SEPTEMBER ARTICLE WHISTLING WHILE YOU WORK

IN THE BUNKER WITH MICK THE GRIP

The Straits Course

WHISTLING STRAITS in Wisconsin, designed by Pete Dye to resemble links courses in the West of Ireland, was constructed on a former military airbase. With two miles of undulating shoreline and countless bunkers, golfers say the wind coming off Lake Michigan makes for an 'interesting game.' Most links courses offer the option of running a shot up along the sloping turf, especially if it’s played out of high fescue. Justin Rose says: “Whistling Straits is more target golf than links, the ball doesn't run there.”

Steve Stricker has had some fairways widened, to the advantage of the Americans. Fair enough, in 2018 at Le Golf National the fairways were narrowed, forcing the Americans into playing a throttled-down, precision-focused game. But a secret weapon at Whistling Straits may be the bald eagle which lives on the course. The Yanks have probably trained it to perch on the grandstand glowering down on the opposition, or soar over them dropping a greeting as they tee off. 

“PEACOCK OF THE FARWAYS” Doug Sanders, who has died aged 86, was known for his smart dressing. “Everything is co-ordinated,” he would say. “My shirts, slacks, socks, even my underwear. I take six suitcases to every tournament.” Remembered in particular for missing a short putt to win The Open at St Andrews in 1970, he lost out to Jack Nicklaus in a play-off the following day. “I might have been a very rich man if I'd sunk that putt,” he would sigh. Even so, he'd come a long way from Georgia, picking cotton as a boy during the Depression. Aged 10, he caddied at a local course, attended University on a golf scholarship and turned professional in 1956. having already won the Canadian Open. 

Sanders won a further 19 times on the PGA Tour and played on the 1967 US Ryder Cup team in Houston when the USA won by (cough) a rather large margin. 

JUSTIN ROSE, asked about his memories of previous Ryder Cups: “The gala dinner can be nice if you're sitting with the right people – they mix the teams, so it's the calm before the storm when everyone is still quite jovial.” After more than five minutes of Patrick Reed's “joviality” one would probably be tempted to empty one's soup on his head.

Justin is to receive the 2021 PGA Tour's Payne Stewart Award, given in honour of the 11-time PGA Tour winner who died in a plane crash in 1999. The award is presented to the golfer who exemplifies character, charity and sportsmanship. The Kate and Justin Rose Foundation which provides food and books for deprived schoolchildren will receive the $300.000 donation. In 2020 Justin and his wife Kate launched the Rose Ladies Series in the UK and for many years Justin has sponsored the Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship. The second English player to receive the award after Sir Nick Faldo in 2014, Justin recently gave a very diplomatic interview in Today's Golfer regarding previous Ryder Cup teams. Sir Nick is justly praised for a lot of things but probably not diplomacy.

A HOST OF HOME HOPEFULS will try to make it three English victories in a row at the BMW PGA Championship from the 9-12th September. Defending champion Tyrrell Hatton will be joined at Wentworth by 2020 Race to Dubai Champion Lee Westwood, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose and Ian Poulter in the 3rd Rolex Series event of the 2021 Race to Dubai. Along with The Two Matts (Fitzpatrick and Wallace) they will be hoping to delight the fans and impress Padraig Harrington in the final Ryder Cup countdown. 

SOME REVIEWS recommend cavity irons filled with air, some prefer foam. To please everyone Taylor Made have injected their “All New” P790 irons with “Speedfoam Air” which is 69% less dense than the Speedfoam in their previous two models, apparently giving increased speed. A mere $1.299 for a 7-piece set. Will T. Made's customers go for it? If they do the Speedfoam won't be the only thing that's dense.

AUGUST ARTICLE- THE GOOD OLD DAYS

 

IN THE BUNKER WITH MICK THE GRIP

Golf Tournament 1960's style.

SHELL'S WONDERFUL WORLD OF GOLF was a televised series of golf matches which ran from the 1960s until 2003 with a 20-year break from 1971.  It kept up the tradition of "challenge matches" which were the earliest form of professional golf competition, and the list of players in these 18-hole stroke play matches reads like a roll call of golf legends. The first was played between Billy Casper and Mario Gonzalez in Rio de Janeiro in 1961. The first two matches of the series’ 1994 revival were Greg Norman vs. Nick Faldo at Sunningdale, followed by Arnold Palmer vs. Jack Nicklaus at Pinehurst No. 2.

Played on the world's finest courses, and sometimes in exotic locations, a fun aspect of these pre-recorded one hour television matches (the early ones narrated, when he wasn't playing, by Gene Sarazen) was that the golfers would interact with the on-course reporters, with off-the-cuff comments and jokes allowing viewers to feel they were walking with the competitors. Filmed during the “Silly Season” of the winter when nothing much happened, and shown in America on Sunday afternoons, the matches reflected a bygone era, with the spectators in their Sunday best, the ladies in dresses and the men in coats and ties. And definitely no shouts of “In the hole!”

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, five-star general, 34th president of the United States, was golf-mad. Ike's popularity was at an all-time high in post-war America, and the U.S. decided that “If Ike likes golf that's good enough for me.” More leisure time for the American family meant more time for sport, and golf in particular. The number of golfers approximately doubled during Eisenhower’s two terms as president (1953-1960). 

Eisenhower, who shot around the mid-80s, had a practice net erected in the White House basement, and used the South Lawn as a practice range. A personal putting green was built outside the Oval Office, and he would take practice swings with a club kept behind his desk while dictating letters to his secretary. He considered his first and only hole-in-one, at the age of 77, “the thrill of a lifetime.”

Eisenhower's 1953 State of the Union Address was written at Augusta National, in a “cabin” constructed for his use. However, even Ike couldn't get the 65ft pine tree he often came in contact with removed from the course. Clifford Roberts flatly refused, saying his request was 'Out of Order.' In 1966 the president turned up on Arnold Palmer's front porch clutching an overnight bag. “Say, you wouldn’t have room to put up an old man for the night, would you?” Ike asked. Palmer's wife, Winnie, had sent their private plane to fly the president to Pennsylvania for a surprise 37^thbirthday present for Arnie. Needless to say, they played golf. 

Eisenhower saw the golf course as a place to build relationships and a way to foster goodwill and understanding among the international community. What a pity Xi Xinping and V. Putin don't play golf.

Ike's tree, alongside the 17th hole was cut down  in 2014 after it was damaged in an ice storm.  Gary Player commented: “It was there when I played nearly 60 years ago, and Sam Snead said he used to just “cream it over that tree.” When asked how it was possible he said, "It was only 12-foot high when I did it."

WALES'S STEPHEN DODD certainly deserved a welcome in the hillsides after sinking a birdie putt to win the Senior Open at Sunningdale. He managed to look delighted, without capering round the 18^th green or falling to his knees, while Miguel Angel Jimenez, waiting to see whether there would be a playoff, came out smiling to congratulate him. Ah, golf as it used to be.

DAVID HOWELL and Glen Hoddle's playing partner in the BMW PGA Pro Am at Wentworth next month will be Anton du Beke, so if they win we will expect to see a celebratory Viennese waltz.