national title – the only treasure missing from her glittering resume.  This gets Patricia’s vote every time.

I was reminded of this fact when I realised that Ali celebrated her 60th birthday last week.  I just loved this photo posted on facebook and hope it leaves you with a smile – as it did me.  Many happy returns, Big Al.

No golf watching at all for me this week.  There was no tournament on the Ladies’ European Tour for the women in Europe, no tournament on the LPGA for the women in the States, no tournament on for the men on the DP World Tour (i.e. the European Tour).  That left the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera.  When I looked and saw that there were only four players within eight shots of last-round leader, Joaquin Niemann, I wasn’t tempted to switch on even for a second.

No, I have a new, albeit I suspect temporary love.  What do you get when you cross chess, snooker and bowls?  Why, curling, of course!!

Step forward the men and women of Scotland who so brilliantly represented Great Britain in the winter Olympics bringing home our only medals of the campaign, a gold and a silver.  The poster girl of the whole deal for us has been Eve Muirhead, the 31-year old skip who was participating in her fourth Olympics.  I met Eve over a dozen years ago when she was part of our 5 Live commentary team at one of the Opens held in Scotland.  At that time she was a one handicap golfer and clearly knew her stuff.  She turned down a couple of golf scholarship offers in the States to concentrate on her curling.

Eve is one of these people who seems to be more than adept at everything, including being good enough to play the bagpipes at four opening ceremonies of various world championships.  That lung power certainly came in handy for yelling “Sweep HARD!” down the rink in Beijing.

It was tense viewing but utterly captivating and similar to golf in that the whole thing is a bit of a slow burn with tightly controlled emotions and focus paving the way to ultimate performance.  The road to the top, they tell me, is never easy.  It is long and arduous but, boy, the view must be great.  All those hours in the gym, the heartbreak of a previous fourth place finish in the Olympics and the worry of a hip replacement a year ago must melt away now for Eve.  She had the honour of carrying the flag at the opening ceremony but an even greater honour of leading a team with gold medals around their necks at the closing one.  Where would we be without the Scots?

Meanwhile, down in Oz, golf continues to embrace a new dynamic, one unthinkable from even a couple of years ago.  There was a mixed gender professional tournament, part of the PGA of Australasia’s schedule, and world ranked No 30 Hannah Green became the first female winner of a mixed 72-hole tournament.  Her final round of 66, five under par, in the TPS Murray River event was good enough to see off the opposition and she breezed home a winner by four shots.

Now, this probably won’t rank up there alongside her 2019 major win in the KPMG PGA Championship but it’s not often you get a chance to make history – and it looks as if this trend of mixed gender events could be set to continue.  As Hannah explained, ““I don’t think this will be the last time these events keep happening. I can easily see 20 on the schedule coming soon hopefully.”  That can only be good for golf in general and women’s golf in particular.

Another indication that women are gaining serious traction in the world of golf was the announcement last week that Juli Inkster is the recipient of the Bob Jones Award for 2022.  The award, made by the United States Golf Association, “recognizes an individual who demonstrates the spirit, personal character and respect for the game exhibited by Jones, winner of nine USGA championships. It is the highest honor [US spelling] bestowed by the USGA.”

“The USGA is the ultimate governing body of golf,” Inkster said prior to the official announcement of the Bob Jones Award winner. “They always really test you, not only physically, but mentally on the golf course. I got my first case of that playing in the U.S. Amateur. Being able to win three of those…”  She continued, “Looking back on my career people ask me, What’s your greatest accomplishment? One would be the Solheim Cup captain [she captained the U.S. team three times, winning twice and losing once]. But the other one would be winning three U.S. Amateurs in a row. Winning 18 matches in a row at three different golf courses in three different years is really hard to do.”

This is where I can modestly suggest I had a little bit of a hand in launching Juli off on her road to the top.  Those eighteen matches she refers to winning?  Well her opponent in the very first one was a young Irish player called Madill, who put up what can only be described as paltry opposition to the about-to-be-great Inkster.  I doubt she even remembers it – though I have reminded her of it on occasion.

Ah well, if you can’t be great yourself, it is fun rubbing shoulders with those who are – or are soon to be.

It was as inevitable as night following day that Leona Maguire would win on the LPGA tour – at least that’s how it seemed to most followers of women’s golf.  Nothing is ever a given, however and Leona admitted her overriding emotion was one of relief when she claimed the LPGA Drive On Championship at Fort Myers, Florida, last Saturday.

It was a great Saturday from an Irish point of view.  Firstly, a resounding win over Wales in the Six Nations with the Aviva stadium brought back to full life and voice after what has seemed like an interminable time of pandemic and restrictions.  No nail biting, last minute, desperate play for a change – rather an assured  victory that was there to be savoured.

Fast forward a few hours and the same could be said of Leona’s win.  Three ahead with five to play the only attempt to exert any pressure on the Irishwoman came from Lexi Thompson who picked up six shots in seven holes.  Maguire was fearless, however, and had her own burst of birdies around the turn – four in five holes.  A purposeful stride, exceptional iron play and confidence borne of having won at every level in the game were enough to see her win by three and ascend to a career high ranking of 20th in the world.  Only one European, Anna Nordqvist, is ahead of her.

Leona has long been on the radar of all golfers and golf fans in Ireland.  After a stellar amateur career in which she hoovered up Irish, British and European titles, she headed to Duke University, along with her twin Lisa, to play college golf in the States.  She held the No 1 world amateur ranking for a record 135 weeks before turning pro and last year recorded two runners-up places, as well as three other top tens in her rookie season on the LPGA.

And then came the Solheim Cup and recognition that spread well beyond the golfing family.  The only player to play in all five matches, and unbeaten to boot, Leona spearheaded what was only Europe’s second victory on American soil.  That seemed to furnish her with the deep-down knowledge that winning on the toughest tour was certainly within her grasp and it was only a matter of when.  The last piece of the jigsaw was the patience to bide her time, not forcing things and waiting for the right opportunity.  She has now checked off a very important item on her to-do list.  Next must surely be a major.

Leona created history last weekend in becoming the first Irishwoman to win on the LPGA, just as the redoubtable Phil Garvey created history by being the first Irish female golfer to turn pro, in 1964.  Phil had long been courted to join the professional ranks by Fred Corcoran who was a pivotal figure in promoting the LPGA from its inception in 1950.  He was the Mark McCormack of the sports world before McCormack had been heard of and he guided and mentored the thirteen original founding members of the LPGA.  To say he was influential would be an understatement.

Phil agonised over her decision, finally turning professional in 1964, but being very much a home bird she decided to stay in Ireland and signed a club deal with John Letters.  She was the first woman to have a weekly instruction article with a newspaper and she played numerous exhibitions around the country.  Her reluctance to go Stateside brought into sharp focus how it simply was not sustainable to be a female professional golfer in Ireland at the time and she regained her amateur status in 1968.

This is one of my favourite pictures of Phil and comes from one of my favourite golf books, Ivan Morris’ “A History of Women’s Golf in Ireland”, written to mark the 125th anniversary of the Irish Ladies’ Golf Union.  It’s reproduced here with Ivan’s kind permission.

Following trailblazer Phil, Gwen Brandom was the second Irish female golfer to turn professional and she launched her career in America in 1969.  That same year Gwen finished 38th in one of the majors, the LPGA Championship, won by Betsy Rawls, thus becoming the first Irish woman golfer to complete all four rounds in a professional major tournament.  But, once again, home shores called loudly and Gwen, too, returned to Ireland and a few years later was reinstated as an amateur.

These two exceptional women started a journey for many who followed.  From 1986 onwards a small trickle of players from the Emerald Isle began to join the relatively newly formed Ladies’ European Tour and in the fullness of time there were scores of young ambitious women heading to America on college golf scholarships.  Many turned pro and joined the LET but the most talented stayed in America to work their way on to the toughest tour in the world.  That was the path chosen by Leona and her high profile will be a tremendous inspiration to all youngsters from her home country.  At last we have a woman whose golfing talent may enable her to match the wonderful exploits of our men players over the years.

A double Olympian, the 27-year old from Cavan said her victory was “17 years in the making”.  Well, it wasn’t 17 years for her country – it was 58 years.  Right from that moment in 1964 when Phil Garvey made history by signing on the dotted line to become Ireland’s first female professional.  Since then events have been unfolding and moving towards last Saturday’s crowning moment.

What a moment to savour!  What a joy!  And wasn’t it well worth the wait?

 

Has Rory lost his roar?  I certainly hope not, but he’s definitely suffering from a touch of laryngitis at the moment.

His inability to close out the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday was a definite low point, not just for the likeable Irishman, but for his legions of supporters as well.  Being a Rory fan is not for the faint-hearted.  It requires treading a bumpy road littered with sublime shots that no one else (and I mean no one else) in the world can play but it also involves open-mouthed disbelief at the wide misses that occur when it matters most.  It’s like living with an irregular heartbeat – the constant, nagging feeling that something is always just lurking in the shadows to derail you.

Way back in 2009 Rory recorded his first professional win here, at this same Emirates Golf Club.  Well, I can’t really describe the course as the “same”, seeing as all the greens have recently been relaid and improved.  Rory himself has morphed into a different version of himself.  No longer the slightly full-faced youngster with an uncontrollable mop of curly hair and a swagger that oozed self-confidence, he is now a husband, a dad and a chiselled athlete without even a pinch of body fat.  He has dependents now, responsibilities and other priorities that come to us all as we grow up but they seem to have stolen the seemingly carefree attitude and joie de vivre that was the hallmark of his game and made him so watchable – and so unbeatable.

Four majors by the age of 25 raised everyone’s expectations.  Was it unreasonable to expect that that rate of success would continue?  Perhaps.  Anyone who follows sport knows all about the peaks-and-troughs syndrome and that nothing lasts for ever – not even the success of Manchester United in the Fergie era.  Rory’s sublime skills are still there – we have seen plenty of evidence of that – but I detect, dare I say it, a trait in his play that wasn’t present in his early years.  He’s a reader, a deep thinker, a student of the game but it’s as if he is trying to do everything TOO perfectly and it has put him in a bit of an emotional and mental straitjacket that can inhibit his best work when he most wants it.

Rory failed to win in Dubai because he was unsettled, unclear in his thinking.  Winning is not easy and he had to wait on virtually every single shot, which is very wearing for a quick player such as McIlroy.  He’s no stranger to waiting but on this occasion it started to rattle him.  He was annoyed when a photographer clicked too early on his second shot into the 16th and two audible obscenities (very un-Rory like) in the last two holes were an indication as to his scrambled brains.

Needing a birdie at the last to win the tournament I don’t believe he chose the wrong shot in not electing to lay up short of the water.  He chose the wrong shot once he had pulled the 3-wood out of the bag.  There was only one place not to go – the water.  Anywhere over the back of the green or into the drop zone via the grandstand would have given him a 50/50 chance of a lie that would have let him get up and down for the win.  At worst he would have been in the play-off.  It was arguably the easiest route to the winning birdie for him given the front flag position.

Rory, being Rory, however, and because he is so talented, was too greedy.  He aimed left but tried to fade it in towards the pin.  He didn’t need to do that at that juncture.  It was as if he was playing the shot that everyone would expect Rory McIlroy to play.  Mistake.  Only Rory knew how he was really feeling inside but he certainly wasn’t exuding confidence.  When the heat was on Rory took 10 blows to cover the final two holes, with Richard Bland and Viktor Hovland, the two players making the play-off, scoring 7 and 6 shots respectively.

Rory beat himself in Dubai.  I can’t ever recall anyone saying that about Tiger Woods.  Tiger didn’t always have his A game but you had to pull out all the stops to beat him.  At the moment Rory is giving his opposition a bit of a helping hand.  Sure, there are always some equipment wrinkles to work out this early in the season and pros will constantly work on their technique but I can’t help but feel that Rory has misplaced that unfettered, inner calm that in the past has allowed him to make those sound decisions that lead to aggressive, fearless execution of his shots.  He needs to tap into that mindset again in order to win more majors.

No majors for more than seven years means we have been starved for too long of a Rory in full flow when it matters most.  Time, perhaps, to play as he did when a kid at Holywood golf club with his dad.  Rory has the recipe for success already, all the ingredients required – of that there is no doubt.  He’s just mislaid the bit that tells you what temperature to put the oven at and how long the cooking takes.

Here’s hoping he finds the missing bit of that recipe soon.