chingali

Mobile phones should be banned but because it would be very difficult to administer they won't be. People should just show some manners and switch their phones off before setting foot on a golf course, and they should also respect the players wishes and not take photos with either camera phones or normal cameras. The thing that annoys me the most about watching golf on tv is the number of morons who just can't contain themselves and shout "in da hole" or "you da man". Anyone who shouts anything as a spectator at a golf tournament let alone either of the above nonsensical statements should be ejected from the course and if they happen to "bump" their heads during the ejection process then even better. Luckily here in Australia it is not so prevalent, but we still do get the odd gonad shouting things from the gallery. Monkey see monkey do I suppose.

Everyone has a story, just because you don't know it doesn't mean that it does not exist. And I do care about John Senden, having met and played with him back in the late eighties/early nineties means that I have always followed his career.

I also mark my provisional balls differently, I always have a few in the bag with my normal dots on them but also with P1 on them and one ball with P2 on it. I have never wanted to tempt fate by marking one with a P3 though!

Greg's playing in the Australian Open at Royal Sydney Novemeber 13th-19th. I'm going out to watch him play on the thursday and friday and taking my son with me. I remember my grandfather taking me out to watch Nicklaus and Trevino when I was a kid and they are some of the greatest memories I have. Norman is a bona fide legend and a proper gentleman in every respect. I haven't seen him play in about 10 years and I am looking forward to it immensely. If he has 68 or 78 I don't care, it is important to go and see guys like this play if you get the chance, 20 years from now when it's too late you will know why.

I always colour in three adjacent dimples with a black texta to form a little triangle near the number on both sides. I always mark my balls thusly and have done so for more than 20 years. It doesn't matter if your playing partners are using Pinnacles when you are using a Titleist, what about the hundred other players on the course or the hundred other players on the course the day before. That's why you mark your ball.

You should be paying more attention to the speed of the putt than to the line of the putt. Try to hit the putt with lot of break so that it it "dies" in to the hole. More experience will undoubtedly help, as will readjusting your expectations. You shouldn't be trying to hole a 30 footer across a ridge with 7 feet of break, you should be trying to get it close so that the next putt is easy. Once you get used to trying to "just get it close" you'll be surprised how many manage to fall in unexpectedly.

Mine is my putter, it's an old TaylorMade Tc.1. I have been using it for the last 15 years or so and it most likely won't be changed for anything other than the identical one I bought and put in the wardrobe about 5 years back. I am quite a good putter, I was before I got this thing and had been through about 30 putters in the previous 10 years but once I found the one I am using I stuck with it. Sometimes I miss everything and often I hole everything and I know it's not the putter, it's me, so changing would be pointless. I do look at loads of new putters and think "yeah I like that, nah I'd better not". Recently I have been looking a lot at the custom made TP Mills putters, maybe, just maybe...

I have never been to the USA but I have played nearly all of the Australian courses listed on golf Digest's 100 best courses outside of the USA. 2. Royal Melbourne G.C. (Composite) Black Rock, Australia (never played the composite course but have played the East & West courses that make up the composite course plenty of times. 8. New South Wales G.C. Sydney, Australia (have played here more than 50 times, it's probably my favourite course) 13. Kingston Heath G.C. Melbourne, Australia 32. Royal Adelaide G.C. Adelaide, Australia 35. The National G.C. (Moonah) Cape Schanck, Australia (anyone complaining about Augusta being long this year should play Moonah and find out just what long is!) 66. Metropolitan G.C. Melbourne, Australia 68. The Lakes G.C. Sydney, Australia (I play here a few times a year) 49. Barnbougle Dunes G. Links Bridport, Tasmania, Australia (I haven't played here yet but I am booked in for a week in October)