Length isn't everything

I've never gotten drag racing. I've never understood  what you learn from a straight quarter mile.  The chances are if you put a Ford Mustang against a Mini Cooper S on a drag race the mustang would walk it.  However, put them on a race track with corners hairpins etc, the playing field will be much more level and reflect the driver skill as well as the capabilities of the vehicle. And I am quite confident that the Cooper S would come out on top.

Unfortunately too many PGA Tour events are becoming the golfing equivalent of a drag race! 

There is no other way to put this, but watching the World Golf Championship at the weekend left me bored senseless.  

Was the best putter going to win? No! Was the best short game player going to win? No! Was the best mid to long iron player going to win? No! Was the best all round golfer going to win? Probably not.  This developed into a long hitters contest.  

I must admit that I find that very boring and predictable.  

On entering Sunday, the top five on the leader board were also top five in driving stats. Is this really what we want to watch? 

There is no way a Luke Donald style player will ever win on a course like Doral, and this is wrong.  The idea of the four world golf championships, is that it allows us to watch the best players in the world, playing the best courses in the world.  Well that was the concept.  Sadly, it is a concept that seems to have been forgotten.

There are far too many courses that cannot contain long hitters.  There are far too many courses on tour that favour long hitters.

Now many of you will now try to tell me that long hitting is a skill in its own right.  But for me golf should not be about how far you can hit the ball.  It should be about ability, about touch, about feel and about all round skill.

For years we have said "drive for show, putt for dough" it seems to me that the PGA are doing their best to make this phrase obsolete.  

If you are not the longest in the game, you develop other skills to make up for your short comings.  And I will hold my hands up that I'm not the longest, but length should never be the main attraction it's what you do with your game that's important! 

Time to weed out the truth.

Oscar Wilde once said, the only thing worse than getting talked about is not getting talked about.

Agree or disagree with it, when drug abuse is added to the mix where would you stand?

This weekend a RUMOUR, emphasis on the rumour, broke on social media; that Tiger Woods had been given a PGA Tour ban for substance misuse.  Now many will believe it, many will not but the problem is that the rumour mill is now turning.

You would think that the normal course of action would be for people to simply contact the PGA Tour to confirm or deny this, but as I say this would be normal but we are talking about the PGA Tour.

Let's look at Dustin Johnson.  Many think that he was banned by the PGA for six months for substance abuse.  However, according to the player himself, he took a voluntary six month hiatus to deal with some personal issues.  The official tour line was? Well there wasn't one!

Let me give you a hypothetical.  Assume for a second, as hard as this may be, that I am a PGA Tour player;  I injure my knee and rip all my ligaments.  Now I do not need an operation but I am out of commission for three months.  That night someone tweets 'Ray Matthew failed a drug test, he has been banned by the tour' Straight away I would issue a press release that this is false, I simply have an injured knee- but the rumour is out there.

Will the Tour issue a statement stating 'we can categorically deny that Ray Matthew failed a drug test' No they couldn't because if they confirmed that I hadn't failed a drug test, would they be able to deny that Dustin Johnson had passed his drugs test?

These are issues that are created by the tour, as they do not have a policy of clarity and openness regarding matters of substance testing.  Which is a policy they have in place to 'protect' the privacy of the players.  Forty years ago, they may have gotten away with such a closed door policy, but this is the era of social media and the Internet.  Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

If a player is using recreational drugs, I do not care.  If a player is using PED's ( performance enhancing drugs) I do care. No matter what your personal opinion, recreational drugs have been, will be and will continue to be part of society.

Personally I feel that it is wrong to bring a player to task over their personal life choices.

So again hypothetically, if Tiger or any other player is allegedly addicted to painkillers, what is worse? The speculation or the truth?

It is time for the Tour to simply state the facts to the public, that when a player is banned, why they are banned.  This will put an end to speculation and detrimental allegations.  Transparency is surely better for all parties.  

A letter to America

I think Oscar Wilde summed it up perfectly with "We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language"

Now I am not going to go on a grammar Nazi attack here! Not going to mention the fact that there is a U in colour or you pronounce Lieutenant with a F and am not even going near aluminium! Let's stick with golf!

During the truly awful AT&T CBS coverage at the weekend the phrase "double eagle" was used.
A double what?

Now there are some basic terms universal in golf; bogey- 1 over par, par, birdie- 1 under par, eagle- 2 under par and albatross- 3 under par for a hole.

All together AL BA TROSS, albatross.  Nowhere near as hard a word as say AL U MIN I UM!

If we even just apply basic logic to the phrase "double eagle" that would mean 2 x eagle which would be 4 under the par of a hole, not 3 under a par of a hole? A double bogey is just that, 2 over the par of a hole, treble bogey 3 over the par of a hole etc, etc. 

It really is the most idiotic phrase ever to be associated with golf and that's saying something!

Logically it makes no sense. Mathematically it makes no sense. Historically it makes no sense. In fact, it quite simply makes no sense.

And yes, yes I know birdie, eagle and albatross make little sense either in the grand scheme of things but hey ho we are stuck with them.

While I am on it we play golf on a golf course, not a links!

Links courses basically only exist in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands with few exceptions.

Links is a type of course not every course. A parkland golf course is just that, a parkland golf course not a links.

When golf became popular with us peasants in Scotland all those years ago the landed gentry gave us land we could play our game on. Now they were never going to allow us good arable farming land; after all that was money making land. But, it was the coastal stretches of land that were basically non-farmable that we got to use. This land was the link between the sea and was basically just wasteland; but because it linked the two the phrase links land was used then shortened to links hence a links golf course.

Due to the abundance of brilliant links courses in the UK, the Open Championship is only played on a links golf course. The key terms there are UK and Open Championship.

The UK is Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Great Britain is Scotland, England and Wales.

In 2019 the Open Championship will be held at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland as it was in 1951, so not in Britain.

The Open Championship is run by the R&A (Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews- the golf governing body), not the British R&A, the R&A of Britain or some phantom British Golf Association. That's why is called the Open Championship and not the British Open.

In 1457, the year not the time, King James II of Scotland actually issued an edict banning golf or gowf as it was called back then. There are accounts of Mary Queen of Scots playing at Musselburgh Links in 1567. In 1687 Thomas Kincaid wrote what is to be believed to be the first ever instructions of playing golf at Leith Links. Also from Leith Links we had rules of golf written by the Company of Gentleman golfers in 1744.

We Scots know a bit about golf then?

So on behalf of my nation please, pretty please with pink ribbons and bells on it; quit this double eagle nonsense. Show the Open Championship the respect it deserves and call it by its proper name. Also simply call a golf course a course not a links.

In return we will let you keep "mashed potato" "in the hole" and "you da man"

Deal ??