So much for golf being the honourable game, the royal and ancient pastime, a game for gentlemen and gentlewomen played by gentlemen and gentlewomen. All those descriptions fly out the window when we think of the current state of professional golf. Court battles, vindictiveness, death threats, name calling, players turning on one another, calling each other liars. How did professional golf become so toxic? Anyone else fed up with the whole unsavoury scene that is the LIV Golf

There wasn’t much talk of the current state/mess of men’s professional golf in Open Championship Final Qualifying at Hollinwell (Notts Golf Club) this week. No talk of astronomical prize funds or which players have been branded traitors for jumping to the Saudi-backed LIV Tour. Just 76 players dreaming of playing in the game’s greatest championship. I got the feeling the vast majority didn’t care if there was any prize money in the 150th Open at St Andrews this month. Most wo

Lexi Thompson and Hye-Jin Choi were reportedly fined $2,000 for impersonating snails in the KPMG Women’s PGA final round at Congressional Country Club. If ever there was another call to institute a shot clock in professional golf, then is it. That request will no doubt fall on deaf ears: there is no haste to deal with slow play at the top level. We wouldn’t still be talking about it if there was. How slow was play in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship? The final group on Satur

Do you think PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan consulted “strategic alliance” partner Keith Pelley when he announced plans to splash even more cash on the PGA Tour’s upper echelon? Good question. How will Monahan’s for the few not the many message to his members yesterday impact Pelley and the European Tour, now the DP World Tour? Does eight reduced-field, no-cut enriched events – sound familiar? – more money to his top players at the expense of the rank and file, and three r

Was Matthew Fitzpatrick up to the Sir Henry Cotton’s test? That was the question I asked myself 10 years ago when I watched him win the R&A Boys Amateur Championship at Notts Golf Club (Hollinwell). I wasn’t sure then, and I wasn’t sure as he stood on the 72nd hole yesterday in the US Open at Brookline. The late Tommy Horton once told me a story about Sir Henry Cotton. During a European Open at Sunningdale, the Maestro and Tommy were on the patio watching European Tour pros o

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has laid his cards on the table. No PGA Tour play for the rebels who’ve jumped to the LIV Tour. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Meanwhile European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley (above) is still shuffling the deck trying to find a few aces to get through probably the biggest crisis professional golf has ever seen, one that could rip apart the "strategic alliance" agreed between the tours in November 2020. So far he hasn’t come up trum

It usually/always is about money when it comes to professional golf. Why can’t many see that in relation to LIV Golf, which kicks off its tour at the Centurion Club near St Albans today? I mean it’s not hard to figure out. It’s been going on forever. It’s how professional golf measures itself: the PGA Tour's Player Impact Program; FedExCup cash, the Race to Dubai, DP World Tour sponsorship; the Rolex Series… So, you have to laugh at everyone claiming those playing in the LIV

Growing up, my mother would often tell me “never cut your nose off to spite your face” whenever I wanted to lash out at someone who had caused me some minor irritation. The European Tour, now the DP World Tour, surely needs to heed these nine words or risk irreparable damage to the Ryder Cup. I can’t be the only European golf fan who feels the threat of Ryder Cup expulsion for those playing in this week’s Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational tournament at the Centurion Club wil

If ever there was a time for the “strategic alliance” between the European Tour and PGA Tour to kick into high gear, now is the time. The European Tour’s future could depend on it. That much is obvious from next week’s field for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational London tournament at the Centurion Club. So far the much heralded tie up between the world’s top tours has been under whelming: PGA Tour players get to play in the Scottish Open and count it as one of their 15 PG

The elephant has finally arrived in the golf room. Or perhaps the planting of the Fiddleleaf fig tree (above) would be more appropriate. The Fiddleleaf fig tree? That shrub stood out from a recent trip to the Eden Project. It’s stayed in my mind for obvious reasons. Here’s the description of said tree as snapped from my mobile phone. Hmmm, an organism that grasps on to another organism and slowly strangles its host. Sound familiar in the game of golf as it currently stands, p

There’s something sad about watching a golfer past his prime trying to play as if he is still in his halcyon days. I’m sure I wasn’t the only golf fan who felt that watching Tiger Woods limp around Southern Hills in the PGA Championship. It was like watching a former boxing champion come out of retirement to have one last tilt at the title, only to find his reflexes can’t protect him from the blows of a younger opponent. A flashback of the 1994 PGA Championship came to mind.

There were 18 exhausted golfers at the conclusion of the 49th 72 Club at Littlestone Golf Club. Members suffered tight backs, sore legs, blisters, assorted other ailments and considerable chafing in parts of the body best not mentioned in a family blog. Was it worth playing 72 holes of medal play, walking and carrying a bag around this hidden gem of a links? Hell yes! The majority can’t wait to do it all again next year. Tim Lindfield, a 10 handicapper from Haywards Heath Gol

I’ve booked a round of golf on Woburn Golf Club’s delightful Duchess course at 12:20 pm on Tuesday. Not sure it’s the best idea considering I’ll be starting my fifth round in the space of approximately 29 hours. I could be a wee bit stiff and sore after four rounds in the 72 Club at lovely Littlestone Golf Club the day before. If you’re a regular reader of this blog then you’ll know all about the 72 Club: four rounds of golf, 72 holes, in one day, walking and carrying in stra

Fair play to European Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley for playing the history card to try to persuade his members to say no to the vast sums of money Greg Norman and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Investments Tour are dangling in front them. Good luck with that Keith. Pelley might want to dig into European Tour history to see how money has turned many so called “heritage events” into shadows of their former selves, or even made them the extinct. As James Corrigan revealed in The

There’s a good chance James Achenbach is still standing at the Pearly Gates talking to St Peter about the shaft he has in his driver. If St Peter is looking for a replacement to gain a few extra yards, then my former colleague is the right person. There was nothing the man most of us fondly called “Auchie” didn’t know about golf equipment. Achenbach, who died 15 April aged 78, spent his entire career devouring information about golf equipment. Not just equipment: Golf was Auc

It took me a while to pluck up the courage to ask what the letters SMH stood for. My nephew was sending them so often in WhatsApp conversations about sports that I finally had to ask. Even if it meant my offspring STHs at me for being so out of touch. Yet again! Younger readers will know SMH is the acronym for “shaking my head.” That’s what I was doing, and no doubt many other golf fans, when I discovered the bizarre ruling that denied Dylan Frittelli an outstanding par durin

What are a rank and file European Tour members going to be thinking on the 12th of June when they look at the final leaderboard of the inaugural $25 million event on the LIV Golf Investments Tour at the Centurion Club and realise they’re better than the guy who won it? Imagine if a journeyman pro pips star names Kevin Na, Ian Poulter, Bubba Watson and Lee Westwood, who have reportedly signed up to the LIV Tour, to the $4 million dollar first place cheque while the winner that

Tyrrell Hatton’s verbal tirade on the course that Bobby Jones and Dr Alister MacKenzie built needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. He’d just shot 79, 80 for the last two rounds to finish last of those who made the cut in the 86th Masters. No wonder he came off the golf course and lambasted it. But is he right? Is Augusta National the unfairest test of golf when set up to ensure the world’s best don’t rip it to shreds? Here’s a taste of what Hatton said after the final round

Tiger Woods is naturally hogging all the headlines in this week’s Masters. It was the same nine years ago when arguably the worst ruling in golf history took place on the hallowed grounds of Augusta National. It's a ruling that divided golf fans then, and probably still does. There was anxiety behind the scenes at Augusta National on this day nine years ago. The green jackets were in a wee bit of tizzy about what do about the star attraction. Woods had taken a drop on the par

Laird Shepherd had to dig deep to win last year’s Amateur Championship. He ran out an unlikely winner at Nairn Golf Club, coming from eight down to defeat fellow Englishman Monty Scowsill at the 38th hole. That’s more holes than he’ll probably play in this year’s Masters. Shepherd, who plays alongside Bob MacIntyre and Charl Schwartzel in the opening round, will have to dig even deeper if he hopes to play all four rounds at the course Thomas Boswell labelled the "Cathedral in