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.  

Reboot time

Is it really February ?

What the hell happened to January?

I will admit to losing January this year, we all go through bad spells and I have had a nightmare 4 weeks.j  I never even shaved for four weeks and was in danger of turning into a ZZ top clone.

Sometimes things happen in life that are simply out with your control. Out side forces and influences are just that and you just have to accept it.

What woke me up and got me moving was a bit of good news, works for us all I think.

In December I was lucky, very lucky, to win a set of Callaway irons via their 12 days of Christmas giveaway on Twitter.

A brilliant prize, a dream prize but it never really registered with me.

Well until I had a conversation with Callaway last week:
"Do you know what irons you want" they asked, I had not a clue!
"Would you like to come down to St.Andrews and get custom fitted?"
Then reality hit me.

I had been in such a bad place for the four weeks I had not been to the gym, not hit golf balls, basically I had withdrawn completely from everything.

This was my wake up call!

Not only a new set of irons but a set of custom fitted irons by the guys that fit pro's!

How lucky am I!

So yesterday it actually got real! Yes I was lucky, very lucky!

All of a sudden that bit of drive and desire started to appear back.

After work I went to the range and hit 300 balls. Well hit is not the right choice of words, I worked with 300 balls.

Stance, grip, swing, alignement, tempo, I genuinely worked on it. Ok I blistered my hands, have sore bits today where I never knew I could get sore bits. I even my reactivated glutes, but I feel better than I have in ages.

This morning I have been looking for golf specific exercises for the gym. For the first time in weeks I genuinely want to go to the gym!

I have even been costing out lessons!

I am not going to look this gift horse in the mouth. I have been given a great opportunity from Callaway here and I know owe it to them to show how good their product is.

But more importantly I owe it to me! Yes it's been an awful four weeks, but the good news is there's another forty eight weeks that will be better.

2015 starts now, buckle up folks its going to be a great one.