Advent Calendar Post #10: BBC Sports Personality Of The Year and A Legend Says Goodbye December 14, 2008
Posted by bazmcstay in Advent, Golf, Latest News, Other Sports, Television.Tags: Annika Sorenstam, Babe Zaharias, BBC Sports Personality Of The Year, Beijing, British Cycling Team, British Open, Chris Hoy, Coach of the Year, Colonial, Cycling, David Esch, Dubai, Football, Golf, Grand Slam, LPGA Tour, Michael Phelps, Olympics 2008, Overseas Sportsman, Padraig Harrington, PGA Tour, Rugby, Scot, Solheim Cup, Team GB, Team of the Year, Tennis, The Skins Game, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt
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While our own Padraig Harrington was never going to win the BBC Overseas Sports Personality award in a category alongside Michael Phelps and winner Usain Bolt, it was fitting that Chris Hoy won the top award in Liverpool today. Despite the drug cheats and moments of shame, the Olympic Games still have an enormous power to delight and inspire us. In Beijing, Usain Bolt had the world smiling; it was impossible not to wonder at the exploits of Michael Phelps; the Irish boxers made us immensely proud; and, while the ceaseless British trumpeting of “Team GB” could get a little overpowering at times, the plaudits for the British Cycling Team were thoroughly merited.
The cyclists won three awards tonight: Coach of the Year, Team of the Year and, in Hoy, there could be few more deserving of the title Sports Personality of the Year. With three gold medals, the quiet Scot is the essence of sheer determination and professionalism. He is an inspiration not just to British youngsters but to any aspiring athlete. Hoy is not flashy; he shies away from the celebrity status which many sportsmen crave. He performs to the very highest standard in a sport which receives little attention yet which exerts immense physical pressure. Hoy’s victory today – a recognition of a year of victories – reminds us that, while the glamorous “mainstream” sports like football, rugby, golf and tennis occupy the majority of the back pages, there are a whole range of sports which require equal if not more superhuman effort. Chris Hoy’s victory is a victory for the “small” sports which have many unsung big heroes.
In Dubai today, the greatest golfer on the planet retired. If it was the greatest male player, Tiger Woods, it would be a front-page story. But this player is the brilliant Annika Sorenstam, the most elegant, successful and compelling lady golfer of the last 20 years and it barely makes shakes on the back pages. This lady is a force of nature, having won 90 tournaments worldwide since she turned pro 16 years ago including 10 majors and completing the career Grand Slam when she won the British Open in 2003. She became the first – and so far only – lady golfer to shoot 59 in 2001. She has 8 LPGA Tour money list titles, an astonishing 24 points in Solheim Cup competition and a whole host of awards over a glittering career. She also became the first female player to play in a PGA Tour event in nearly 60 years (since Babe Zaharias) when she competed at Colonial in 2003. That same year she appeared in the Skins Game, a money-making event usually reserved for 4 PGA Tour players, where she finished 2nd. She is the only PGA or LPGA player to win the same event 5 years in a row and the only LPGA player to win the same major in 3 consecutive years. In 2005 she won 11 of 21 events entered, despite the end of her marriage to David Esch.
I could go on. If you want an idea of the immensity of Annika Sorenstam’s achievement, check out her Wikipedia page – it’s a small insight into the career of a golfing giant. With her huge success in the game, it is amazing that Sorenstam has decided to call it a day at age 38 but it was fitting that she closed her career with a birdie on the 18th hole and another top-10 finish. No player has dominated the female game quite like Sorenstam and, like Woods in the men’s game, she has revolutionised how the world views the lady’s game. She is a true sporting great and, were it not for her sex, she would be one of the names that trips of everyone’s tongue. It has been a pleasure to watch Annika Sorenstam’s star rise and shine in the golfing firmament. 16 short years but what a 16 years. Ní bheidh a leithéad ann arís.
Post-Script To Advent Calendar Post #6 December 12, 2008
Posted by bazmcstay in Advent, Golf.Tags: Irish Open Golf, Mount Juliet
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Mount Juliet declined to host the Irish Open today. Damn.
Advent Calendar Post #7: The Year Of The Rat December 11, 2008
Posted by bazmcstay in Advent, Golf, Latest News.Tags: 2010, Celtic Manor, Corey Pavin, Greg Norman, K Club, Kiawah Island, Milwaukee, Oak Hill, PGA Tour, Rentokil, Ryder Cup, Shinnecock Hills, The Belfry, The Rat, Tom Lehman, US Bank Championship, US Open, Wales
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Another golf post, and just when you thought the Ryder Cup was done and dusted, not to be mentioned again for another 19 months, it surges back to the frontal lobes. That’s right, the Americans have announced their team captain for 2010, when the Cup will be contested in a field in Wales. Sorry, I mean, in Celtic Manor Hotel and Golf Resort.
The man of the moment is Corey Pavin. To some of our younger readers, that name won’t mean all that much. But to anyone who remembers the early 90s – through a haze of girl-bands and microwave meals – Corey Pavin is a name which commands respect. Never a long hitter or an elegant swinger, Pavin had an extraordinary ability to shape the ball – high or low, left or right, ugly or otherwise, Corey could play a mean game. His short game was wicked and when his putter was working, there were few better. His greatest career moment came in 1995 at Shinnecock Hills when he won the US Open, beating Greg Norman (I mean, who hasn’t…?) with a stunning 4-wood to 4 feet on the final green. No matter that he missed the putt, he didn’t need to hole it! A vertically-challenged wisp of a man, Pavin, over the course of his career, earned the nickname The Rat for being such a gritty competitor.
Pavin played in three Ryder Cups: 1991, 1993 and 1995. The first of these, the infamous War On The Shore at Kiawah Island, saw Pavin and Steve Pate team up in one game wearing Desert Storm hats, helping foster a feeling of ill-will between the two teams. The 1993 US team kept the Cup by winning on European soil at the Belfry, while Pavin won 4 points out of 5 in the American’s 1995 defeat at Oak Hill. He has one of the finer records among American players since 1985 with 8 wins and 5 defeats.
Pavin has mellowed somewhat in his older age, “finding God” so to speak and leading a prayer group on the US Tour. He was one of Tom Lehman’s vice-captains at the K Club in 2006 and, at 49, is surely casting one eye towards the Champions Tour. However, he won his 15th PGA Tour title at US Bank Championship in Milwaukee in July 2006, breaking the record for the lowest nine hole score at a PGA Tour event (26) in the process. He still plays a decent game and is a popular player. He has been on an American team which won away and is a ferocious competitor despite his calmer demeanour. He will be a fine American captain. Europe better choose wisely! Or just call Rentokil…
Advent Calendar Post #6: Minister Cullen’s Christmas Present To The Nation December 10, 2008
Posted by bazmcstay in Advent, Golf, Ireland, Latest News.Tags: 3 Mobile, American Express, Asia, Beijing, China, Department of Arts, Department Of Transport, Ernie Els, European Tour, Fáilte Ireland, Golf, Irish Open, Jack Nicklaus, Martin Cullen, Mission Hills, Mount Juliet, Olympic Games, Order Of Merit, Padraig Harrington, PGA Championship, Players Championship, Portmarnock, Race To Dubai, Sport and Tourism, Tiger Woods, Wentworth, World Cup of Golf
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He may not have been everyone’s favourite minister after his ill-fated stint in the Department Of Transport – there are tales of some drivers who have been stuck in a jam on a rumoured circular single-lane dual carriageway somewhere beyond Ardee since 2003 – but Martin Cullen has come up trumps. It’s amazing, it seems that anyone can become Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism these days and, beyond the debacle of Arts Council Funding and the annual gripes over grants to our athletes, enjoy a relatively successful and easy ride. But Minister Martin hasn’t just sat in the saddle and let the horse do the steering. He has taken the reins very confidently on one particular issue which I blogged on not too long ago.
The Irish Open (golf, in case I’ve gotten the hopes up of any of you squash fans…) has been without a title sponsor for some years and was pencilled in for the European Tour Schedule for 2009 with no venue and the prospect of becoming a tournament played for what small money Fáilte Ireland could muster on a poor quality track; a non-event as such, squeezed in between the Players Championship and the PGA Championship at Wentworth, a dwarf between two giants which, were it not for the nationality of Padraig Harrington, would fail to attract any of golf’s biggest names. One of golf’s oldest events, one which used to see the best of Europe and, indeed, the world, flock to our great old courses such as Portmarnock, was on its last legs.
Step forward Minister Martin Cullen. Or, rather, fly east. Many hacks and gadflies spent the month of August moaning and muck-flinging over the fact that the Minister travelled to China for the Olypmics – FIRST CLASS! shock horror! – rather than focusing on the wonderful events in Beijing. Now it emerges that, rather than relaxing on this junket, Martin Cullen actually made an approach to mobile giant 3 about sponsoring the Irish Open while in the East. Over the last couple of months, negotiations continued and the announcement is set to be made of the full details of the deal. 3 will take on title sponsorship of the tournament which now looks like it will move to Mount Juliet.
Martin Cullen is a golfer. He knows the game’s politics. As a politician himself, he understands the importance of the Irish Open to the Irish tourist industry and golf as one of its biggest selling points. The choice of 3 as a sponsor is not a coincidence: They sponsor Padraig Harrington (cf: The lapel of his shirts), they have broken into the Irish market in the last few years and they are an Asian company. The golf world has expanded into Asia in the last decade, realising both the massive interest in the game there and the expanding economic conditions which make sponsorship and prize-money easy to come by. The World Cup Of Golf has signed up to be played at Mission Hills in China until 2018. More and more big names are being tempted to play for millions in Asian opens and invitationals. Having an Asian-based sponsor for the Irish Open will surely help golf tourism from the East to our shores.
Minister Cullen also knows his stuff when it comes to offering the event to the right golf course. Mount Juliet is a Jack Nicklaus-designed gem in Kilkenny. Its facilities are second to none. It hosted the Irish Open from 1993-1995 and, most vital of all, it hosted the American Express World Golf Championship event in 2002 and 2004. These events see the cream of world golf come together – Tiger Woods won the tournament in 2002 and Ernie Els in 2004 – and the praise for the quality of the course was high. Tiger himself described the greens as the best he had ever played on. This is a course which every golfer knows to be a fantastic track and it will attract not only the big guns from Europe but, hopefully, some from America too.
With the European Tour Order Of Merit now defunct and replaced by the mega-bucks Race To Dubai, more American players will be tempted to play in Europe and it is up to individual events to make themselves attractive. Martin Cullen has succeeded in securing the future of the Irish Open in spectacular style. There will be a 20% increase in the prize fund, a strong marketing campaign undertaken by 3 and Fáilte Ireland, and it will be played on one of the best courses in the country, if not the world. Not only will the Americans be tempted over to play this grand old tournament, but it will now be cemented as one of THE national opens to play in the minds of the European Tour regulars who have to pick and choose which events to play and which ones to disappoint. Padraig Harrington has been a great ambassador for the event, dragging his friends and rivals on the tour to play in Ireland, espousing the Irish Open as one of the best tournaments of the year. Finally, he may not have to try so hard.
Well done Minister Cullen.
Closing down the Irish Open October 7, 2008
Posted by bazmcstay in Golf, Ireland.Tags: Adare Manor, Christy O'Connor, Darren Clarke, European Tour, Golf, Irish Open, Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley, Ryder Cup, Sponsorship
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The European Tour International Schedule, as it is now known, announced its line-up for 2009 yesterday and in these troubled economic times, one thing became very apparent: Getting sponsorship for golf events – as with every other event going right now – is not the easiest of tasks. 9 of the tournaments pencilled in for a marathon 53-week long schedule currently have no venue assigned. This is largely to do with the fact that it costs a lot of money to stage a Tour event, money which sponsors are simply unable to fork out. One of the tournaments in most danger of extinction is our very own Irish Open. First played in 1927, it now looks as if one of the oldest events in Europe is teetering on the brink.
Ireland has a lengthy history in the annals of European and world golf. Think of Fred Daly and his Open Chamionship victory in Hoylake in 1947; Harry Bradshaw’s ball coming to rest in the broken beer bottle which cost him the championship two years later; Christy O’Connor Senior, Himself, considered by many to be one of the finest ball-strikers of all time, who appeared in 10 Ryder Cups; Bradshaw and O’Connor winning the 1958 World Cup of Golf. Think of further Ryder Cup heroes like Eamonn Darcy holing a slippery 6-footer to beat Ben Crenshaw in 1987, Christy O’Connor and his famous 2-iron in 1989, David Feherty beating the US Open Champion Payne Stewart in 1991, Phillip Walton clinching the decisive point against Jay Haas in 1995, Paul McGinley holing the winning putt against Jim Furyk in 2002, Darren Clarke’s emotional homecoming to the K-Club in 2006. Think of the wonderful Dunhill Cup wins in the late-80s and early 90s; Padraig Harrington and McGinley winning the World Cup again in 1997; Darren conquering Tiger in the 2000 World Matchplay. Think, of course, of the wonderful moments Padraig has given us over the last two years.
There are others, many others, of course. And there are the hundreds of fantastic golf courses which dot our countryside, some of the finest tracks in the world, which see golfers from all four corners of the globe flock to our country every year, in spite of our less-than-appropriate weather systems, to sample some of the greatest tests of golf and some of the very best hospitality this planet knows. Ballybunion, Portmarnock, Royal Portrush, Royal County Down, The Old Head, Lahinch, Waterville, The K-Club, Baltray, Adare Manor, the list is endless, and many top golfers would list several of these among their favourite places to play the game.
Yet our national championship is dying. Just this year, Irish golfers have won 8 times on tour, more than any other country. We hold two of the four major championships. And yet, the Irish Open is without a sponsor – a situation which has existed for the last couple of years – and is now homeless. Failte Ireland has been underwriting about €350,000 of the money needed to run the tournament, but that has left Tom O’Kane, owner of Adare Manor which hosted the last two Irish Opens, footing the remainder of the bill, about €2.1million. The prize fund has been paid for by the European Tour, which has owned the tournament since Murphys gave up their sponsorship at the turn of the decade. When Nissan took over the sponsorship, it was only the titular rights and the Tour retained its ownership – i.e.: Nissan couldn’t give enough money to the event to buy the rights outright and to pay all the prizemoney. Hence, in the last few years, the Irish Open has suffered as its low prize-fund meant a lot of pros chose to stay away. It was shunted about the schedule for a few years but has now settled to a May slot which could help as it is not now struggling to entice the top names back from the Players Championship. Other factors such as bad weather (and the subsequent low attendances) and the competition from the European Open at the K-Club all adds up to an event struggling for survival.
O’Kane’s intervention, bringing the Open to Adare Manor in 2007 - and with it, the happy coincidences of good weather and Padraig Harrington’s win (the first by an Irishman in 25 years) - gave the Open a shot in the arm, image-wise. However, money talks and right now it’s all a bit tight-lipped around OUR Open. The European Open has gone, leaving the Irish Open as the only top-quality golf event staged in Ireland. Very soon it could be gone too. For an event which in the 70s and 80s was played on the best links courses in the country and attracted some of the biggest names in the world, from Norman to Crenshaw, Faldo to Langer, to be sliding down the drain is a sad state of affairs.
The fact is, however, that golf sponsorship is so much easier in Asia where there are bags of money, expenses are cheaper and crowds are insanely enthusiastic and will pay exorbitant prices to see the lowest-quality European Tour fields. The events which are still waiting on their venues TBA are in Europe itself rather than the Asian leg of the tour. Recession or no recession, the Irish Open needs a sponsor, or another little piece of our heritage – our sporting heritage – will go the way of Wood Quay and the Hill of Tara, victim to the march of “progress”. This time though, the progress is an economic progression beyond its control.
Okay, so the Irish Open is not quite as old as Wood Quay or the Hill of Tara, but you get my drift. It’s history. It’s tradition. And it’s ours. Anyone feel like sponsoring it? Pass the hat around so.
Post-Ryder Cup Yank Supremicism October 6, 2008
Posted by bazmcstay in Golf.Tags: Fed-Ex Cup, Ryder Cup, Tim Finchem, World Ranking
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Now, as the complicated and wholly unthrilling Fed-Ex Cup Playoff Series comes to its rather disappointing climax – along the lines of Katie Holmes’ first night in bed with Lil’ Tom Cruise – Commissioner of the PGA Tour Tim Finchem was forced to admit that the format “still needs tweaking”.
The problem with the series is that it is an extension of the American sports’ fascination with playoffs: Ultimate deciders, full-stops to a season of hard graft and drive and bloodshed – but the Americans don’t like sudden-death, one match can’t decide it when seven can! The catch with the Fed-Ex Cup is, no one cares which of the multi-millionaires on the US Tour becomes a bigger multi-millionaire, especially when the method of awarding this $10million bonus involves a system of calculations which left Stephen Hawking’s voice box gasping for air – or at least just typing a series of ellipses… … … … … … … … … … … …
A series of four tournaments to settle a race for a lot of money and a trophy of no history or popular appeal is extraordinarily boring, even for a die-hard fan. Most golf viewers pay the most attention to the majors – and even then, as it is with the players, the excitement doesn’t really start till the back nine on Sunday. Their interest tends to be merely passing beyond those four events. Football has its great cups, knockout tournaments which peak in one 90 minute match of high drama and emotion. Even the multi-millionaires in the Premiership don’t play to win money at the end of their 38-game season. It’s all about that medal around your neck. The appeal of the Ryder Cup – even if it is played for by an entity for which we normally don’t feel great affinity, Europe – is the same: two teams, one trophy, no money.
So you can pity poor Timmy Finny and his limping playoffs. But you got to say he was pushing it when he insisted that there was plenty of excitement to be had, despite the fact that Vijay Singh simply has to hack it about the course and finish last in the 30-man field this week to win the damn thing. Then Tim came out with a blast of a line from the past:
“If you just think about the fact that some $22 million is at stake among these top-30 players in the world, so that means a lot.”
Ok, firstly, that isn’t even a grammatically correct sentence. But you get his drift. And his drift is seriously skewed. What Tim Finchem essentially said was that the top-30 on the Fed-Ex Cup – ie: 30 PGA Tour players – are the top-30 players in the world. Tim displayed the same narrow-minded view of world golf which Raymond Floyd’s words at the Belfry nearly 20 years ago demonstrated. He equated the American rankings to the world rankings, elevating the US Tour to some elite position above the rest of the world.
Put the Fed-Ex Cup top-30 ranking beside the World Rankings: Tiger Woods isn’t fit right now and isn’t a figure in the Fed-Ex Cup but he is still the world number 1; Padraig Harrington is the World Number 4 but is not in the top-30 on the Fed-Ex Cup, despite 2 major wins this summer; world number 6 Henrik Stenson isn’t even a member of the US Tour. Go down the list: Westwood, Karlsson and Jiminez aren’t either; Rose, Donald and Poulter, Ogilvy, Ames, aren’t in the Fed-Ex Cup final, but are top-30 ranked players. On the flipside, there is no one who honestly believes that Ken Duke, Ryuji Imada, Billy Mayfair or Briny Baird are even top-50 players in the world, but Tim Finchem has lumped them in with the very best.
In the week after the Ryder Cup, he must be delighted that the best of the American Tour beat the best of the European Tour.
BUT THEY DIDN’T! The best of the American tour, if we’re going by that Fed-Ex Cup ladder, is Fijian. The next best is from Colombia. Third is from Spain. Then comes Jimmy Furyk. A Korean and Canadian feature in the top-10. An American hasn’t won a tournament worth winning on tour (i.e.: A tournament which wasn’t up against a bigger event like a major or the Ryder Cup) since Kenny Perry won the John Deere Classic on July 13th. That’s 2 and a half months ago. This year, more foreign players have won the US Tour than Americans.
The US Tour has always been treated as the high water point. Three of the four majors are played in America. As a result, American players and administrators regard Americans as the world’s best players. And the statistics can give truth to the lie. The world rankings began life in an unbalanced state, giving favouritism to the American tour in the days when its membership was largely still American (the mid-80s). As a result, since then, American players and tournaments have always benefitted from greater world ranking points than Europe and the rest of the world and its members get a better chance of making those tournaments which require a strong world ranking, which in turn offer greater points and so the whole thing snowballs.
A 30th place finish in a US Tour Event can be worth a lot more than a 10th place finish in a European Tour Event. It is only now that foreign players are overwhelming the American presence on the US Tour and picking up all those world ranking points that they are beginning to make a mark in those statistics. But average players who play in America still outrank great players who play in Europe. There is no way that Ian Poulter would still be in the world’s top-30 if his results had been in European Tour events rather than in America. Camillo Villegas only won his first PGA Tour event two weeks ago, but he is still number 17. A little lower down you find the likes of Woody Austin and Sean O’Hair in the top-50, still above Darren Clarke, for instance, who has won twice this year in Europe.
So, what started as a little moan about the derogatory implications of Tim Finchem’s comment has turned into a long and drawn out demonstration of the imbalance in world golf and, in particular, the world rankings. That system needs a serious overhaul, which needs to include a recognition of the strength and quality of the European Tour’s players. The Fed-Ex Cup system could do with a makeover too. I’m thinking along the lines of the makeover Vesuvius gave Pompeii.
