Golf, by TourMiss

A decade ago, I ended-up with Dustin Johnson’s putter during the final round of the 2011 Open. I was working, as I still do, with the R & A media team helping out in bringing players to the media centre over the official opening three days and then once the tournament proper gets under way, I would walk escorting the media about the course. So, on the final day of the 140th Open I am walking the last group with Darren Clarke and Johnson. I think it may have been either the 14th or 15th hole ...

Of all the Open Championships I have attended, the 1993 Open at Royal St. George’s stands out as special. Special in that it was a fellow Australian and my ‘growing-up’ golfing idol Greg Norman being handed the famed Claret Jug by legendary Gene Sarazen. Also making it special was seeing the Australian Cricket Team in attendance and with Alan Border’s men already boasting two wins and a draw from their three Ashes series matches against ole foes England. I had been among the media ...

The annual hosting of the CB Qatar Masters always brings back a great story I have my maiden visit to the tournament in 1999, and the then second hosting of the tournament. Though I must say, I just recall why I had not attended the 1998 Qatar Masters and won by Scotland’s Andrew Coltart. It was a double celebration for the affable Scot who awoke in Doha on the Sunday morning having received confirmation from far off Australia he’d done encough to be crowned as the 1997/98 Australasian ...

If you thought you needed any assurance you had had found your place in a chosen field then that comes sometimes when someone of higher authority or stature publicly acknowledges your work or presence. It could be a school teacher being singled out by the school head in front of the entire school or an office worker praised by the CEO in front of the entire company workforce. It was well into the latter half of 2013 when controversial TV analyst, and former PGA Tour player, Brandel Chamblee, and ...

April 11th, 2011 Brian Lara – it’s a name synonymous with cricket as the man many call ‘The Prince’ was just one of two players who scored more than 10,000 Test runs and probably a similar return in One-Day cricket. But to bump into one of cricket’s all-time greats on a golf practice range in the Middle East – no chance! It was Monday of the 2011 Dubai Desert Classic week and fellow Australian Darren King, who works as a director of golf at the Els Club, had invited me to play the course. I ...

Fans of professional golf are so used to seeing either a gleaming new car, jewellery, watches or cash on offer for a hole-in-one during competition. And the par-3 seventh on the National course in Abu Dhabi there is not a prize but a ‘promise’ on offer, the like that has never before been offered in major tournament golf. When I first travelled to Abu Dhabi for the inaugural 2006 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship the prize, and usually at the par-3 15th, was a few nights, all expenses paid ...

Twenty-one years ago today, and in the spirit of a new Millennium, I hit the first golf shot on a golf course of this millenium at midnight on the 1st January, 2000 on the tiny Pacific Ocean island of Tonga. I flew from Sydney via Auckland to the Tongan capital of Nuku ‘alofa. Tonga encompasses around 170 islands of which 36 are inhabited while some 70% of the now 100,000 total population of the islands live on the main island. So why go to Tonga to golf? Tonga is located two-thirds of the way ...