golfweloveit

Last week on Strictly golf presenter Kirsty Gallacher had likened herself to a racehorse, the way she had shied away from the start of the race. This week the question was, which racehorse would she be – Arkle or Devon Loch?

She came down the stairs in a blue sparkly dress ready for the Salsa. She looked good but BBC wardrobe were still not giving the tabloids what they wanted, it was a much longer than a usual salsa dress.

Third on the show, she was flung about and lifted, which she managed to do bravely. In between there was a lot of stacatto walking to the music, which lent a stilted rhythm to the whole dance. It ended with Kirsty being placed writhing on the judges table and there was a look between Darcey Bussell and Craig Revel Horwood which showed they didn’t really approve of that.

The most picky judge, Craig, began “it lacked fluidity, there was a lot of stopping and starting. Made you look stiff, you need a figure eight rotation in your hips, that was lacking. Darcey said her lifts were a very good show. Len Goodman said she “sizzled”. Again Bruno Tonioli was critical “you had the right steps but they didn’t fit the beat. You cannot be behind the beat. We want to see it done properly, because you can”.

5,5,5,5 came the judges scores.

What! exclaimed Kirsty.

When it came to finding out who was in the dance off, the contestants who had made a fuss about their scores were in it, with Kirsty being left to the bitter end to find out it was not her. She floated up the stairs in relief where she wasn’t interviewed about how relieved she was.

I walked the practice ground of the Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews this week and my eyes were drawn downwards. Perhaps in homage to the sponsor hundreds and hundreds of cigarette butts littered the ground. Mostly fagash from caddies, I presumed, probably correctly. But in this month of Stoptober and the anti-smoking lobby gathering ever stronger, I still enjoyed this old TV ad. Around the time it was made it was a common sight to see professionals smoking at tournaments. Ben Crenshaw, a chain smoker, Brian Barnes with his pipe, to name but two. Tournaments sponsored by Benson and Hedges and Dunhill.And this time of year we had the beloved World Matchplay at Wentworth Club. Autumns were colder then and the smell of cigars smoked from within the gallery created a lovely aroma wafted into the crisp, cold air. A nostalgic smell rarely experienced at golf these days, unless you’re downwind of Darren Clarke’s and Miguel Angel Jiminez’s Cuban Havanas.

I haven’t tried it yet , but in theory the Never Lost Golf ball sounds like a good thing.

Play faster, score better and save balls says the advertising spiel. An electronic transmitter is placed inside the ball and by bluetooth signal a smartphone app (Chip-ing Finder App) allows you to find any lost balls within a minute.

The signal on the app increases until you are in the right part of the course. Then the app points you in the right direction, left or right. Searches take less than a minute and the signal can be used up to 150 yards. On average 4.5 balls are lost per round, this claims to be never lost.

More details on chip-ing.com. But is it legal?

It was disappointing to hear the news yesterday that BBC Sport have pulled out of live transmission of The Open at Royal Troon next year. At this year’s Open at St Andrews the BBC Golf Team were bravely cheerful, promising they would be back next year, with highlights from 2017. It is for that reason that I am disappointed. According to former Chief Executive of the Royal and Ancient Peter Dawson BBC had bid for the live rights but later in the process they switched emphasis to the highlights package. Surely by the time of this year’s Open BBC bosses knew they were going to withdraw, They could have given the BBC Golf Team a proper send off, a proper farewell from us. Instead, they chose the sneaky way. To announce a couple of months after the event, oh by the way, we won’t be going back next year.

BBC Head of Sport Barbara Slater explained the decision “we are faced with making some challenging financial savings”. Golf was under pressure due to the inflationary nature of the rights market. Whatever that means.

Sky Sports boss Barney Francis was bullish. “we have exciting plans to take coverage of The Open to the next level across TV, mobile and digital”. This is all very well, dear Sky Sports, but this is just teching up the experience. What matters to the viewer most is the quality of the broadcasting.

And for this, there will be a huge sense of loss not having Peter Alliss as part of the championship. I admit I was a bit suspicious when BBC televised a tribute to Peter on the eve of the Open. He said words to the effect on the film that he wasn’t sure why this was being done he wasn’t dead yet. So now we know. BBC were planning to pull the plug but didn’t tell us. Peter is irreplaceable, and the championship will be much the poorer without having him at the broadcast helm. It is not just about the depth of knowledge, the humour, the quick wittedness or the ability to speak around the subject, off the cuff. It is about the sound of his voice.

Sky Sports don’t get this. The monotonous drone of their golf anchors is something which needs to be addressed because it does matter. Get thee to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art presenters. RADA work with corporate people to help them present in a livelier way. It’s about time some of them were sent there. Sorry Ewan Murray, but you’re first. And Sarah Stirk. And Livvo. And Radar Riley. This is an observation, not a criticism. Sky Sports presenters are the work horses of broadcasting. They work incredibly hard commentating week in, week out. It is entirely understandable that they get vocally tired and it would make sense for them all to have professional training to use their voices in a way which doesn’t damage their vocal chords and produces the best sound, which is speaking and breathing through the diaphram rather than the throat.

There will be things about the BBC coverage I shall not miss. Foremost being the Giggleswick speech. This is something Peter Alliss has trotted out defiantly every year for as long as I can remember.

“There they are the valiant boys of Giggleswick, Radley and Stowe who come up every year to manfully operate the scoreboards”

Yes, a lovely mention for those public schools but not a soundcheck for the schoolboys from the local comprehensives who manfully pick up the rubbish and tend to the toilets. I once vented my displeasure at this speech on Twitter. Who knows if he got to hear about it?  This year he was a little bit sneaky about it. Giggleswick speech was spoken on air, but he got Andrew Cotter to do it.

I wont miss Hazel Irvine getting her facts wrong, which she often has done. She has presented golf for a very long time and yet still gets dates and venues mixed up, which has bordered from the mildly irritating to wondering how she gets away with it. This year, for example, an Open Champion who has stayed away for 10 years returned to play the Champions Challenge. Hazel boldly asserted his win was at Royal Birkdale, when it was actually at Royal St Georges. But nobody ever corrects her.

But, the sound of the voices of the anchors is what will be missed. They took their time, spoke round the edges and had fun, sounded good. Peter’s voice is still youthful, even if he well, isn’t. Something which we dont often get with Sky Sports, they take it all a bit too seriously. It is after all, entertainment as well as sport.

“Ah, the wonders of nature” said BBC’s Ken Brown, admiring the flora and fauna shown on screen.

“Indeed” observed Alliss “I was thinking exactly the same when I looked at myself in the bath this morning”.

So now it’s the droning monotone of the Sky Sports team or waiting for the BBC highlights at Silly O’ Clock. At least there is the option of pay by day or pay by week on Now TV so that a whole Sky subscription doesnt need to be taken out.

If we’d known, we would have given the BBC Golf Team an historic send off at St Andrews. To pull the plug like this is cruel to the millions of viewers who have had Peter with them all their golfing lives.

My very first visit to a golf course was when I was 7 years old and it came about because my Dad and I became absolutely entranced by the BBC TV coverage of the Open Championship. Having watched three breathtaking rounds of Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson trading blows against each other, my Dad suddenly announced. “Come on, get in the car. I’ve heard we can pay at the gate. We’re going to Turnberry to see this for ourselves”. And so he drove us from Newcastle to Scotland and we walked every hole and watched every shot of the Duel in the Sun.

It wasn’t until years later that I heard on the official film how Peter Alliss summed up that historic final round. But it was absolutely perfect.

“Well. I’ve never seen anything better than that in my life. And neither have you”.

He’d missed the cut two weeks in a row, lost his World No 1 ranking and watched as Jason Day dominated for the past eight weeks. Jordan Spieth was frustrated, so he got back to work.

Holding off challenges from the European trio of Stenson, Rose and Casey, Jordan won the Tour Championship at East Lake through magnificent putting, and miraculous escapes. It was his fifth win of the year, equalling Jason Day. With the $10 million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup his  earnings to $22 million. A million dollars for each year of his life, and that’s just on the course.

Apart from the drama of the Spieth-Day rivalry, I was most impressed by the performances of New Zealander Danny Lee, and Surrey’s Paul Casey. Casey seems transformed as a player. No more angry drives, he seems in control of mind and body and he’s reaping the rewards.

Although Jordan’s dominance of the majors this year, a Masters and US Open win, second at the PGA and one shot out of the playoff for the Open Championship has to be lauded, he isn’t  perfect, his ball striking can be quite mediocre. But what I do enjoy is seeing him putt. His mentor, Ben Crenshaw, seems to be in that putting stroke. There’s the same forward press, the similar tempo and the choice to die the ball into the hole rather than hitting the putt aggressively. Jordan’s putting statistics are remarkable. This season he had 700 two putts a 44% success rate. But last season that stat was even better 809 two putts 46% accuracy. This s adon he made 380 birdies.

This Tour Championship was the climax of a year which has seen the changing of the guard. The Woods – Mickelson era was then, this is now. It’s interesting that Tiger has formed a firm friendship with Jason Day, and while off having another back surgery has been texting him advice. Not so Mickelson and Spieth. In a way Jordan is the anti-Mickelson. He doesn’t smile much and doesn’t seek the love of the gallery. He makes Mickelson, who one PGA Tour Player is quoted as saying “Nobody smiles that much. It’s not genuine”, look cultivated for show. No, they have a rivalry which shows Mickelson will find it hard to let go of his mantle as America’s sweetheart. When playing a practice foursome Jordan disappeared from the group and was seen placing something gleaming in the sunlight onto the green they were hitting to. When Mickelson approached he saw it was the US Open trophy, the only major he’s never won.

He laughed. “If I was in his shoes, I’d do exactly the same thing myself”.

“I still think it’s him” admitted Jason Day a week ago about Jordan Speith winning Player of the Year. Interesting that Jason would think so negatively. As of last week I would have had the two players neck and neck and called for joint winners. Jason has dominated post Open Championship and is currently World No 1.

But the inscrutable Jordan, who only gets animated when he talks to his golf balls or berates himself for the bad shot, wouldn’t have admitted an oponent would take something he wanted. Tee to green he is not superior to anyone on the PGA Tour, in fact there are times when he looks pretty average. But the devastating putter and his formidable temperament have seen him pull ahead. Now leading at today’s final round of the Tour Championship he looks a shoo in to win the $10 million bonus of the FedEx Cup and the Player of the Year title. And, for the fifth time this month there will be a change of World Number One.

PGA Tour Comissioner Tim Finchem has called 2015 “the strongest year we have had on the PGA Tour. Period. The youth on the tour, the quality of play augurs well for the future. 50% of tournaments in the past 3 years have been won by players in their twenties. This has been an A Plus 5 star year with broadcast viewers up 20%”. So this bullish view by the Commissioner shows that in America golf for entertainment is doing well, even if over the same 3 year period he was talking about 5,000 golf facilities over the United States have closed their businesses. Golf may be undergoing a slow transition into a spectator sport.

Most of the PGA Tour sponsors are locked into 5 year deals but one I find hard to fathom. I find it odd that FedEx are putting so much money into the season climax. It seems that every time someone posts on their Facebook page someone will be complaining about them losing their golf clubs.

Perhaps it’s a guilty concience.

She called it “the most terrifying thing she’s ever done”. Sky Sports golf presenter Kirsty Gallacher got her Strictly season off, but to a shaky start.

Although the pre-show tabloid hype was all about her “sexing the show up” BBC wardrobe department had other ideas. She was covered to the floor and the tips of her fingers and all her clevage was concealed by an unflattering inspid frock.

The waltz looked like it was an ordeal for her and the judges picked up on it with Bruno Toinioli not mincing his words “You were hanging onto Brendan for dear life” he said, “you were stumbling and your feet were all over the place”. Craig Revel Horwood agreed, tutting “it was stilted, there was no flow, no rise and fall and there were balance issues”.

It fell to Len Goodman to bring things back to the tabloids with a not your week luv comment. “You’ll be better in the salsa next week. You’ll get your bum moving and shake it and bake it”.

Kirsty, who was a rather nervous sports presenter to begin with, has grown and improved since she began and now presents in a confident, polished way. She is, in my mind, someone who improves over time. Just as well she got her bad week out of the way when there was no public vote.

Surely she will do better for golf than Tony Jacklin who was voted out on week one. A couple of double bogeys this week, but it’s not where you start it’s where you finish.

This is an entertaining film put together by Lady Golfer magazine and supported by the national unions and the PGA. Although there is a #thisgirlgolfs campaign which is gathering momentum on twitter and it has been widely written about in the golf press I feel it is just preaching to the converted.

The official golfing bodies are concerned about getting more women into golf. Some because they think the time is right to redress the gender balance. Others, working in golf, because women are an untapped revenue source that would keep their businesses afloat, if they could be encouraged to play.

But the problem is that golf is still looking inwardly and sharing messages amongst its own community and not reaching out to the wider population. In order for more people to be reached to take up golf films like this need to be put onto television – funding from the golf industry- which is worth 3.5 billion –  needs to be invested into television advertising as it is in the United States.

This film might work and find new women golfers. “This girl can” appeared on prime time television to generally persuade women to try sport. The golf industry needs to get behind specific campaigns like “This girl golfs” and pay for the advertising. Golf needs to be doing much more to reach out to the wider world. If you were to sum up in one thought why golf is in decline, it is because many people in the general public think the sport is closed to people like them. They think it belongs to people who are not like them. And sadly, in some places where golf is played they are definitely right about that and that is what needs to be addressed.

The film, while amusing, is I think, unrealistic. Would the girl with tatoos and the Def Leppard waistcoat ever get off the driving range and onto a golf course? Would a golf club accept her as she was? Bashing balls with a golf club on a driving range is not golf. It is just bashing balls if it is not preparation to actually play golf. Bashing balls is a sporting cul de sac.

Henne Zuell going down the escalator of a London tube station with her golf bag over her shoulder, without attracting comment. Now that wouldn’t happen in real life. It made me laugh because it reminded me of my own experience when I was an 18 year old university student.

I had an arrangement with the golf club nearest to my college that I could come in every week to take a lesson and practice. So I took a few clubs out of my locker and walked there. Unfortunately, the house at the top of the road had the builders in, working on the roof. As I walked past several builders downed tools and looked.

“Coo-ee, Nancy Lopez!” they sang “come and play around with us”. I scuttled past very quickly and waited until they went home before I left the club.

I told my mum what had happened and she went to her sewing machine. In no time she had found some material and run up a golf bag just big enough to cover a couple of clubs. So the following week I slung the bag over my shoulder and walked briskly past the builders.

“Coo-ee Nan-cy Lopez!” they began. “Watchya got there, a machine gun?” and they fell about laughing.

The following week, having heard the builders were finishing I very slowly moved past them, not a golf club in sight.

“Awww” said the ringleader to the others “Nancy’s given up golf, probably that gammy leg she’s got”.

When I got into the locker room I was able to take out the 5-iron which I had secreted down my trouser leg and began my practice.  I had outwitted them.

The things girls have to do to play sport.  I’ve walked with a bit of a limp ever since.

While the US women were claiming a remarkable comeback in the Solheim Cup in Germany, in California 12 club professionals aside from GB and I and the United States were competing for the PGA Cup. In 27 matches GB and I had never won on American soil. This year they claimed a 13.5 to 12.5 victory at CordeValle. The similarities with the Solheim Cup didn’t end there. Strangely, a similar incident to the one on the 17th green at St Leon Rot took place at the PGA Cup. David Dixon from England picked up his ball when it finished three inches from the cup but his opponent from United States Stuart Deane said he had not conceded the putt and claimed the hole. Allen Wronowski, the USA Captain and Honorary President of the PGA of America quickly intervened and told Deane to concede the next hole without playing it. David Dixon’s eventual 4 and 3 victory proved vital as Great Britain and Ireland won 13.5 to 12.5, their historic first victory on American soil. This was exactly the same score as the Solheim Cup, the gods of golfing fate were on duty that Sunday, Spooky!

The winning putt was holed by Niall Kearney. US Captain Allen Wronowski said “we didn’t lose, we got beaten by a really, really good team”.

Full results on pga.com.