Sport produces winners and losers – and not in equal measure.  There are very few winners compared to losers, so it must be a very bitter pill to be firmly in the former camp only then to spend years and years unable to open that magic door into the winner’s circle again.

Last weekend two players rediscovered that magic key.  Caroline Hedwall, a 29-year old twin from Stockholm turned pro late in 2010 and won an incredible four times in Europe in her rookie year in 2011.  The following year she won again and twice in Australia in 2013, so in no time at all she had seven titles to her name.  The upward graph continued with three consecutive Solheim Cup appearances, the highlight undoubtedly coming in Colorado in 2013 where she became the first player in the history of the game to win five points out of five, a massive contribution to Europe winning the Cup on away soil for the first (and, at the moment, only) time.

And then?  Well, that’s the problem.  And then……..nothing.  Things were already beginning to unravel.  She sustained a hip injury in 2012, rumoured to be due to a change in her fitness and training programme.  It kept her out of action for much of that season but she appeared undaunted each time she returned to action.  Of course, her confidence was sky high.  Niggling injuries persisted, however, and slowly, insidiously, the game became more and more difficult.  Hedwall never slacked in her commitment but the golden touch was gone and every ounce of confidence built up by her previous stellar appearances ebbed away.  Last October she had a ganglion cyst “as big as a ping pong ball” on her wrist removed, restoring her flexibility and enabling her to begin to use driver again after twelve months of only hitting a 3 wood from the tee.  And then a week ago she teed it up in the Lacoste Ladies’ Open de France at Golf du Medoc.  An encouraging performance was transformed into so much more by a blistering record-breaking final round of 62 for a two-shot victory over Stacy Lee Bregman of South Africa, who had herself closed with a 66.  Let’s hope this win signals the end of a desperate five-year stretch for the likeable Swede and total justification of her self-belief, no matter how deeply it was buried at times.

Her joyful reaction was music to the ears of her family, friends and supporters.  “It was a long time ago since I won and it feels great to get another win under my belt. It’s been a struggle over the past years with quite a few injuries and it’s been tough on my confidence.  I haven’t felt good when I’m under pressure.  Today, I really pulled it off and enjoyed being back there and in contention.  I performed under pressure and that gives me a lot of confidence moving forward.”

Next stop is this week’s final major of the year, the Evian Championship.  A chance to build on that upward moving graph again and who knows, perhaps next year a fourth Solheim Cup call up?  I, for one, certainly hope so.

Switching continents now and gender…..  Keegan Bradley ultimately triumphed in the third of the four Fed-Ex Cup play-off events, winning the BMW Championship in a rain-delayed finish on a soggy, wet Monday in Pennsylvania.  His extra hole victory over Justin Rose ended a six-year wait since his last victory and a two-year stretch of misery during which he had to learn how to putt again post the anchoring ban in January 2016.  Starting in May 2011 Bradley had won three times in fifteen months – with a major and a WGC (World Golf Championship) event among his titles.  And then, a little like Hedwall, absolutely nothing and the slow inevitable erosion of confidence began.

“A lot has happened to me over these six years,” he said. “The belly putter was a tougher transition than I thought, and I kind of fell off the radar there for a little while.  It’s tough to go from being on Ryder Cup teams, being on Presidents Cup teams to outside the top 100 in the world.  That was difficult.”

As he got his long game back in shape the putting still eluded him.  “When I used the belly, I just putted,” Bradley said.  “There was no thought process.  And I had to really sit down and focus in on my putting stroke, which was something I had never done.”

And so he began the slow climb back up the mountain to success.  If he had thought it was difficult first time around, this was something else.

“It’s scary when I look back because I didn’t know I needed this much improvement,” Bradley said. “But to put it all together, especially with the putter the way it was this week and the way it’s becoming, is so gratifying, because for a little while, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get back to this spot, and today I did it.”

It’s all Ivan Morris’s fault.  I’m blaming him anyway for the fact that I’ve got nothing done for the last two weeks.  For those of you who may not know Ivan – just think of the most fanatical golfer you know, whose every waking moment is filled with thinking of golf, playing golf, writing about golf, talking about golf.  Multiply that one hundredfold and you may begin to get a little bit of an idea of what golf means to Ivan.  And now he’s written his seventh book on the game – a specially commissioned tome to celebrate and mark the 125th anniversary of the Irish Ladies’ Golf Union (ILGU).

Since I received the book, courtesy of the ILGU, it has successfully kept me from doing all the things I should be.  I’ve been playing truant and loving it.  Now, normally, I’m not a huge fan of golf books celebrating a hundred years or so of this club or that or of specially commissioned works chronicling an association down the ages.  They can tend to become simply lists of names with the writer terrified he may offend someone by leaving them out.  I’m sure that’s an ever-present worry for any author of this genre but “A History of Women’s Golf in Ireland” is so much more than that.  It swings along at a jaunty pace telling the story of a fascinating social history through the medium of golf.  There is so much with which I can identify – from the austere, old world pictures of the fabulous Hezlett sisters which stared down at two young Madill girls from the walls of the Ladies’ clubhouse at Portrush as we played in endless fun-filled Junior competitions to the modern-day exploits of Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire, both former British Amateur Champions, US collegiate players and professionals – all three achievements that I’m proud to share with them.

I’ve selected a few of my favourite pics from the book.  Some resonate keenly with me for various reasons, others I just love.

 

 

It could not be more apt that this up-to-date chronicle of the women’s game in Ireland should be published just ahead of potentially the most seismic change in golf in the Emerald Isle.  The two oldest golfing unions in the world, the Golfing Union of Ireland (GUI) and the ILGU are three years in to an extensive collaboration to form a new, single, all-embracing and all-encompassing governing body, Golf Ireland.  It is certainly time for this to happen, not least because, to quote the introduction outlining the proposal, “Ireland is the only country left in the world to have two single gender governing bodies for golf.”  This proposal, which thudded into my inbox this week, opens with a joint statement from the presidents and chairs of each Union explaining that the paper sets out “in some detail how Golf Ireland will work in its organisational and regional structures, financial arrangements, legal structure, governance and how it will extend the level of services available to clubs.”  There are also details “on how Golf Ireland will operate, including how it will promote and develop the game for golfers of all levels of ability, streamline the handicapping and course rating systems, set up a new and integrated calendar of events, recruit new volunteers and recognise better the invaluable work that volunteers do all around Ireland.”

Phew, that’s quite a remit and I wish them well.  Should they receive the endorsement sought from the clubs an anticipated “go live” date for Golf Ireland is 1st January 2021.  It’s a far cry from the early pioneering days of the 1890s but with a collective willingness to work at ironing out the inevitable wrinkles it must surely be a step forward for golf in Ireland.  What an incredible journey it’s been.  Ivan, sharpen your pen and bring us an update in, say, a dozen years or so?!

You can’t win a tournament at Royal Lytham & St Annes unless you’re a golfer of some substance and Georgia Hall was nothing short of magnificent as she won the Ricoh Women’s British Open Championship there last Sunday.  The young Englishwoman, who impressed on her Solheim Cup debut in America last year, had not previously won a professional title of note but displayed the composure and concentration of a veteran as she eventually prevailed in a ding-dong battle with Pornanong Phatlum of Thailand.

Lytham rose to both of them but the home crowd cheered extra loudly for this successor to Tony Jacklin and Catriona Matthew, Brits who won major championships here in the past.  Asia is the current powerhouse of women’s golf, with the Thais starting to rival the South Koreans at the top of leaderboards but there’s still room for the rest of the world – if we want to work as hard and devote ourselves to the practice ground and understanding the nuances of the game and our approach to it.  Making the hands bleed is part of being a successful professional but it’s only a part.  The mind is vital; attitude is key; and a sweet swing is less important than a steely determination; and an understanding of what makes you tick.  Oh, and there’s also luck, which is not to be underestimated.  Even the best need luck.

Hall, who’s only 22, hopes the girls and boys who clamoured for her autograph at Lytham, will be inspired to keep playing the game and, if they don’t become champions at amateur or professional level, they’ll remain fans and perhaps even become sponsors, putting money into the game they love and helping the better players make a living and compete against the rest of the world.  Sponsors, of course, come and go and Ricoh are off now, having done their bit for the women’s game – and for themselves.  I’ve no idea who’s going to take over but next year’s championship will be at Woburn and in 2020 we’ll be at Royal Troon, not a place I think of as a hotbed of gender equality; it’s where I was once told that “the ladies can walk round and look decorative”…….Perhaps the times they are a’changin’ after all………

The Thais are helping with that shift.  The current world No 1 is Ariya Jutanugarn, whose sister Moriya is 11th in the Rolex Rankings, just one place behind the new world No 10, Georgia Hall, from Bournemouth.  In the last round at Lytham, the Thais overwhelmed the alphabet (and my computer’s spell check) and tested the leaderboard’s lettering thanks to Phatlum, the Jutanugarn sisters, Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras and Thidapa Suwannapura.  Boy, was the trophy engraver grateful to Hall.  Oh, and the leading amateur, the only amateur to make the cut, winner of the Smyth Salver, was another Thai, Atthaya Thitikul, aged 15.

Golf is, apparently, on the decline but I think there’s hope.  My cousin’s son, who has become keen on his golf as he’s got older, sent me a wee video of his curly-headed two-year old son, who’d been watching the Open, saying insistently, as only two-year olds can, “I want to play golf…want to play golf, Daddy…I want to play golf, Daddy.”  He now has a set of plastic clubs and let’s hope he gets his three cousins, all girls, interested as well.  Mo’s boning up on the best way to teach toddlers!

More immediately, as well as the English, Thais and South Koreans in the mix at Lytham, there were players from Japan, Australia, the Czech Republic, Wales, France, Colombia, Spain, the United States, India, Chinese Taipei, Germany, Sweden, Scotland, China, New Zealand and Canada.  Not a bad mix.

Lydia, the other Hall to make the cut, is a talented woman from Wales, whose main struggle is finding competitions to play in on a regular basis.  The Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in 2010 was meant to promote the game in the Principality at all levels on a long-term basis but perhaps in these days of ultra-short attention spans eight years is a lifetime.  And, of course, professional golf, like all professional sport, is a bit of an indulgence, not a necessity.  At the moment, there’s no professional tournament for women in Wales.  Scotland, where the government is putting some money where its mouth is, is a different matter, though, of course, its Ryder Cup at Gleneagles was only four years ago and the Solheim Cup will be in Perthshire next year.

Mark Lichtenhein, who is currently in charge of developing the ailing (these days it’s always “ailing”) LET (Ladies’ European Tour), came up with a sobering statistic at Lytham.  Apparently, 99 per cent of the sponsorship money  that is put into sport worldwide goes into men’s sport…….Gulp.  Now, one per cent might amount to a tidy sum but it’s still only ONE per cent – to cover all the running, jumping, shooting, swinging, diving, whatever, that women do all over the world….  Time to scratch the heads, devise a strategy or three, roll up the sleeves and take on that big wall, brick by brick.

Mark also said that there were a lot of Norwegians (or it might have been Icelanders) trying to get their card at the LET qualifying school, so he had a chat with their fathers, who were enjoying a beer as their daughters battled to plant their spikes on the fairway to a professional career.  “This should work both ways,” Mark said (I paraphrase).  “What are you doing to help me and your daughters?  You can’t just send them to me and expect me to provide them with a living without some help.  Where are the tournaments in Norway/Iceland?”

The great thing about golf is that it doesn’t have to be hideously expensive  – though no tournament will be cheap to stage – and I still see it as inclusive rather than exclusive.  It’s a game for all ages and stages and genders.  If you can walk, it’s good exercise and even if every joint is creaking, you can devise a method to work your way round the course and, with judicious handicapping, be competitive.  Karen Stupples, pre Hall the last Englishwoman to win the British (at Sunningdale in 2004), said on the radio the other night that golf “is no longer a game for wimps.  It’s a game for athletes.”  Maybe so at the highest level but your opponent, however big, won’t be lumbering towards you with malice aforethought.

Keep swinging!

[I was going to mention the home internationals at Ballybunion and the European Championships at Gleneagles this week, where Georgia Hall is partnering Laura Davies but that format has me baffled and I’ve run out of steam.  Other websites may fill in the details.  Or not.  That’s another rant for another day!]

I’m feeling very cross.

This is 2018 and we’re in the middle of Major season in golf.  Three weeks ago the first US Senior Women’s Open was held at Chicago Golf Club and Dame Laura Davies put on a peerless display winning by ten shots.  A couple of weeks ago we were enthralled by Francesco Molinari at Carnoustie.  Last week we saw Tom Watson shooting his age round the Old Course at St Andrews in the men’s Senior British Open and this week I’m at Royal Lytham & St Annes for the Ricoh Women’s British Open, the fourth of the women’s five majors in the game.  So, why am I cross?

It was impossible to see any coverage of Laura’s win – I certainly didn’t find any – and if you cannot come to Lytham, and do not have a Sky Sports package, the only sight you will have of the world’s best women golfers this week is a paltry hour on the BBC, squeezed in either side of midnight.  Disappointed doesn’t begin to cover it.

Then I picked up the September 2018 issue of Golf World magazine.  There are 130 pages of informed, interesting and well researched pieces on golf.  Two pages are on women’s golf – TWO!  There is a huge section to help us all improve our games with tips and advice from 14 different professionals.  How many female professionals are featured?  You guessed it – none.  And not a single article written by a woman either.  I thought the clue was in the title – Golf World.  Aren’t women part of the world?  It’s really just Golf for Men, isn’t it?

All this is taking place at a time when the R&A have announced a Women in Golf Charter, stating their joint ambition with other members of the golf industry is to increase the numbers of women playing and working in the game.  Quite how that fits in with having no golf on terrestrial television is a puzzle to me.  Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A,  is driving the initiative and promises “measures designed to achieve positive change”.  They are planning to increase “overall investment in women’s, girls’ and mixed golf to £80 million over the next ten years”.

Then, last week, a Gender Equality Summit kicked off proceedings at the Ladies’ Scottish Open and Martin Gilbert, CEO Aberdeen Standard Investments and title sponsor of the tournament, was fulsome in his support, saying his company was “keen to see as much equality in sport as we can”.

This is all good news and hopefully not just all talk, yet when I look around me at our golf clubs, our TV coverage, our print journalism, I feel discouraged.  Golf is so heavily stacked towards a white male demography and does not for one moment reflect the world we live in.  The women’s game is not boring, it’s not inferior to the men’s and it is at least as entertaining.  It is bursting with fabulous role models for us all.

On the plus side I was hugely cheered to learn this week about initiatives from England Golf and Irish Ladies’ Golf entitled Women and Girls’ Golf Week 2018 which celebrates females of all ages and their involvement in the sport.  We can read inspiring stories of career women and volunteers and each day a new topic is covered culminating with a round-up on Sunday, the day the next Ricoh Women’s British Open Champion will be crowned.  Go to the respective websites – englandgolf.org, golfnet.ie, ricohwomensbritishopen.com – and be inspired.

All this makes me realise how imperative it is for women’s golf to have more support from within the industry.  We need more of the shakers and movers within the game shining a light on women in golf and giving our professional athletes the platform they deserve.  More exposure will generate more interest and subsequent increased female participation at grass roots level can guide our sport to being more family friendly with all the attendant social and health benefits. The game needs to be grown from the top down as well as from the bottom up.  These decision makers who are ignoring women’s golf and keeping our profile virtually non-existent wouldn’t get away with this behaviour in the boardroom nowadays.

I learned ten days ago that a three-time Solheim Cup player recently received a request from a club manufacturer to return the product that she wasn’t using.  I could scarcely believe my ears!    Could you imagine that request going to a three-time Ryder Cupper?  Of course not!  There really should be no place for these discriminatory practices that are still all around us.  Women are no longer willing to be second-class citizens and that goes for us golfers too.

There’s still a huge mountain to climb, I’m afraid, but, crampons on, ice picks in hand, we’ll keep on going.