Sadly because of the weather, the first two qualifying competitions were changed to friendly Stablefords as we had a hole closed on both days, plus a few temporary greens. Also to suffer was the opening mixed which had to be rearranged due to the course being closed. Hopefully the weather will improve after Easter and we can finally get going.
I did manage one competition, a Lady Golfer/Galvin Green day at Mere and although I started well with a birdie on the par 4 fifth, out first hole, as it was a shotgun start, I found I couldn't hit my irons with any consistency and so struggled to post a good score despite hitting my drives and woods well.
A shame as the first prize was a week on Madeira and congratulations to the lucky lady that won it. I did have the consolation of hitting the longest drive though to win some Galvin Green goodies.
Now for the rant!
Recently it was announced that Sky Sports have won the right to broadcast The Open live from next year, meaning that only highlights will be available on the BBC. Sky already have rights to the Ryder Cup and the BBC will no longer be able to broadcast the last rounds of The Master live either/
I believe that the R&A will only receive £3million more from Sky than they would from the BBC offer and I feel that this is unbelievably shortsighted for relatively little monetary return.
Live men's golf on UK TV will now only be available to Sky Sports subscribers and this at a time when England golf are trying to encourage more people to play the game and to join clubs. What better way to develop an interest in a sport than to watch some great players on TV. This will now be denied to the majority of the public. The ladies British Open will be shown by the BBC up to next year but sadly its the men's game that is more likely to attract viewers from the non golfing fraternity.
I strongly believe that the game at a grass roots level will suffer because these decisions, golf should be more accessible but being unable to see it on terrestrial TV to my mind just reinforces a lot of people's belief that golf is an elitist sport.
I really didn't think that people thought like that anymore, but having read comments about golf on a totally unrelated discussion on Facebook, I was surprised to read comments like "its a game for the rich" or "its only posh people that play golf"
Somehow word needs to get out there that you can play at a local municipal course for as little as £10, maybe less, clubs can be hired too, while you decided if you need to buy your own, so anyone can have a game for less than the cost of going to watch your local football club. Dress codes have been relaxed at a lot of clubs, so jeans and trainers are allowed in clubhouses, and even a pair of slacks and a polo shirt are owned by most people.
