Good to be back in the swing of things, Rory?
Whoever thought golf fans would get so excited over watching a charity Skins game, for heaven’s sake? It just shows what can happen if the heart is allowed to grow fond following a period of absence.
It is the one thing that usually never happens in the royal and Ancient game, of course. The crammed schedules on the PGA and european Tours mean that as soon as one season finishes, a new one begins the following week, making it difficult to stifle a yawn.
What a contrast with last night. After 65 long days without live golf, the sport’s followers were positively panting with anticipation on social media.
rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson v rickie Fowler and Matt Wolff! All four players carrying their own bags! An historic Florida venue we had never seen before! No fans! No grandstands!
My goodness, the excitement levels generated would not have been much greater if the calendar had proceeded without interruption, and we had been watching the final round of the season’s second major, the US PGA Championship from San Francisco.
As you might imagine, this was golf with a wholly different look. Accompanied only by the four players, the club pro introduced the match with more than $4million at stake, and all of it going to charities benefiting Covid-19 relief.
They began with a trifling $50,000 on offer over each of the first six holes. ‘how do you hit a wedge?’ McIlroy joked, as he stood over a 60-yard approach to the first. It has been a while. The hole was halved, meaning the $50,000 rolled over.
Sponsors TaylorMade had thrown in a $100,000 long-driving contest for good measure at the second, where we saw the potential of the newcomer, Wolff. McIlroy smacked his Sunday best, only for 21-year-old Wolff to blow it by him by what appeared a considerable distance.
The Northern Irishman, whose father Gerry is a member at Seminole, was clearly in the mood to make up for the lack of any heckling from fans and throw in some good-natured banter of his own. ‘Good putt,’ he said to Wolff, who left his 15-footer to win the second woefully short.
over the first couple of holes, Johnson looked as if he had spent the lockdown in a separate house to his golf clubs. ‘Come on, another bad swing,’ he berated himself on the third. At least the rapid American was living up to the brilliant sign that greets all visitors on the first tee: ‘If you play good, play fast. If you play bad, play faster.’
To be fair, the other three were not exactly leaping out of the blocks, either.
‘Finally, a good wedge shot,’ said an impatient Paul Azinger in commentary, following a decent Fowler approach to the third. Finally, a decent shot from Johnson, too, as he claimed the first birdie and with it three skins, worth £150,000.
As for early impressions of the venue, the aerial view with the Atlantic ocean hugging one side of the course looked spectacular. Alas, at ground level, it looked like so many Florida venues: flat, wide-open fairways, loads of water. Boring. Augusta, it ain’t.
Not only in the Sunshine State but Korea, too, there was more evidence the game is taking baby steps back to normality. The ladies’ Korean tour completed its first event back with a maiden victory for Park hyun-Kyung, who shot a 67 for a one-stroke triumph.
She was greeted with a shower of petals from fellow competitors and elbow bumps, which threaten to become every bit as irritating as fist bumps were once.
Interestingly, the all-powerful women’s game in Korea is proceeding while the men remain on the sidelines. Clearly, there is one part of the world in golf where it is the women who hold all the aces, and quite right too given their formidable array of world-dominating talent.
Meanwhile, in Wales and Ireland today, club golfers will get the chance to play for the first time since the lockdown — Scottish courses remain closed — following the example set in england last week. Disappointingly, however, golfers in Wales will only be able to play in singles rather than two-balls, unless playing with someone from their own household.
So much for that British common sense the Prime Minister was banging on about. None on show there from the Senedd, was there?
As the Florida fourball demonstrated effortlessly, it is the easiest thing in the world for golfers to keep their social distance.