golfweloveit

The European team fought back from a one point deficit going into the singles matches to retain the EurAsia cup today. They dominated the singles at Glenmarie Country Club in Kuala Lumpur with wins for Alex Noren, Thomas Pieters, Henrik Stenson, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Bernd Wiesberger, Tyrell Hatton, Alex Levy and Tommy Fleetwood who was unbeaten all week.

Captain Thomas Bjorn said he told his team they had to keep going to the end, and every single one of them stood up and did everything they could, I’m very proud of them. The player he seemed to be most impressed with was Paul Casey who has decided to play more in Europe this year to make himself eligible for the Ryder Cup in Paris. “He’s been brilliant” Bjorn said “You can see he’s been really enjoying it. I think it’s been important personally for him. If Paul had stayed in America and not taken this step to make himself eligible again I think he would have regretted it”.

Casey confirmed his intention of resuming European Tour membership after a three year absence to make himself eligible for the Ryder Cup. He says “I’ve missed my contribution to British golf, to Europe. My Ryder Cup experience is the highlight of my career. I want to be and need to be part of the European Tour and put me in line to play another Ryder Cup which I would dearly love to”.

With 11 Europeans in the top 20 in the world and twenty five years since the Americans won the Ryder Cup away from home, it is surprising that Bjorn’s European team will be considered under dogs for September’s matches in Paris. “I’ve lived all my Ryder Cup life as an underdog and we’ve won the overwhelming number of matches”.

His approach to team building is distinctly different from that of previous European Ryder Cup captains. He believes in doing what comes naturally. He believes in not forcing his players to be a team, let it happen, don’t force it. “The less you try to be a team the better team you are”. Allowing people to be individuals, now there’s a thought, it’s a long way from forcing Ryder Cup players into pods…

Scottish rock band Simple Minds will be closing the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth this year, taking to the stage on May 27th after the last putt has dropped. With five No 1 albums and 70 million records sold, the band have their 17th album due out in early 2018. They follow Kaiser Chiefs, Mike and the Mechanics and Status Quo who have all played at the BMW PGA in recent years.

Lead singer Jim Kerr said “it’s fantastic that we will be able to experience something we have never done before. We’re very excited to bring the curtain down on what promises to be an enthralling week on the golf course. Bringing music to a golf event is a fantastic idea, we’re relishing the chance to be a part of it”.

Early bird tickets for all four days of the BMW PGA Championship and Wednesday’s celebrity Pro-Am are available now on eventbrite.com. At the moment Sunday’s final round and concert costs £40 for a single ticket with concessions available. Hospitality s are available at enquiries@europeantourhospitality.

World No 4 Justin Thomas revealed on Saturday that he had been preparing for the end of the world when his best friend, fellow PGA Tour professional Tom Lovelady showed him the above text which was send to millions of Hawaiians mobile phones.

It turned out to be a false alarm, but the text admitting this took nearly 40 minutes to arrive which sent the competitors at the Sony Open in Honolulu as well as all the inhabitants of Hawaii, into a state of terror.

“Pray for us @Sony Open in Hawaii”

was written on the tournament’s official twitter feed.

Justin Thomas said “I was really scared for three or four minutes. But then I was like if it’s my time, it’s my time”

Widespread panic and fear took place after this text message was sent out following North Korea’s threat to use its nuclear missile programme on the US mainland. In December Hawaii tested its nuclear warning siren for the first time since the Cold War.

Golfer Jon Peterson, who was tied second at the time tweeted that he and his family were under mattresses in their hotel bathtub.

The false alarm was blamed on a Government employee’s mistake, a full investigation is under way.

The Sony Open was won by Patton Kizzire after a marathon six hole play off with James Hahn. Kizzire becomes the first multiple winner of the wraparound 2017/2018 season having captured the OHL Classic in Mayakoba in the Autumn. He was the web.com Tour Player of the Year in 2015 and with three top tens in the last seven events, he now tops the FedEx standings.

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.