Planet Golf

A round-up of today's other golf news

Chavez continues to close courses

THE OUTSPOKEN Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is a man who knows what he likes. And he doesn’t like golf.

A “bourgeois” sport played only by the rich and the lazy is how Chavez described the game, announcing he was to close down a further two courses in Maracay and Caraballeda as he purges the land of plus fours and loud jumpers.

Chavez has already shut seven courses in Venezuala since 2006. The latest closures are, ostensibly, being ordered with the intention of using the land to build public housing.

“I respect all sports,” Chavez said in a televised address last month. “But there are sports and there are sports. Do you mean to tell me this is a people’s sport? It is not.”

Slow players act quickly as Texan draws his gun

THE ISSUE of slow play, a minor irritant or a great plague that will kill the game (depending on your point of view), refuses to go away. First we had the kerfuffle when referee John Paramor had the temerity to put Pádraig Harrington and Tiger Woods on the clock at Firestone, a move Woods claimed spoiled a great contest.

Then we had the Solheim Cup (or Slow-Heim Cup), where fourballs took more than six hours to complete and matches were finished in near darkness with rules officials doing nary a thing to speed proceedings along.

So it was with mixed feelings that we read about the case of Edwin Dailey, a 73-year-old Texan who has quite clearly had enough of hanging around on the fairways. Rather than asking to play through or, God forbid, hitting into the offending group in an effort to get things moving, Dailey took a more direct approach. He pulled a gun on them.

Having argued with the group for a number of holes about their slow play at the Lions Municipal Golf Course in Austin, Dailey confronted them in the car-park with a .25-caliber Browning handgun.

“I am morally obligated to destroy you,” he told the terrified group before they fled behind their cars. Mercifully, nobody was hurt in the incident and Dailey was later arrested and charged for his somewhat overzealous reaction.

Jackson wins despite penalty

A MORE conventional, not to mention safer, way of tackling the slow-play epidemic is to penalise players where it hurts; on their score cards.

Not before time, that’s what happened at the US Amateur championship last week when the authorities decided enough was enough.

Having already been put on the clock on three separate occasions, Tim Jackson and Pat Duncan jnr were handed a one-stroke penalty each after failing to pick up the pace. The third member of the group, John Kostis, escaped sanction after he at least tried to move things along.

The penalty wasn’t enough to deny Jackson (who “was not happy about this at all”) the title but, one suspects, he will think twice in the future. Whether officials have the gumption to introduce such measures in professional events is another thing.

Giuliani makes it in New York

STAYING IN New York, Andrew Giuliani, the son of former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, proved to be a chip off the old block by claiming his first title as a professional last Thursday.

The 23-year-old joined the likes of Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson and Gene Sarazen in winning the city’s Metropolitan Open, picking up a cheque for $27,500 in the process. “This is a big-time first step,” he said afterwards. “To win a championship like this for my first pro victory in my home area, it’s just awesome.”

Giuliani’s path to the professional game has not been without the occasional speed bump and he hit the headlines as a college player following a high-profile law suit taken against Duke University after he was thrown off their golf team.

The university alleged he was kicked out of the team for a number of hot-headed outbursts, which included breaking clubs and throwing an apple in the face of a team-mate, claims that Giuliani has denied.

Liberty National a cake that leaves bad taste

DESPITE the impressive vistas of the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline, it’s fair to say that the Liberty National course wasn’t an overwhelming hit among the touring professionals last weekend.

The venue for The Barclays was so unpopular with the players that the PGA Tour issued a “speak no evil” directive to its members, insisting that they keep their complaints to themselves, in the build-up to the tournament.

Tiger Woods toed the party line, describing the layout simply as “interesting”.

Robert Allenby was also keeping mum when asked about the course, replying: “I really don’t know how to answer that in the right way, because I could really get myself into a lot of trouble.”

Some players were more descriptive with their opinions but were, unsurprisingly, reluctant to go on the record.

Our favourite?

Take the following from one unnamed pro, who found the venue not to his taste: “It’s like this beautiful birthday cake you bring into the room and slice into pieces. Everyone takes a bite and realises there’s crap inside.”