Tournament news

By now most will know that Laura Davies won the Womens Australian Open held at Metropolitan Golf Club on Sunday February 15th. Laura was victorious thanks to playing well at the weekend, when it really matters! To highlight this fact Karrie Webb was in lead at the end of the first round at 7 under par while Davies won on the Sunday with a 4 round aggregate of 7 under par. Laura was in a way handed an easy win when Tania Elosegui 3 putted the 18th for a double bogey six costing her the opportunity of a play-off. Being lucky enough to watch Davies going up the stretch on the Sunday afternoon I found it refreshing that when she had hit her approach to the green on the 16th hole in to the bunker she had played her (tricky) bunker shot while her caddy was still halfway up the fairway. This is a rare sight in professional (and elite amateur) golf nowadays that you see a player with that much confidence and natural feel that they have the guts to play the shot in that situation without consulting their caddy. Yes, Davies is experienced and I am biased being a British golfer who has grown up watching her but I feel that the natural side of golf is being lost.

Johnnie Walker Classic

What a performance!! 18 year old AMATEUR Danny Lee birdied the last 2 holes to win by one shot. I heard later that his aim for the week had been to get into the top 20 and he was a bundle of nerves coming up the stretch seeing his name on the leaderboard. From what I saw on TV he looked like he was just enjoying himself and soaking up the atmosphere. In my opinion the amateur game is different from the pro game and although Danny Lee was not affected by shots costing him money he still did a great job of keeping himself together to claim a significant title. Yes, he is the reigning US amateur champion but winning a professional event in which Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and many other leading pros were playing in is a magnificent achievement. He has all the signs of being a great player and great for the game of golf so good luck Danny Lee.

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The Match

Mid-morning on a warm February day "The Match" took place on The Legends course at Moonah Links. Sarah Herd was trying to get 2009 off to a winning start whilst also improving her win-loss ratio against her opponent, Brendan Bartling. Sarah was fired up for the match due to Brendan's (serious) suggestion that he should give her some shots to make it interesting!

The game got off to an exciting start on the par 5 first hole when Sarah having misjudged her second shot was left with a 5 iron into the green. Knowing that Brendan just had a little pitch left for his third shot Sarah was hoping to get it close. When the ball start off on line she was hoping it was good but as the shot was completely blind she had no idea until Brendan said that it had gone in the hole for an eagle.. one up.

Not for long though as a par was good enough for Brendan to square the match at the next hole. Some bad putting from both players on the par 3 third so a halved hole. The lead continued to shift throughout the front nine resulting in the score line being all square at the turn.

Down to business on the back nine then! The short par 4 11th saw Brendan spray his 3 wood (for accuracy!) into the trouble on the right whilst Sarah finished up just short of the green. Finding his ball and managing to play it out to the front edge Brendan was in good position to make par. Meanwhile Sarah pitched to about 5 foot and sunk her birdie putt to win the hole. The next crucial hole was the 15th when Sarah conceeded the hole having found a tough lie in the greenside bunker and not managing to shift the ball.

On to the 16th tee we went where we were confronted with one of the biggest greens in golf. With a huge ridge running across the green it became obvious that getting the ball close to the hole would be tricky. Brendan hit what looked like a good shot that just didn't quite manage to carry the ridge so fell down to the bottom of it. Learning from this Sarah hit a bit too much club and ran through the back of the green. Faced with a reasonably straight forward chip Sarah played it to 6 foot left of the hole. Brendan then had to try and put up this ridge which would be more suited to a skate park than a golf course! His first attempt was poor and the ball came back to his feet. His seond attempt was a mishit which had the same result as his first. Third time lucky he managed to get the ball up the hill but still short of the hole and still not losing his turn he then missed that to clock up a 5 putt 6! Sarah proceeded to hole her par putt to square the match.

All square on the 18th tee. With both drives in the midle of the fairway it was Sarah to hit her approach first. Hitting it right on line the shot looked good all the way and both players believed that it had come to rest fairly close to the hole. Brendan, cracking under the pressure, blocked his approach finishing up off in the valley to the right edge of the green. Sarah's ball had actually run towards the back edge of the green so she was still faced with a long putt. With Brendan slightly thining his chip Sarah was left knowing that a 2 putt would definitely extend the match and possibly even win it. As a result she lagged the putt down to 3 foot and when Brendan missed his par putt Sarah holed out to win the match!!

At the end of the day the best player won!

(Sarah is willing to conceed that following this match another match was played at Patterson River Country Club in which Brendan managed to sort out his putting and win by 4&2.)

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General News!

Sorry for the lack of updating... no excuses just been lazy!

Golf Destination of the Year Awards
Scotland has been voted the golf destination of the year beating The Algarve into second place. This is an award that Scotland, the home of golf thoroughly deserves. Not only does Scotland have the famous links courses which are great tests of golf but there are also many hidden gems such as Brora, Kilmarnock (Barassie). Scotland does not necessarily have the best golf courses in the world (this is a very subjective issue) but the way in which golf is appreciated and played is second to no other country. In Scotland I find players appreciate that golf courses need to be navigated when playing in order to achieve a good score and that it is not always about hitting the ball as far as possible. Many tourists who go to play golf in scotland feel the game is different and don't necessarily enjoy it but I believe that this is the roots of golf and personally I enjoy having to plot my way around a golf course.

Monty is Ryder Cup Captain

This news is a week old now but Monty has been appointed the European Ryder Cup Captain for the matches at Celtic Manor in 2010. I think that Colin Montgomerie will be an excellent captain and there is no question about whether he is deserving of the captaincy. Those who read my earlier post about the captaincy debate will know that I was hoping that Sandy Lyle would be appointed. I am very disappointed for Sandy as his achievements in golf would be deserving of the captaincy but unfortunately he has been denied it by the fact that there are too many high quality candidates at present and he has been away from the main tour for the longest. I was also hoping that Monty would not be captain until the 2014 matches at Gleneagles, Scotland, as the support there would have been amazing. Anyway I would like to wish Monty the best of luck with the preparations over the next 18 months and obviously the matches in September 2010.

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