My Blog

There are lots going on in the golf world now the season has been ‘kicked’ off by the Masters. Corporate golf has made a bit of a re surgence for us over the last few weeks too. This year we are ‘looking after’ 6 golf events for VW Commercials Vehicles, a great opportunity for us to show them and their clients some classy venues and with luck a memorable days golf. The 1st of the series was hosted by Denham Golf Club, Bucks last week in glorious sunshine. The course was fantastic, the hospitality brilliant and the buffet outstanding! A pretty good start then….next up is Delamere Golf Club, Cheshire. On my doorstep and one of the best inland courses in the UK and that’s the truth! A terrific layout and always in fabulous condition, fingers crossed for good weather too!

Today I was at Wentworth doing a short game clinic for Jewson for their regional golf event. What a place Wentworth is, I have played many PGA Championships there and to see the stands going up for this years tournament gave me goosebumps. The west course is surely one of  the great courses of the world. Striving to improve the standards set so very high, this May, after the PGA Champ is crowned they are digging every green up! Can you believe it..all 18 greens re designed  by Ernie Els’ team and re built , turfed with ‘bent’ grass and to be completed by September this year. Oh the cost ..around £5m!  What a mammouth project, but if anyone can Wentworth can! The course was great today, albeit in need of a little growth, but Chris & his team will have the place looking fab for the tournament yet again, this really is the Tours flagship event.

My son Tom in his 2nd players tour event shot 75 today with a  shocking triple bogey at the 17th. He was gutted!, but the 67 in round 1 should give him confidence as he embarks on the career of  golfer on tour!

Next week I am also back on tourtoo , for the Senior Tour event in Majorca. My game needs some attention, so starting with a game at Delamere with Toyota on Friday, I really do need to have a good week ends practice.

On my course design project at Fairfield G&SC in Manchester, all is looking fantastic, the ‘members walk’ around the new holes last week was popular and gave them a flavour of what to expect I hope. All being well Todd and his team will hand over the course to the club in September, but all constuction should be complete in a month. It’s such an exciting time for the club, 18 new acres and 6 new holes…I can’t wait for the 10th July for the unvailing to the press, radio and TV.

Next for Sandra and the team at AMGolf is the Fairmont St Andrews 2 day corporate  event, now thats a fab place too. more news from their soon.

cheers Andrew

Photo’s from this latest event now live.

To view, click here.

Well done Angel Cabrera!

What a finish we were all treated too last evening!

It just goes to show how the presssure gets to even the best, first it was Tiger , who would have bet on a bogey bogey finish when he could smell victory? Then Phil making a 5 down the last after for him looked the formality of a 4 footer for  a 3 at the 17th. It really was ‘all’ going on down the stretch, by then my allegencies were tooing and froing also, I wanted Angel to win one moment for his associations with the Euro Tour, then as Chad is supported by a Adams clubs and my clubmaker Nick makes them for him in their tour van [ and I knew how much it meant to him], I found I was rooting for him too! I was all over the place , let alone those out there doing it!

Compelling tournament yet again, gracious loosers , some good performances from the Europeans too… but a fantastic winner. Imagine having the power and freedom to play like an Angel!!

So who will it be…..all my bets are out of it, or are they? Can Tiger win from 7 behind? Yes , is the short answer, a fast start perhaps 2/3 birdies in the first 8 holes, and tht may well give the crowd something to cheer and the leaders may well be affected. Is this just wishfull tv viewing I am after? He will have set himself a ‘number’ most likely 64 ish and get to double figures under par. But don’t count him out, of course the leaders need to stumble a little, but at Augusta anything can happen. There are countless tales of collapses in form and fortune, there more than any. Caberra looks most likely to me and the nearest I will get for the European victory I predicted! A bear of a man, who plays so naturally and freely and also one of a few that looks as if he is enjoying the game, now he would make a good  champion. I wonder have they got a green jacket big enough!

By chance I had a £1 in the sweep at Didsbury GC Pro shop draw on Saturday and came out with Steve Stricker, so my pocket hopes he wins. It will be a facinating final round, I just hope it does not become a procession, and that we have some excitement, Kenny Perry is a fabulous player but hardly the most charismatic on tour is he?

Enjoy it!

Day 1 about to start, and I woke thinking of some

 memories of Augusta! My most abiding, is the first year I was there, sat in the clubhouse having breakfast – yes me on my BBC acreditation, with Rob the producer and Tony Adamson the golf then golf correspondant. And on the table beside us Gene Sarazan, Sam Snead & Byron Nelson, they are legends of the game, Lord knows how many majors between them, and they were officially going to start the Masters by teeing off the 1st! I could not miss that, what a fantastic occasion, such respect for those guys by everyone there. What made me smile even more was I earwigged the conversation, Gene, then 89 years young was so excited about the new driver Wilson had just made him for the occasion! The wonders of golf I thought, I hope I am still enthused by clubs and the game at that age! He hit a good shot too, although Slammin’ Sam outdrove the pair by 100 yards!

Augusta will need the touch of genius around and on the greens, I am hoping for a European winner, Padraig , Justin, Sergio, or perhaps Robert Karlsson or Stenson. There are so many top European players now, I think perhaps its time for someone to follow the great  European champions of the 80′s & 90′s, Seve ,Faldo & co!

News of junior Murray from PQ not so good I am afraid not good he missed by 4, after, in his words ‘as bad as I could play’ round of 78. he is so disappointed to have played so poorly for 2 days running, not like him at all. Perhaps the Masters will inspire him!

Well after a week ‘chilling’ in the Algarve, practicing a little at Pinheiros, swimming a bit too and even the odd set of tennis, it’s home for the Masters on Thursday!

Like most golf nuts , I can’t wait for the Masters to start. I have been very privilaged to cover 7 Masters for BBC 5 Live, in fact from ’97 until 2003. Their preferred summeriser for the US majors is now an American former player Jay Townsend , a very good friend and a brilliant broadcaster. During my stint, I did get to play the course after O’Meara’s victory in ’98- what a course, so hilly and difficult. Every hole requiring the ball be ’shaped’ one way or the other from the tee. And the greens..well only Ken Brown during his on course pieces to camera does them justice, they are truly incredible. During an interview with Nick Price one year, he told me the greens were so fast and firm that it was a good job he had spikes on!

I will have a small wager on some players for interest only, and between us just £10, we are not gambers! But food for thought, who is your money on? Mine? I think Tiger will win, no surprise there then, but Sergio  will be close and I really would like him to break into the major club soon. As for the rest, Goosen, Ogilvy, Poulter are my other bets. Sons Tom & Matt may have other ideas with their fiver though!

Tom’s progress report from Frilford Heath and PQ for Euro Pro Tour, not quite so good a 79, a very poor finish again and he was gutted at the way he played. Tomorrow he needs a good score to make the cut, welcome to life as a pro Tom! Good luck, and as an old pal of mine used to say ‘enjoy the fight and fight like hell’.

Enjoy the BBC TV & BBC 5 Live coverage of the years 1st major!

cheers!

Last Tuesday we hosted the first of this years Corporate Club events at Mere G&CC, Cheshire. We were blessed with fabulous weather, and course was a picture. They host the Open regional qualifing round this year for the first time, all this in their 75th year. The winners of the day on a brilliant score of 44pts better ball were Colin Brown & Roger Percival from the Lymm GC, they pipped playing partners Andy & Ged by a single point!

The dvd camera went ‘tech’ so no evidence of the days swings were viewable- sorry chaps!

I have nipped to Portugal for a few days with 2 of my children, the weather is fantastic here too, Matt & I will practice a little at Penhieros Altos in fact our first day we were on the putting green there for 2 hours. Its a fabulous course with brilliant facilities, the professionals there Brian , Ross & Kenny really do treat everyone royally.

Recently I have been seeking some help with a long running lower back /pelvic issue, all this comes from poor posture and standing over a golf ball all my life I suppose. Anyhow, just after Christmas I consulted Emma Viggars, a Pilates coach in Lymm. She has helped me so much and I really do wish I could see her 2/3 times a week, the mobility she assists with is brilliant. After my hip replacement in 1999, I should have been doing pilates, sadly I am playing catch up now! 

News on Tom, he managed to make the first stage of Euro Pro PQ at Forest Pines. A poor finish in round 2, dropping 4 shots over the closing 3 holes, made the whole thing a little too nervy for him but 7 over par made it to stage 2 next week comfortably enough in the end.  Well done Tom! A tougher examination for him beckons at Frilford Heath, Nr Oxford next week. Cheers