Rory McIlroy has admitted that he’d find it awkward deciding whether he would want to play for Great Britain or Ireland if golf is accepted at the 2016 Olympic Games. He said, “It'd be an honour to represent your country and I don't mind which one I play for...I'd probably play for Great Britain. I have a British passport. It's a bit of an awkward question still”.
The history of golf in Ireland makes the question especially tricky; the Golfing Union of Ireland is the oldest in the world, founded in 1891 and including all four provinces – uniting the country in a way that few other things can. This will be made very apparent at the world cup, where Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will both be represented under the same team – Ireland.
In the Beijing Olympics, it was a close split between those athletes from Northern Ireland who chose to represent Ireland and those who chose to represent Great Britain – though the majority chose Ireland. To be honest, it may be a case of taking the option that leaves you with the bet chance of making the team; there’s little doubt that it’s harder to make the British Olympic team than the Irish. If McIlroy had to choose today, for example, he’d have to compete with likes of Lee Westwood and Paul Casey to play for Great British at the Games - something he probably wouldn't enjoy too much!
Either way, many athletes will be making a similar awkward decision before 2016.
Fifty-one year old Ken Green is determined to quality for the Champions Tour, despite having been in an RV accident in June; in which he lost his brother, his girlfriend, his dog...and his lower right leg.
The five-time PGA Tour winner has friends and CBS golf analysis alike convinced that he can succeed in being the first member to play wearing a prosthetic limb. Hundreds of golfers flocked to the Ken Green Benefit Golf Tournament today, at the Ridgewood Country Club in Danbury; sporting golf clothes with the slogan "The Greatest Comeback Ever" emblazoned on them.
Green didn’t play in the Benefit Tournament, riding around in a cart instead – apparently offering advice and telling jokes. The tournament raised $120,000 for the Ken Green Living Expenses Trust Fund, further helping Ken pursue his dream. Although he still lives in pain, his friends are convinced he’ll make it.
To be completely honest, I can’t help but wonder how much financial support Ken Green can need; having won the Buick Open, The International, the Canadian Open, the Greater Milwaukee Open, the Greater Greensboro Open, the King Hassan Open, the Dunlop Phoenix, the Hong Kong Open and the Connecticut Open in his time. Perhaps the money would have been better invested in helping Iranian amputees bombed in the war on terror, rather than funding a middle-aged American's desire to continue playing golf...but that’s the world we live in.
In an attempt to make the Australian Ladies Professional Golf Tour more appealing to leading players, Australian ladies golf have announced that they are boosting the prize-money! There will be a 15% overall rise in the prize-money for the 2009 schedule, including a raise in the prize-money of the New Zealand Women's Open from $217,952 last year to a massive $341,280! Warren Sevil, chief executive of the ALPG, said "To achieve an increase from previous years is always a good result but to do so, particularly in difficult economic times, is something we are very proud of... It's a testament to the continued support from all players and the great job they do in promoting their sport”.
The final three tournaments of the 2010 summer calendar are co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour; the Australian Women's Open, ANZ Ladies Masters and the New Zealand Women's Open – meaning it’s going to be quite a summer of ladies’ golf! (Or winter, if you’re watching from the UK like I am...) When combined the Royal Canberra Ladies Classic and the NSW Women's Open, the ALPG will be staging 5 tournaments back to back for the first time ever!
In a move to further diversify the type of programmes that air on The Golf Channel, the network is preparing to create a new season for its show “The Haney Project”; a series in which Hank Haney (swing coach to Tiger Woods) attempts to improve the game of a celebrity.
The highly successful first season involved Haney coaching former NBA player Charles Barkley, known for having one of the worst golf swings in the history of the universe. The show was so popular that it almost because the highest rated show in The Golf Channel’s 14 year history; second only to The Big Break.
The huge success of this season was undeniably partly due to Barkley’s horrendous technique; programming chief of The Golf Channel now hopes that comedian Ray Romano (from Everybody Loves Raymond) will bring a new element of entertainment to the show, being a funny man obsessed with golf.
The Romano version is expected to air around March 2010; who would you like to see on The Haney Project next? I vote for Tripe H – maybe he'd use a sledge hammer instead of a club...
The Aussie Golf Girls have solved the ancient problem of terrible golf clothes...by taking them off! Despite having their first golf calendar banned for being too “expos-ay”, they have toned it down a bit and returned with a 2009 edition – featuring a different golfer on each page, including Krisite Newton and Sara Kemp.
Once again the calendar is raising money for charity; last time it was Breast Cancer research (who got nothing, because the prudes banned the calendar) – this time it is the Make-A-Wish Foundation. My wish is that the stiffs don’t ban this one as well! Long live the Golf Girls!
Anybody who has watched golf carefully over the last few years will know that Tiger Woods has scored two hole-in-ones in professional tournaments. However, this feat is nothing compared to 64-year old Ruth Day, who managed to score two hole-in-ones as well – but in a single round!
The widow from Tynemouth had a handicap of 35, yet managed to defies odds of 67,000,000:1 by scoring two hole-in-ones at the Whitley Bay Club in North Tyneside. Her first hole-in-one was her first ever; on the third hole with a 149-yard shot. She then went on to score another hole-in-one ten holes later at the 13th, this time with a miraculous 161-yard drive! Having only been playing for about 10 years, Day was delighted with her achievement; "Some people go through their whole life and never get a hole in one," she said. "I think there's only a very small number of people around the world who have done it twice in one round". She's right; club secretaty Frank Elliott said they sometimes get two hole-in-ones in the same round, by two different people - but never by one person!
Whether you put it down to skill, fate or simple lies - Ruth has made history!
Believe it or not, there is actually a house (Number 9, The Links) that overlooks the first tree and last green of St Andrews' historic Old Course! Nicknamed the “Royal Box of golf”, the house has five bedrooms, four bathrooms and three receptions – as well as a courtyard garden. As impressive as it already sounds, a massive selling feature of the house is its location on “millionaires’ row” The Links – a street with only three other houses.
Built in 1872 and originally bought for under £5000, the property came back on the market in 2004 at £2million. After being repossessed by a bank, it is now owned by local businessmen who bought it for around £3million. Back on sale again, in time for next year’s Open Championship, the house is now up for sale at £3.75million – clearly somebody hasn’t mentioned the housing slump to these people! Savillis, the company marketing the house, describe it as “a traditional style, three storey terraced house which has recently undergone a major refurbishment”. To have jumped £1.75million over 5 years – 2 of which have been a time of severe economic depression – I can’t begin to imagine how major this refurbishment must have been!
How much would you be willing to pay to overlook St. Andrews’?
I find it interesting how, in the world of sport – where players’ skills are tested to the limit to judge who is the best – the most famous players are rarely those who are genuinely the best at what they do. In football, David Beckham is a worldwide megastar not necessarily for his free-kicks of latter years, but for his “good looks” and marriage to a Spice Girl (from another industry where talent and fame rarely go hand in hand). In short, it is not necessarily the best players who are the most popular – but the most interesting players.
When it comes to golf, you don’t get much more interesting than Ian Poulter. Admittedly his golfing style lacks the flair of Camilo Villegas, but his golf clothes are second to none when it comes to eye-catching. So popular is the golfer that, despite the awful £190,000 splash-down at Cog Hill on Sunday, Ian Poulter’s twitter following has reached 601,064! Considering it was “nearly 600,000” about 7 hours ago, that’s quite the boom in popularity!
The reason I am telling you all of this is because Poulter has declared that when he hits a million followers, he will “do a massive give away. irons, woods, putters, gloves, balls, glasses, hats, ea games, and much more.” He may have a fairly long way to go yet, but with an approximate rise of 1,000 fans every 6 hours (or 4,000 fans per day), that’s only around 100 days until he reaches his target. For those of you whose internal calendar is not as finely tuned as mine – in 100 days time...it will be Christmas Eve!
So, if we all pull together and follow ianjamespoulter on twitter for a few months, we may raise his following just enough he’ll have to head up the driving range in a brand new garish outfit – a bright red one, with black boots and a hat with a white bobble on the end! “Walking in a Poulter wonderland...” (the worst sport chant ever).
It’s enough to make many of us feel old, but World Golf Hall of Famer Arnold Palmer turned 80 today! Anybody who has been watching The Golf Channel this week should pay extra tribute to the man, for it was he along with Player and Nicklaus who made the sport as popular and TV-friendly as it is today.
As well as being hugely popular and prolific in his prime, Palmer also won the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998 for his victory in seven major championships over the mid-twentieth century; including the Masters four times (1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964), the Open Championship twice (1961 and 1961) and the U.S. Open in 1960. Without doubt players like Tiger Woods owe their vast fortunes to the likes of Arnold Palmer, who led the way in getting endorsements for players – himself earning a million dollars on the PGA Tour by 1967.
Most readers will remember Palmer playing his 50th consecutive Masters in 2004 – a monumental event marred only by his failing abilities, which were forgivable at the age of 75! So, here’s to Arnold Palmer – a great golfer, a great man and a great excuse to watch The Golf Channel all night long in celebration!
Faster, higher stronger – these are ideals anybody can strive for, whether they have a job and a house or nothing at all. Admittedly people with enough money for professional training are at an advantage, but nobody is altogether excluded because they can’t afford to take part. To play golf, on the other hand, you require a certain degree of wealth that makes the sport entirely exclusive to richer countries. Golf doesn’t cost a fortune to play, but it does cost a lot more money than people in poorer countries have available. So I ask; how is it fair to include another event in the Olympics that many people simply cannot afford to compete in – one in which much of the outcome is actually dependent on the equipment you are using? Golf club memberships and clubs cost money - not huge amounts of money, but more than thousands of poor athletes could hope to raise.
Ethiopian distance runners train by jogging barefoot up mountains; how are they meant to train for golf? By fashioning golf clubs from sticks and tin cans, then hitting a ball across the sun-baked landscape? Tiger Woods’ golf clubs alone are probably worth more than the entire Ethiopian running team’s funding! By including golf in the Olympics, we have simply created another event to be dominated by the rich countries, purely on the grounds of them being rich enough to play it. I accept that golf is as much a sport as any other at the Olympics, but the Olympics isn’t about including every sport under the sun. I also accept that many sports in the Olympics are of a similar nature; equestrian sports and shooting for example – I would argue that these also pervert the nature of the Games. The very philosophy behind the Olympics is about equality of completion – a level playing field upon which nothing matters apart from your own skill. Obviously wealth will always have an impact on training, but it should never exclude a group of people altogether.
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