golfweloveit

Very interesting interview with Mark Lichtenhein of the Ladies European Tour by Lewine Mair this week.

It was indeed surprising that the genuine collective offer of help from the European Tour, the LPGA and the Royal and Ancient wasn’t snapped up last year when the tour was depleted to 15 tournaments.

But apparently the offer hasn’t been totally rejected, they didn’t want to rush into things. I cannot at all see how linking up with the LPGA in America would be in the best interests of the game. It would subordinate the Ladies European Tour to a satellite of the main Tour and make the Ladies game one product worldwide. the Solheim Cup would become a non event.

Mark Leichtenhein says the tour is poised to have two new tournaments and is aiming for 20 events this year. the tour begins this week with the co-sanctioned Victoria Open. THey hope for more support from the men’s European Tour like this. Apparently more support from the Royal and Ancient, who already run the Ladies Golf Union and give a grant to the LET is the preferred opion. But independence would be better. Surely there are sponsors out there who would help.

I recently spoke to amgirl who used to play on the tour but who now does other work because she “has to make a living” and she wouldnt be able to make ends meet if she still played professionally. She said that the tour were in “complete denial” about their situation and they were on the verge of going bust but just didnt want to look for help. From the horse’s mouth, that said it all.

So after hearing that golf has been voted the most boring sport on television, I found some serious research about barriers to participation. Two sets of focus groups were set out to uncover what women and juniors really think as these are the groups which have the most potential for growth in the game.

Women first. This is what they said.

Let’s put this in bold letters.

IT IS TOO MALE DOMINATED which can be INTIMIDATING and UNWELCOMING to women as men can resent their presence.

There is very little female golf on TV, so there is no reference, no one to look up to.

GOLF CLUBS ARE OFTEN ELITIST AND POMPOUS. I would certainly agree that there is a hierarchy of clubs – I was once given a list of the clubs which I was allowed to visit and the message was clear that they were for my sort of people and other clubs, which I was not allowed to visit were not for the likes of me. (Hence I sold my golf books, previous post. The wooden Rolls of Honour on club walls sometimes going back a couple of centuries might make the winners of club championships feel proud but they can make others feel oppressed. I would also add to this the uniforms – the ubiquitous club blazers which the wearer may feel is “smart” and may remind him of his happy days at public school, but these garments are seriously intimidating to look at. It is power dressing, meant to command authority but has the opposite effect of driving new people away.

YOU MUST BELONG TO A CLUB Now this is something which England Golf could be leading the way on – no club membership which can be traced then no Handicap Certificate. It’s a network which creates a closed shop to new people coming into the game.

COST AND COMMITMENT it is a huge investment of time and money to take up this Isport. One of the recommendations of the report was to make it easier for new golfers to rent clubs donated from old sets members no longer use when they trade up to new equipment. I am soon to buy some custom fitted clubs and have two old ladies sets which I would gladly pass on if it meant a new person would come into the game.

Here’s what some lapsed golfers said:

“What I didn’t like about it was the pretentiousness of it and the rules. I don’t like being told this is how you should behave”

“At my gym you have equal rights. It doesn’t give you the right to be rude to people”

“The members didn’t want new people. They thought it’s going to be busier. They’re going  to take my tee time”.

And the Under 18 focus groups had equally interesting things to say:

“It’s a bit boring for young people. All the older men say “shush, be quiet” when you are on the course. But teenage girls aren’t quiet. They want to talk and laugh – it’s like a lot of people are saying they don’t want you there”.

“It’s all men and no women. If we could have someone to look up to then you would become interested”.

And this was the most damning:

“If I was going to take up golf I wouldn’t know where to start. Where to go, what to buy. I wouldn’t have a clue how to get into it”.

So the conclusions of these reports were that shorter courses, affordable rentals and affordable flexible club membership were factors which needed to be looked into but 8 out of the 12 factors were psychological. It was about being welcomed, feeling that people were friendly and accessible, that families were encouraged to play together, that juniors were not going to get a hard time and it was more female friendly. There was one interesting suggestion from the junior group – that there needs to be more on course refreshment facilities – every six holes would be a good idea.

So this gives a fairly accurate picture of peoples impressions – and misconceptions – about what golf is like. Mostly that it is a single sex sport.

It is painting a picture that people outside the sport think that it is a selfish person’s game, that you have to be the right sort to be a member and people can hurt you with their opinions. That isn’t for most of us, which is why they are staying away. It seems to me that it is not golf that is wrong, it is golf clubs and their members and management.

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It’s called the 9-9. A new type of Pro Am started at the Phoenix Open this week which gives the pros a chance to break up a long 6 hour round before competition and share their pro am commitment with another player. Professionals can either play the full 18 holes with their partners or elect to play just 9 holes and be replaced by a second player on the back nine. It proved yesterday to be popular with the players and their partners who got the chance to play with two professionals. This will be rolled out at a handful of events – Houston, Byron Nelson, St Jude, John Dere, Canadian Open, Barbasol. PGA Tour have said that pro aims are financially very important and it will be up to individual tournament sponsors if they choose the new format.

It

It’s the loudest tournament of all. Six hundred and fifty five thousand excited people over the week crowd into a confined space at TPC Scottsdale for the Waste Management Phoenix Open and it’s more like a party. These are people who really love golf. With 22 of the top 30 in the FedEx rankings playing this week – Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and Mickelson will be teeing up, it is like an American football crowd, just warming up for Super Bowl weekend.

My favourite thing is to watch golf on TV with the sound turned off, because sometimes the commentary is distracting, I enjoy it better, can see the shots better, and with this tournament don’t get knocked for six by the sound. It’s going to be a brilliant week, even if I don’t hear it.

Another week another marathon play off. This week over two days – Jason Day finally saw off a brilliant challenge from Alex Noren to win his 11th PGA Tour victory. After a turbulent 2017 personally Jason said he had worked very hard in the off season and after darkness curtailed the play off on Sunday he said he had been up all night thinking about the next win.

And the event wasn’t overshadowed by Tiger’s first return to regular tournament play in a year. He made the cut – his first in 888 days – and finished tied 23rd. He admitted he didn’t make any low scores but ground out some steady respectable scores.

I have to admit I was rooting for Alex Noren to get his first win on the PGA Tour. Last year when I was tending the putting green at a tournament he came over and thanked me. “Play well” I replied and he did exactly as he was told, shooting a course record 62 to overtake the field and win the tournament. I liked that a lot!

His coach on the Oklahoma State University golf team admits that Noren used to get in his own way. He needs to get out of his way now, not hold back and start to win these titles. He’s more than ready for the next level.

On the heels of the gherkin, the cheese grater and the hideous Walkie talkie, the next big building to be built in London will be the golf ball in the Olympic Park.

The new concert hall which will seat up to 20,000 people will be 430 metres tall, 20 metres higher than St Paul’s Cathedral.

Four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy and superstar Niall Horan of One Direction fame were joined by a lucky competition winner for the Omega Dubai Desert Classic Pro Am, after a global competition that saw 29,000 entrants play 260,000 holes of golf over four continents.

19 year old Saoirse Lambe from Dublin won the ultimate golfing package by downloading the VoxGolf app and playing nine holes of golf on a VoxGolf registered course.

As well as joining her golfing hero McIlroy and his fellow Irish star Horan for a round at Emirates Golf Club, Saoirse and her dad enjoyed a seven-night stay in Dubai including flights, plus tickets to each day of the 2018 Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

She had a wealth of experience by her side as she tackled the Majlis Course, with American professional golfer Paige Spiranac – who is also the Official Starter at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic – taking on caddie duties.

Saoirse also got an insight into McIlroy’s life on tour, as she dropped in on his pre-tournament media conference, toured the clubhouse – where she was given a personalised locker – and spent time warming up on the driving range alongside some of the world’s top golfers.

But the highlight was undoubtedly taking to the course with McIlroy, who won the event in 2009 and 2015, and Horan, who previously caddied for his good friend at the Par Three Contest at Augusta National in 2015.

The number of young – very young – girls who come to European tour events when Niall Horan is playing in pro ams is remarkable. They know nothing about golf, nor want to, but they find their way to the golf club to make a statement like the girl at the top. . A different kind of girls golf rocks..

McIlroy was beaten in the final round by a fantastic performance from Li Haotong of China who finished third in the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale