There are six of us on holiday in Scotland this week, on the wild and (relatively) inaccessible Applecross peninsula and even though five of us are golfers of one level or another, we haven’t hit a shot between us.  We did try to watch the Walker Cup from Los Angeles but the time difference and the walloping – not to mention our windswept tramping of hills and rocky shores – sent us to bed early.  We might keep an eye on the Evian Masters – though it seems to be as wet and wild in France as it is here and I’m not so sure an event calling itself a major should be reduced to 54 holes at the earliest opportunity – and the PGA Cup boys are at Foxhills in Surrey.  That’s the club professionals of GB and I, who are the holders, against the United States.  Good luck to them all.  You don’t nip anywhere from Applecross so we’ll be cheering from afar.

The GB and I PGA Cup team 2017.

I brought my cherished Peter Broadbent persimmon driver to Scotland, thinking that we could find a beach somewhere and have a bit of fun trying to hit a titchy-headed club that we all used to wield with a certain amount of proficiency. There aren’t many flat bits round by here and the tide always seems to be in, so that experiment is something for a later date. This blog might be too, given the well-nigh non-existent internet connection at speeds of 0.something if you’re lucky. Kayaking photographs may have to be added at a later date….

No doubt there are technical whizzes in this neck of the Highlands who have super fast everything because how else could you run a business or take payments or update your website or fiddle around with photographs and film or whatever? Answers on a postcard please because time is no longer of the essence.

So, what have we been doing here in the absence of golf?  Lots of walking – no problem clocking up 10,000 steps and more; some sea kayaking with Tom, originally from Yorkshire now from one of the Shieldaigs, spotting seals and sea eagles (some great pics but you’ll have to take my word for it); feeding Henry the pig, our neighbour across the way; hopping out of the way of cars and bikers pursuing the North Coast 500; eating delicious sea food and wonderful cakes; encountering tubby gardeners; photographing Highland cows of every colour; cooing over views unequalled anywhere; enjoying ice cream in the pouring rain; and chatting with people from all over the world. It was bliss before turning into blog hell!  Ah well.

Last but not least, congrats to the wonderful women of Whittington Heath who reached the final of the Taskers for the second time, beating Charnwood Forest at Erewash Valley but fell to Kibworth in the 5th round of the Annodata UK Golf Club Classic.  The best of luck to Kibworth who now head off to Spain for the final stages at Montecastillo, Cadiz and from what I remember of the Volvo Masters there, they’ll need their climbing boots.  It’s pretty up and down and we intrepid spectators were glared at by Colin Montgomerie for breathing too heavily as he contemplated his options at a short hole with a tee at Corbett-ish height.  If he’d had any concept of empathy, he’d have congratulated us on our climb, complimented us on our fortitude and taken his time so we could get our breath back.

Monty being Monty, he swung away, missed the green, glared at us again and stomped off, muttering.

Happy days.

Precisely two weeks ago Harvey, a category 4 hurricane and the most powerful storm to hit Texas since 1961, smashed into the lone star state bringing with it winds of up to 130 miles per hour.  Catastrophic damage and the ensuing widespread flooding has meant thousands of people have lost everything and are now homeless.  We’ve seen it all before, haven’t we?  And, if we’re lucky, we’ve only seen it via the medium of a screen, be it a TV, laptop, ipad or phone.  But, for me, this one is different.  Very different.

Let’s rewind to the end of 1976.  I was well into my second year at St Andrews University studying French and English.  Where else would an avid golfer choose to study, after all?  Life was good – I was playing on the university golf team, loving student life and pursuing my ambition of gaining a full International cap for Ireland.

Back row l-r: Sue Lloyd, Anne Forbes, Ann Hay. Front row l-r: Maureen Madill, Alison McIntosh.

One phone call was all it took to change everything.  That call was made by Pat Park and she was offering me and a Welsh pal, Lisa Isherwood, full golf scholarships to switch our studies from our respective unis (Lisa was at Lampeter) and head off to Lamar University in Beaumont in Texas.  Nowadays, golf scholarships to the States are common but back then only a few guys, namely Nick Faldo and Sandy Lyle, had tried it and returned home not finding it to their liking.  Pat was the first US college golf coach to recruit any females from the UK – and we were it!  She had already plundered the talent in Canada and was hoping for similar success in Britain.

Beaumont lies around 85 miles east of Houston and is not the prettiest place I’ve ever lived in, being a big petro-chemical industry town.  It was quite a shock for a green, naive 18-year old brought up on the north coast of Ireland and studying in Scotland who was used to seeing nothing but sea, sand and rolling golf courses.  There are times in your life, though, when an opportunity presents itself and sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and go for it.  I suffered six long months of excruciating homesickness – remember, no emails in those days, no skype, essentially no verbal or visual contact with your family.  We communicated by letter.  Receiving a phone call was a scary thing – it meant somebody had died.

Lamar University golf team 1977. Back row l-r: coach Pat Park, Pam Johns, Cathy Kane, Lisa Isherwood. Front row l-r: Debbie Adams, Maureen Madill

It was the best thing I ever did.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have had some very influential mentors in my career and in my life and Pat Park was, and is, one of the finest.  A really good player in her own right, she was an excellent communicator and inspirational in all she did for the team at Lamar.  She steered us to consecutive National finals, the first in Hawaii, the second in Florida, unheard of for a uni like Lamar.  Our relationship has survived the thousands of miles that normally separate us and I’m proud to call her my friend.

My stint in Beaumont changed the course of my golfing life.  I returned to the UK and won a couple of British titles in a 14-month spell and achieved that longed-for Irish cap as well as British and Irish representation.  The pro ranks beckoned and were followed by over a decade of coaching International sides.  My time in Texas paved the way for me to make and enjoy a wonderful living from the game of golf.

After Harvey hit and I realised that Beaumont and surrounds were as badly affected as their better-known neighbour, Houston, I emailed Pat to see if she and her family were OK.  After a couple of anxious days I received this:-

“We are quite safe. We have had our fill of rain the last 5 days but nothing we couldn’t handle. Beaumont and Port Arthur, like Houston, are devastated.  PA got over 25 inches in one day, Beaumont almost 18. There was a time last night that it was raining 6.6 inches per hour in Port Arthur.  Simply astonishing.  Many, many residents have had to evacuate and will be spending time with friends and in shelters until they can get their homes cleaned up or rebuilt. We are probably talking about a few years to get things back to normal.”

Horrific Harvey

I’ve had a look on the news footage at this area that I once knew so well.  The clean-up job will be massive – as will the bill.

Last week the LPGA Tour was playing in Portland, Oregon and former world No 1 Stacy Lewis announced she’d donate all of her winnings to the Harvey Relief Fund.  Stacy lives in The Woodlands, (one of the venues where we used to play college golf) in the northern suburbs of Houston.  It had been over three years since Stacy won a golf tournament, an intolerably long time for one of the world’s best.  In the interim she’s had a dozen runner-up spots but a final round of 69 saw her fend off her opposition.  Naturally delighted to win again, she described the relief effort as “more important than anything.  We’re going to be able to help (people) rebuild houses and get their homes back,” she said.  In her live winner’s interview she was informed that her sponsor KPMG were matching her donation of $195,000 dollars – and that’s when she became teary-eyed.

Stacy – a class act.

I’ve spent a lot of time being teary-eyed thinking of Texas this past couple of weeks.  The people are warm, down-to-earth and great to be around.  I know many, many PGA Tour pros make their homes in the Houston area and are helping with significant donations.  They’ll be needed – there’s a long, hard road ahead.

Go Stacy, Go Texas.

I hope you’re all aware that the big event this weekend is the Walker Cup, the biennial match between the male amateurs of the United States and Great Britain and Ireland.  It’s team match play, the best form of the game and is quaintly old-fashioned in that it’s still over two days, foursomes and singles each day – no fourballs, unlike the Curtis, Solheim and Ryder Cups.  There are 26 points on offer, with four foursomes each day, eight singles on the first day and ten on Sunday, the second and last day.

GB&I won at Royal Lytham & St Annes two years ago but it’s a big ask to win in the US – we managed it in 1989, at Peachtree and in 2001 at Ocean Forest but that’s it.  Take us out of Georgia and we struggle.  This year the match is in California for only the second time, at Los Angeles Country Club, Beverly Hills way, a venue that’s about as far removed from your local muni as you can get.  Funnily enough, the last time the match was in the Golden State, at Cypress Point, in 1981, I was there and I hope to be there again in 2023, when one of the most exclusive clubs anywhere has agreed to host the match again.  It’s well worth the detour, a spectacular venue just along the coast from its brasher neighbour Pebble Beach, with the par three 16th ranking as one of the world’s most stunning holes.  Look up the 16th, ice plant, Porky Oliver and Sandy Tatum and you’ll learn a lot about the place.

Rodney Foster, Michael McDonnell, Michael Williams, Bob Sommers and Jack Magowan at Cypress Point for the Walker Cup in 1981, four writers, one golfer!

A lot of Walker Cuppers go on to stellar professional careers, so these days few of them stay amateur for long – although Padraig Harrington, always marching to the beat of his own singular drum, played in three matches.  Tiger Woods looked as though he hated Royal Porthcawl, with good reason:  it rained most of the time, the Americans lost, he was beaten by Gary Wolstenholme, a mismatch if ever there was one and a decent hamburger was hard to find.  Two years later, in 1997, Woods won the Masters by 12 shots, his first of 14 major championship victories.  Funny old game golf.

Keep an eye on this year’s players because some of them will undoubtedly go on to greater things.  Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler are just two of today’s stars who played in the match at Royal County Down in 2007; Jordan Spieth was at Royal Aberdeen; Luke Donald and Paul Casey starred at Nairn; and the list goes on.  Lifetime amateurs like Michael Bonallack, Joe Carr, Bill Campbell, Charlie Yates, Cecil Ewing and Peter McEvoy, to name just a few, worked tirelessly for the good of golf in one capacity or another and it was thanks to the Walker Cup that I learned about Ronnie White, a Lancashire solicitor who worked hard at his golf – and fitness – but fitted it all in around his work.  Still, in five appearances, from 1947-1955, he won four of his singles and in the foursomes was a wonderful foil for Carr, a more flamboyant character but an equally ferocious competitor.  White was known as “One Height” because of his ability to keep the ball low, boring it into the winds he encountered on courses like Wallasey, Birkdale and Hoylake.  I’d love to have seen him play.

Attention to detail: Walker Cup preparations at Royal County Down in 2007.

Things were a bit grey in the UK after World War II so the LA of today would be like another planet and it would be interesting to know what the courtesy cars were like in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  Nigel Edwards, a former Walker Cup player and captain, who is now (as a Welshman) director of coaching at England Golf, posted this photo of his courtesy car this week on Twitter.  Who could resist tweeting such a treat?  Let’s hope the match is as eye-catching.

If you’re going to drive in LA, this yellow peril is just the job.  Note the matching upholstery.  Attention to detail.