Bryson who? Golf in 2016

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The European Tour has just begun in earnest, on its race to, er, Dubai, with the first round of the, er, Hong Kong Shanghai Bank Abu Dhabi Open.

Bear with me, it IS the "European" tour.

Anyway, first round scores include World Number One Jordan Spieth on -4, Rory McIlroy on -6 alongside Branden Grace, and Henrik Stenson on -7. The leader? AMATEUR Bryson DeChambeau, the US Amateur champion, on -8.

Might be a one-round wonder. But I suspect we've just seen the explosion onto the main tour of the next, next big thing (Spieth himself is only 22, FFS).

[caja-dglh]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Bryson is 22 as well. So perhaps just less of a prodigy.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Just as you thought American golfers' names were starting to get less silly, up pops Jason Kokrak to lead the Los Angeles Open.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Could be an interesting story in the making at the Players' Championship, where 47-year-old Ken Duke, who has been a pro for twenty years, mostly on minor tours, and has only ever made the cut in two majors, lies second with a round to play. If he hauls in Jason Day tonight it will be the biggest shock in golf since Ben Curtis won the Open.

[tee rex]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Channel-hopping onto Sawgrass, I saw somebody putt with the toe-end of the club (because of the lie). Never seen that before. I hope to see a professional do a billiard-cue-putt with the wrong end before I die.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Sam Snead used to do that (the billiard shot) in exhibitions (and also used to putt croquet-style, later in his career). Both were banned, sadly, a player now has to take a stance with the ball not directly between himself and the hole.

[tee rex]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Zac Blair, it was ...

http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/zac-blair-does-his-best-vijay-singh-impression-players

[ursus arctos]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Sergio Garcia wins his first PGA tournament for four years

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

BBC report that as Garcia "matching Seve Ballesteros' record of nine PGA wins", which is one of those ill-researched, throwaway little bits of bollocks that makes me wish they'd get on with privatising the whole organisation.

For a start, Seve only played the PGA tour full-time for three seasons, 1980 to 1982 (which cost him his place in the 1981 Ryder Cup side). Garcia's been full-time on the PGA tour for seventeen years. Secondly, five of Seve's PGA tour wins were majors. Comparing Sergio's record to his is like pointing out that Rihanna has had more number one singles than Michael Jackson.

[caja-dglh]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

I feel Garcia deserves for things to be pitched slightly in his favor. He has had a really long career of being the nearly man.

[ursus arctos]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

And he does have nine PGA Tour wins.

No one with half a brain would say that their equivalence on that measure means that he and Seve are on the same level overall.

Seve has 50 European Tour wins, Sergio has 11

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

World Crazy Golf Championships, Hastings

For once there was no engineering work on the way to Pad, so it was an 0915 HST off Swindon up to town. Access to the Bakerloo line is currently blocked, so as I had time, I headed round on the Circle Line to Victoria…

……where thankfully the International Cheese Centre was open.

It was then the 1102 Ramsgate service across a murky Thames....

….and into Orpington.

Here the station staff had some fun announcing three different platforms for our train before it finally arrived.

South Eastern Trains have the least worthwhile First Class imaginable, being exactly the same seating as elsewhere, just with a headrest cover.

The line to Hastings takes in Tonbridge, which is home to the rail engineering yard for the South East, and Europe's largest rail crane as just arriving home after a night out swapping over paintwork somewhere around London Bridge.

I was now enjoying my cheese purchases; ham and brie, ad Stilton said rolls, mini saucisson sticks and six mini cheeses (epoisse, tintern, an unarmed but pungent washed rind, innkeepers cheddar, Lincolnshire Poacher and a Swiss hard cheese).

Just before Hastings is Battle, the conveniently named place where the ructions actually took place in 1066.

Shortly we were in Hastings.....

.....with its boat on the beach entrance feature. More about that later.

My destination was down at the sea front….

…..for these.

World Crazy Golf Championships, Hastings


The seafront course has been in existence since 1973 and has Arnold Palmer accreditation. It has hosted the World Championships since 2003.

Crazy Golf seems to have a different name in every country it is played, mainly through course builders trying to get a name trademarked. Across Europe, it is more widely known as mini golf, which was a Scandinavian trademark hat has now lapsed. In America, the biggest brand is Putt-Putt.

The sports origins are in North America in the early 20th century. The skyscraper boom of the 1920s saw a mini golf course as the ideal roof top past time. Interestingly, much of the games early expansion was financed by Al Capone as he saw it as an easy way to get into legitimate business and soon his revenue from it far outweighed that of bootlegging and extortion. However, the depression of the 1930s saw the game almost disappear in the States.

In Europe, the success of the game in the States had spread to the UK, Germany and Sweden by the 1920s. The boom was nowhere near that of across the pond, and courses were usually in municipal parks, so mostly survived the wars.

Post war, the American game has been promoted by a small number of course builders. In Europe, it continues to be a council led initiative normally running the curses as concessions.

Although there are a number of dedicated players, there are no full time mini golf players. In Britain, the constraint is that no foundation funding can be sought as there is a ruling that derivatives of other sports do not get funded, and it is seen as an off shoot of normal golf.

The complex is split into the traditional 18 hole Arnold Palmer course, and the Pirate adventure course.

The contest consists of six rounds of the Arnold Palmer course over a day and a half, before a play off of the top players. The par score is 36, 2 shots per hole for the Johnny Balls out there

There is a competition supplied ball....

....whilst the serious players have a putter with a sucker at the top of the grip to retrieve the ball from the hole.

The competitors are mix of those that have never played.....

....to those that bring their own squeegee.



So to the course

Hole 1 - A gradual introduction, nice and straight with only a couple of offset bunkers as obstacles.

Hole 2 - A ramp with only a small margin of error to get through the central gap, needs to be timed right to drop down into the hole. Forget the option of going round the ramp, this is big boys shit.

Hole 3 - First of the angles as a central wooden block prevents a straight path down the centre.

Hole 4 - A gimme for the pro with an easy central pass, only surrounding bunkers trouble the novices.

Hole 5 - The stereotypical windmill hole. The spinning sales have to be avoided to hit right down the centre, underneath the windmill, to the hole on the other side.

Hole 6 - Another fairly simple straight shot for the expert, this time some raised tumuli are present to thwart the novice.

Hole 7 - Another ramp, but at the crest, a concrete V takes the ball either dead centre and down into the hole, or else out into the rough.

Hole 8 - Another novelty hole as this time a rotating paddle wheel must be carefully timed, though it is still a straight put.

Hole 9 - A rising crest halfway down the track, but another straight putt.
Hole 10 - The angles are back in play with a curved dog league which throw out the normal trigonometry.

Hole 11 - An unspecified obelisk blocks the eyeliner, but a straight shot beneath gives a clear run through to the hole.

Hole 12 - A rather uneventful return to the mid fairway crescent.

Hole 13 - A kinked hole, but cut off the dog leg and there is a straight putt to the hole.

Hole 14 - The trickiest hole so far, some say on the whole course. A double set of crescents before the hole, located on a plateau. Perfect weight as well as direction is required.

Hole 15 - The first downward drop of the course, and quite fierce it is too, through a set of bunkers.

Hole 16 - A very short drop onto very short green.

Hole 17 - A straight but narrow hit under a lighthouse, finding the hole in the middle of four raised humps.

Hole 18 - The final hole is a bit of an anti-climax. A dog leg with a raised spiral at the apex, required for the hole in one, but a safe 32 if you play around it.

Anyway, you can have too much of a good thing, and if seeing IT support workers called Steve, in full Crystal Palace shell suits, giving mini fist pumps like a Primark Henaman, because they have got a hole in one, really is a good thing.

The pier looked as enticing as the one off Big.

So I headed for one of the cliff railways.

This is the West Hill lift….

….which gives a 150m run up through the hill, to the castle site.

At the top, their is a view of the golf complex....

....the other cliff railway..

....and the Stade, which is home to Europe's largest fleet of beach launched fishing boats.

With time passing, I headed back down the railway.



The Golf was in the break between the qualifying rounds and the final play off. In the end it was won by reigning champion Michael Smith, local Sean Homer came second with Mark Wood third having won a play off against Germanys' Thomas Giebenhein.

I headed back to the station, for a train back up country.

Past London Bridge in its seemingly permanent state of upheaval.

Arriving in town, and the weather had cleared over the Thames.

Into Charing Cross, displaying its Southern Railway Heritage.

A few sharp moves on the tube and it was back to the Cross for an East Coast up to Leeds,

For a unit across to Sowerby.


Crazy Times

[Guest]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Looks a much duller Crazy Golf course than the one I played in Teignmouth two weeks ago. The last hole was ridiculous.

[San Bernardhinault]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Great stuff as usual, BB&F.

Now we're back to the never ending debate about mini/crazy golf/putt putt, etc. Which is about what makes an interesting course.

Lodz's course doesn't look like my kind - it appears to have lots of static statuary. If it doesn't actually contribute to the hole, I'm not that impressed.

There are what I might call the Treibeis Puritans, if I remember the pictures of Treibeis's course correctly. Where the challenge is the hole itself. No novelty features, no interaction with the course, just doglegs and humps and bumps and barriers and so on.

BB&F's course is closest to the ones I prefer, but even that only has a couple of "novelty" holes where you have to time your shot through the windmill. Windmills, going through buildings, Choosing which hole to go down to get to a second tier... that's what I think crazy golf should be.

[ad hoc]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

That's 2 BB&F epics I've happened upon by chance this morning. I do tend to stop in on the RL thread from time to time, so I was always likely to see that one, but I;m not sure if I've ever opened one of Rogin's golf threads before, so this was a very lucky break for me.

[tee rex]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Big Boobs has farted in church.

[Auntie Beryl]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

What a wonderful thread diversion, seems a shame to hoik it back to the professional game, but here we go...

The US Open starts in half an hour. It's the first time at Oakmont since 2007, when Angel Cabrera won with an unusual +5 for the tournament. Jonny Miller managed a 63 back in 1973, but expect few birdies and many grimaces.

As is becoming traditional, I'm going to list my £1 each way bets here and then repent at leisure as the four days wear on. Coral are paying out on top seven.

Mickelson 28-1 - this year finally?
Scott 33-1
Kuchar 33-1 - bang in form
Chris Wood 125-1 - with much of the focus understandably on Willett and Fitzpatrick, Wood is a little under the radar, but could be ready for a breakout moment on the major stage.
Donald 125-1
Kjeldsen 200-1
Aphibarnrat 300-1

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

The rain, while providing an annoying disruption, could help scoring, just as Johnny Miller's 63 all those years ago was aided by accidental overnight watering of the greens. In 2007, only a handful of players broke 70, one of whom was my local club's own Nick Dougherty, who filled that year's role of "unknown first round leader".

This year that role looks likely to be taken on by qualifier Andrew Landry, who is ranked about 650th in the world.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Shane Lowry leads overnight, with the third round to be completed. Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood both in contention - again - primed for their now traditional final-round collapses.

[Outside Agent]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Fingers crossed for Lowry and his glitter-encrusted, product-doused beard. When I saw Dustin Johnson had a three-shot lead yesterday, ahead of a chasing pack containing players all waiting for their maiden major, I thought it was in the bag.

Of all the majors, the US Open is unique to me as every two years it clashes with a major football Championships. So, many famous US Open moments are synonymous with football moments - Tom Kite winning his only major at Pebble Beach on the same day the Germany beat Sweden in the Euro92 semi; Steve Jones winning his only major at Oakhill on the same day Poborski scored that winner at Villa Park; Lee Janzen pipping Payne Stewart at Olympic on the same day Germany & Yugoslavia drew 2-2; sitting in a bar in Düsseldorf at the 2006 WC watching Harrington, Montgomery and Mickleson all blowing up, allowing Geoff Ogilvy win; Tiger beating Rocco Mediate in the Monday play-off on the same night Germany beat Austria in Vienna.

The last two US Opens held at Oakmont I can recall quite well. The final day in 1994 was the day after Ireland beat Italy in New York. One of my favourite golfers of the time, and one of the great nearly-men, Loren Roberts, should have won that Open. And Monty experienced the first of his numerous 'almosts'. Ernie Els sneaked that one in a sudden-death hole after the obligatory 18 hole play-off. 2007 was gripping, with Angel Cabrera holding off Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. That was the night my girlfriend (now wife) wondered how a grown man could become so besotted with another for purely sporting reasons, such was my adoration for Tiger.

Anyway, the delayed start suits us tonight. Get the football out of the way first.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

huge break for Johnson up the 10th, whose drive is so wayward he ends up behind a TV tower, and is allowed to drop it on the adjacent fairway.

Name on the trophy?

[Outside Agent]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

It could be Whistling Straits all over again, with Johnson in front only for penalty strokes to cause him the title.

Why an incident that occurred on the 5th green which requires viewing is relayed to the player on the 11th, and continues to go unresolved as the player approaches his final few holes is really poor from the USGA.

[Outside Agent]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Even if he's not penalised, this issue has cost Johnson strokes. His game has been affected since being told of the penalty hanging over him.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

They gave him that penalty, in the end, as well. An outrageous decision. Would have been hell to pay if he'd won by a shot - or tied - instead of winning by four (that became three).

Pleased for Johnson, especially as I predicted his victory in this event at the start of the year, and had money on him at the start of the week.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Bryson who? Golf in 2016

Hideki Matsuyama will finish the year ranked in the world's top ten, after winning the WGC event in Shanghai at the weekend. It's a breakthrough moment for him, making him the first Japanese player in 20 years to be in the top ten - in the 70s, 80s and 90s, it was common for the leading Japanese players (notably Jumbo Ozaki, Isao Aoki and Tommy Nakajima) to be in the top ten. Aoki rose as high as world number three. Aged 24, Matsuyama should be in prime position to take the next step, next year, and win a major; no Japanese player has yet done that, but Henrik Stenson broke the Scandanavian hoodoo this year, so maybe next year it's Japan's turn.