golfweloveit

In a huge leap forward Wales Golf have announced that a number of their competitions for girls and boys will not be segregated into separate events. Equal competitions are part of major changes to increase participation. The Boys and Girls Under 16 and Under 14 championships for example will now be called the Welsh Under 16 and Welsh Under 14 Championships. The champion could be either male or female although there will be separate gender prizes. Entry will be limited to those with either 28 or 20 handicaps. This follows the line of many state junior schools now introducing gender neutral uniforms.

Wales Golf are also promoting the 9 hole format vigorously amongst juniors with inter club championships leading to the final with two Welsh clubs competing at  Carnoustie days before the 147th Open Championship.

One of the most pleasing decisions this year was that of the International Olympic Committee who told the committee of Kasumigaseki Country Club in Tokyo that they would withdraw the club’s right to host the Olympic golf event at the 2020 Games if they did not admit women as full members. At the time women had restrictive playing rights not being allowed to play on Sunday.

The club gave their agreement swiftly and Tokyo 2020 Chief Yoshiro Mori thanked them for their understanding and cooperation after a public outcry. Kuriko Koike Tokyo’s first female Governor said that she had been “very uncomfortable that women could not be full members in this day and age. The venue should be open to everyone to play”.

Lydia Ko, now world number 9, said she hoped that golf as a man’s game would be left behind in past generations particularly with golf being such a popular sport in Japan.

With the members of Muirfield, Augusta National and the Royal and Ancient all backing down over women members, it is time that smaller clubs who still have restrictive discriminatory rules not allowing women to play on Saturday or Sunday mornings should be examining their consciences and not hiding behind the private club status. It’s now become a moral issue and should I believe become a legal one.

The days of the dinosaurs as shown in Channel 4’s The Club earlier in this blog, should finally become extinct.

Sky Sports presenter Kirsty Gallagher doing part of her 100 hours community service in the charity shop on Wentworth Parade where most of the clothes she is distastefully handling have been donated from the homes of some of the wealthiest people in the country. As Sky Sports can no longer afford to send her to cover The Masters perhaps she might offer to do it for free? If you really love golf you would do it for nothing not even expenses…

He is the supreme driver of the ball. his motion has a natural speed which is almost balletic. He is the straightest, longest driver, He can separate his upper and lower body on the downswing creating a stability in his shoulders so he doesn’t go under and flip the ball. His ball flight is long and straight and he has a gepreat finish. Over the years as professional he has worked on his physique and grown stronger. He has an almost double coil in the backswing – he coils and then could again before he changes direction. The transfer of energy shifts across down and onto the left side while his hips accelerate aggressively. He can flight the ball both ways easily.

He gets out of trouble with his short game and is a sound chipper and bunker player. He doesn’t enjoy practising his putting and if there is any area for improvement it is here.

Rickie Fowler’s swing has changed a lot since he first began competing on the PGA Tour. he used to be very laid off at the top which meant he had to manipulate his hands through impact. It was a swing of moving parts. he swung fast and the club could rotate off line. To keep the club face square required perfect timing.

Since working with Butch Harmon there are much fewer moving parts in the backswing. His takeaway is smooth, and he is now going back on the inside better, a neutral backswing means that he transfers the energy much better starting the downswing, producing a straighter drive with less side spin to the ball.

He is a very good competitor who wants to score. his short game is sharp he changes trajectory in his wedges. he likes to hit the ball low is creative and improvisational. He is not a robotic player, he has flow and attack and likes to take risks and chances. His putting can be vulnerable in pressure situations which is where he needs to rely more on technique and less on inspiration.

Having seen another advert for a golf pop up venue in London I decided to have a look at London’s permanent venue. It’s the unfortunately named Swingers. A google search produced the inevitable as its top search result. Eschewing people who were exchanging car keys I found the information for the golf venue further down the listing. now moved from trendy Shoreditch to 8 Browns Buildings, EC3, it is open from noon until 1am.

Two nine hole courses, street food stalls and licences bars it gets very busy in the evenings and is worth a look. Music pumps in the background as you play though a 6 foot lighthouse, loop-the-loop and windmill. A new venue will be opening in the West End in February with a British seaside theme a promenade, bandstand and big wheel.

Multiple world champion surfer Kelly Slater has been awarded Golf Digest’s Arnie Award for golfers who give back.

i had the pleasure of watching him play at the Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews in October where he was playing with Sprinbok rugby player Rob Louw. At Kingsbarns GC he remarked on the waves crashing by the 15th green that the swell breaking off the right reef made good surfing waves (not that I know what that means). A 2 handicap golfer he plays golf over 100 rounds a year. He took up the sport aged 23 teaching himself from Ben Hogans Five Lessons book.

Slater is an environmental activist, involved in hurricane disaster reliefdand involved with More Than Sport which raises funds for college educations for disadvantaged children.

He also plays the drums well as noted at one of the parties during the tournament. golf seems to be the sport of choice of many competitive surfers lately. check out the Instagram page @golfgeek

Less than a year to the start of the Ryder Cup matches in Paris European Captain Thomas Bjorn and American Captain Jim Furyk just decided to hit some drives off the atop of the Eiffel Tower.

Wouldn’t get me doing that, notorious vertigo sufferer!