Girls and Golf Monthly

I may be kidding myself, but my article in last month’s Golf Monthly deploring the low standing of women’s golf, seems to have borne fruit. As well as two responses on the letters page. (To Maurice of Didsbury, if only I lived nearer I'd be happy to experience your ladies’ facilities for myself!) I think I detect a slight increase in examples of the female form in this month’s mag (Ten great women golfers, Curtis Cup news, and a good sprinkling of girls in the junior section, not to mention a feature on Lorena Ochoa).
Keep up the good work boys, but did you have to print that letter about the pink golf clothes? Sometimes I think that women are their own worst enemies!

A dark and stormy day

It's not easy being a golf blogger right now; the skies are grey and the courses are boggy or closed, and try as I might I can't get excited by who said what in the Monty/Nick saga. There may be events taking place in glorious sun on the other side of the world, but frankly, am I bovvered?

But here's a story to gladden any winter golfer's heart.

Last week , four doughty Golf Monthly Forum members took on four GM staff in what turned out to be an epic encounter on a windswept (and apparently deserted) Jubilee Course at St. Andrews. Now that's what I call golf!

Reports suggest it was a great match generously sprinkled with birdies, and the result was a fair but memorable draw. Since the staff team had some inmpressively low handicaps, I think that's a moral victory to the forum lads, who may have been a bit more acclimatised to East Coast conditions, but could you play like this in front of an official photographer?

Please note these pictures belong to Golf Monthly and should not be reproduced, transmitted etc etc ... you know the score (i.e. hands off, you blagging bloggers!)

The full match report will be in April's Golf Monthly (next but one issue, which just happens to be the one where a certain blogger is also appearing in print!) and I'm ordering my copy now, but meanwhile a big thank you to Mike Harris the editor for letting me give you a sneak preview here.

Well done, boys, and roll on the next event on the GM challenge tour!

The Dredge connection

Played two rounds last weekend at Bryn Meadows near Caerphilly. Great weather and a nice course, though wet rough was pretty punishing. It turns out that BM is the 'home' course of Bradley Dredge, as evidenced by a kind of scroll in the bar with a list of his achievements. On the other side of the bar was a framed newspaper cutting explaining how the course had been developed from a pig farm - maybe not as big a selling point as the Dredge connection!

Here's another Dredge connection. The Welsh pro writes an occasional blog for Golf Monthly who have invited me to write one of their 'Clubhouse Chat' pages on my experiences as a woman playing golf. I think it's great they have asked, since like all the mainstream golf magazines it seems to be aimed at a male readership. I looked back through six months of back issues and didn't find a letter from anyone identifiably female (unless I am doing 'Jackie' in July a disservice!) Not sure if that means there are no women reading, or if those that do simply aren't moved to write in, maybe dissuaded by the general lack of any page featuring women or women's golf! Anyway, if I can come up with the goods, maybe that's all set to change, so three cheers for the editor. I'll let you know when I get into print!