Thought for the Day
Light travels faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak
Winning ain’t easy
The 1995 Walker Cup team, which beat the Americans 14-10 at Royal Porthcawl, featured an impressive line-up of British and Irish amateur talent. Padraig Harrington, Stephen Gallacher and David Howell have all gone on to taste considerable success in Europe and around the world, while Gary Wolstenholme is finally getting paid for his impressive talents, having joined the ranks of the European Seniors Tour. But another member of that victorious team, who was unbeaten during the competition, taking three points from a possible four, has had a slightly less stellar career. His name is Mark Foster and he has, since turning pro, recorded one European Tour victory, and that was back in 2003 when he landed the Dunhill Championship in South Africa after a six-man playoff.
Since then it has not even been a case of ‘close but no coconut’ as he has struggled to keep afloat in the turbulent waters of a Tour professional’s life – he makes plenty of cuts but rarely threatens the top of the leaderboard on a Sunday afternoon. You can imagine, therefore, that when he hits a streak of form, as he has done in recent weeks, he wants to ride it for all it’s worth but in the last fortnight he has twice led or shared the lead going into the final round, only to trip up coming down the stretch.
Two weeks ago in the BMW International Open he shot rounds of 68, 68, and 66 before a last day 72 left him tied third. And this weekend at the Alstom Open de France, three rounds of 68 were followed by a 74 which was one stroke too many to earn a playoff with Thomas Levet. It was Oscar Wilde, in The Importance of Being Earnest, who wrote: ‘To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness,’ and a similar sentiment could be offered to Mark Foster in regard to golf tournaments.
So as you go about your work this week, whatever it may be, count your blessings that you are not an extraordinarily talented golfer who is just not quite talented enough.
Belated praise
In the understandable euphoria we all felt watching the young scamp Rory McIlroy stride to an imperious US Open victory at Congressional, there wasn’t room to thank the other man responsible for such an extraordinary story. Mike Davies is the executive director of the USGA but when he succeeded David Fay last year he specifically said that the role he wanted to keep was setting up the courses for the US Open, a job he has been doing since 2006. He was given that task largely because of the debacle that was Shinnecock Hills in 2004, where the only things missing on the greens were windmills through which the players had to putt.
The seventh green, in particular, became a not very funny joke, and the putting surface had to be watered between groups (breaking the USGA’s own rules of competition, that a course set-up cannot be altered during a round) because not even the best in the world could keep a ball on the green.
Davies introduced multilayered gradations of rough – previously you either hit the fairway or were in jungle – and also provided pin placements that might be tough but were never unfair. He said on his appointment: ‘What you really want to do is give the players an arena where they can perform and are rewarded with good shots and penalised with bad shots,’ and that is exactly what he has achieved, and in the process finally abandoned the USGA’s long-term obsession that players should not break par. Rory, of course, ran away with things with his 16-under total but let us remember that another 19 competitors finished in red numbers and, most extraordinary of all, the USGA was sanguine and relaxed about it. Thanks to Mike Davies, sanity has finally broken out.
Betrayed by a friend
Am I the only golfer in the world to find that a favourite golf hole suddenly takes a dislike to me, or is it a universal experience? At my home club there are a couple of holes on which I always seem to struggle, and I will happily walk off with a bogey at any time. But there are others that, for whatever reason, always give me a sense of optimism when I’m standing on the tee – perhaps because they fit my eye or the way I shape the ball or simply because they’re easier than most and I have tended to score well on them. The first hole at Letham Grange is a good example of this as it’s one where, without thinking too much about it, I always seem able to find the fairway and then the green, or at least get close enough to still have a decent chance of making par.
Until, that is, two months ago. Since then I have found ever more imaginative ways of running up a bogey, double bogey or worse, and it feels as if an old and reliable friend has stabbed me in the back. Is it just me?
Quote of the Week
It is a curious but well ascertained fact that the narration of our own golf matches, like that of our own remarkable dreams, is likely to be of infinitely greater interest to ourselves than to others. Our listeners are inevitably bored, and, if they remain affable, it is only because they hope ultimately to secure us as an audience for a longer and duller story.
Bernard Darwin