Girvan good for sweepstake
Well, with weather like this, who wants to go abroad, especially with the George Sprunt Memorial Invitation Sweepstake Tournament ready to grace the Girvan course?
We know that the course will be in tip-top condition for this as the head green keeper takes
part and naturally wants to get his hands on some of the goodies that a sweepstake provides. But then the Girvan course has been in first class condition all this year and we are fortunate in having good green staff, even those who support Ayr United and have not let the latest results get them down.
The trees on the course are coming along well and provide a good golfing hazard as well as making the course more attractive. Well done to all concerned - just remember you do not need to revett the fairway bunkers. Do you know that revett is a word I cannot find in my dictionary, so why do they do it?
The qualifiers for Girvan Golf Club's Heneage Medal set forth last Sunday to see who could get their name on this very old medal, one of the oldest in the Girvan trophy cabinet. To qualify you need to have won or been second in a monthly medal over the past twelve months so it is a keenly contested event.
The winner by virtue of a better inward half was Robert McMaster (7)61 with Alex McKenzie (11)61 runner-up. That shows how close it was. Alan Gaff had the best scratch score
The Girvan Gents will compete for the October monthly medal on Sunday October 4 and so begins the qualifying for next year's Heneage medal.
QUOTATIONS OF THE WEEK
Harry Vardon way back in 1900 was asked whether he ever read articles on teaching one how to play golf. 'I know that neither Taylor or myself go by the books, yet between us we have won five out of the last six Open Championships.'
John Jacobs the well known golf coach 'The teacher who helped me most was the one who told me the least.' Too many tips leads to confusion, Sam Snead always used the philosophy that all you should have on your mind once you have chosen the shot to make is to hit the ball.
'To watch a first class field drive off must convince everyone that a golf ball can be hit in many different ways.' Henry Cotton proving that golf is a very individual game.
TALES FROM THE CADDYSHACK
My attention was drawn recently to the fact that a Turnberry member very nearly won the Open this year. Just imagine what that would have done to the history books of the future and of course the members could say casually 'Oh yes the Open champion is one of our members' I do of course refer to the fact that after the famous 'Duel in the Sun' between Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, both were made honorary members of Turnberry Golf Club.
The older golfer usually compensates for his lack of distance by being good at chipping and putting. One of my usual playing partners has reached the stage where he needs an electric buggy to get round the course but pitches and putts like a demon. Whilst I am not too bad at the chipping I still have to master the art of putting and find that the practice green on the Girvan course is of little help to me.
I cannot read the green and when I think the putt drops to the left, it goes and fades to the right. But it is the strength of putt needed that I find difficult either being six foot short or six foot too long.
I can therefore sympathize with Tom Watson who made a mess of his shots on and around the eighteenth green on the final day of the Open. The little book of golf don'ts written in 1925 says: 'Don't examine the line to the hole from both ends. It only confuses you. You see so many possible lines that you will end up by choosing the wrong one'.
Good advice to go by is to chose the first line you thought of and go for it, but then I am not really the one to give putting advice. But one good piece of advice from this little book: 'Don't forget that when there are two slopes to be reckoned with on the green, it is the slope nearest the hole which affects the ball most. The reason is that the ball will be travelling more slowly when it reaches the further slope.'
I find that people in their early teens are often good putters as they have no inhibitions and bravely knock the ball effortlessly into the hole. Ah well! I'm afraid that I am slightly past that stage - in fact when I was in my early teens I played with hickory shafted clubs.
Don't let all this get you down, golf is for fun so just go out and enjoy it, blaming on your foibles on a number of imaginary things like age, weather and so on, but never yourself.
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Weather for Girvan
Thursday 23 May 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 5 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 37 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 5 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: North
