"Frustrating". I have a new definition for the word: being on holiday in Phuket, at a very smart Marriott, where there are 36 television channels to choose from and not one is showing the Masters Tournament, despite the fact that Thailand's finest, Thongchai Jaidee is playing. Worse, the hotel has very kindly arranged to put in a 'black box' that enables me to watch Fox Sports, the channel that is showing the tournament, but as I discovered at 4am, the network connection has failed. I can watch riveting qualifying for the Chinese GP on Fox Sports 2 or equally enthralling live golf from the New Zealand Open on Fox Sports 3, but am reduced to following proceedings in Augusta on the BBC website. One thing is very apparent though; Tiger Woods has not got the chipping yips. It would seem his short-game issues really were technical, rather than the mental disintegration of a great champion. It seems there may be a few more chapters yet in the Tiger Woods saga.
By the time you read this it will be the lusty month of May, when Georgia will no longer be on anyone's mind, and I shall be winging my way to the inaugural tri-sanctioned AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open. Please try to contain your tears – someone has to do it. It'll be only my second visit to the paradise island, ten and a half years after a Christmas holiday where my future wife and I were quietly minding our own business on the eastern coastline when the sea suddenly started retreating rather rapidly. The hotel staff rushed us back into the hotel without any explanation, as the apparently calm sea then rose a few feet in a matter of minutes. It was only later that we discovered we had just experienced the after effects of the horrific tsunami that had been triggered over 5,200 kilometres away on the other side of the Indian Ocean, killing around 230,000 people. Hopefully the drama this time will be limited to a thrilling denouement with AN Other chipping in for a birdie on the 72nd hole to pip J Soap by a shot.
A brand new, untried and untested commentary combination will be describing the scene, with South African experts Dale Hayes and Denis Hutchinson, meeting up with Asia's undisputed number one, Dominique Boulet, for the first time. Your humble correspondent will be trying to maintain good order and discipline whilst no doubt lending a touch of European bias.
Assuming we survive the demanding ordeal, it's only a couple of weeks before the great, the good and the occasionally a little bit naughty gather at the European Tour's HQ for the PGA Championship, a tournament that was first played in 1955 and has been a regular fixture at Wentworth since 1984 when Whyte and McKay were the sponsors and Howard Clark the champion.
The Scotch company lasted four years (which the experts reckon is normally the time a sponsorship becomes really productive) before giving way to Volvo, whose name became synonymous with the Tour's flagship tournament for 17 years. Volvo were fantastic supporters of the European Tour in many ways and they were succeeded by BMW, who initially insisted it be known as the "BMW Championship". The Tour’s hierarchy was extremely reluctant to lose the historic PGA tag, but BMW were highly significant sponsors of the Tour and they got their way. However, after two years the "PGA" element was reinstated in the title and this will be the 11th championship with the German marque emblazoned all over Harry Colt's old masterpiece. Not that Colt would probably even recognise the severely nipped and tucked West Course that is now under Chinese ownership. China is a massive growth market for BMW so perhaps there's a certain synergy there …
Pages
Click here to see the published article.
