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Your Letters
Your chance to give us your views on any golfing subject
This page is your chance to tell us what's on your mind. So whether you feel the need to mount your soap box and vent your fury or tell us about a great golfing experience, this is your opportunity.
And it could easily be worth your while – the Star Letter each month wins a custom-fit Ping G20 fairway wood, worth £175.
The G20 is available in the following models: 3 (15˚), 4 (16.5˚), 5 (18˚), and 7 (21˚). The club features a high MOI head and an external weight that launches the ball high, straight and long.
Please state your letter your preferred loft, shaft (plus flex) and whether you're right or left-handed.
For more details on Ping equipment, visit pinggolf.com
How to contact us Send your letters to email: letters@sportspub.co.uk
June's best letters...
LETTER OF THE MONTH: Teetering on the precipice of stupidity
Dear Sir,
WITH regard to Gary Ward’s letter (May issue) on measuring devices and smart phones Rule 14.3 Appendix iv (in a nutshell) outlaws the iphone and the Blackberry or any other phone that we have downloaded golf software on because it is ‘capable’ of doing more if we wanted it to.
If I were to use my Blackberry, which has Golf Logix on (which is very good by the way) I would be breaking the rules because I have the weather channel downloaded which could tell me the temperature and humidity.
One measuring device will be illegal as it allows you to load up your distances and provides you with the potential to support your club selection.
Another allows you to record the distances you hit each club and provides you with an updated average distance while a trolley has a temperature gauge that can be turned off, but it also has a distance-walked facility and this therefore allows you to see how far you have walked and can be reset for each shot.
Are we not on the precipice of stupidity? How many golfers are unwittingly breaking the rules, how many golfing bodies or clubs will implement the rule and how soon will it be before the piece of paper we log down our average yardages is made illegal? Or the wetting of the finger to check the wind being made illegal? The devices don’t hit the ball for us, they don’t account for the bad lie you may have and what does the knowledge of temperature do for how you hit your wedge? Its still down to the skill of the human lump on the end of the club.
Tim Kent, Yorkshire
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Yes to Wentworth, no to the Open
Dear Sir,
I READ with interest your Great Debate on Open ticket prices and I agree with Dan Murphy’s comments that they are too high. But do you also realise that concessions for the over 65s have also been withdrawn this year making their increases even greater? By the way, I agree with the youngsters’ arrangements.
Last November, I wrote to the R&A about this matter. I painted the general economic difficulties faced by all families and also pointed out that, for this May’s flagship European Tour event at Wentworth, concessions for older people are still in place.
The R&A said that its committee had made no increase for practice days and said that savings could still be made by advance purchase. This has always been the case and they ignored my reasonable comment about Wentworth. The committee said it will ‘continue to review ticket prices and discount policies in relation to other major sporting events and with reference to comments from our spectators’.
I have been to a number of Opens but do not intend to be ripped off this year. However, I plan to enjoy Wentworth.
E Matthews, Swindon
Where’s Ross been?
Dear Sir,
I FOUND a recent comment by Ross Fisher at Augusta very strange. The Englishman revealed he was thinking about playing in Spain on the European Tour but it interfered with his participation in the Tavistock Cup.
The Tavistock Cup doesn’t offer any Ryder Cup or world ranking points and is, albeit a very wealthy one, a get-together between friends which happens to be televised. More bizarre is that Fisher’s only other preparation for the Masters was to last play competitively in Dubai in February.
How is this good planning to make the Ryder Cup team.
T Cherry, via email
Local rules rule OK
Dear Sir,
THE rules are at best convoluted and at worst confounding! So here’s what my playing partners and I came up with to make golf simple, fun and fair.
You can clean and drop anywhere on the fairway because no-one should have to hit with mud on their ball or from a divot or bare patch.
You get two minutes to look for a lost ball. Then drop under penalty from where you think it might be. All penalty drops are to within two club lengths of where the ball lies and are measured with the club you are going to use. (No measuring with your driver, and no walking back on a line with the pin to your favourite distance or to where you last played from!)
Within a bunker you can lift, rake and place when in a footprint or poorly smoothed trap. You can also use your forefinger to test the depth and texture of the sand as this may vary. If there is a doubt about the legality of any action there is a one-shot penalty imposed. To avoid pitchmarks and other imperfections you can move your ball up to six inches in any direction on a green but not nearer the hole.
We do respect the true origins of the game and whenever we play links golf we always play the ball exactly as it lies anywhere on the course (even if the rules would permit a drop) and we only play matchplay.
Sam Barclay, via email
Clubs need to be flexible
Dear Sir,
WHILST I do understand what James Whitley was driving at in his letter about the De Vere Club offer, I must say I totally support your editor’s response. I don’t see it as NCG’s role to solely represent clubs and their members anyway. I think through your articles, reviews and instruction you have something to say for, and to, all golfers. Reading NCG is like having a chat with several golfers in the 19th – only more informed and with better grammar.
At one time I was concerned that your writers might lose this common touch what with Joe Whitley joining Dan Murhpy and Mark Townsend as a single-figure golfer. But then I realised I’d have been more concerned if, with your access to knowledge, equipment and guidance, you hadn’t all reached single figures!
I do not yet have full membership anywhere due to work and family commitments. Nonetheless I still spend upwards of £800 per year on my golf, and I know other sports and leisure activities would be happy to take that from me if clubs and their members made me feel unwelcome and not part of the golfing fraternity.
Golf clubs need to get imaginative in these cash-strapped times. That includes flexible membership packages and incentives to attract visitor fees. Unless James Whitley is willing to see a massive hike in his subs to keep his club afloat?
Pete Wells, Surrey
he devices don’t hit the ball for us, they don’t account for the bad lie you may have and what does the knowledge of temperature do for how you hit your wedge?
Brute force not the way forward
Dear Sir,
AS someone who belives that the ruling bodies were correct to change the groove rule in an attempt to bring more skill back to the game. What does it say to young golfers who see the winner of the Masters able to hit the ball some 50 yards off line into the trees and yet still be able to land the ball on the green with his next shot.
It would appear that it does not matter how far off line you are as long as you can hit the ball far enough. I have nothing but respect for Bubba Watson, he scored better than every one else so was the winner. But surely it is time that the ruling bodies looked at what is required for a course hosting a Major.
I belive that we should be setting an example to our youngsters that golf is a game of skill and not brute force. We cannot keep on making courses longer, we should instead set up courses that put the premium on hitting fairways and greens in order to shoot a low score.
Donald Shaw, via email
Are we really improving?
Dear Sir,
FURTHER to Mr Hurdwell’s letter ‘Is technology aiding or hindering improvement?’
Two points: Firstly let’s take the argument to the limit. Suppose there is a club which you use by making a vague swinging movement in the general vicinity of the ball, whereupon the ball automatically goes the distance for that club in a straight line. Would people still play golf? I would not.
Secondly, people are driven to new technology partly by the notion that they will get ‘nearer’ to the professionals. But a competent professional in any job will always get more out of a piece of equipment than most amateurs. When I started, I drove the ball about 50 yards short of the average pro. With present equipment, I can drive 20-30 yards farther, but they’re hitting 60-100 yards farther than before.
Richard Barton, Maidstone
Get in the...Shhh
Dear Sir,
FIRSTLY may I congratulate Bubba Watson on his win in the Masters. Sadly it now seems inevitable that an idiot has to shout get in the hole or some other expression while play goes on.
Some idiot chose to shout ‘go on, Bubba’ milliseconds before he teed off on the 17th hole. I felt this lack of consideration for the players very rude, after all if that particular person is a golfer, he would not like it when he was trying to play.
Surely there must be something that can be done to prevent any recurrence of these outbursts. The only saving grace was that the culprit managed to keep it shut through the play-off.
Once again well done Bubba, you did good under the circumstances.
Colin Baker, via email
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Comments
Although she may have a golf handicap of I believe seven her voice is totally wrong and is extremely irritating to listen to both in pitch and tone.
I do not know the reason for Di Dougherty's departure but it is a sad loss to the viewers
Whilst the occasional island green plays a role, many courses have created one on their course and the result is far from successful. Barton-on-Sea is a cliff top course on the South coast and the creation of an island green at the 18th is out of place on this type of course. The Shires in Hertfordshire was designed by Seve. Six par threes of which 4 are virtually surrounded by water. This is poor golf course design.
The traditional courses of the world particularly links and heathland courses do not need water to create a wonderful test. Perhaps the modern course designer should remember this.
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