The European Tour has a real headache on its hands following Iran’s recent threats to "destroy" parts of the United Arab Emirates if there is retaliation after the attacks they launched on Iraq in reprisal for the US killing of Qassem Soleimani.
Get ready folks there is a new handicapping system on its way. For those across the pond things will not be much different but for golfers in the UK, and to a slightly lesser extent Europe, there is a fair bit changing. The new World Handicap System will be introduced in the USA and dozens of other countries in January 2020 with the changes coming to the UK, Sweden, Portugal and Italy in November.
Hats off to the European tour for coming up with another little classic for us all to have a laugh at. A few years back the tour let Little Billy loose on the players. Billy gave the pros a complete grilling with a series of cheeky questions, the Rory McIlroy one is a classic. Three years on, a documentary crew follow him as he returns to Dubai for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
Eddie Pepperell must have mixed memories of Portugal Masters after missing the cut and losing his card in 2016. However, this year he appears to have found an innovative way to motivate himself, wagering Martin Kaymer about appearing on the Television Show First Dates.
As we head into October there is a definite chill in the air and those hopes of an Indian Summer might be waning. With this in mind the stylish, but practical, folk at adidas have introduced their Frostguard Collection. A new layering collection for both men and women that was designed to help golfers extend their golf seasons during the colder months of the year.
I am not sure what all the fuss is about as I’m with Rory on this one. I too am fed up of shooting fifteen over par every week at my club and not winning a competition. I am going to write to the committee and insist they rethink the course as clearly there is something very wrong going on.
They may have been looking to run up high scores in the Ashes over the summer but yesterday three of England’s heroes were looking to go low at the ProAm event at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club.
At the Wednesday press conference with Rory McIlroy at the BMW PGA Championship the subject inevitably turned to slow play. It transpires that the world number two had been watching the Solheim Cup, or as GolfPunk had renamed it the Slowheim Cup.
Paul Casey has moves up to 14th in the world following his victory at the European Open in Hamburg. The Englishman shot a bogey free 66 that took him to 14 under and squeezed out Scotland’s Robert Macintyre, Austria’s Matthias Schwab and home hope Bernd Ritthammer by one-stroke.
World number one, Jin Young Ko, walked arm in arm up to the 18th green at the CP Women’s Open yesterday with defending champion and local girl Brooke Henderson, as she cruised to a five shot lead over her nearest rival, Denmark’s Nicole Broch Larsen, to confirm that she is in her class of her own on the LPGA Tour this year.
Ok we are not going to let this one drop. Slow play is killing our game and the lead must come from the professional ranks. In the second round of the Northern Trust, Bryson DeChambeau took it to another level.
The European tour has been pretty creative with its content of late, who can forget the ‘Content Committee’ or Eddie Pepperell’s prank on Matt Wallace. By far our favourite though are the ongoing 14 Club Challenges.
