"I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone's golf game: it's called an eraser. " 
~ Arnold Palmer

Colin Montgomerie placed 2nd in last year's British Open, and Phil Mickelson had won the 2 Majors after that (the 2005 PGA and the 2006 Masters). They both came to the final hole at the 2006 US Open, where a simple par could have been the breakthrough that Monty has been waiting for all his life, while for Mickelson, it would have been only the 3rd time in history that someone had won 3 Majors in a row (Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods being the other 2).

Surely Par is bread and butter to these proven professionals? Instead, what we saw were ignominious double-bogeys which dropped them out of the Winner's circle.

Geoff Ogilvy, a man who still has a long way to go to match either Colin or Phil's competitive record emerged as the US Open Champion. The man deserves our congratulations for holding onto his nerve by saving par on the last 2 holes to claim his first Major Championship.

Professional Golfers are as human as you and I on the Golf Course, although the pressures are caused by entirely different situations. It's been said that sinking the putt to win one's first professional tournament is more difficult than an amateur sinking his putt to break 80 for the first time - so what would it be for a MAJOR?

"I'm still in shock. I still can't believe I did that," Mickelson said. "This one hurts more than any tournament because I had it won."

"This is as worse as it gets. You wonder sometimes why you put yourself through this," said Montgomerie "I look forward to coming back next year for another U.S. Open ... disaster," he quipped.

Let's hope they both get another chance to seize the opportunity at the British Open.



The 135th British Open - Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake

Hoylake - An additional claim to fame for Liverpool besides the Beatles and the Liverpool FC.

The Royal Liverpool Golf Club was founded in 1869 and was the second English links ever built . It is often often simply called "Hoylake" from its location by the community of Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula south of Liverpool and was one of the 3 original English courses (with Royal Sandwich, and Royal St. George's) to be added to the British Open Championship rotation (along with Scotland's St. Andrews and Prestwick).

Of all the 10 Open Championships played at Hoylake, Bobby Jones's victory in 1930 is the most memorable, for it was the great American amateur's third British Open championship, and it came as the second leg of his grand slam of victories - all in one season - in the then four majors of golf: the US Open, US Amateur, British Amateur, and British Open tournaments

This year the British Open returns to Royal Liverpool Golf Club after a 39-year hiatus. To upgrade Hoylake for the new realities of golf technology and prepare the course for the huge TV audience the British Open commands, the club made some significant alterations to the course. First it hired one of the world's hottest course architects, Donald Steel, to modernize (read: lengthen) the course. Next, to accommodate televisions desire for a dramatic finish, holes 17 and 18 have been changed to holes 1 and 2 for the Open Championship, pushing back the course's signature first hole to number 3 in the new order. The last hole for the 2006 Open will be #16, a 558-yard par 5 that will finish into a green surrounded by an amphitheatre of galleries.

A traditional seaside links, Royal Liverpool is a flat out-and-back layout. From the championship (white) tees the course is quite long at over 7,200 yards. Visitors play from the yellow tees that play almost 1,000 yards shorter. Nevertheless, the course's exposure to the west wind off the ocean can make Hoylake play much longer and hillier than it appears on paper. Although Liverpool will always be better known as the birthplace of the Beatles and the most successful English Football Club, Hoylake has been a quiet secret - well known and respected among golfers for well over a century.

Musings - The World Cup

The bigger the ball, the greater the audience.

There's no sporting event that even comes close. Not the Olympics, Not the 4 annual Tennis Grand Slams nor the 4 Golf Majors. No other global sporting event can claim a viewing audience of 30 billion people!

Whether France or Portugal win, it will always be the 'beautiful game', creating emotions, support and displays of patriotism among millions to whom the "Royal and Ancient game" is not even a factor.

This year, it has made converts out of Australia, who are now thinking of hosting the World Cup in 2018, and South Korea have proved that their fan-power was not just because they hosted the tournament in 2002. Their fans were present in huge numbers in Germany and their support was acknowledged the best in the tournament.

The success of the Ukrainian team did more than the politicians ever did to unite their country and Germany, the host country, rediscovered National Pride and the ability to fly the flag once more, burying 61 years of "flag-shyness" since 1945.

we salute Germany, FIFA and the WORLD CUP. It's been a brilliant month of sport and the reason this newsletter came out a week late!

Joke : The game of choice for unemployed people or maintenance level workers is basketball. The game of choice for frontline workers is football. The game of choice for middle management is tennis. The game of choice for CEOs and executives is golf.

Conclusion: The higher up on the corporate ladder you are, the smaller your balls are.