"After all, golf is only a game," said Millicent. Women say these things without thinking. It does not mean that there is a kink in their character. They simply don't realise what they are saying.
~ P.G. Wodehouse, Order by Golf, 1922

The Ryder Cup: 22-24 September 2006

Last month's brief overview said "Drama, passion and intensity skyrocket when golfing multi-millionaires find themselves playing for team-mates and country, not just themselves".

Even before the matches started, the general public had a sneak preview of what it means to the players with Thomas Bjorn's reaction to his non-selection. Always a fiery character and a vice-captain to the most successful European team in history (in 2004, Europe recorded its largest ever margin of 9 points), he made his feelings clear when he labelled Wosnam's captaincy "pathetic". "The man is barmy" said Bjorn "To be captain and not even communicate with your team at all - it doesn't give you much respect. It looks like he first needs to learn how to be captain."

It's never good when the Captain of Europe is criticized by one of the Continent's leading players, and should Europe lose due to Lee Westwood's failure to perform, the second guessing will start the moment the winning putt falls - Bjorn is superior to Westwood in all statistical categories, with Westwood being selected partly due to his wins at the K Club 5 years ago. The Dane has proven his nerve time and time again, and being left out of the team must have hurt.

The Ryder Cup team needs men like Thomas Bjorn, who fire up their passion for golf's greatest team event. Naturally, the authorities felt that some censure was necessary and fined him an undisclosed sum. Ian Woosnam tried to put a positive spin on it by saying it would make his team "stronger".

If the emotions run this high for team selection, just imagine winning the thing!


Golf Equipment: HONMA

Not just golf clubs, but surgical instruments for precision work on fairways and greens.

Last month we talked about one of America's most revered golf brands, Ping. This month we feature what is arguably the "Rolls Royce of Golf Clubs": Honma.

Honmas are, by a wide margin, the most expensive golf clubs in the world. Honma's entry-level irons begin hundreds of US dollars above where top-of-the-line sets by leading manufacturers like Titleist, Callaway and TaylorMade leave off. From there they climb into an exalted realm where a single club can cost more than you have ever dreamed of spending on everything in your bag. At the top end, which the company calls its five-star level, a set of ten irons, three woods, a putter and a staff bag will cost more than US$36,000.

About 40 years ago, Hiro Honma decided to take the finest raw materials - Gold, Copper, Brass, Titanium, Graphite, Boron and steel - and hand-craft the finest clubs. Every Honma product embodies principles placing quality first and foremost. Honma's mission is to produce golf clubs that promote confidence and feel, which in turn will translate into more consistent play.

At one time, the company employed 2,100 people at its vaunted facility in Sakata, nestled on 124 acres north of Tokyo in the foothills of Mount Chokai. These days the number is down to 425, but Honma continues to make on-site all its heads, grips and graphite shafts - everything except steel shafts, which it buys from Nippon Steel and Dynamic Gold.

Honma clubs embody the company's mission to place quality and craftsmanship above all else and has always insisted that the quality of their products should remain intact for a lifetime. Every club comes with a lifetime warranty: free repair for as long as you own it.

Iron heads receives the Signature "mole in the hole" cloisonne trademark, signifying the completion of a process consisting of over 150 steps in the creation of each Honma iron head. Honma uses Japanese SC-44 steel, softer than the U.S. variety, to cast its irons, increasing feel. Each cast head is scored with grooves and dipped in nickel, copper and chrome - Honma even highlights the finished product with 14-karat gold trim in high-end clubs.

With sales of $165 million in 2003, Honma is a boutique compared with companies such as Callaway and TaylorMade-Adidas (with 2003 sales of $814 million and $800 million, respectively). Yet it offers more current club lines than either. The 40+page Honma catalog features eight different titanium drivers, six of them available as fairway woods in at least four different lofts, ten different sets of irons, two styles of wedges and eleven different putters. Honma keeps older designs in production years longer than other companies and yet it introduces new models at a frenetic pace, partly because customers tend to snatch up the latest numbers as collectibles

That's to say nothing of shafts, which many consider Honma's strong suit. The Sakata plant makes eighteen types of graphite or composite shafts. Some have dual kick points; others are stabilized with parallel titanium threads running the length of the shaft (a concept Honma patented in the U.S. in 1991). The latest innovation braces the shaft with carbon fibers running in four directions, interlocking in a way Honma engineers liken to the joints in a stalk of bamboo.

"It's a company of true craftsmen," says Chris Lannom, president of Honma Golf Direct, which distributes Honma in the U.S. (minus California and Oregon). "I haven't had to sell Honma, with people who know what Honma is, I just put it in their hands and let them make their own decision."

Musings - Twelve and Counting..

The answer is getting steadily clearer

Well, the Majors for 2006 are over and the Ryder Cup should be a fitting climax to a golf calendar that has seen some memorable moments. The highlight was of course, Tiger's triumphal return from grief over his father's passing. He wanted the Masters too badly to win it, and the US Open was ill-timed as time hadn't healed his wounds. His commanding victories in the Open and the US PGA Championship were emphatic and assured.

So the question of whether he will overtake Jack's 18 Major victories looks increasingly redundant. He is well on his way and barring ill fortune or health, he will eventually surpass his childhood hero. The most impressive aspect of his Major march is that he is doing it by himself. The difficulty of Jack's 18 victories is made obvious by the fact that he came 2nd in 19 other majors (Tiger has come second in two). While Jack was the dominant golfer is his era, he knew that Palmer, Player and Watson were right at his shoulder - if he didn't bring his best game, he wouldn't win - that was why he planned his golf career around the BIG events. Tiger has to do it all himself. Talk of the Fab Five (Woods, Mickelson, Goosen, Els and Vijay Singh) proved embarrassingly premature.

As any sportsperson how to raise their level, and the answer he or she will give you will be "competition". In amateur golf, our game improves when we play with better players. Who does Tiger get to play and compete with? The answer? Only himself.