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Will Padraig Follow Catriona?

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Alistair Tait

1 day ago

Will Padraig Follow Catriona?

Great move by the R&A in appointing Catriona Matthew to captain the 2024 Great Britain & Ireland Curtis Cup team to face the United States at Sunningdale. It begs the question: will we see a tour professional, say Padraig Harrington, captain the 2025 GB&I Walker Cup team for the match at Cypress Point. Why not? Matthew’s appointment breaks new ground in the biennial match: Scotland’s greatest women golfer, the 2009 Ricoh Women’s Open champion, is the first tour professional a

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Alistair Tait

Mar 15

Hallelujah Moment For Golf’s 99%

Yesterday’s R&A and USGA roll back the golf ball announcement spells good news for the vast majority of the world’s golfers. The proposal of a Model Local Rule (MLR) that may be introduced in 2026 to allow tournament organisers to limit the distance golf balls travel is a win/win move by the game’s power brokers. Here are the key words for you and me in yesterday’s joint statement from the governing bodies. “The MLR is intended for use only in elite competitions and, if adopt

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Alistair Tait

Mar 2

Now What For the Strategic Alliance?

Where does the PGA Tour’s strategic alliance partner, the European Tour, feature in its planned schedule changes for 2024? Afterthought is the word that comes to mind. European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley and other top officials in leafy Virginia Waters in Surrey, England must be looking at the news emanating from the mouth of PGA Tour commissioner Rory McIlroy, sorry, Jay Monahan and quietly shaking their heads. Plans to pay more money to main PGA Tour stars, a commitm

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Alistair Tait

Feb 23

Full Swing or Full PR?

You have to wonder if PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was the real director of the eight-part Netflix Series “Full Swing”. As a public relations exercise for the organisation he runs, it scores a 66. As a behind the scenes documentary of the world’s biggest professional golf circuit it shoots 86. Eight episodes? Another director could easily have distilled this down to four, perhaps two. Aside from the odd swear word, this series could have emanated from the PGA Tour’s medi

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Alistair Tait

Feb 18

“Quite simply, JP was the Tour.”

European golf has lost one of its all-time greats. John Paramor (pictured above right) has gone to that great rules office in the sky. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who shed a few wee tears upon hearing the news that this great man, this gentle giant, had passed away aged just 67. Seve Ballesteros, another legend taken too soon, once said the European Tour was like one big family. Those of us who were fortunate enough to know JP feel as if we’ve lost a member of that family.

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Alistair Tait

Feb 10

The Crushing Weight of Expectation

You have to marvel at elite professionals such as Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam, Jack Nicklaus, Inbee Park, Ben Hogan, Juli Inkster and other multiple major winners. Imagine not only having to deal with trying to guide an often disobedient golf ball around green and pleasant places, but the weight of expectation too. For many it can be crushing. Think of the number of players who’ve won a major championships and never won another. I count 77 women classified as

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Alistair Tait

Feb 2

Does Oman spell trouble for Euro Tour?

Anyone seen next week’s fields for the Asian Tour’s International Tour Series Oman and the European Tour’s Singapore Classic? Both are worth $2 million but the old world circuit can’t compete with the Asian Tour. Who’d have thought an Asian Tour event in Oman would ever trump a European Tour one? That could become the norm if the European Tour wins next week’s arbitration case and is allowed to ban LIV Tour members from competing on what is now the DP World Tour. For many, th

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Alistair Tait

Jan 24

Golf On Prescription? Yes Please!

Imagine going to your GP, telling the doctor you’re feeling a bit under the weather, demotivated, overweight, a little depressed and generally blasé about life. Think of your reaction when the doctor’s response is: “Why don’t you try golf?” You: “Sorry, did you just say a four-letter word? Doctor: “Yes, I did, but this is nice four letter word. One that will transform your mental health, help you lose weight, and lead to a general improvement in your overall wellbeing. Trust

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Alistair Tait

Jan 19

A Crux Year For The European Tour?

How will the 2023 European Tour season be remembered by golf historians 100 years from now? As the year the tour grew to bigger heights thanks to the strategic alliance with the PGA Tour? Or as the beginning of the end because of its battle with LIV Golf? We probably won’t know after the end of this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, the first event of the calendar year on what is now the DP World Tour. Obviously those so-called LIV Golf rebels and tour officials haven’t kis

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Alistair Tait

Jan 10

Can Hero Cup Provide Ryder Reality?

I hope this week’s Seve Trophy, sorry, Hero Cup provides inspiration for Europe to go on and win the Ryder Cup in September. I’m not so sure. The current fractured nature of European golf makes this week’s Hero Cup in Abu Dhabi a far cry from those warmup Great Britain & Ireland versus Europe affairs of the past when the name of Europe's greatest golfer, Seve Ballesteros, was attached to the match. Let’s start with the positives. European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald gets ex

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Alistair Tait

Jan 2

RIP Baz Lane – One of The Good Guys

Barry Lane climbed up on to the disused shed and walk along the single beam that was the apex of the small building at Downshire Golf Club, near Bracknell, where Barry had been an assistant professional. The beam looked about six inches wide, but Barry insisted on posing on it with his driver as golf photographer Matthew Harris started snapping pictures. “Bet you Mark Roe has never done anything like this, can’t wait ‘til he sees this photo,” Barry said. If I was nervous befo

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Alistair Tait

Dec 21, 2022

Fitzpatrick Deserves More Respect

Add Matt Fitzpatrick’s name to the list of British golfers who haven’t received the respect they deserve, a list that includes Catriona Matthew, Paul Lawrie and Luke Donald. Not that I really need to recap, but here goes. Fitzpatrick joined the major club with victory in the U.S. Open in June. A British sportsperson winning one of the game’s biggest championships is surely worthy of inclusion on the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, especially one wi

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Alistair Tait

Dec 14, 2022

Golf: The Game We Just Can’t Quit

Interesting comments on Tiger Woods from Colin Montgomerie on the Bunkered.com podcast. The eight-time European Tour order of merit winner says Tiger should have walked away from the game after he’d missed the cut in this year’s Open Championship over the Old Course at St Andrews. “That was the time,” Montgomerie said. “It would have been a glorious way to go. The stands were full, the world’s TV cameras—from all continents—were on him, he’s walking up there on his own, tears

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Alistair Tait

Nov 30, 2022

Golf's Misnomer Of The Year?

Stand at the top of Ben Hope on a sunny day and the 360 degree view is a glorious vista of seeming nothingness. Bogs, lochans, rivers, and burns dot the vast green treeless landscape. “Nothingness” couldn’t be further from the truth. Ben Hope, Scotland’s most northerly Munro, resides in Flow Country (pictured) which, according to the eponymous website is.. “…the most intact and extensive blanket bog system in the world. Stretching across Caithness and Sutherland in the far no

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Alistair Tait

Nov 21, 2022

Rory Takes The Road Less Travelled

You won’t get many golf fans unhappy at Rory McIlroy ending the season as European number one, winning the Harry Vardon Trophy for a fourth time. However, Rory’s never had to work less to climb to the top of the European tree. He did it in just 10 tournaments out of the 43 on this year’s European Tour schedule, a participation rate of just 23.26% compared to 25% when he topped the 2015 Race to Dubai, 28.75% in 2014 and 33.33% for his 2012 achievement. The way things are going

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Alistair Tait

Nov 16, 2022

Where Golf Dreams Die?

The former Ryder Cup player played the 18th hole at San Roque the way I might have played it. Badly. Obviously not because of lack of talent, but due to a more insidious intangible: bottle. That last word is key at the European Tour Qualifying School, which ends today at the Infinitum Club in Tarragona, Spain. Those 25 players who earn cards for next year’s European Tour are the ones who’ve had the ability to make pars when it matters, not birdies. As anyone who’s been around

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Alistair Tait

Nov 1, 2022

Has Valderrama Said A Sad Adios?

Remember when LIV Golf had no players, no tournaments, no courses, and seemingly no hope – that didn’t age well, did it? Now, as I hinted at in a recent post, it’s on the verge of acquiring one of Europe’s most historic venues. Is Valderrama and the Estrella Damm N.M. Andalucía Masters the first in those European Tour dominoes to fall in the seemingly losing battle the European Tour is waging with LIV Golf? It appears so. I wonder what the “strategic alliance” reaction will b

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Alistair Tait

Oct 22, 2022

Why Mini-Tour Golf Matters

So farewell PGA EuroPro Tour. After 20 years it is no more. Now what for future aspiring tour professionals hoping to gain a footing on the European Challenge Tour? Let the record show that Englishman James Allan won the final tournament, the MatchRoom Tour Championship, at Lough Erne Resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. His 5-under-par 211 gave him a one-shot victory over Welshman Jack Davidson and a £25,000 cheque. More importantly, he, Davidson, Scotland’s Michael Stew

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Alistair Tait

Oct 14, 2022

If One DP World Tour Domino Falls...

I wonder if European Tour sponsors are currently checking contracts, thinking it might be a good idea to jump ship and dump the old world circuit? Ditto for long term Euro Tour venues. Are they thinking: why do we bother getting our courses in great shape, inconveniencing members and guests for weeks/months when we now can’t get many stars to come and play? Is the appeal of a certain tour run by Greg Norman becoming a bit more attractive to some? Take this week’s Estrella Dam

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Alistair Tait

Oct 6, 2022

Selling Off European Golf's Future?

Here’s a thought: Imagine Sir Alex Ferguson when he was Manchester United manager agreeing to reward some of his best young players by giving them to a rival club – say Liverpool – because they’d excelled during the season. How about New England Patriots coach Bill Belicheck saying to 10 members of his squad: “You’ve played well this year, so well I’m giving you to the Miami Dolphins." Madness, right? Why would any organisation, sporting or otherwise, readily give away promi

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