golfweloveit

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.

Reported in the Sunday Times today golf is set to return in England mid March. Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured missing the ball) is due to set out the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown on February 22nd with golf and tennis being the first of the outdoor participation sports being permitted. Golf courses in England have been shut since January 5th, though restricted golf is still allowed in Scotland.

Golf will be permitted in 2 ball format with members from different households being allowed to play together. Scientific experts on the Government’s advisory group say that transmission of coronavirus is extremely low in wide open outdoor spaces. Fresh air disperses the virus and UV rays from the sun kill it off. Advice is to leave the flagstick in while putting as a precaution, to only pick up your own ball and to avoid using bunker rakes. Even so the virus cannot stay on surfaces for longer than a few hours. Also, it is best to avoid face to face conversations with playing partners from another household and to pay alongside, socially distanced.

Here is where you can still see the documentary

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-club

American Golf, Europe’s largest golf retailer, has offered to match Justin Rose’s financial contribution to the Rose Ladies Series Order of Merit.

They will be matching the £35,000 that the Rose family have put up for the series.

Justin Rose said:

“I am so delighted that American Golf has decided to join forces with me and Kate in support of the women’s game,” Rose said. “We cannot thank them enough. American Golf has always played a huge role in their support of the game, particularly in terms of encouraging more women and young players to take up the sport.

We’ve always been impressed by the way they go about their business and I cannot thank all the team at American Golf enough for contacting us to see how they could help support the Rose Ladies Series.”

Justin and his wife Kate are sponsoring and organising the series of 8 one day UK tournaments which begin next week with the event at Brockenhurst Manor on 18 June.

Although golf has re started on the PGA Tour this week, the women have to wait until August for the LPGA and LET to return. Sky Sports will be broadcasting all of the series.

Justin said “You can’t distinguish between mens golf and womens golf. The dreams are the same but it is the opportunity and the platform that is skewed.

Kate Rose, who was a former European gymnastics champion, said : “It’s important for the mental health of the female pros to get back to work and see their colleagues again. We are very happy that we can do our bit because of the life golf has given us.

“Golf needs more players to step up for the women. We need feminist voices to not just be female. We all have to be promoting the sport we love”.

Dame Laura Davies, Charley Hull and Bronte Law have all committed to play. The winner of the Order of Merit wins £20,000.

Overjoyed to see the first tee shot by Ryan Palmer at the Charles Schwab Cup at Colonial Country Club just now.

Golf is back!

All the top 5 players in the world competing and 9 of the top 10. Justin Thomas says we would rather play without fans than wait. 91 days between tournaments. Though not the longest break professional golf has had. In 1918 371 days of competitive play was missed due to the Spanish flu pandemic.

The excitement amongst the golf family is at fever pitch.

Wonder if I’m going to be seen on the PGA Tour broadcasts as one of the virtual fans they filmed a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps not, everyone else was American and I did have to wave my Union Jack flags and cheer “go Rory!”

Sorry if I lowered the tone.

Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour,  has announced the re-start of tournaments by unveiling the first part, a six week UK swing which begins with the Betfred British Masters at Close House on July 22.

This is followed by the return of the English Open at the Forest of Arden GC – the first playing in 18 years. The following week the English Championship will be contested at Hanbury Manor.

A two week stay at Celtic Manor, Wales for the Celtic Classic and the Wales Open to be played on different championship courses. Finally, in the last week in August the UK Championship will be held at The Belfry. At the moment the plan is no spectators, to be held behind closed doors.

24 tournaments are being aimed for between July and the end of the year. The Aberdeen Standard Investment Scottish Open will be played at the Renaissance Club 8-11 October and the Tour’s flagship event the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth is moved back to October 15-18 . Two further Rolex events The Nedbank Challenge at Sun City in South Africa will take place December 3-6 and the DP World Championship at Jumeriah Estates Dubai December 10-13 will finish off the season.

Keith Pelley said: “Some of you might want to ask the question, ‘is The European Tour bankrupt or running out of money?’ And I would say, absolutely not. Of course, we’ve been affected like millions of businesses the world over, but we’ve worked hard and been extremely responsible in our financial approach to this global crisis.

This all looks positive with the rigorous health protocols put in place. The look of the UK swing is quite nostalgic. It looks like the schedule from the early 1980s when the Tour had long stays in the UK for such glorious tournaments in the North of England such as the Benson and Hedges International at Fulford near York, the Care Care Plan at Moortown. Leeds and the Laurence Batley Invitational at Bingley St Ives. Further south The Oxfordshire held a big tournament the week after The Open, and we would visit East Sussex National and go down to St Mellion in Cornwall. That all seemed like an almost quaint distant memory until today. But why two events on the same course? While Celtic Manor has held a Ryder Cup, is it superior to the links at Royal Porthcawl or St Pierre which adjoins England and Wales? Seems like a missed opportunity to showcase either of these fine Welsh courses. It is a real shame that British fans who would have loved seeing this six week swing in person cannot attend in person, but even behind closed doors it will be an uplifting lap of honour to start the 24 tournament season.

Turner Broadcasting has announced that Sunday’s charity match between Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning v Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady which raised $20 million for Covid 19 relief charities was the most watched golf event in cable TV history, across four platforms. A 5.8 million viewers on average with 6.3 million at peak. It was the number one programme on television all day.

It helped that Tiger’s swing looks in impeccable form. Really great position at the top, delivering the clubface square and accurately hitting all 14 fairways. He looks in formidable form for when professional play resumes.