Apr 28
I was lucky enough to be invited to the Zurich Classic this past week(end). This is the only PGA Tour’s regular-season team event, when 80 pairs of pro golfers compete at the TPC of Louisiana.
TPC Louisiana is a stunningly beautiful golf course in Avondale, 15 miles from New Orleans, built over wetlands, still home to hundreds of alligators, and carved from a forest of cypress and oak trees.
Please click for moreJohn Daly was the draw this week at the PGA Butterfield Bermuda Championship at the serene Port Royal Golf Club.
At 56 Daly makes me look like George Dobson, and although he was only here on an exemption, the legendary American easily received the loudest roars from the crowd on both Thursday and Friday before missing the cut by miles.
Please click for moreWe’ve had the Bermuda PGA FedEx Cup here this weekend, golf for the uninitiated, which ended this afternoon at the Port Royal Golf Club, a beautiful setting out on the west end of the island.
Please click for moreI felt very fortunate this week as the UK and large chunks of Europe go back into lockdown I was lucky enough to be outside watching live professional sport.
The Bermuda PGA Championship has been taking place this week at Port Royal Golf Course and ends today in what will be an exciting finish.
Back on my doorstep then for my next 2019 Top Five. No Michelin stars, no movie premieres, no historical monuments, but local small scale stuff and fun things that peaked my interest.
To continue my January look back at my 2019, these are My Top Five Favourite Bermuda Things
Off to watch a bit golf today. Despite being in Bermuda for 11 years, and there being a higher concentration of golf courses here than anywhere else in the world I have yet to be bitten by the golf bug for all kinds of reasons.
Yet today just around the corner from my house the island has some PGA golf to watch as Bermuda gets an official PGA tournament taking place at the Port Royal Golf Course.
Like many of you I sat at home and watched the little known Sheffield boy Danny Willet win The Masters last night with a confounded cheeky smile on his face. His own personal week was one that are dreamt not made. Meanwhile Jordan Spieth’s baby face told a very different story. Spieth is just 22 and will be back, but the young American will have to fend off a whole host of exciting young British golfers.
For me watching on TV last night made it all the more dramatic as I was at Augusta 24 hours previously. Watching the cameras pan around that historic course made it so much more for me after walking around it the day before.
The Masters should be on every sports fans bucket list and I was privileged to be able to attend on Saturday. Mind you, it is long old drive from Atlanta, almost 3 hours each way and Augusta itself is situated east of Atlanta nestled on the border of golf-course laden South Carolina, touched by southern charm and blessed with history.
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A last minute winner for QPR is almost the final nail in the coffin as we face the distress of relegation in mid-April as soon as next Saturday. We have been relying on other teams slipping up for a long while now but it is simply not happening and the odd win was never going to cut it. We needed 7 points from the last week, but instead got 4 and the gap is now 11 points with our awful goal difference. The Championship relegation places will embarrassingly be resolved quickly without any fuss or contention.
The emptiness of relegation has been felt for a long, long while. The bitterness, the ugliness, the anger of how completely unnecessary it all was. Meire told us in the summer that we are to accept how her and Duchatelet run the club and to judge them over this season. Well, thanks for nothing.
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After a crazy work end of the first quarter, this week with the family I escaped to Florida and the unusually hip and arty city of Sarasota (photo), situated on the gulf coast just south of Tampa and St Petersburg. There are more museums, galleries and top rated restaurants than anywhere else in Florida and this part of the United States is also renowned for its tennis. World class academies attract the best talent and as such we watched a couple of excellent women’s finals on Sunday at the Wilde Lexus USTA finals in Osprey. 60th world ranked Madison Brengle won the singles.
The family go home today but I am travelling to Atlanta this afternoon and then after a night in Buckhead, 8 of us drive out to Augusta, the home of the iconic Masters. I am fortunate to be an invited guest for Saturday’s round and we stay overnight in our house close to the course no doubt wind swept and thirsty before an early return to Atlanta, which is a good couple of hours from Augusta, before flying home to Bermuda.
The Harlequins Rugby Club have been in Bermuda this week to play the Bermuda Barbarians and Friday night I was invited to the ‘gala dinner’ which is a fund raiser for the Beyond Rugby charity, a very worthy cause that in Bermuda offers the opportunity and encouragement for kids to turn away from gang crime and instead put all of their energies into competitive sport.
The dinner was attended by around 400 people and what with tickets, prizes and numerous auctions, which of course in a maze of alcohol reach silly portions – I give you a Juan Mata signed Man U shirt sold for $2,500 – the evening’s events would have raised an awful lot of money.
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The last ever Bermuda hosted PGA Grand Slam – the end of season money spinner for the winners of the four majors – has taken a bit of a back seat here, what with the impending Hurricane Gonzalo, on which I’ll write more later, but I did manage to get to Port Royal today to see Martin Kaymer collect the winnings after seeing off Bubba Watson in a one-hole play-off.
The PGA Grand Slam is a great tournament, four of the world’s best players play two rounds of golf in beautiful and relaxed surroundings to crowds both so polite and sparse that you can touch and chat to the players at everyone of it’s 36 holes played over two days.
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We lucked out massively yesterday at the Merion Golf Club. The forecasters were predicting all kinds of doomsday scenarios – thunder, lightning, tornadoes, flash flooding, 75 mph winds – neither of which happened in the leafy Philadelphia suburb of Haverford, named incidentally from the Welsh town of Haverfordwest after this little corner of Pennsylvania was founded by the Welsh Quakers in 1681.
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This afternoon I fly to Philadelphia for work-related things tonight and part of tomorrow but the principal reason I will be in the Commonwealth of Philadelphia is for the start of the U.S. Open at the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, about 8 miles west of the city.
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Putting the mighty Addicks to one side for the moment, other than the League One title winners, 2012 was a sensational year for sport. There were many screaming at the telly, jumping up and down moments but here were my Top 5 Favourite Sporting Moments of 2012:
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Last minute replacement Padraig Hamilton collected the $600,000 winners prize after today’s final round of the PGA Grand Slam in Bermuda. In front of I would say 2,500 to 3,000 spectators each bathed in sunshine, the Irishman after a 5 under-par overnight, birdied the 11th, 12th and 13th of his 2nd round and despite a bogey on the last ended up on 9 under and beat nearest rival Webb Simpson by a shot.
Tied in 3rd place were Bubba Watson and last year’s victor Keegan Bradley on 3 under. Harrington, despite only standing in for the injured Ernie Els just this weekend, was a popular winner after twice being a previous runner-up in 2007 and 2008, both times losing in a play-off.
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Open champion Ernie Els joins US Open champion Webb Simpson and Masters winner Bubba Watson in this week’s PGA Grand Slam of Golf. The 4th player is last year’s champion Keegan Bradley, who was invited back to Bermuda after PGA winner Rory McIlroy pulled out of the tournament citing that he had already made enough dough this year and needed a rest.
It is a shame McIroy is not here as he would have encouraged an army of Irish tourists like last year when both he and Darren Clarke played and very much enjoyed the local hospitality, especially Clarke!
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During my time in Chicago I went a couple of times to the glorious Medinah Country Club (I wrote about one visit here), which is host to this week’s Ryder Cup.
Medinah was designed as a retreat for the Masons in the early 1920’s. The Mason’s were known as the Medinah Shriners and their goal was to have built the best country club in North America with a 54-hole golf complex and a variety of other recreational activities. They succeeded and today Medinah has 3 golf courses, a lake, swimming pool and I read 18,000 trees all set within 640 acres of stunning countryside. It also has a distinctive club house (photo) blending Byzantine, Oriental, Louis XIV, and Italian architecture characteristic of many Masonic structures.
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Back in Bermuda, but not back at work as I had designated today as my team’s first annual Sports Day. Seven of us met for breakfast at 8am at the Fairmont Southampton near to my home. We then went out and played 9 holes of golf at the hotel’s par 3 course.
We started out in the rain but came back to the club house in the sunshine. We then played tennis for an hour and a half. This was the first time I’ve played tennis since my knee operation almost 2-years ago. It felt good and not unexpectedly I enjoyed the tennis more than the golf.
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Just back from a very enjoyable day at the golf. Young American Keegan Bradley swept to the $600,000 first prize after Rory McIlroy went from three ahead to four behind in a nightmare spell halfway through his round to end with a second-round 75. Meanwhile Keegan kept his head to go round on par and was a popular winner.
The South African Charl Schwartzel was the day’s best player and ended up being the biggest challenger to Bradley. From 7 strokes adrift at the start of the day, the Masters champion drew level with a sparkling front-nine 31, but could not get back on terms after Bradley birdied the 10th.
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If you follow golf then you will know what the following players have in common: Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke, Charl Schwartzel and Keegan Bradley.
Correct. They are the four golf major winners of the 2011. South African Schwartzel won the Masters in April, Mcllroy at just 21 years old won the US Open in June, Clarke was a very popular winner of the The Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes in July and American Keegan Bradley won the PGA Championship in August in his rookie year.
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A blustery day at Port Royal for the final round of the PGA Grand Slam yesterday. The conditions and the dramatic topography not only tested the four golfers but also my knee. I most definitely haven’t done that much walking in a while, thus making the easy decision to give my calf raises a miss last night.
I’m off shortly to watch the final round of the PGA Grand Slam at Port Royal, which is about a 15 minute walk from the house, although there are showers in the air at the moment as I look out of the window.
David Toms leads after the first day firing a four-under-par 67, giving him a one-shot lead over three-time major champion Ernie Els. Sadly this year’s two actual major winners Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer trail behind with one-over and three-over respectively.
McDowell who overcame a triple-bogey on the par-four 11th yesterday, has just Tweeted: “Getting ready for round two of the PGA Grandslam here in Bermuda. Low number required. We play a little earlier to avoid some weather later.” Better take my umbrella.
The PGA Grand Slam returns to Bermuda this week, once again at the Port Royal Golf Club, which is now handily situated just around the corner from our house.
The PGA Grand Slam of Golf is designed for the season’s four major winners (the Masters, the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship) but never have all four winners appeared for the season’s finale. This year sadly only two are here – Graham McDowell and Martin Kaymer, and they are joined by Ernie Els in for the otherwise engaged Phil Mickleson and David Toms, a late replacement for the injured South African Luis Oosthuizen.
Mickelson would have been a crowd puller and also I expect have attracted strong American interest but like Tiger before him he didn’t fancy it or the $1,350,000 of prize money for two rounds of golf.
Paddington Station, London
