Welsh football superstar Gareth Bale is supporting the Cazoo Open at Celtic Manor Resort, Newport July 22-25. His agents ICM Stellar Sports have signed a three year deal to promote the tournament.
Gareth is an avid golfer who wants to play a part in developing professional and junior golf in Wales.
My agents ICM Stellar Sports and I decided we wanted to make golf in Wales bigger and believe that the Cazoo Open can play a big role in that. We want to make it a real spectacle. To have the Welsh public involved would be amazing. We want to get youngsters out there to watch the players.
Juniors under 12 go free to the tournament and 13-17 have a reduced ticket price. The all ticket event, run along the covid guidelines of the Welsh government, has tickets only available on eventbrite.
Sir Nick Faldo, winner of six major championships will return to Hertfordshire the golf club where he learnt to play, Welwyn Garden City GC next week. He will be launching the 25th anniversary of the Faldo Series, and its largest championship.
The first two days will see 282 boys play over two courses at nearby Brocket Hall GC whilst 93 girls will compete at Welwyn Garden City GC. On the final day both categories will come together at Brocket Hall. The age category winners will earn an invite to the Faldo Series final in Abu Dhabi in October.
Sir Nick said “when the series began back in 1996 it presented an opportunity for me to give back to the game. How far we’ve come over those 25 years is unbelievable. Looking at 3 courses full of ambitious, talented boys and girls and hosting a competition with 375 players is mind blowing but demonstrates the exciting future for golf”.
10 further events will be played throughout the summer.
I watched this happen as it happened at the Scottish Open on Sky Sports this morning. A spectator wandered onto the tee box as Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm were preparing for their tee shots. The spectator wandered over to Rory’s bag rifled through it and helped himself to a club and one of his headcovers, put the headcover on the tee and was preparing to take a swing at it. When finally one of the officials in a blazer intervened and ever so politely told him to desist and Rahm’s caddie called for security. The spectator was then frog marched away by two marshalls holding him either side, even though in Scotland the social distancing rules are strict. What was so hilarious was that Rory and Jon sort of froze in disbelief and the spectator carried on regardless and nearly did what he wanted to do which was belt the animal headcover down the fairway.
Now this picture made me wince, I literally couldn’t do this.
If we really love golf, we practice and play as often as other commitments allow, and if we do too much it generally takes its toll. In my case a fractured lower disc which can play up occasionally, as it is now. That means that, as much as I love it, I play golf sparingly and hold my breath that “the back” wont be back.
When a big wig in golf once said to me “you don’t play golf, do you?” I silently screamed for five seconds before beaming him a tolerant smile and replied “That is not true. I play golf when my back allows”.
And that’s the thing. Golf can be a lifetime sport if it is taken with good measure, unless you’re planning to be a world beating professional, and the money involved does have an element of compensation for earning a living through a sport that can be cut short through injury. So to prolong your golfing lives, please don’t do what I did and over rotate and over practice while you’re younger. Take it nice and steady to protect your back.
I do pilates to strengthen my core.There are plenty of golf specific programmes, usually led by nubile females, Here’s one which is quite good, look after your back to look after your golf.
And until it does, hopefully some R and R for the England football team on the golf course to recharge their batteries.
For the football obsessed who also enjoy their golf, you might like to visit caddyclubgolf.com which has a wide range of headcovers and scorecard holders in many teams colours. There is an England one to sport round the golf course, after we win the Euros on Sunday. Though its the nostalgia feel for the old football grounds of Arsenal, Spurs and West Ham
I especially liked this product, the golf tidy cabinet which is £99.99. Worth a look at these products.
I was watching the Scottish Open this morning and saw Tommy Fleetwood play a few holes. He was dressed top to toe in grey, but what I noticed was how grey his face looked.
Then I realised. He was wearing heavy duty sun block.
It’s something that you don’t often see, skin that grey, but hopefully most professional golfers do wear sun protection as golfers have a greater risk of developing skin cancer, the most common form of cancer in the world.
From the professional ranks, both Adam Scott and Andy North have had surgery for skin cancer, but its something even the most casual of golfers should take very seriously.
I carry sunscreen around in my bag every day having very fair Scandinavian type skin with freckles. It’s essential to put it on for any exposure to the sun, especially on cloudy days. It’s an essential just like car keys and mobile phones for men to have in their pockets and females to keep in their handbags, and use it and reapply it, especially on the golf course. For me, always using sun protection has had the added bonus of keeping the wrinkles away!
With hand sanitiser stations being positioned around golf courses and in clubhouses, it also makes sense to have sun screen applicators available in the same place, the risk of skin cancer from UV exposure is as equally deadly as contracting Covid. Using sun block is like being vaccinated, you need it for protection.
In Australia, which has the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world, there was a TV ad campaign called Slip, slop, slap. That meant slip on a t shirt (cover up in the sun), slop on the sun block and slap on a sun hat.
Now that’s wear the grey man has only got it two thirds right. Tommy Fleetwood is renowned for not wearing any cap or visor. That’s not about him turning down sponsorship money for advertising on the headwear, it’s about letting his trademark Jesus style hair flow freely. Daft if you ask me, he should be covering that up too. Though glad ro see Team GB uniform has got Tommy to wear one for the Olympics.
What started as an entertainment match between Tiger and Phil, and to be honest wasn’t very good golf, had its latest incarnation yesterday.
The Match version 4 was between Phil and Bryson who were partnered by two NFL Quarterbacks, Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buchaneers and Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers.
The venue was a star attraction, the sublimely visual Moonlight Basin Resort at Big Sky Montana. Charity was the big winner with several million meals donated to Feeding America and funds to My Brothers Keeper charity. President Obama appeared on the telecast.
All square after the first nine, Rodgers putter got hot with birdies at 10, 11 and 12. Mickelson and Brady got one back at 15 but Rodgers sank the winning 10 foot birdie on 16 to win 3 and 2.
Quote of the march came from Rodgers “Bryson, he’s a maniac man. The things he thinks about and talks about, it’s a bit overwhelming at times”. Indeed.
I stayed up until 1am for Match 1 which took place over a Thanksgiving weekend, and what I saw was some trash talk and some mediocre golf. Match 2 at the Medalist featured Tiger and Peyton Manning. By Match 3 I’d given up as there was only one pro, Phil, and three celebrities Charles Barkley, Steph Curry and Peyton Manning. It’s an entertainment vehicle that’s all American and it doesn’t really travel, though it has to be admired for the fantastic fund raising it does. And outfit of the tournament goes to Tom Brady as Forrest Gump.
This month England Golf allow non members to obtain an official handicap. For £40 a year the official handicap allows access to the My England Golf app where players can post scores and track indexes. The subscription model follows the Open Play scheme running in Scotland where non members can obtain and maintain a handicap for £5.99 a month.
County and national competitions remain open to golf club members only. But at club level independent golfers can be integrated.
England Golf’s website has a new Hole In One club for recorded aces.
The R&A’s Rules of Golf app is also extremely useful to take with you on the course. Free to use in ios or android it has 10 essential rules videos 30 diagrams and 25 how to videos with special sections for juniors and golfers with disabilities.
The field for the 149th Open Championship gas now been finalised. Lucas Herbert, Rikard Karlberg and Johannes Veerman came through from the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open. Marcek Schneider won the Kaskada Golf Challenge on the Challenge Tour to secure his place.
At Final Qualifying Sam Forgan, Deven Lawson and Connor Wordsall came through at Princes, while Nicholas Poppleton, Louis De Jager and Daniel Croft were successful at West Lancs. At Hollinwell the top scorers were Richard Mansell, Jonathan Thomson and Daniel Hillier and St Annes Old Links saw Ben Hutchinson, Sam Bairstow and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano qualify, congratulations to them all on securing their places to play at Royal St Georges next week.
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