"There were rave reviews for the changes made to the famous West Course by the Ernie Els design team ahead of the BMW PGA Championship 2010"

A good time was apparently had by all at Wentworth when European TV's finest showed up to play the Ernie Els redesigned West Course.

Love the write up:

A team of broadcasters from the BBC and Sky Sports enjoyed their first sight of the modernised West Course at Wentworth Club when they faced a line-up from BMW, The European Tour and the host club.

Former Ryder Cup Captain, Sam Torrance, was joined by fellow BBC commentators Alan Hansen, Tim Henman and Sir Matthew Pinsent alongside Di Stewart, Robert Lee and Steve Beddow from Sky Sports as the team of broadcasters registered a hefty 7-2 victory.

Paul Davies of the BBC and Sky Sports’ Jason Wesley jointly accepted the plaudits from George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour after defending their trophy.

There were rave reviews for the changes made to the famous West Course by the Ernie Els design team ahead of the BMW PGA Championship 2010, with the visually stunning eighth and 18th attracting special attention.

Even better, look how well dressed they get for a shindig. Take note, writers.

Sweden Folds 2018 Ryder Cup Hand, Declares Action Too Hot To Handle

The search for the best package deal and undoubtedly the worst possible golf course to contest golf's most thrilling biennial event includes one less country now because of this:

The Swedish Golf Federation said it was impossible to find sponsors to host European events at Senior Tour, Main Tour and Challenge Tour levels in the years leading up to 2018.

"A signature on a scorecard is an endorsement of integrity, not just a scrawl on the end of a piece of paper."

Colin Byrne details an incident at the Open de Andalucia that led to two DQ's. Not often you hear about this kind of thing...

Borja Etchart from Spain was disqualified from the first round of the Open de Andalucia for failing to add two penalty strokes for playing a ball from a wrong place on two of the last three holes of his round. Which, reading between the lines, would suggest that he was replacing his ball on the greens in a “careless” manner on previous occasions too.

If you see a playing partner doing something inappropriate on the course you have a duty to take action. The trouble is that, as a competitor, accusing a fellow player of incorrect actions will probably lead to some discussion and maybe a little bad feeling. As we all know, the game is difficult enough without any such contretemps. The right thing to do is take action. The easiest and wrong thing to do is ignore an action by a fellow competitor that you know is wrong. You are protecting yourself, your fellow competitors and the integrity of the game.

Etchart’s playing partners were Andrew Coltart and Erik Tage Johansen. The Norwegian, Johansen, was marking the accused’s card. Coltart and Johansen reported to the tournament committee after the scorecards had been returned that they had seen Borja incorrectly replace his ball on the 16th and 18th greens.


"Four of the golf courses bidding to win the 2018 Ryder Cup aren’t built yet."

I apologize if you've already showered today, but Alistair Tait's look at the potential 2018 Ryder Cup venue--you know, the one that will benefit the children--could be about as tacky and sleazy as it gets.

European Golf Design, a joint venture between the European Tour and IMG, are involved in three of the four courses yet to be completed/constructed. European Tour chief executive George O’Grady has previously said privately he would prefer the match to go to a European Golf Design course. So the three EGD candidates would seem to be in pole position.

"Does this mean the first Dubai World Championship was also the last? Given the news of Nakheel's financial problems, the only plausible answer is yes."

Hard to disagree with Lawrence Donegan's well-reasoned prediction that all things Dubai-hearts-golf are just about over in light of Nakheel's latest financial status update.