Covering roughly the same distance as Land’s End to John O’Groats, it is a golf course that requires a driver at every single hole.
Australia’s Nullarbor Links is the largest course in the world, crossing two time zones and encompassing some of the flattest, driest terrain on the planet.
It spans two states, stretching 848 miles from Ceduna in the south to the old gold mining town of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
Australia’s Nullarbor Links is the largest course in the world, crossing two time zones and encompassing some of the flattest, driest terrain on the planet.
It spans two states, stretching 848 miles from Ceduna in the south to the old gold mining town of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
Padraig Harrington knows he is in a race against time to have his game in good enough shape to win a third successive Open title.
“If I’m going to play well in the Open it’s got to start now - I’m running out of time,” Harrington said on the eve of the French Open Alstom which starts on Thursday at Le Golf National near Paris.
The Dubliner has missed his last four cuts – and five of the last six – after deciding to make swing changes despite his back-to-back major wins last season.
“I’m always optimistic,” he said, “and I still believe I’m going to be ready. But, then again, I thought I’d be ready for the US Open.” He had two rounds of 76 at Bethpage Black to miss the cut by eight shots. He finished joint 137th of the 156 players.
Because of his triumphs at Carnoustie, Birkdale and Oakland Hills Harrington still finds himself joint second favourite – behind Tiger Woods, of course – for Turnberry.
But it is a demonstration of where he is at right now that he is only joint fourth favourite this week behind Ryder Cup team-mates Ian Poulter, runner-up to him last July, Lee Westwood and Soren Hansen.
Without a top-10 finish since January, Harrington ranks an incredible 195th out of 212 in driving accuracy on the European Tour this season. “I’m still trying to find the magic stick that goes straight and long,” he said. “Aren’t we all?”
He has been experimenting with different drivers and gives no guarantee that he will stick with the one he settles on for the first round.
Three days were spent with coach Bob Torrance last week. “At the US Open my backswing had totally gone off,” said Harrington. “We weren’t trying to change that, but I was focusing so much on my downswing.
“Last week we were doing a lot of covering of old stuff, putting things back in position. For my preparations to be spot-on I shouldn’t be tinkering with my swing. I’m well capable of winning when I haven’t prepared properly, but it reduces the chances.”
Harrington also defends his Irish PGA title next week before heading to Scotland and of the two tournaments he said: “It’s more important that I play well [in terms of ball-striking] rather than perform well [in terms of results].
“I do need these two weeks to show myself some form. Having not performed very well I need a certain level of confidence going into the Open and it’s important I show signs of having control over the ball.
“I’d like to score well too, but other things can affect that. I don’t need the results, but I do need to play well.”
Long term, however, the 37 year-old is excited about the prospects of adding to his three majors.
“I’ve never been more enthusiastic or more positive about my game going forward. It’s still not bedded in and I won’t be going to the first tee here with it automatic, but I’m thrilled with what I see when it’s good.
“I’m always trying to improve and sometimes there are short-term sacrifices for long-term gains.”
Poulter, based himself in Florida for the first half of the year, returned to the heat of Britain last week wishing he had had air-conditioning installed in his home.
This is his first tournament in Europe since the Volvo Masters almost eight months ago. He has not won in that time, but did have a notable second place behind Henrik Stenson at the Players Championship in May and has risen to 16th in the world,only five behind Harrington. This time last year there were 28 places between them.
“I had my eyes fixed in January [he had an astigmatism and was having a problem in fading light] and just before the Masters my wrist was sorted [he had a cyst],” Poulter said.
“I also think that mentally I’m better than I was heading to Birkdale. I had some putting issues at the start of the week there. I wore a hole in the practice green.”
Like Westwood, Colin Montgomerie, Masters champion Angel Cabrera and John Daly next week’s Barclays Scottish Open is also on Poulter’ss schedule.
But this week carries more prize money– £3.4 million against the £3 million on offer at Loch Lomond. the winner receives more than £565,000.
Miguel Angel Jimenez would love to mark his 500th Tour event by claiming that.
Tiger Woods said his role as host of the AT&T National, which begins today at Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington, DC, provided an added incentive to finish top of the leaderboard at Congressional Country Club.
“It is fun winning your own event,” said the 33 year-old world number one who headlines a 120-player field at pristine Congressional, site of the 2011 US Open.
Among those also entered are newly crowned US Open champion Lucas Glover, 2008 AT&T winner Anthony Kim, world number three Paul Casey and triple major winner Vijay Singh.
What’s wrong with British tennis? The answer is so painfully simple. It’s not about money, it’s about people.
A few years ago English golf was nearly as dilapidated as English tennis. Lee Westwood was the only player in the world’s top 100. Now English golf has a world No 3 to rank alongside Andy Murray in tennis, four other Englishmen in the world’s top 25 and two more in the top 50.
More good young golfers are coming through all the time, but government ministers never make a fuss over golf’s success. The opposition is no better. When David Cameron was asked about the state of British tennis the other day, he talked about looking to compete with other sports like “cricket, football and badminton.” Not a mention of golf. You want to wake these people up. You want to show them what is going on in their own country. You want them to take a look at the achievements of the English Golf Union and the Faldo Junior Series.
More than anything you want them to get down on their knees and look at the grassroots. Our politicians always seem to bang on about the grassroots, but most of them wouldn’t know their fescue from their ryegrass. Royal North Devon is England’s oldest golf course. It’s sometimes known as Westward Ho! And if you didn’t know any better you might assume it was populated by former captains of the R&A and retired judges. It is. But it also has teachers and shopkeepers and the unemployed and Uncle Tom Cobley and all. Royal North Devon is friendly, it’s inclusive, it’s grassroots.
If Serena and Venus’s dad Richard Williams had arrived at the club on a wet Sunday morning in May he would have probably sneered. He would have seen middle class white people chipping golf balls while an over enthusiastic mum jumped up and down.
Williams would have walked away and said that English golf needed to go into the ghetto. And he would have been wrong - because this is the ghetto. This part of Devon is one of the poorest socio-economic areas in England.
Pro Iain Parker says: “A lot of the kids come from working class backgrounds with parents on benefits. There’s money but no jobs. We’re trying to be the community club.” Parker says that a lot of pros like him are interested in junior development because of all the obstacles they encountered when they were young.
Royal North Devon has built a special little ‘pimpley ground’ course for the children to play on. There are lessons and challenges and mars bars each weekend. When the kids get good enough Parker takes them up to the National Skills Challenge put on by the EGU at Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire.
Last year they reached the final and one of the boys holed his first bunker shot. Parker said: “He’s won his age group two years running. He’s from an underprivileged background, one of eight or nine kids, parents split up, mother on benefit. Golf’s been very beneficial.
“It gives them a focus. The discipline and organisation you need to be a good golfer helps with other things in life. Some of these kids weren’t doing particularly well in class and the golf has really helped them with their schooling.” This is the grassroots. This is about the people, not the money. This is about people like Parker being prepared to go into the local schools and get the kids involved. This is about people like Gary Smith, a retired teacher from Wolverhampton, and granddad Alan Vichion giving up their time to run a junior section.
And this is about the lady jumping up and down –Carol is not a mum, she doesn’t have children, she’s not a member because the course is too hard for her - she just comes down and helps. These are the people who make champions.
July 2009
July 13th, 2009 
