We had some special guests here on Monday as Ron Flowers and the rest of the 1966 World Cup squad played at Brocton.
There was plenty of banter as they tee'd off and they were saying how much they look forward to their golf event as it's their one main get together each year and their only private one.
For this reason we had to keep it quiet beforehand but here's a picture they let me publish of the team.
It appears 2016 is the year of the underdog. Hot on the heels of Leicester City winning the Premier League, another story came to light in the Irish Open at the weekend from the K Club.
All eyes were on Rory as he stormed to victory but at the same time Matt Southgate was finishing off an inspirational story.
He came 4th alone, going -5 through the final 10 holes in tough conditions to win €200,000. Rewind back just 10 months to last July and the Essex lad had no status on tour, was skint and was shuttling his 2-year old niece, who had leukaemia, back and forth to Great Ormond Street hospital whilst struggling about on the Challenge Tour. Then he returned home from an event in Germany that month to find some test results saying he had testicular cancer.
A week later he's in the operating theatre and isn't able to play golf until September, before heading to the first stage of European Tour Qualifying School. He somehow manages to battle through all three gruelling stages of Q-School claiming the sixth card on offer ensuring him a few starts on the main European Tour.
Fast forward to this week and he is first reserve and only finds out he is actually playing on the Wednesday of the Irish Open, giving him a lot less preparation time than many at the K Club, but defies the odds to come 4th… and earn his full playing rights back plus a spot in this week's PGA Championship at Wentworth!
An amazing story for someone who is by all accounts a top lad too. He refuses to sit in the players' lounge in favour of the caddie's equivalent because 'that's where the banter and real people are'. It will be interesting to see how the momentum carries him into Wentworth - what a 'Cinderella Story' that would be.
One of the guys I struggle to watch on TV is Masters Champ Danny Willett. He has a huge discussion with his caddie AFTER he's selected the club and then takes up to 9 looks at the hole during his set-up, then if the shot isn't perfect he turns round to his caddie and has another discussion every time, although on these occasions when the camera shows his caddies face, it's totally expressionless and I think he's just letting Danny offload. What irks me is that an increasing amount of young golfers see this as the way to approach golf. I see a lot of youngsters for club fittings as they progress from junior clubs to adult clubs and many of them go through a full pre-shot routine even on their first warm-up shot indoors!
The R&A have just published an extensive guide to playing quicker as lots of people cite slow play as a reason they leave the game. We certainly find that organising your time between shots is the key and automatically do things that mean we don't have to wait. For example I will:
- Mark my scorecard after I've tee'd off if I have the honour
- Move to my ball while the others are getting ready to play (making sure I'm not interfering with their eyeline)
- Play my shot before going to look for someone's ball, or tell them to do the same before they look for mine.
- In tournaments with people I know we play 'Ready Golf'. Whoever is ready tees off first and the same with putting - why bother waiting?!
- And most importantly - don't 'Faff about' or is it 'Phaff about' - I'm never sure which. I.e. take your clubs to next tee to put your putter cover back on instead of standing near the green you've just payed to do it.
Tuesday social results
44 people played the back nine this week with tough pin positions.
1st Wayne Bailey 20
2nd Sean Nelson 19
3rd Kevin Hunt. 19
4th. Mark Bendall 18
5th Peter Horsley 18
Waterproof golf bags are popular this year both carrying versions and trolley versions which Nigel Sandy put to good test last week at a golf event in London - unfortunately I don't have a photo!:
"Dear Nev Please thank Isobel for selling me the new golf bag which she assured me was waterproof. On its first outing it rained all day and stayed perfectly dry. But just to be absolutely sure that it was totally waterproof I deliberately let my trolley and bag dive into a deep lake. My fellow players couldn't believe it when I continued to putt out the hole, but I knew that Isobel wouldn't fib to me. We hauled it from the lake, threw back a couple of fish (must have got in through the top) and everything was dry as a bone! Please thank Isobel again for me."
Nigel Sandy
We are getting quite a reputation for our shoe service and now have 140 pairs in stock covering 10 metres of wall space. One of the new models from ECCO this year is the CAGE shoe.
Support comes from the cage at the rear of the shoe which leaves the rest of it to be as flexible and soft as possible. Try them on and you'll see what I mean.
Plus how about these new FootJoy DryJoy Tours - SNAZZY!!
