I must admit to being quite confused when Maria Fassi received a two-shot penalty at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, which contributed to her missing the cut. It was not that I did not think she deserved punishment but rather why it was two shots and why were no other penalties handed out at the tournament? There have been two other penalties handed out to LPGA players this year.
Up and down the country, greenkeepers are pulling their hair out as they watch their carefully manicured golf courses eaten by evil little monsters that live below. Barren patches on the fairways and holes in the green result from the offspring of those innocent looking crane flies, or Daddy Long Legs as most of us know them.
Rory McIlroy is not a fan of the R&A and USGA's Distance Insights Project, well I'll go to the foot of my stairs! We should not be surprised that one of the bigger hitters in golf doesn't want to be reined in after all turkeys don't vote for Christmas.
This time last year it was not looking particularly rosy for the golf industry in the UK. Participation figures for golf had risen slightly but the outlook for many clubs up and down the land was bleak. Membership figures were falling and there was a trend forming as the body of nomadic golfers rose.
Was I surprised to hear that the BBC were going to assign highlights of the Women's Open to the graveyard slot on BBC 2? Not in the slightest. This so-called public broadcasters run by the liberal elite sitting in their ivory towers and spending almost £4 billion of our licence fee dosh deserted golf years ago.
Padraig Harrington summed it up well a while back when he said the players "might have to take one for the team". The problem is it became clear that many of the players were not prepared to 'take one' as he put it and the lack of an adoring crowd became the deciding factor.
Blimey, that was quick, said the Missus as I walked in the door after my well-earned 18 holes of golf. Everything is relative, as I had left her kipping in bed as I grabbed the sticks and headed off at 8 o’clock that morning and was returning almost four hours later! In the past, I would not have been home for at least another hour or so.
If you want to keep playing golf, then listen to this intensive care doctor and take action, now. There is much discussion that golf is a sport that can continue socially. However, unless we ALL take heed of the advice to social distance in all parts of our life, the virus will keep spreading and the authorities will shut down the courses.
It was a fine victory for Adam Scott last weekend, he is a great ball striker, but I must confess I rather sighed when I saw him using a long putter to great effect once again. It was a similar feeling to that I had when Scott won the Masters back in 2013. I’m sorry, but I am with the brigade who consider these long putters cheat sticks.
Ok as nobody else seems to be doing it, I am going to come out and defend the seemingly indefensible, or at the very worst add a bit of perspective. Hank Hainey made a pretty unwise statement and was clearly mistaken in taking what might be described as ‘locker room humour’ to the airways. But, was he being ‘racist, xenophobic, and sexist’ as stated by the PGA Tour’s lawyers?
According to Rory McIlroy, he is approaching 2020 with a new mindset, one in which he plans to play carefree golf. But what exactly does ‘carefree’ mean in terms of playing the game? Consulting the dictionary carefree is an adjective meaning free from anxiety or responsibility. Checking the thesaurus, I happen to have to hand synonyms for carefree include ‘breezy’ ‘cheerful’ ‘jaunty’ ‘happy go lucky’.
I didn’t think I would hear myself say this, but I feel sorry for Patrick Reed. Don’t get me wrong the guy has handled the whole affair badly and he clearly was borderline cheating at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas last December. However, due to the Tour’s insistence that the matter has been dealt with it has basically thrown the American to the lions, who in this case are the media and the golfing public.
