By NOEL O'REILLY
Japan gear to get you into groove
ARE your J Lindeberg drainpipes so last season? Feeling a bit frumpy in your Ralph Lauren windcheater. Planet Golf may have stumbled upon the perfect solution. Qgroove, a Japanese company, has released a limited edition range of golf bags inspired by strawberries, frogs, and, er, koi carp.
Having cast our discerning eye over the merchandise at www.qgroove.com \ we can certainly guarantee you’ll turn heads at the local club. Whether the members will be laughing with you or at you is another matter entirely. Oh, and €670 a pop they’re not exactly credit crunch friendly.
Golfing Slang of the Week
“The Hitler” – The practice, with which we are all too familiar, of taking two shots in the bunker.
Montgomerie in no mood for diplomatic approach
WE thought Colin Montgomerie’s appointment as Ryder Cup captain might have softened the Scots mood on the course. But Monty was back to his irascible best at the China Open over the weekend, berating a cameraman who had the temerity to capture him hooking a drive into a water hazard. After first turning on a photographer who had clicked during his back swing, Montgomerie demanded the cameraman stop filming him. Explaining his outburst afterwards, Monty suggested Asian countries lack a basic understanding of etiquette on the course.
“This is an emerging nation golf-wise, and is an emerging nation in most events,” he told BBC Radio. “It’s the understanding – the etiquette – of the game that sometimes the Chinese and the Koreans and the Thais and these emerging countries over here in the Far East tend not to appreciate.
“Unfortunately, they picked the wrong guy and the wrong time.”
Irish in rich list
PROFESSIONAL golfers aren’t short of a bob or two but it still came as a surprise to learn that Pádraig Harrington is now among the top 250 earners in the country. With an estimated fortune of €34 million, the Dubliner is now ranked at 239th in the annual Sunday Times rich list, the first golfer to reach such dizzying heights. Graeme McDowell (€6.8 million) and Rory McIlroy (€3.4 million) are included in the young rich list, coming in at 13th and 18th respectively.
But while Harrington and co are raking it in, spare at thought for Vijah Singh, Camillo Villegas and Henrik Stenson. All three are reported to have lost millions in the Stanford financial crisis with Stenson admitting that “quite a big part” of his savings are invested with the troubled company.
Murray recovers sense of humour
BILL Murray is well known on the pro-am circuit – the comedian is a regular fixture in the ATT at Pebble Beach – but suffered his very own “Caddyshack” moment at the Outback Championship in Florida last week.
Playing alongside Hal Sutton and Jeff Sluman in the preamble to the Champions Tour event, Murray hooked a tee shot so wildly that it flew across an adjacent road and struck an unsuspecting lady pottering about in her front garden.
The woman in question, Gail DiMaggio, required a trip to the local hospital for treatment but did get to meet Murray before she left. A shaken Murray wouldn’t finish his round but had recovered his sense of humour by the time he met DiMaggio, double-checking whether his ball was out-of-bounds or not.
McIlroy a big hit in the States
CAN Rory McIlroy go the distance on the PGA Tour? Well, if his driving statistics are anything to go by, it will only be a matter of time before the teenager bags his first title Stateside. McIlroy finished outside the top 20 for the first time in six starts in the US at the Verizon Heritage last week, but topped the driving distance charts. Were he a full member of the PGA Tour McIlroy would sit comfortably inside the top five with an average drive well in excess of 300 yards.
