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The Winning Habit

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:49:43 +0100

Winning, we’re told, becomes a habit. Graeme McDowell discovered this some years ago and he positively tingles from the feeling right now, with two tournament victories in the last four weeks. After becoming the first Irish winner of the RBC Heritage Classic at Harbour Town on April 21st, he went on to become the first Irishman to capture the Volvo World Matchplay title, in an unlikely, Bulgarian setting last weekend.

As a bright lad on and off the golf course, McDowell has always...

By Dermot Gilleece

Fantastic Deals from Daily Deal Superstore

Sun, 19 May 2013 05:03:49 +0100

Now that it’s almost summertime, it seems that the only thing better than eating popsicles and drinking ice-cold lemonade is hitting the green for a relaxing game of golf. Playing eighteen holes with buddies is the one thing that will
melt away workday anxieties, and luckily, Daily Deal SuperStore has many golfing offers that will help start the summer with a bang.

If you are a beginner or an expert who simply wants to sharpen your game, choose from many of our private golf lesso...

By Imagine Golf Club News Desk

The Woods Trail

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:26:35 +0100

Last Sunday’s Players victory, prompts the mischievous thought that all would be well with Tiger Woods and his pursuit of the Bear’s record, if only they had granted the Sawgrass event Major status. As it is, he has secured four tournament victories this season and is still as far adrift from the 18 titles achieved by Jack Nicklaus, as he was almost five years ago.

It was all so different back in 2000 at Pebble Beach, where we witnessed what Tom Watson later described as the greatest ...

By Dermot Gilleece

Aussie Golf is Having a Good Time

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:06:27 +0100

Good things are happening to Australian golfers right now. Only a few weeks after Adam Scott landed the country’s first US Masters title, Brett Rumford has secured back-to-back European Tour victories in the Far East. And like Scott, incidentally, he did it with a broomhandle putter.

With the US Open returning to Merion next month, David Graham has been thrust into the limelight as the last winner of the title there, in 1981. And for good measure, TV pundit, Ian Baker-Finch, was...

By Dermot Gilleece

Legends of Golf and Camaraderie

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:52:50 +0100

The notion of golf as one, big international family, gained a rather special dimension for me during the Liberty Mutual Legends Tournament in Savannah. It had much to do with the caring way that players behaved towards each other; very different from what I have come to expect on the regular tours on both sides of the Atlantic.

It is no coincidence that all the participants happened to be seniors, varying in age from 50 right up to their eighties. These are men who have known ver...

By Dermot Gilleece

Harbour Town Design Dream

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:17:38 +0100

When Graeme McDowell captured the RBC Heritage last weekend, he joined a very fortunate group of players to have their skills rewarded on this remarkable piece of golfing terrain. It was only during a recent chat with 80-year-old American golf-course designer, Ron Kirby, that I was made to realise the full impact Harbour Town has had on the game’s architecture.

Four strokes behind leader Charley Hoffman after 54 holes, McDowell needed Sunday to present a severe examination of mind an...

By Dermot Gilleece

Life Lessons from Scott's Masters Victory

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:12:57 +0100

More than any other Major, the Masters has a remarkable capacity for reviving vivid memories of former stagings. And while watching the thrilling drama of Adam Scott’s play-off triumph over Angel Cabrera, the realisation dawned that it had to do with the event’s extraordinary venue. It has to do with the dramatic setting created by towering pines as part of the wonderful natural splendour of Augusta National.

In the dank gloom of an April evening, with the clock easing past seven loc...

By Dermot Gilleece

McIlroy confident at Augusta

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 06:47:35 +0100

On his way to a stunning victory in the PGA Championship last August, Rory McIlroy talked animatedly about the strategic challenge which architect, Pete Dye, had set at Kiawah Island. He marvelled at some of the optical illusions created by the celebrated designer, especially off the tee, where it was sometimes difficult for the player to convince himself about the location of certain fairway bunkers.

The extent to which McIlroy enjoyed these mind games was reflected in a record, eigh...

By Dermot Gilleece

The Bear's 50th

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 06:43:20 +0100

With all the talk about a return to major glory for Tiger Woods and the shambolic preparations of Rory McIlroy, a key aspect of this year’s US Masters may be lost to observers on this side of the pond. But we can be assured that officials at Augusta National won’t have overlooked the fact that this is the 50th anniversary of Jack Nicklaus’s first Masters win in 1963.

It was the Bear’s fifth Masters and his second as a professional. And he was there as the reigning US Open champion,...

By Dermot Gilleece

Tiger Needs a Major

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:53:17 +0000

One of the most fruitless exercises in golf, is to expect Tiger Woods to fritter away shots through silly mistakes while in sight of an important title. He very rarely did it at the peak of his powers and there was little chance he would do it in the weather-affected Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, on one of his all-time favourite courses.

Rickie Fowler, paired with Woods over the final 18, looked as if he expected some sort of collapse. That plodding along in contention, would be ...

By Dermot Gilleece

Of Belly Putters and Rule Breakers

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:38:11 +0000

All this stuff about belly-putters and anchored blades and the support by Tim Finchem for practitioners such as Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson and Tim Clark on the PGA Tour, has prompted some intriguing thoughts from 25 years ago. They have to do with Bernhard Langer, who experienced more putting problems than any player in the recent history of the game.

Let us begin our delve into the past in late-May 1987, in the gloriously sylvan setting of the West Course at Wentworth. That was ...

By Dermot Gilleece

Tiger still too Strong

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:31:17 +0000

Break open the champagne all you concerned benefactors of the PGA Tour. With a two-stroke victory in the Cadillac Championship, Tiger Woods has demonstrated beyond argument that he’s back. Well he is, isn’t he? Surely there’s nothing more he needs to do to convince the doubters?

I’m afraid considerable doubt still lingers as to whether Woods is on the verge of recapturing his former dominance of the tournament scene. And while his many admirers will try to convince themselve...

By Dermot Gilleece

McIlroy can afford a Slip

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:15:56 +0000

When Rory McIlroy next has the opportunity of chatting with his golfing mentor, Jack Nicklaus, he should ask the great man about his relationship with the media during the formative years of his tournament career. The answer would be certain to shock the 23-year-old world number one.

In fact McIlroy could further broaden this fact-finding mission by arranging a chat with Arnold Palmer on the same subject. Come to think of it, he could even kill two birds with the same stone by adding...

By Dermot Gilleece

Matchplay is a test of Character

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 07:14:45 +0000

The sight of Matt Kuchar sailing serenely towards victory over Hunter Mahan in the final of the Accenture Matchplay Championship on Sunday, brought to mind the words of an Irish golf writer of yesteryear. "A cool and sanguine spirit is one of the greatest assets of the top-class player,” wrote Arthur McWeeney of the Irish Independent. And it is a sentiment as valid now as it was 50 years ago.

In many respects, Kuchar is a golfing everyman in that he doesn’t seem to excel at any part...

By Dermot Gilleece

The Glory of South African Golf

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 07:49:17 +0000

While Darren Fichart was capturing the Africa Open by two strokes at East London GC on Sunday, Charl Schwartzel was challenging for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera CC, on the other side of the world. In view of the recent dominance by South African players, the surprise was that Schwartzel was eventually forced to settle for a share of third place behind John Merrick, only one stroke out of a play-off.

Going back to December 6th, half of the eight events played so far on the ...

By Dermot Gilleece

Pebble Beach - Benefactor and Thief

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:15:35 +0000

It has made and crushed golfing dreams, arguably in equal measure. We’re talking about Pebble Beach where last weekend, America hailed its latest sporting hero. As the natives would put it, Brandt Snedeker looks to be the real deal.

Sure, there was tremendous promise last season in the performances of Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson. Even with their Major successes, however, they don’t seem to have Snedeker’s appeal. And it’s not simply because he putts better than most; his crisp b...

By Dermot Gilleece

Class is Permanent

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:23:34 +0000

Eight and a half years is a long time between wins. Stephen Gallacher would have been acutely aware of this, as he headed towards the finishing line in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday. And when an elusive victory was finally secured, the Scot would, unwittingly, have warmed many hearts among his tournament rivals.

Only last July, Ernie Els struck a similar blow for the game’s Major winners when he captured the Open Championship, 10 years after his previous success at Muir...

By Dermot Gilleece

Golf Club Conundrum

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:14:20 +0000

Royal and Ancient officials have been taking some flak for their proposed changes to the Old Course at St Andrews. These plans are being blamed with some justification, on an unwillingness for golfing legislators on both sides of the Atlantic to make meaningful moves on limiting the impact of new technology.

The very fact of having to make further alterations to the Old Course - memories are still fresh of the lengthening of the iconic 17th for the 2010 Open - is an indictment in itself. And ...

By Dermot Gilleece

McIlroy struggles with new Nike clubs

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 07:01:38 +0000

For the discerning fan of tournament golf, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship seemed to provide no shortage of spectacle in delightful sunshine beside the Gulf. There was Rory McIlroy, struggling manfully with his new, malfunctioning Nike clubs to the point where he simply couldn’t match the decidedly moderate target of a two-over-par cut.

There was speculation that he and Tiger Woods were there because each of them got $2 million each in appearance money. Given that McIlroy is now taking a...

By Dermot Gilleece

McGinley Deserves Ryder Captaincy

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 06:21:37 +0000

Within minutes of his first press conference as Ryder Cup captain, Paul McGinley received a warm, congratulatory embrace from Rory McIlroy. Keenly aware of how supportive the world number one had been to his cause, McGinley declared with a broad smile: “If Rory doesn’t make the team, he’ll be my vice captain.” It was a nice Irish finish to a memorable evening in Abu Dhabi.

Widely acknowledged among his fellow countrymen as a late developer, McGinley has eventually come out at a lead...

By Dermot Gilleece

McIlroy's Dilemma

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:51:26 +0000

It is quite shameful that Rory McIlroy has felt it necessary to consider opting out of the 2016 Olympic Games, rather than run the risk of offending his many friends and admirers on the island of Ireland. Yet the response is perfectly reasonable against a background of golf administration which must rank as the most ham-fisted in the history of European sport.

Should he declare for Ireland, or should he throw in his lot with the Great Britain and Northern Ireland tea...

By Dermot Gilleece

Warm Winter Golfing and a Happy New Year

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:02:38 +0000

Frozen fairways can provoke intense feelings of deprivation among golfing devotees at this time of year, though course closures are more likely to be attributed to flooding, given the way the weather has been in recent weeks. On the other hand, modern travel makes it possible to enjoy the best of two worlds during the festive season, while meeting some very interesting people along the way.

Still, it seemed decidedly odd to be sitting in short sleeves in a clubhouse bar, drinking a co...

By Dermot Gilleece

Christmas Stories!

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 10:59:19 +0000

On the run up to Christmas back in 1898, an admirably adventurous golfer named Freddie Tait, being full, no doubt, of seasonal cheer, took on a rather interesting wager. He backed himself to play a gutta percha ball in 40 teed strokes from the clubhouse of Royal St George's, Sandwich to the corresponding building at Royal Cinque Ports GC, down the road at Deal. And he would "hole out" by hitting any part of the Deal clubhouse, a distance of three miles as the crow flies.

We are infor...

By Dermot Gilleece

Christmas Golf Goodwill

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:27:03 +0000

In their increasingly desperate attempts at securing an elusive hamper, certain club golfers may seek inspiration from the exploits of Christmases past. Indeed for all its dramatic changes, from obedient balls to graphite-shafted and peripherally-weighted clubs, the game remains remarkably unchanged from the way it was presented in those old paintings of hardy enthusiasts braving winter winds with hickory shafts on wild, exposed duneland.

Indeed a great chronicler from another century, beau...

By Dermot Gilleece

Mark Huber in Hawaii

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:50:54 +0000

Mahalo,

Starting and hopefully finishing KK from LAX at 5:00 a.m. on my way back to St. Louis via Salt Lake City. My laptop didn't work on the beach yesterday so I procrastinated a bit. The trip coming back is much smoother so far than than trip from hell going out last Monday.

The plane pushed away on time then returned quickly to the gate, the pilot's shoulder strap wouldn't fastened and a bunch of folks were stuck in St. Louis because a mechanic could properly install t...

By Mark's Kaddy Korner

Mark's Kaddy Korner: Week off with special folks

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:47:02 +0000

Hey all,

It was another week off, this time above Highway 8 with special folks. After the state trooper let me pass I headed straight for the cabin and didn't leave the property after dark. Deer camp turned into bear camp and a few of my good buddies were there. This week it wasn't only about the hunt, it was about dear friends going through some tough health issues and enjoying some quality time in the woods.

We all have that good ol' friend, you might not see often but...

By Mark's Kaddy Korner

A Senior Milestone

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 06:27:25 +0000

Even in these days when fitness is lengthening the careers of tournament professionals, the only player who seemed likely to rival the achievement of Sam Snead as a winner of regular events, was Tom Watson. Not any more. And it is richly ironic that Watson happened to be in the field at The Lakes last weekend when Peter Senior became the oldest winner of the Emirates Australian Open. He did it at the age of 53 years, four months and nine days.

For the record, Snead was 52 years and...

By Dermot Gilleece

McDowell wins Woods Showpiece

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 08:37:34 +0000

Two of Europe’s Ryder Cup heroes from the miracle of Medinah, have brought their competitive year to a winning conclusion with victories on either side of the Atlantic. While Martin Kaymer was complementing the Nedbank Champions Challenge success of compatriot Bernhard Langer at Sun City, Graeme McDowell was repeating an earlier victory by himself, in Tiger Woods’s World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, California.

McDowell’s success was especially interesting, because o...

By Dermot Gilleece

McIlroy Always a Good Bet

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 04:26:07 +0000

When the cheering subsided on the Earth Course at Dubai at the weekend, very few people in the assembled gathering would have heard of Dominic Rooney. Yet in relative terms, the former steward of County Sligo Golf Club, who passed on to kinder fairways early this month, made as significant a contribution to Rory McIlroy’s coffers as the €1.82 million he received as winner of the DP World Tour Championship.

Gerry McIlroy, Rory’s father, would have remembered him. So, too, the player’s...

By Dermot Gilleece

Fiddling With Technique

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:17:16 +0000

Just when it looked as if he was ready to win again, Michael Campbell crumbled under final-round pressure in the Hong Kong Open and slipped from a share of the lead after 54 holes to be eventually tied eighth behind Miguel Angel Jimenez. In the process, he provided a further illustration of how difficult it is to return to the forefront of tournament golf having once scaled the heights as he did when winning the 2005 US Open at Pinehurst.

In that magical year, the New Zealander also...

By Dermot Gilleece

McIlroy in Double Heaven

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 12:58:24 +0000

Thankfully there are degrees of brilliance, otherwise it might be difficult to separate Rory McIlroy’s money-list double from similar achievements of recent decades. The fact is that what he did in far-off Singapore, is probably unmatched in the history of European golf.

For a start, he has completed the double at an age five months younger than Tiger Woods was, when doing it in 1999. That was when Woods captured the PGA Championship and NEC Firestone Invitational which counted o...

By Dermot Gilleece

Sam Snead Centenary

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 12:48:39 +0000

As we edge closer to the end of Sam Snead’s centenary year, it seems appropriate to remind ourselves of the great man’s remarkable gift of timing, which extended to areas way beyond his legendary golf swing. For instance, Snead made his Ryder Cup debut in 1937, the silver jubilee of his birth, and played his last World Cup for the US in 1962, his golden jubilee. In fact that winning appearance in partnership with Arnold Palmer, occurred exactly 50 years ago on Sunday, November 11th, at the famous J...

By Dermot Gilleece

Tiger and the Solheim Cup

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 05:37:16 +0000

It doesn’t seem so long ago that Germans were complaining bitterly about the reluctance of their local authorities to grant permission for golf course development. Now they are to host the 2015 Solheim Cup at St Leon-Rot, just outside the fabled university town of Heidelberg, where Tiger Woods proved to be quite an attraction a decade ago.

At the beginning of 1989, the then West Germany had the modest number of 109,207 golfers belonging to 260 clubs. A year later, Bernhard Langer and...

By Dermot Gilleece

Sleepless Nights for Davis Love

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:40:29 +0100

And so the American recriminations go on, with skipper, Davis Love, enduring sleepless nights in a vain attempt at figuring out what went wrong at Medinah.

It’s one of the great injustices of sport, that leaders are expected to carry the can while culpable foot-soldiers seem to breeze through the whole experience, unscathed.

Looking at Love’s reaction is reminiscent of the way Tom Lehman attempted to come to terms with the crushing defeat at The K Club in 2006. But instead of b...

By Dermot Gilleece

Shane Lowry makes his mark

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 12:15:17 +0100

When fierce winds caused play to be suspended for five hours during the third round of the 2009 Irish Open at Baltray, Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy had lunch together in the players' lounge. "We talked about his position at the top of the leaderboard," said the Holywood star, "and he knew I'd be the first to congratulate him on the 18th green if he succeeded in staying there. He was my foursomes partner for Ireland the last year I was an amateur and we won the European Amateur Team Championship toge...

By Dermot Gilleece

More Schekels than Stamina

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 12:33:40 +0100

Such were the physical and mental demands of the Ryder Cup at Medinah, that only three members of the European team could bring themselves to compete in the Dunhill Links. Which might prompt some curiosity as to how this compares with follow-up commitments on the last time Europe fought from behind to secure victory in the US.

That, as it happened, was in 1995 at Oak Hill in upper New York State. And on the following week, 11 of the winning heroes were in action in the inaugural ...

By Dermot Gilleece

The Sound of Silence

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:48:25 +0100

Back at The Belfry in 1993, when a rampant US team were demolishing Europe in Ryder Cup singles combat, skipper Tom Watson urged a colleague to "listen to the silence. Isn't it beautiful?" Delighted European observers could have echoed those words at Medinah on Sunday afternoon, while being surrounded by 45,000 of the most famously raucous fans in American sport.

Not even Simon and Garfunkel could have imagined such a welcome sound of silence. Which seemed richly ironic in view of...

By Dermot Gilleece

Matchplay Masters

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:18:38 +0100

There is a way of competing in the Ryder Cup. When they had teams lacking America’s strength in depth, Europe were forced to discover it under the astute leadership of Tony Jacklin. But the US have begun to catch up, largely as a consequence of severe hammerings sustained at Oakland Hills in 2004 and The K Club two years later.

The key question now is whether Davis Love will apply those lessons in attempting to regain the trophy at Medinah with a seemingly sparkling line-up this we...

By Dermot Gilleece

Battle of the Captains

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:03:51 +0100

During the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline, Mark O’Meara sparked quite a rumpus by enquiring publicly as to where all the profits went from the event, and why the players didn’t share in the considerable loot. Had he kept his mouth shut, he would probably have earned about $2 million as captain of the US team at The K Club in 2006. So, where O’Meara scuppered his own prospects, what sort of captain will emerge at Medinah next week from the quietly-crafted aspirations of Jose Maria Olazabal?

...

By Dermot Gilleece

Ryder Cup Hype

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:32:20 +0100

Though the big event is still a few weeks away, pre-Ryder Cup hype has already moved into overdrive. This, we’re being promised, is going to be the match to outdo everything that has gone before, with the greatest teams from either side of the Atlantic set to battle it out at Medinah, the longest course in the history of the event.

Those making the most noise, as in SkySports, have very good reason for so doing, given a very significant financial investment in the biennial tournament...

By Dermot Gilleece

A Continental Coming Of Age

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 11:25:36 +0100

Remarkable things have been happening in Continental golf. The choice of Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts as a wild-card for Europe’s Ryder Cup team later this month, broadened the involvement of Continental nations to seven, encompassing 28 players. And last weekend at Portmarnock, The Continent of Europe completed a second double in three years over GB&I in the St Andrews Trophy and the Jacques Leglise Trophy (under-18 boys).

It was the first time such dominance had been achieved on Brit...

By Dermot Gilleece

Wild Cards and Nearly Men

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 07:31:14 +0100

When the announcements finally came, they were entirely predictable. In fact it is difficult to remember a more low-key completion of a European Ryder Cup team than the latest one which has Ian Poulter and Nicolas Colsaerts as its wild-card choices.

As it happened, the build-up to Medinah couldn’t have been more different to the comparable occasion four years ago, when Nick Faldo was finalising his team to defend the trophy at Valhalla. That was when Poulter and Paul Casey got the no...

By Dermot Gilleece

Sergio Garcia's Ryder Cup Return

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:41:55 +0100

Where schoolgoing friends were absorbed with Cervantes, Sergio Garcia could readily quote passages from another illustrious Spaniard. In fact his specialty was the speech delivered by Seve Ballesteros on winning a third Open Championship at Royal Lytham in 1988. "I was 13 at the time and learned it from a friend," he recalled. "Yes, every word."

That was at a time when Garcia understood very little English. So, it is difficult to imagine better credentials for a Ryder Cup player t...

By Dermot Gilleece

Mark's Kaddy Korner on the PGA Tour

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:30:29 +0100

I'm gonna do some rambling here, only because I'm close to brain dead in Seattle and sipping on my second Stag beer cousin Doug slipped in my duffel when I dropped off the new Indian car in St. Louis. He and wife Marilyn are integral pit crew members for the caddy crusade, in fact, brother Dan's van was parked outside their place the last couple days as he passed thru on his way to Knoxville. He was "let go" via phone Saturday night prior to the Web.com Kansas City event but picked up Steve Allen...

By Mark's Kaddy Korner

McIlroy the Mood Master

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:59:02 +0100

As Rory McIlroy walked from the 17th green to the 18th tee at Kiawah Island on Sunday, he knew he was seven strokes clear of his nearest rival. “Let’s win by eight,” he said to his caddie, JP Fitzgerald. When a 20-foot putt from off the left edge of the final hole dropped improbably into the cup, he had secured that objective. In fact his record victory margin for a PGA Championship was the same as he had achieved in the US Open at Congressional, 14 months ago.

In those final moments a...

By Dermot Gilleece

Mark's Kaddy Korner on the Road

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:27:19 +0100

Sorry it's going to be short, sweet, hurried and pobably gramiticol arrows every, all you proofreaders should have a field day. I'm a bit frazzled just got out of Mellen after about 10 ours of mowing and a late night on Jamie's back porch watching a storm role in off Lake Superior --- it was the perfect day, only wish it could have lasted a week. I'm sitting in Minocqua, just missed breakfast at McDonald's but the Wi-Fi hook up came in handy. I needed to be someplace wear no one recognized me,...

By Mark's Kaddy Korner

PGA Championship Preview

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 12:58:05 +0100

Longevity is much admired in golf, not least because the relatively gentle, physical demands of the game make it possible to compete successfully well into one’s middle years. Against this background, it is surprising how few survivors from the 1997 World Cup at Kiawah Island will be in action in this week’s PGA Championship.

As it happens, there will be only four of them - Padraig Harrington from the winning Ireland duo, Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, the recently-crowned Open champion, Ernie E...

By Dermot Gilleece

Mark Huber at the British Senior Open

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 05:34:58 +0100

Sometimes the best laid plans go astray but it all works out in the long run. Bob said I didn't have to go, but it is The Open at Turnberry, the Scottish Pebble Beach, I couldn't pass by a week on the bonnie links of Turnberry. A decent flight appeared Senior U.S. Open week, I jumped on it and flew out of Bloomington, IL Sunday afternoon thru Minneapolis, Amsterdam then landing in Glasgow Monday early afternoon. If your man is playing you have to go, the time you don't show he plays well or someone...

By Mark's Kaddy Korner

Veterans still Performing

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:09:18 +0100

For some time prior to the US Masters of 2006, Fred Couples was seriously suspect over short putts. That’s when he decided to change to the belly-putter and, remarkably, at the ripe old age of 46, it brought him within touching distance of a second green jacket. Now, six years on, the extent to which the controversial implement has become an integral part of his wonderfully enduring skills, was evident in a fine, British Senior Open victory at Turnberry last weekend.

In the proces...

By Dermot Gilleece

British Open Review

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:46:36 +0100

It was a very curious Open. When Adam Scott sank a 15-foot putt to birdie the 14th and return to 10-under-par for the championship, the next hour became a decidedly uninviting prospect. This was about to go down as one of the least exciting final days of recent years, in the quest of golf’s greatest prize.

What actually transpired was both gripping and somewhat disturbing. It is always preferable to witness someone make a thrilling march towards victory in a Major, rather than w...

By Dermot Gilleece