Lee Westwood's Mum

Congratulations to Lee Westwood on becoming No 1 European golfer.

I’m sure Lee would like to thank his wife and children, coaches and sponsors and of course his parents; John & Trish.

Trish used to drive Lee around to numerous amateur golf tournaments throughout his teenage years. These junior events are held at some of the most prestigious golf clubs in the UK. Unfortunately, Trish had to wait patiently in the car parks, as a women, banned from walking through the club house doors.

Now that golf is an all inclusive and Olympic sport. Fine words from the R&A’s Chief Executive Peter Dawson. Golf Refugees; No 1 eco brand in golf, would like to nominate Lee’s Mum; Trish Westwood to the board of the R&A.

It would be great to see a female member of the R&A in 2010.

Please support our nomination.
--------------------------------------------------

******

Sorry Rory, we must have missed your call for one of our eco Bandit polo shirts. Our highly trained sales force doesn’t always get to the phone in time. Better luck next time.

I’d like to say a few words without swearing about Nickent Golf. They’ve just been liquidised after the banks pulled the good old credit line from under their spiked shoes. I didn’t know any of the 60 staff, but felt they had some good products. Known in particular for their hybrids, which looping US golfer Jim Furyk swung and with sales approaching 15 million dollars in early 2008. Like most SME’s, Nickent experienced a nearly 50 % drop in sales during the recent economic woes. You could argue that the management decision to expand into the adjustable driver market was a poor decision. Though I read an excellent review of their new multi-functional driver by The Hackers Paradise, who gave our original black golf ball a *** review. You could also easily argue that the bank manages who dived in the wholesale market gambling several times the capitalise value of their banks were stupid beyond belief. But as we all know, the small guys are expendable and the big guys survive. Our Bank of England chief, Merv the swerve, recently paraphrased Sir Winston Churchill at an expensive bash in London ’never in the field of financial endeavour has so much money been owed by so few to so many’.
--------------------------------------------------

Race to Dubai

The Race to Dubai is happening this weekend. Well it sounds better than the Race to Dudley.

Even though the clubhouse isn’t finished, some of the fairways will require ’ground under repair’ signs and the water features smell like gents toilets. The prize money hasn’t escaped the cuts either, but the winner will still pocket more than a few grains of sand in the nether regions, a scorching 1.6 million.

Rory, on the off chance that you’re reading this, if you’d like to wear an eco polo shirt to go with your hippy hair, give us a call.
---------------------------------------------------

Putters

What's your favourite putter?

The putter is probably the most important club in your golf bag. Even though the mighty Tiger is sponsored by Nike to the tune of 100 million dollars, he still uses a Scotty putter. Man, those Nike putters must be rubbish. Anyone else use one?
--------------------------------------------------

Disquiet please!

I may be in the minority again, but what’s wrong with taking pictures and making some noise when professional golfers are playing? After reading that Tiger has recently been paid a reputed 2 million dollars appearance fee to play in China, and then moan about the difficulty with playing in front of an uneducated golf crowd. Having to deal with more camera shutter clicks and background whispers than usual. That’s a really tough ask for a measly couple of million bucks.

For me, they could shout and scream all they like. I would like to believe that I had the powers of concentration to zone in and remove the outside noises when hitting my shot.

If the sponsors are willing to pay such high fees to the best golfers, that’s all well and good. But let’s not make golf a silent spectator sport, just to appease the highly paid, tetchy professionals.
---------------------------------------------------

Marketing mistake?

Not so long ago Tiger was plying his trade with a different little white ball.

It seems nowadays that if Woods doesn’t play, golf tournaments lack a certain ’je ne sais quoi’.

Back then, did the senior marketing men at Titleist make a huge mistake by not offering TW enough money to stay?
---------------------------------------------------

Drugs, just say maybe.

We are often asked, particularly by our mothers, where do we stand on drugs?

At the Golf Refugees laboratory, where our white coated colleagues have at least one GCSE in a science related subject, conduct numerous experiments and drug trails to inform our decision.
Our drug classification system is somewhat different to the governments(UK).

Golf Refugees drug classification table.
Class A
Any drugs derived from Afghanistan.
We don’t believe any of our brave young soldiers should be killed by weapons financed by citizens consuming these drugs.
Class B
Heroin, cocaine
Class C
Ecstasy, amphetamines, cannabis, cigarettes, alcohol, lucozade, coca cola.

At first, it may seem odd to classify say cannabis and cigarettes; alcohol and lucozade in the same category. But after conducting rigorous experiments we believe they are as harmful to your mind and body as each other. For example one of our scientists drank ten pints of his favourite lager on a Saturday night before playing his usual round of golf early Sunday morning. He played quite well, with no noticeable drop in performance. The following weekend, in the name of science, he consumed ten bottles of lucozard sport, but throughout Sunday morning he felt particulary ropey with several unscheduled trips to the bushes. His physical and mental well being had been affected and consequently his performance on the golf course.

The first golf drug cheat has been found and punished. Good news for the golf authorities that the relatively unknown golfer doesn’t need to give back any major trophies or cause embarrassment to any multi-million dollar sponsorship deal. Few, that was lucky.
------------------------------------------------

Stephen Lewton

I first met Stephen Lewton as a young lad, meeting him with his Dad; Michael at the family friendly Wavendon golf course located on the outskirts of Milton Keynes, UK. Over the coming years we’ve kept in touch and followed his progress through those difficult teenage years. Trying to help with some freebie eco threads, there was also an opportunity with Pringle to model some of their clothing, but the up to 5k fee proved too risky to try and hide from praying eyes and risk his then amateur status. Introducing Stephen to some of our other contacts at Bite shoes and Peak Performance to keep his ever growing body clothed.

Unfortunately he didn’t get much support from the powers that be at the prestigious Woburn Golf Club. Where Stephen’s been a member, won their club championship and is their lowest handicapped golfer apart from Poulter who they sponsor for 30k per annum. Nice one Alex Hay for supporting junior golf.

It’s certainly been a roller-coaster ride, which proves just how difficult it is to make it in golf. Highs included being selected to represent England Boys as an amateur. Securing a full sports scholarship to play golf and study at North Carolina State University, where Stephen won a couple of events on the highly competitive US college circuit. Then a further couple of wins in Australia during our winter saw him pencilled in for 2007 Walker Cup place. After a sudden loss of form during Spring / Summer in the UK ruined Stephen’s chances of final selection.

Stephen turned pro and dugged deep with his supporting family to regain his form and confidence to secure a place on next years Challenge tour, by finishing runner-up in 2009 Alps Tour. Stephen has now earned a couple of weeks off at home before jetting off to Spain to try and qualify for the European tour via Q-school. We wish him every success.
-------------------------------------------------

Wacko Jacko

Wacko Jacko, not the late king of pop, but Tony Jacklin, 1969 Open, 1970 US Open winner has been having a whinge.
Here at Golf Refugees we like nothing more than a good moan especially when it’s aimed at the governing bodies of golf.
Jacko says that golf has become too predictable and the success of Tiger is hiding some fundamental flaws. The USPA, R&A should find some balls and define a tournament ball that the pros can play with. Or the tours themselves should specify a ball with a less predictable flight and lower distance capability. I can’t see that happening, with the manufacturers and governing bodies rhetoric that we all play the same game and use the same equipment; from hacker to professional. Which is a convenient myth, as golf courses are set-up completely differently for professional tournaments.

Jacko is also concerned about the ever increasing length of golf courses to accommodate the performance of the latest equipment. With the knock-on effect of increased maintenance and time required to play a round of golf. Over five hours becoming the norm.

I’ve often wondered how you become a member of a governing body. You’ll need to be a middle-aged man and feel comfortable wearing a blazer. With a propensity to nodding your head all of the time. Making tough decisions which ruffle a few feathers are just not in their make-up.

--------------------------------------------------