Going To The Dogs

After the fun last week at the last major of the year, the AIG Women’s Open at Porthcawl, I thought that that was our lot as regards exciting golf to watch until we hit the Ryder Cup at the end of September – and most of you are aware of my reservations about that particular event.  Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Last Sunday Justin Rose was scintillating over the back nine, as well as in the ensuing three play-off holes, managing to best J J Spaun, the current holder of the US Open title, and win the FedEx St Jude Championship.  Said championship is the first of a trio of tests that make up the FedEx Cup play-off series.

A little while ago Justin himself said he was hoping for a golden autumn to his career but I think he’s forgotten that and he now looks more like a player in his prime than he does a 45-year old hoping for a couple of decent showings now and again.  He has managed to avoid significant injury over the years, which is key, and he has remained competitive, focussed and professional.

Many of his peers (Messrs Poulter, Casey, McDowell, Garcia, Stenson and Westwood spring to mind) must surely look on enviously from the good ship Liv-i-pop and wish they could trade places with Justin.  Money means nothing to these boys – they have pots of it already, untold millions in fact.  The common denominator is that, at heart, they are all highly competitive and the cushy, no-jeopardy Liv golf scene doesn’t breed champions – they simply wither away faster than is necessary.  Carbon doesn’t turn into a diamond without significant pressure.

Justin and Fooch (Mark Fulcher, his caddie) are a great team and I was witness to the start of their time together at the Players’ Championship in 2008.  Having known Fooch for many years when he caddied on the women’s tour I felt excited for him and helpfully instructed him on the Wednesday evening “not to stuff it up”.  They missed the cut.

It didn’t take long for them to hit their stride, however, and apart from a couple of breaks – most notably when Fooch had heart surgery – they have remained a solid partnership ever since.

Despite being delighted for Justin I couldn’t help but feel for Tommy Fleetwood who finished one shot out of the play-off.  He is still searching for that elusive first win on the PGA Tour and I could almost feel his angst and disappointment oozing through the screen.  I have heard the word “choker” bandied about a bit.  I don’t think Tommy needs to be too concerned about that.  After all, it was a label given to Tom Watson for a long spell before he got it over the line.  He didn’t do too badly.

It takes tremendous courage to keep putting yourself out there in the goldfish bowl of professional sport and I’ve no doubt it’ll pay off.  Keep going, keep believing, Tommy.

The PGA Tour has done its best to instil a modicum of excitement into these seasonal play-offs with, quite frankly, a singular lack of success.  Their attempts to wow American sports fans during the month of August, in the quiet time before the great beast of  NFL football lumbers into view, have met with limited success.  Numerous formats have been given an airing since 2007 but they have not sparked the fan fanaticism enjoyed by the core sports of American football, baseball and basketball.

It’ll be interesting to see how the new commissioner of the tour, Brian Rolapp, who himself comes from an NFL background, tackles this particular thorny problem.  I imagine that Mr Rolapp will have quite an extensive to-do list once the hand-over period comes to an end next year.

I’m not holding my breath but I’d love to see a number of things happen:  the end of limited field events with no cuts;  the introduction of a “tournament” ball that flies much shorter thus bringing some of the older, classic courses back to being relevant;  application of slow play penalties;  reduced sales of alcohol at the majors and Ryder Cup and, possibly, elsewhere.  I could go on (and frequently do) but that’ll do for starters.  If the PGA tour were behind a few of these initiatives they would have more chance of being adopted globally.

I know, I know.  It’s naive and foolish and not in the interests of the top players and sponsors so it’ll never happen – but I can dream, can’t I?  If I were Queen for a day……………………!

If I were Queen for longer than a day I would do more of what I did in the middle of the week.  I joined two special girls for lunch on what must have been one of the hottest days of the year.  The two in question were Olive and Mabel, the lovable labradors who, according to the blurb on Amazon, “broke the internet with more than 50 million views on social media”.  Fame does go to some folks’ heads but not these two.  They were delightful, willing to engage (mostly) and good lunch companions (they didn’t try to eat off my plate).  They also gave me a tour of their extensive, lovely garden.

It was hard to tell but I think they quite liked me.  Anyway, I must have passed muster because we have agreed to schedule in a future lunch date.

Can’t wait.