Vic Fires News

Horsham Golf Club, one of the jewels of Victorian golf, lost its nearly-new $2 million clubhouse, pro shop, machinery and significant course vegetation as well as many historic items in the recent Black Saturday bushfire disaster. While the building was completely destroyed, the course itself -- which has been rated the top PGA pro-am course in rural Victoria for the past four years -- was left relatively intact, and may re-open for play shortly, pending some safety and repair initiatives, tree removals, etc., identified by the Club Board.

The PGA, Golf Australia, the ALPG and many across the golf industry have all rallied to support the victims of the bushfire disaster. At time of printing a variety of golf days, auctions and initiatives had been scheduled across the country, including the Victorian Bushfire Appeal Golf Day at Sanctuary Lakes, the Bushfire Charity Day & Auction at Hidden Valley Golf & Country Club in Wallan, the ALPG Birdies for Bushfire Appeal, and Greg Norman & the Johnnie Walker Classic's 9-hole competition and auction. Some of Australia's leading tournament players spoke publicly of donating tournament winnings and other funds to the disaster appeals, while the World Golf Hall of Fame in Florida even rushed some unique items overseas to generate funds via auction. We'll feature more on this in the next issue.

Scotland's first minister says R&A policy of "men only" should be dropped

A recent story in The Guardian has reignited the long-standing debate around "men only" clubs. The story centres around Dr Louise Richardson, a specialist in international politics, who became St Andrews University's first woman principal last June. Despite the two previous (male) incumbents in the job each being given honorary membership of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the same courtesy has not been offered to Dr Richardson.

Recently, Scotland's most senior politician, Alex Salmond -- a keen golfer -- criticised the R&A for failing to abide by the tradition, stating "The [R&A] should follow their long-standing practice of offering membership to the Principal of St Andrews University, and I am sure that after due consideration they will continue with that honourable tradition."

He was joined by Claire Baker, a Labour member of the Scottish parliament, who added "It seems that the Royal and Ancient is still stuck in the middle ages. It is high time the fuddy-duddies who run the club put their chauvinist attitudes to one side and joined the 21st century."

A spokesman for the club said extending honorary membership to the principal of St Andrews was not a tradition or a right. "It has only happened twice in the past. It's an invitation at the club's discretion," he said.

The R&A had a similar long-running tradition of giving membership to the president of the USGA. When the USGA appointed its first woman president, Judy Bell, in the 1990's, the R&A did not grant Bell membership, but reportedly gave her a brooch instead.

Your Say: Should the R&A allow women into their club? Or should they stand firm on their established membership rules? Tell us!

Golf on the telly just got serious

Finally, we may get some decent golf coverage on TV. The PGA of Australia and Network Ten have announced a five-year agreement to bring world-class domestic and international golf into millions of Aussie homes. The agreement combines marquee golf tournaments from Australia, Asia and the US broadcast on Network Ten's new 24-hour sports channel ONE, along with supporting coverage of selected events on TEN. In addition, exclusive highlights packages of a further 10 events per year will also be broadcast on ONE. The deal adds to the Network's existing portfolio of premium golf tournaments including the the Masters and the US Open, as well as the Johnnie Walker Classic and the ANZ Ladies Masters.

Born with a silver spoon (...or brassie...or niblick)

From the "This kid will have some serious golf shoes to fill" department comes news from Tiger Woods that his son Charlie Axel was born on February 8. While Tiger's daughter, Sam, has certainly received a fair amount of coverage since her birth almost two years ago, there is no doubt that the media will focus more effort on the "first male heir to the golfing throne" currently occupied by his father. One can only wonder what kinds of sibling rivalry will occur in that household, or when the first swing comparisons will be made between Charlie and his dad. Also, no word yet if Charlie's nappies will carry any sponsor logos.

A dark day for cart boys

Robots that can mow grass or collect golf balls are set to change the way we play and practice. The new Belrobotics (www.belrobotics.com) implements from Belgium are said to offer exceptional potential in labour savings and increased turnover, and can mow up to 20,000m2 areas. This leads us to wonder if a "Robocaddy" might be next in line...

File this one under "Well...Duh!"

If you've ever been told that you "overthink your shot", read on. A recent report by the BBC website claims that Scotland’s St Andrews University and US scientists have found that too much analysis of previous shots makes a golfer's game worse. In a series of tests, 80 skilled and novice golfers were given shots to practise until they got it right. Some were asked to discuss the previous shot before hitting again. The study found that those who had discussed the previous shot took longer to get the shots right than those golfers who had spent a couple of minutes engaged in unrelated activities. Psychology Professor Michael Anderson, from St Andrews University, said: “This effect was especially dramatic in skilled golfers who were reduced to the level of performance of novices after just five minutes of describing what they did. Novices, by contrast, were largely unaffected, and perhaps even helped a little, by verbally describing their movements. It's a fairly common wisdom in sport that thinking too much hurts performance; during a game it can be an obvious distraction. However, what we found surprising is that simply describing one's putting skill after it has been executed can be incredibly disruptive to future putting performance."

Sandbaggers beware!

The next time you or a mate gets hassled for being "creative" with your handicap, remember this little item. A New Zealand golfer was recently expelled from his club for allegedly blowing out his handicap to win two tournaments. The member of the Trentham Camp Golf Club -- who had previously averaged 12 rounds per month -- increased his posted rounds to 22 through December, with many of the scores significantly higher than normal. After seeing his handicap soar from 11 to 16 by month's end, he went on to win a pair of tournaments around Christmas and New Years, the first by a massive 19 shots ahead of his nearest rival. He was subsequently disqualified, and reportedly expelled from the club.

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Golf Gag of the month

A man staggers into an emergency room with two black eyes and a five iron wrapped tightly around his throat.

"I was having a quiet round of golf with my wife," he tells the doctor, "when she sliced her ball into a pasture of cows. We went to look for it, and I noticed one of the cows had something white in its rear end. I walked over and lifted up the tail, and sure enough, there was my wife's golf ball stuck right in the cow's butt. That's when I made my mistake."

"What did you do?" asks the doctor.

"Well, as I was standing there holding up the tail, I yelled to my wife, 'Hey, this looks like yours!'"