golfweloveit

Listen to this…the Norweigan TV commentators when Viktor Hovland won his second victory, the Mayakoba Classic last year.

Imagine them in the gallery when he plays himself onto the European Ryder Cup team. They are loud! The monotonous chants of U-S-A U-S-A will be drowned out.

We in England remember the Norweigan TV announcers well, and those in the clip below probably trained Hovland’s TV supporters today. We remember the bonkers TV commentary whrn Norway beat England 2-1 to knock us out of the World Cup. The commentator threw everything at us “Can you hear me Maggie Thatcher, Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana… your guys took a hell of a beating!”

Viktor doesn’t seem to mind them, he loves metal music as loud as you can play it and explains that he likes the bleeeuggh, sound that’s often in the middle of songs. If that’s the sound he makes when he hits a bad shot or misses a putt he’s not going to be fined for swearing. Golfers do need a new sound vocabulary instead of using the same old swear words which get them into trouble when caught on TV. Altogether now bleeeeugggh! And perhaps some might take a leaf out of his book and smile -all the time.

Extraordinary swing with a head bobbing similar to Lee Trevino. He’s coming off a good run of form with 17 rounds in the 60s and a tied 6th in Saudi Arabia, but with a laugh said that he had eight bogeys in a row the first time he played this week’s tournament course Riviera.

Still only 19 years old Danes Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard came on to the European Tour in 2019 after helping Denmark win the Eisenhower Trophy as amateurs. See the welcome home Nicolai got at Billund Airport.

As an amateur Nicolai got to play in the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie and on turning professional played well on the Challenge Tour, He was runner up to Sergio Garcia, one shot behind, at the 2019 KLM Open.

Rasmus had outstanding start scoming 5th in the European Tour qualifying tour. He quickly won the 2019 Mauritius Open and followed up with a second win in August 2020 at the ISPS Honda UK Championship after making his major debut at the US Open.

They say they push each other on and aim to play together in the Ryder Cup. When Edouardo and Francesco Molinari played together in the 2010 Ryder Cup in Wales the European fans sang to them “There’s only two Molinaris”. Their Danish brothers surname doesn’t really scan in the same way. But, as having Danish heritage myself, perhaps the lyrics of the Olesen Brothers from Denmark might make their Ryder Cup singalong

Flyv på kærlighedens vinger
Flyve baby flyve
Nå ud til stjernerne ovenfor
rører ved himlen

Held og lykke drenge!

Xander Schauffele, Tyrell Hatton and me to name but three love the golf hoodie. Mine hasnt been seen on the golf course yet but I’m wearing it anyway. Can’t understand the controversy about this garment. The stretch fabric makes it easier to swing than a normal sweater much easier to move in and they are warm. Snobby blazer wearers who are sniffy about them enjoy being uncomfortable and uptight in their power blazers, the garment of authority. Dont see the issue if the hoodie is changed before going into public areas in the clubhouse. They’re hear to stay now professionals are happy with them. Favourites are Under Armour, Galvin Green and Puma. Most have 4 way stretch fabric

Found a great site on twitter called @golf_shoes_info which has photographs and links to buy a huge range of golf shoes. Interesting to read what the recent PGA Tour winners are wearing.

Foot Joy Dry Joys – Patrick Cantlay, Patrick Reed, Harris English, Justin Thomas

Adidas – Tyrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Daniel Berger

Nike -Brooks Koepka, Viktor Hovland

It has taken three days to process the news since it was announced on Friday. It was something which exceeded all expectations. But here we are. Commissioner Mike Whan of the LPGA has pulled out all the stops to regenerate the Ladies European Tour which some of its players will tell you was on its knees two years ago. The three year strategic alliance of the two tours set up in late November 2019 has delivered a miracle to the LET membership. The players who start again in May will be the new founders, as Mike Whan likes to refer to. The pioneers of a fresh start for women in sport. Let’s hope they grab the opportunity and everyone commits to making the best experience. Because with this, more women will want to start to play and slowly break down the dominant culture in the game. As a female European golfer I felt quite emotional thinking of the possibilities. Finally, our time has arrived.

This morning a new sponsor, Titelist, came on board as official ball supplier for the next three years. A record-breaking prize fund of 19 million euros over 27 events in 19 countries. A European defence of the Solheim Cup in America and the Olympics in Tokyo all covered by over 200 hours of live broadcast.

The lucrative Aramco Team Series to be played in New York, London, Singapore and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the season ending Race To The Costa Del Sol with the biggest ever LET bonus pool. And all of the postponed tournaments from 2020 to be returned to the schedule. Remarkable. Nine new events including the 1 million euro Scandinavian Mixed event hosted by Annika Sorenstram and Henrik Stenson. the first of three events in Sweden. Solheim Cup star Anne Van Dam hosting the Dutch Ladies Open.

Alexandra Armas, the Chief Executive of the Ladies European Tour said she was “extremely excited…thrilled to offer some good news to our membership after a difficult season last year”. She acknowledged how the sponsors, partners and federations had shown belief, vision and perserverance. Solheim Cup Captain Catriona Matthew, who this year has 6 captain’s picks, has committed to playing on the LET tour alongside potential team members so she can see them play close up.

Dame Laura Davies said “it’s been great for us to get mentioned in the same breath as the LPGA. The women feel better, the sponsors are impressed and the fans love it. I can’t wait to get started again, so much is so exciting”.

It’s a huge transformation from barely two years ago. Although the Solheim Cup at Gleneagles brought in a fantastic 90,000 spectators, at the Scottish Open there were more people inside the ropes than out. With sparce attendences and scant tv coverage sponsors thought there wasn’t demand for the tour and stayed away. Many players had to take on part time work to support themselves or leave professional golf altogether. And there were complaints that those in charge were in denial.

It is thus a marvel what Commissioner Mike Whan has done for the LET, providing the LPGA’s support and investment and most of all getting sponsors excited in backing womens professional sport. The players hugely appreciate and respect his trust and genuine support. He is certainly leaving his post this year on a high after turning this round.

We must also recognise how important Justin Rose’s contribution was last year setting up the Rose Ladies Series, giving the LET players somewhere to play and giving them recognition. He and his wife Kate have committed further support this year in a scaled down version of one day warm up events in April before the tour starts in May. To have such support from the current Olympic and former US Open champion has done wonders to raise the profile of womens golf, showing it respect. I’m sure the LET players will look after their Pro Am partners, and care about this new tour. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life – and they’re feeling good.

I’ve just watched Will Zalatoris’ press conference at Pebble Beach and was as impressed with him as everyone is at his statistics. On Monday he broke into the Top 50 in the World Rankings and has locked in his card to play on the PGA Tour for next year. He really captured everyone’s imagination when he tied 6th at last year’s US Open. But he is one of the most dominant players in the world at the moment. Since 2020 he’s had 14 top 10s across multiple tours including a win on the Korn Ferry Tour.

He currently has a scoring average of 69.5, making him 6th on the PGA Tour and 12th in driving distance, At 6ft 4 he has a big swing arc generating a lot of speed with unusual technique – he has closed shoulders and open hips at impact.

He was part of the Walker Cup team that included Cameron Champ and major winner Collin Morikawa, and at 24 he is clearly catching them up. He credits playing alongside his friends Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth as a junior for motivating his own improvement. When Jordan, who is 3 years older, turned up “it was here we go, what is he going to do, he was ridiculous”. He was a freshman at Wake Forest when Spieth won the Masters in 2015 and it motivated him to play better.

But it was the influence of another golfing legend that helped shape him in his childhood. His father was a member at Cal Club in his home city of San Fransisco and started Will playing and Ken Venturi took an interest in Will’s game. The 1964 US Open champion would stay and watch him hit balls and he told Will’s father “this boy can play. Your job is to stay out of the way”. And Will’s father has never attended any of his lessons with his coaches Josh and Troy.

Jordan Spieth observes that Will isn’t afraid of going low. There seems to be a huge mental strength there, patience. At the moment he says he is focussing on learning his golf game and taking opportunities to get better. Good golf takes care of a lot of things he says. Here is his swing in slow motion.

President Joe Biden isn’t expecting to be busy on the golf course over the next four years.

Although he played at Wilmington GC in his home state of Delaware the day before the election last November he has said “if you want to keep your handicap don’t run for President. His handicap was recorded as 6 in 2016 and he is a member of two clubs.

As Vice-President he joined President Obama on the practice putting green at the White House. President Obama played golf over 300 times during his 8 years in office. The most recent former President, who apparently boasts a 2.8 handicap, apparently played over 300 times during his 4 years in office.

President Obama held on to a 13 handicap, Vice President Mike Pence was off 15 and President Bill Clinton keeps a 16 handicap.

There’s no point in writing a “what’s so special about Tyrell Hatton” title because he has said he thinks “there’s nothing special about me”. Perhaps he’ll think again after rising to 5th in the world after his magnificent win in Abu Dhabi a couple of weeks ago.

There’s such a lot to admire in his swing. The fast, powerful rhythm. The slight fade on the ball flight which he achieves from a neutral grip with a bowed wrist position on the way down when he keeps the clunface slightly open. I admire the position at the top of the swing.From a smooth one piece takeaway he moves back to a hands high almost parallel position with a big shoulder turn. He keeps the club slightly above the swing plane and then drives forward with his hips. One unorthodox thing is he keeps his weight well forward towards his toes. There’s a lot of foot movement his heels lift up as he makes an explosive movement through the ball.

He’s a feel player and says he only thinks about two positions in the swing and apart from that doesnt have any swing thoughts. As he doesnt think while he’s executing a shot, I wonder why he gets angry? There was a funny moment when there was a loud bang at the top of his backswing once and he backed off from the shot. But he didn’t lose his rag with the culprit – when he found out it was his fiance banging a portaloo door shut! Anyway, he’s put himself in rehab now as the film shows.

This week Sky One put on another in the Rob and Romesh films, now into series three.

Justin Rose was seen instructing comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan on the practice ground at the BMW PGA.

“thanks for shining a light on what we do” he said cheerily.

Seriously? This was prime time television and for a laugh what the pair did was just expose all the things that UK non golfers expect golfers to be. In Scotland they were seen trying on clown like outfits. And when Romesh challenged Rob about his new found love of golf he justified it thus.

Tell me why you like golf?

“It lasts a minimum of four hours. Basically (he lowered his voice to a whisper) you can escape from your family. You can get away from your wife and kids for four hours and you’re doing “sport”. But you’re not. You walk around for a bit, it’s lovely fresh air and you go and get drunk after.

So do you actually like the sport?

“Well I like hitting balls with a big stick. That’s fun. We could travel round the world and go to all these golf courses and have a right laugh”

And they had a laugh at Romesh missing the ball and then driving the buggy talking in an “oh my god isnt it” Indian rickshaw wallah accent.

Wentworth Club staff in the background as these scenes were filmed were wearing face masks, so this must have been filmed during the 2020 BMW PGA when fans were not allowed on site for safety reasons. And for what? To have a good old laugh at us by sending up all the cliches and perpetuating all the old assumptions about golf and golfers to the very people who might be interested in getting into golf and turning them right off. It was very much a film for blokes with the aggressive bad language towards each other even though they’re really bezzy mates and love each other really. “You’re transitioning into Golf wanker” said knowledgeable Romesh who had genned up on the twitter site. “Tragic little loser” Rob was called for trying to find people to play golf with by posting pictures of himself golfing on Instagram Stories.

Only golf hating non golfers would have found it funny. Once again golf’s bad image is perpetuated into yet another decade.