Moving on…

The two most hectic weeks of the year in amateur golf are over for this time. The European Championships; men’s, boys’, women’s and girls’, all take place during a two week spell in early July. As every year these two weeks are a pretty good indicator of what is happening in European golf. Not too long ago certain countries could pretty much walk through the qualifying process, find themselves in the A-flight and start playing for real once things got towards the semifinals. This is not the case anymore. In the men’s event I would say that 15 teams fought hard for the 8 spots in the top flight. Any of those with the help of two good days could have made it there. At the conclusion it ended up being two very established countries in the final; Scotland and England, but perhaps this was also down to the way the course played. It was a true links playing dry and firm for most of the week. In the boys’ event the number of teams fighting for the top flight spots were probably about the same. In the end Denmark played Germany in the final, the Czech Republic made the top 8 and Wales found themselves in the third flight. Of course this is great for golf and it won’t take long until this is reflected also in the top end of the professional game.

The two England Teams, men and boys, each lost one match in the top flight. This meant that the men’s team brought home the silver medals while the boys had to settle for 5th place, having lost to Germany in the quarter final. Not what the team came there to do but certainly what can happen in today’s golf.

Looking forward to the coming week it is again time for the greatest tournament in golf, the Open Championship. This time at Turnberry. As always it is interesting to see how the big guns prepare for the event. The usual way is to play the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond. Even though this is an astonishing place and I can understand why playing there is an easy choice, it is not exactly an Open type of golf course. Padraig Harrington on the other hand used what before has proved to be a winning formula for him – he stayed at home, won the Irish PGA Championships and got another links tournament under his belt. It will be interesting to see what that is worth once the tournament gets going at Turnberry!

Scotland win the European Championships

No, it was not England’s turn. The reigning World Champions, Scotland, can add “European Championships” to their resume after beating England today in the final of the European Championships at Conwy, Wales. Having lost both the morning foursomes England once again made a strong come back. Hutsby and Haines in the top two matches secured their points while Whitnell lost. It was now down to Fleetwood and Goddard, still on the golf course. Scotland were up in both those matches though and neither of Tommy nor Luke managed to turn the match around. Paul O’hara holed the winning putt on 17 against Luke Goddard.

See England Coach David Ridley comment on England’s performance this week:

 

For full  coverage of the European Championships, click here.

England in the final!

After a heroic come back the England Team is in the final of the 2009 European Championships at Conwy, Wales. Having been down, 2-0, after this morning’s foursomes England had to get at least four points out of this afternoon’s singles. Matt Haines, Sam Hutsby and Tommy Fleetwood delivered their points in style and it now came down to Dale Whitnell and Luke Goddard. After Dale Whitnell had lost on the 18th green to Norwegian Anders Kristiansson, Luke Goddard was put to the test. On the 2nd sudden death hole the Norwegian found trouble over the green of the difficult par 3 and even though he hit a great shot out of there he found his ball rolling over the green. A chip and a missed putt later Luke did not even need to hole his par putt and the match was over.

Watch Luke Goddard comment on today’s performance:

 

Some would say that tomorrow’s final is a dream final; England vs Scotland. Follow the final on the live scoring available here.

England through to the semifinal

England cruised through to the semifinal of the European Championships at Conwy in Wales after beatnig France yesterday, 5.5 – 1.5. After convincing foursomes by Ford/Whitnell and Haines/Fleetwood had put England ahead, 2-0, going into the afternoon singles it only took Haines and Goddard to secure their points to give England an unbeatable 4-0 lead. Figures were completed by Whitnell winning his match and Ford halving his.

Watch England Captain Colin Edwards comment on the win against France:

England now face qualifying winner Norway who came back strong to beat Finland by winning all five singles in the afternoon.

Live scoring is available here.

Into the match play stages

England have qualified for the A flight in the European Championships at Conway in Wales. After finishing fourth in the qualifying they now face France in the quarter final. I do not think that live scoring will be available on the official site so I shall try to keep a live scoring going here.

The morning foursomes are played as follows:

England			France
Time	Player names	Score	Result	Score	Player names
07:40	Charlie Ford Dale Whitnell				Alexandre Kaleka Johan Lopez Lazaro
07:50	Tommy Fleetwood Matt Haines				Victor Dubuisson Romain Wattel

For the official web site click here. Live scoring for this match is available here.

There has already been some pretty dramatic scenes this morning. Upon leaving the hotel early the bus driver forgot to close the door to the boot. Four sets of golf clubs fell out and two of them could not be found. So, two Italians are now out there without their own clubs! Not exactly the kind of start you would want in a quarter final of a European Championship…

Here we go again…

No, I have not disappeared off the face of the earth or gone to Los Angeles to pay tribute to Michael Jackson. But I have had a complete communication melt down last week so blogging was simply not an option.  As I now return a full week of golf has just started. The European Championships are underway at Conwy in Wales and the England Team have had a steady start. After day one England are in the lead three shots clear of Norway and Italy with Sweden closely behind in fourth.

Pos	Name	R1	R2	Holes	Total
1	England	344		F	-16
2	Norway	347		F	-13
3	Italy	347		F	-13
4	Sweden	348		F	-12
5	France	351		F	-9
6	Wales	354		F	-6
7	Scotland	355		F	-5
8	Denmark	358		F	-2

England Team

As always with the European Championships the week is a bit of a marathon. Another 18 holes of qualifying tomorrow after which the top 8 teams go through to the A flight. When there it is quarter final, semi final and final for three days running, each with two foursomes in the morning and five singles in the afternoon.

Let us hope that coach Dave Ridley and skipper Colin Edwards can manage to get the best out of the players!

Follow the action in Wales by clicking here.

Almost there

No, it was not England’s turn yet. Last year Tommy Fleetwood fell just short of becoming the youngest ever winner of the Amateur Championship. This year he got to the Quarter Finals, left behind by three English players that all made it to the semi finals. Sam Hutsby from Liphook, Hampshire made it all the way to the 36 hole final day where the young Italian, Manassero proved just as impressive as he was in the stroke play qualifying that he won comfortably. At 16 years of age he is now the youngest ever Amateur Championship winner and I have a feeling he will be looking forward to the Masters next year, in which he through this has just earned a spot.

This week also saw some of the best juniors in the World compete for the World Championships trophy out in Japan. England made a strong case to finish third behind winners Argentina and runners up, the United States. When I email with the England U18 lead coach, Paul Ashwell afterwards he says that it was nice to win a medal but it had the wrong colour. I have a feeling that is similar to the feeling that Sam had leaving Formby after the final. One thing that I do know though is that true champions tend to be incredibly disappointed but not for too long. They also have the habit of taking away the positives and understanding what could be better next time.

Dean Robertson, the successful European Palmer Cup Coach used a very simple technique with his team when he asked them – “if you played to your potential, could you win this event”. Of course all players answered “yes”. When Dean said – “what is stopping you” and started to deal with the things that came up he had come a long way towards securing that trophy. What on paper looked like a weaker team still walked away with the sweetest taste in their mouths afterwards.

Maybe both Sam and the England Team in Japan did the same but somehwere in their lies the true challenge; Performance=Potential-Interference.

Swedish women

What a weekend it was for Swedish Golf! Two women winning on tours on either sides of the Atlantic. If you look more closely the two of them actually make two quite interesting case studies on how to develop into a really successful golfer. Anna Nordqvist who, at 22 and as a rookie on the LPGA Tour, just won the LPGA Championships is the fantastic talent that sprung from a blistering career in the amateur game into the professional game to shoulder the old Annika Sorenstam mantle. Her win is a fantastic achievement and knowing what she has done previously I am positive that she will continue to prosper and be a factor to consider in many more majors to come.

The same weekend on a not so glamorous tour and of course with the top names out in America to compete for the major, Johanna Westerberg won on the LET. Johanna was never anywhere near Anna’s amateur record and I would have thought that more than once in her career she has stopped to think about what she is doing. All the travelling and the time put in for very little money and recognition – is it really worth it? Now, at 31 and with boyfriend the tennis professional Joachim ‘Pim-Pim’ Johansson on the bag she is a winner. And obviously somewhere deep inside that potential was always there.

These two case studies are well worth considering when trying to build the foundations of programmes that will develop the future top players. Or why not the top student, banker or businessman. It is so easy to design the programme for Anna, but how do we make sure that there is room also for Johanna, to develop at the pace that is right for her? Only the truly individual programme will have the capacity to help her reach her potential. The really tricky question is to do it before she runs out of money!

A fresh breeze over Royal Birkdale

Links golf does not get any better than this. A bit of sunshine, a bit of wind and a golf course in perfect condition, played off the championship tees. An Open golf course without the grand stands, tented villages and the thousands of people is always a very different experience than during that week in July when everything happens. Royal Birkdale is no different and to me this is when the golf course really is at its best. In perfect harmony with mother nature, set out between the sand dunes that cover it from the sea this golf course offers golf at its best. When England take on Australia in these settings I cannot help wondering if the players understand how fortunate they are.

The match became a real showcase of the strength that this England Team holds. 11-3 against a country like Australia is nothing short of superb. After having been ‘taken to the cleaners’ as Seve Benson, now on the European Tour, once put it, two years in a row when the match was played ‘down under’ this was a nice change.

A match like this serves a number of important purposes. Perhaps the most important one is the chance to benchmark against some sort of standard. With the Australian coach, Mark Holland, I got into a discussion about how we communicate with the players and their own little eco-system of their personal coach and other support services that they make regular use of. No matter how good that support is it is not very often that those people get to see the player in this kind of environment; on a world class golf course playing against some of the best opposition. Our job centrally has got to be to communicate strengths and weaknesses to the player’s individual system and through that and the support that we can give, make sure that the next time he is about to take on a similar challenge, he has taken another couple of steps towards being as good as he can be. If players, coaches and others involved are prepared to take that feedback on and work together the opportunity for every player to rapidly move forward should be fantastic.

And the Northern County Qualifier? Yes, for the first time ever Cumbria will be in the County Finals. Well done!

Another busy week

This week the Aussies are in the country for the Ashes. Well, perhaps it is not the original cricket match but its slightly less known and traditional golf equivalent. With an excellent venue, Royal Birkdale, it should be an exciting match. Of course you can follow the action on the English Golf Union website.

Talking about the Ashes I remember a couple of years ago when one of the golf magasines did a thing on what a Golf Ashes with all the top professional players involved would look like. Imagine Paul Casey against Adam Scott and Luke Donald versus Geoff Ogilvy. I bet that could be just as exciting as the Ryder Cup if not moore. The number 2 and 3 countries in the world teeing it up against each other. I realise that we might have to wait forever for such a match though and in the meantime there is no reason to think that the amateur match would be any less interesting.

Personally I am not yet at Royal Birkdale as I have traveled to Seascale GC for the Northern County Qualifier. This is where it is determined who will represent the Northern Group of counties in the County Finals. Apart from the finals themselves it is the one event that counties want to win. As I arrive at Seascale I am struck not only by the lovely views of the ocean and a proper links golf course but also by the number of cars in the parking lot. This is golf as it used to be and perhaps as it still ought to be. Out in twosomes the players sail through quickly supported by an enthusiastic crowd. At Seascale there is no live scoring and perhaps it is not needed. If you are interested in how your county is doing you come out to watch! What I can say though is that rumour hs it that Cumbria is leading after the first round…