My week in golf: My bond with Ernie Els
Ernie Els and I should be worlds apart.
He’s a four-time Major champion – with two Claret Jugs in his trophy cabinet.
I was once Newcastle University’s alumni golf champion (surely a Major in anyone’s book?).
Els has been at the top of his craft for more than two decades.
I have never broken 80 in a competition.
But there are more similarities between us than you might think. He makes wine. I drink wine.
Okay, that’s tenuous. But this isn’t. The pair of us have endured our struggles with the putter.
I thought I’d conquered mine.
Equipped with a new flat-stick, I’d felt a measure of calm – even confidence – as I strolled around the greens.
Then came the 8th hole in our monthly medal. I play at Sandburn Hall, a course not too far outside of York and weighing in at a princely 6,723 yards off the whites.
I masquerade as a 12-handicapper but, in recent weeks, I’ve been struggling to play off 20.
Putting is my Achilles’ heel.
The 8th is a straight-forward hole, truth be told. It’s a 200 yard par 3 in a straight line with only a large tree about 20 yards short right of the green to cause you any real problems.
It never proves easy for me, though. After a hybrid landed right of the green, I managed to shank a chip.
This was still no problem, though, as I’d got away with murder – finding the back fringe about 10 feet from the hole.
Here’s where Ernie and I share our unspoken bond.
Remember the first at Augusta in April, where The Big Easy somehow managed to 6-putt from two feet as he opened his Masters campaign?
After lagging up to nothing more than a foot further away, I then jabbed my putt and watched it slide by the hole.
Only to then miss the next. Disaster.
Was I concentrating properly? I’m not sure, maybe I just threw my putter at it in the way Els zig-zagged around his opener at the Masters.
All I know is that from less than six inches, I’d managed to add another stroke to my score.
I withered on my way to a nett 79, with three further 3-putts, and signed my card in such frustration I unwittingly added an extra digit to the total.
Stick the clubs in the cupboard for a few days.
Only, fortified by a couple of glasses and the hubris only alcohol can provide, I had the bright idea of putting in a supplementary card in a bid to repair the handicap damage of the day before.
What a mistake to make.
In two rounds in the space of 24 hours, I recorded 75 putts. That’s more than any round score Els has recorded in his last 10 outings.
Tied 27th in a Monthly Medal, and 26 points the next day, is not my idea of a profitable weekend.
It’s back to the drawing board. Now where’s my putting mirror?
Steve Carroll plays off 12. For the time being…
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Steve Carroll
A journalist for 25 years, Steve has been immersed in club golf for almost as long. A former club captain, he has passed the Level 3 Rules of Golf exam with distinction having attended the R&A's prestigious Tournament Administrators and Referees Seminar.
Steve has officiated at a host of high-profile tournaments, including Open Regional Qualifying, PGA Fourball Championship, English Men's Senior Amateur, and the North of England Amateur Championship. In 2023, he made his international debut as part of the team that refereed England vs Switzerland U16 girls.
A part of NCG's Top 100s panel, Steve has a particular love of links golf and is frantically trying to restore his single-figure handicap. He currently floats at around 11.
Steve plays at Close House, in Newcastle, and York GC, where he is a member of the club's matches and competitions committee and referees the annual 36-hole scratch York Rose Bowl.
Having studied history at Newcastle University, he became a journalist having passed his NTCJ exams at Darlington College of Technology.
What's in Steve's bag: TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver, 3-wood, and hybrids; TaylorMade Stealth 2 irons; TaylorMade Hi-Toe, Ping ChipR, Sik Putter.