The sound of regular golfers the world over breathing sighs of relief must have been palpable when it was recently announced by some ,no doubt extremely well funded, sports science research teams ,following months and months of rigorous study, that they have now concluded that not only is GOLF the greatest of all sports but it is in fact good for you as well. Who Knew ? Well to be candid about it, approximately 99.999999% of all those who have ever dared to step on to the hallowed turf of any golf course could have told them that. By current estimates that amounts to regular players alone of 55 million…

This last weekend should have seen the latest episode of golf’s ultimate team contest, The Ryder Cup , when the game’s best representing Europe v USA get to engage in another gladiatorial sporting “ battle “ over three days, roared on by an ever increasingly boisterous, some-time baying crowd. Whilst this year’s get together scheduled for the Pete & Alice Dye designed Whistling Straits Course in Wisconsin has fallen foul of COVID restrictions, this enforced suspension has not prevented numerous publications and social media sites from speculating on the likely team compositions as well as provoking debate on who would be included in any fantasy best ever team for both…

  Please ! please ! No more beautifully created social media video posts of golf balls being dropped into lush heavy patches of all embracing rough. We get it. It’s US Open time. The rough has indeed been allowed ( encouraged ) to grow. This isn’t the Super Seniors Sunday afternoon Texas Scramble; the course is supposed to be difficult, you’re supposed to keep your ball out of the rough and on the well groomed fairways at all times. Now the annual face-off is well underway. In one corner those who are sick and tired of watching the best players in golf reduce most tournament venues to a veritable “pitch…

  In the months of March,April and May of this most forgetful of years, the focus of most people was not on which sporting events had been cancelled or postponed. Instead we were determined to do everything we could to protect our  Health Services, stay at home and admire the commitment and dedication of our frontline key workers. Now that the initial Covid onslaught has passed,our attentions have now moved on to how exactly we value the contribution of those workers vital to our daily lives and charged with the responsibility of keeping us safe and taking care of us when we are afflicted with life threatening illness. As we…

  Golfers the world over dream of one day making the pilgrimage to The Home of Golf at St Andrews to secure their own piece of golfing history on The Old Course. The majority of these dedicated enthusiasts will enjoy this great experience as part of an overall golf based vacation providing the opportunity to play several courses, travel to various parts of the country creating great memories with friends and family. However before you start contacting a Scottish Golf Tour Operator ( hopefully you will select Kard and Brown ! ) to put together details of tee-times, accommodation and travel arrangements you should take some time to consider a…

The year 2020. The strangest of years. The strangest of sporting years. The strangest of Scottish Golf years. We have witnessed courses and clubhouses initially on lockdown. No golf allowed but available for our daily ration of exercise. This was followed by a carefully monitored booking system for all club members, no visitors, one way systems, changing shoes in car parks, wearing of masks in pro shops, marking your own card in medals and absolutely no touching flagsticks. On the disappointing side of the report, an almost complete absence of international visitors, open competitions heavily restricted, limited access to clubhouses and postponement of many tournaments including the 2020 Open Championship…

The current wall to wall golf press coverage of the DeChambeau phenomenon has raised a number of issues. The seemingly never ending distance debate has been given new life; invigorating calls for overhauling club and ball technology, a system of bifurcation and heated argument on narrowing fairways with knee-high rough for when the pros come to compete. All have merit, all have supporters and all are keenly contested. Mr DeChambeau’s recent performance at Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Ohio where he managed to produce a quintuple bogey 10 including two shots out of bounds, refused to abide by a decision by a rules official and missed the…

Right now in these strange times most golf bags contain a bizarre combination of hand sanitiser, face mask and anything else deemed essential for self survival and for displaying selfless concern for our close companions. Normally of course the process of setting up your golf bag is fairly straightforward. Ensure the maximum of 14 clubs is not exceeded, with clubs cleaned and dried,a selection of preferred brand of balls suitably marked, tees, ball marker, pitch mark repair tool, liquid refreshment and a couple of chocolate bars ( traditionally at least 12 months past their best before date ). All very standard across the golf world but what about the situation…

As fully paid up members of the world wide golf community, we all love to take on the challenge of displaying our skills playing in another country on a selection of its best golf courses. A visit last year to USA provided just such an opportunity to assess the type of customer experience members and visitors have come to expect from their country’s golf club operators. This prompted some reflection on precisely what anyone embarking on a Scottish golf vacation should expect and,critically, be prepared to do without. No. 1  Let’s be clear, golf is a walking game Yes, we all know how much fun you can have with a…

  Many keen golfers will have seen the recently published report which attempted to assess the relative “ difficulty “ of a wide range of sports and particularly the utterly bizarre decision that the finest sport of all, the Royal & Ancient game of golf merited inclusion at the lowly level of no.51. I appreciate that I am completely biased but anything less than no.1 for golf is clearly complete nonsense. Given the fact the noble sport of boxing was allocated top spot, I rest my case. As the King himself stated on many occasions. ” Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the…