Thought for the Day:
Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm
Maybe next year
You know how it is, there’s always a particular hole on a golf course that seems to have it in for you – one that you never seem to play well, no matter what your form is like on the other 17. Pro golfers have a similar experience, except with them it’s a tournament or championship that grabs them by the scrotum (elsewhere if they’re women, naturally) and won’t let go. For young Rory McIlroy that tournament is the Abu Dhabi Championship which finished at the weekend, and in which he has been runner-up three times.
On two of those occasions, this year and 2012, he was beaten by a single shot, having been handed a two-stroke penalty for a rules infringement during the event. In 2012 Robert Rock was the beneficiary after Rory illegally brushed away sand that was not on the putting surface. His Groundhog Day moment came this year in the third round when he took relief from a spectator walkway, but did not take full relief because he played the subsequent shot while his foot was still within the boundaries of the walkway.
In the press conference immediately after that round he was, it’s fair to say, a little hot under the collar and said: ‘There are a lot of stupid rules in golf and this is one of them.’ It is easy to agree. More worryingly, he then added that he had: ‘better things to think about,’ than keeping himself abreast of the rules. No Rory. If your ignorance is going to cost you titles, which it has done twice in what is still a short pro career, you need to wake up.
But although the event may not be his favourite in the world, for the rest of us it is wonderful to see him continuing his journey back to top form. He next tees it up on January 30 at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, alongside Tiger Woods and I, for one, can’t wait.
They cannot be serious
As anyone knows who has ever watched a TV show in which viewers are asked to vote – Strictly Come Dancing or The X-Factor, for example – the public mood can be fickle at the best of times. And never has this been more clearly demonstrated than in their selection of the European Tour Shot of the Year.
In a remarkable act of perversity they voted Henrik Stenson’s 3-wood to 72nd hole at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, last November, giving him a tap-in eagle, as the winner. There is no doubting that it was a wonderful shot but context is everything. He was strolling to a comfortable victory, having already secured his place as winner of the Race to Dubai, having previously lifted the FedEx Cup in America. And he admitted afterwards that he didn’t quite hit the ball as he intended but got a lucky break.
In contrast, under the severest pressure imaginable, last June at Merion Justin Rose stood in the middle of the 18th fairway knowing that a good approach could land him his first ever major, the US Open. He hit a 4-iron and it was one of the finest shots of his career, exactly as intended. Shortly afterwards he lifted the trophy that will change his life forever, and which has only been held aloft by two Englishmen in 93 years (the other being Tony Jacklin in 1970).
It’s not just this bizarre result that takes my breath away, but the one-sidedness of it. Henrik secured 62.3% of the online votes cast, while Justin managed a measly 9.58%. Words fail me.
Don’t give up
Jimmy Walker, at the age of 35, won his first US Tour event, at the 188th time of asking, when he lifted the Frys.com Open in October last year (which was, puzzlingly, the first official event of the 2014 season). And then he won the Sony Open in Hawaii. A final round 63 leapfrogged him through the field on a day when he made seven birdies – four of them in five holes on the back nine. Tenacity can bring its own reward.
This is embarrassing
There are certain bits of information that everyone else seems to know but which, for whatever reason, pass you by. For example, when I was a boy (and well into my teens), I always wondered why the luggage offices at railways stations were always on the left, never on the right. And it didn’t occur to me, until long after it was obvious to everyone else, that a wireless was so called because it had no wires, or that a Frigidaire refrigerator contained frigid air.
To my immense embarrassment I have belatedly seen the light regarding the trade name Titleist, having always wondered why such a peculiar moniker was attached to golf balls, clubs and other equipment. In America, particularly at the time the company was founded, the person who won a title or championship was called the title-ist, or titleist.
After more than 40 years, light has finally penetrated the fog in my brain. Doh!
Quote of the Week
Hit the ball up to the hole. You meet a better class of people up there
Ben Hogan
