My Blog

Well, back to earth from the paradise island of Barbados, we as a company sponsored the Manchester & District Alliance event at Wychwood Park, nr Crewe. It was blowing a hurricane, pouring down and 6 degrees! Welcome home, my son Tom was making his professional debut alongside 2 clients from Toyota & TP  and myself. He completely outplayed ‘the old man’ and scored 2 over, a score that I thought would win the individual pro event, but in the end was beaten by 3  by Graham Cox a local tour player, so 2nd spot to young Murray! I was so proud of the way Tom played and conducted himself in incredibly tough conditions. He is off next week to the  PGA Euro Pro Qualifing school at Forest Pines, nr Brigg. we went over today for a preview and its a fab course in great condition. I hope he does well, and think he will as he has a good golf brain to enable him to plot his way around.

Next  week we have our own corporate club event at Mere G&CC, Cheshire, one of the countries best inland courses, and currently in fantastic condition. All this is in preparation for a memorable year ahead in which they are hosting the regional  PQ for the 09 Turnberry Open, all this in their 75th year too. The Boler family have owned Mere for 25yrs now and Mark is this years Captain! Good Luck Mark this year.

De Vere Mottram for coaching on Friday, and then the week end off!  What shall it be gardening or practice….no contest hey?

Golf is such a frustrating game!! Just in case you didn’t know already. Yesterday I played some real class golf and scored poorly, today, well to be polite I was shocking! No rhythm with my driver, nor the irons and chipped badly too. I did however putt ok! What a stupid game. Today was again tricky, a strong wind made club selection tough. My game is built around strong wedge play, but at the 16^th and 17^th it betrayed me, all in all a 74 to finish 2 over for the tournament and tied 19^th. Sam went onto win , but a 74 for him too just showed how defensive he probably was and how tricky the conditions were.

Its off for R&R and to a 20/20 game at Bridgetown CC, and contemplate where my game goes from here!

Tomorrow, paul & I have a very big treat, as we have been invited to play the Green Monkey course at Sandy Lane, a very exclusive place indeed and we are guests of one of the owners John Magnier.

We are home on BMI and ready for a week of coaching and corporate golf.

Well what a sickener! A 73 today for a 36 hole total of 144 even par. I really played nicely today, a poor, no , horrid tee shot OB at the 16th [my 7th] cost a double bogey 7 , whoops! A 3 putt from 2.5 ft at 5th for a bogey was just awfull too. Although I hit the ball pretty close, holing putts was tough. Paul certainly did have his work cut out to keep ‘my head on’. Sam shot 63, an incredible score,alongside his 65 yesterday; we are all playing for second spot! Another gorgeous day here, very windy but this really is a fabulous spot, and truly great course. So , if you ever have the chance Royal Westmoreland Golf Club is worthy of a visit. The final round tomorrow starts early, Woosie had a poor score for him again, I will be in the company of David Russell & Louis Carbonetti, both good guys to play with, fingers crossed for a hot putting round. Cheers.

I have received great news from the UK this morning before i start round 2! RRG Motor Group are to support a new Toyota Avensis Tourer for me! My current arrangement with Toyota GB has terminated after 8 years, but I am really gratefull the the RRG Group have stepped in to continue my long standing relationship with Toyota. They are based in Manchester and are the largest Toyota dealer in Europe. Andy Houston, head of RRG Fleet has been instrumental to this agreement and I thank him and his team for their support , not only personally but in their promotional activities with Andrew Murray Golf. Thanks guys!

Greetings from the beautiful island of Barbados, Paul my best pal has the ‘bag’ this week-some get lucky, some are born that way! we arrived to the shock news of our team being ‘duffed up’ by Liverpool; not a good start. We are over that shock and very much into ‘golf mode’ from this morning . This weeks tournament is played over the Royal Westmorland course on the central west of the island. Fortunatley for us I have a pal who, by chance has a house here so thats ‘home ‘ for the week. Ian Woosnam who resides here most of the year described the par 3′s here as the best in the world! Praise indeed, all of varyied distance from 8 iron to 3 iron. I cant wait to get to the practice ground this morning and play a few holes later in the day. For those in less warm climes, its fabulous here, 28 deg and sunny. experiments with putters and driver shafts to come today, so I will keep you posted.

Last week was a first for me, I was asked to do an indoor coaching clinic for guests of the RRG motor group dealership at Lancs CC Old Trafford! We hired an inflattable golf net and off we went, my new prototype indoor putting mat too. In all we had 60/80 guests thro’ striving to improve their swings! A great day all in all, although I did find out that my laser clay pigeon shooting was 18 handicap stuff!

This week I have a Travis Perkins short game clinic & one of our own too . These are good crack ‘mini days’ that improve the scoring part of your golf game-80yds in! This week is also the re start of my golf design project at Fairfield G&SS in Manchester.Welcome back to base for the guys from Souters and esp’ to Todd whose work permit arrived in time for him to swop USA for UK for another 6mths! Still much work to be done on my game for next weeks Barbados open too, a new ‘Epic’ shaft in my hy brid should help!cheers

back to the office after a week in Brunei and Sandra has all sorte for the various short game clinics/ corp days for the next month. me? i have to get to practice a bit after a horrid last round , Hoylake provided a fabulous course for the pro am last tuesday and thankfully i can still play!! a 69 on a short course but still i played well! bardados is next for me on the 14th, so watch this space!

I started the brunei open blog with well well & so will finish the same way!! Well well what a shambolic finish I had! 70,71 &78, Sunday was one of those bad days at the office , completely out of the blue and a real shocker. Temps soared again into mid 30 deg with high humidity again.

On Saturday I had a short putt on the 15^th to go -5 and 1 shot behind playing partner David Merriman- but guess what I missed it , then a poor shot to the par 3 16^th that plugged in a green side bunker and a double bogey the result! A poor shot to the 18^th another bogey and I signed for a 71 when it should and could have been 68. Golf hey what a frustrating game, can someone tell me why we play it? 

Sunday continued in the same vain, strange as I practiced poorly before the off too. Lost rhythm that’s all I am sure, and confidence too. Tom was brilliant on the bag all week, he kept telling ‘dad’ that all was not so bad and that ‘we’ would turn it round, but guess what dad didn’t! I don’t think I have miss hit the ball so badly for 18 holes, 2 lost balls in monkey& snake country way to the right. 2 plugged lies and through in 2 3 putts and 78 ! so gutted, & disappointed. The 23 hr trip home was a long one mark my words!

Anyhow, back in the office this week. Sandra has been all ahead go for the launch of the VW Commercial vehicles golf for 09, I have an RRG Toyota day Thursday & a pro am @ Hoylake too. We have just announced my charity pro am too, hosted by Lymm GC 13^th July, do call us if you would like to support some great causes.

Cheers for now