Byron Kalies

Not a bunker problem you’ll encounter at Tredegar and Rhymney G.C.

Playing golf in Wales is not a natural thing to do. For my Saturday morning ball school encounter I look out and it’s too wet, too cold, too foggy, too snowy, too icy and too early.

I suspect I would attend far more Saturday meetings if Wales had the same climate as Qatar – although I suspect there would be Saturdays where I’d complain that it is too hot, too sandy, too dry, too difficult to play out of the bunkers.

So I settle down to watch the golf from the Doha Golf Club feeling guilty, imagining those hearty souls out there wrapped up and moaning – and I do miss it – not actually enough to join them – but I do miss it. There is also the fact that it will now cost me money for not turning up. I feel the shame of not being there – why aren’t I as macho as the others? Perhaps it’s because I’m older than many of them, apart from Keith, or because I’m a softie office worker. Whatever the reason I look out of the window, sigh and get out my daughter’s Tiger Woods Wii game and pretend I’m doing the next best thing. Well at least I’m practicing aren’t I?

The Tiger Woods’ game is getting more and more realistic now. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next version comes out with gloves that make your fingers cold and a magic hat that makes it feel like it’s raining and special glasses that mist up whenever you make your backswing. There may even be headphones included that start talking to you whenever you’re about to hit your putt, or give you unwelcome advice when you hit your tee shot in the trees. I’ve heard in the next version there’s a facility where you need to root around looking for your virtual ball in the virtual rough of all the major golf courses in the world. This would make it truly realistic.

So, perhaps Wales isn’t the best country in the world for golf. It doesn’t seem to be that good for producing world class players. It’s hardly surprising is it? - especially the South Eastern valleys. I blame climatology and topography. Years of cold, stinging, horizontal rain will have had a devastating effect on the swing and the temperament of our top golfers. Centuries of narrow, squeezed river valleys will surely have an adverse effect on their chipping and putting. The parallel Rhymney, Sirhowy and Ebbw rivers with their enclosed cultures, vicious sheep and harsh environments will influence the mentality of the golfers trapped within. There are villages north of Tredegar as remote, as inhospitable, and as dangerous to missionaries as any outlying Amazonian villages. This will surely have an impact on our talented young golfers, their traditions, their dress sense and their approach shots.

It is no surprise that our best golfers get a little confused when faced with beautiful weather, immaculate courses and NO RAIN.

Unable to get a ticket for Ryder Cup – long story - so ended up traveling to Cardiff for a meeting with other like-minded, like-budgeted folk. Due to meet up in ‘The Cottage’ at 2 so get to Cardiff early and wander around. Seems a lot quieter in Cardiff – some shops have golf displays but not too many. Not the feeling of any thing exciting happening at all – perhaps this is a mistake.

‘The Cottage’ is quiet – we talk, and wait for everyone to turn up. Drinks are bought, lives are caught up with and we watch the occasional report in the background on Sky Sports news. There’s a number of mobiles ringing which announce the fact that all who are here are here and we roam a little. First there’s the traditional “One in the Goat” – big mistake, in golfing terms. Three minutes later we’re in the Old Arcade – nice - it’s become a bit posher than we like and we have a few. Later that evening there’s a talk organised by a number of golfing types – we agree to return (we never do) and someone hears a report that there are a couple of old acquaintances in a different pub. We leave, get chips in Caroline Street, eat them and cross the room. At last….

We wander into O’Neill’s – It’s exactly like a rugby International – many, many excited, semi-drunk Welsh people talking, drinking, watching, analysing and cheering simultaneously. It’s still early but already all the shots are being cheered or jeered and favourites are emerging – Rory, Poults and Luke are current favourites and a mix of responses to Tiger – generally polite, very low level comments, all intermingled with ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ at the shots he plays.

The treatment of Monty has totally changed over the past week or so – where has the miserable, growling, grumpy Colin gone. Who or what has replaced him with this caring, sharing, human. “What have you done with the real Monty!” someone cries out , “Bring him back,” “No!” comes the chorus and the pretend ego-free Monty carries on talking eloquently, respectfully and politely on the giant screen. No-one is fooled – the real Monty will be back. We miss him.

We spot a celeb on TV and discuss how they managed to get a ticket. Chris Evans appears on screen and the pub is polarised. We all cheer as Mark Roe says something probably witty and insightful ( can’t hear a thing ).

Hours later we’re in an Indian restaurant reflecting on the day, eating and starting to work out how we’ll get home, when we’ll meet again and promising that next time we will go and see it in the flesh.

I will not be watching the Ryder Cup from the upper tier of the 2010 clubhouse at Celtic Manor this year. I will be watching the Ryder Cup in the equally salubrious surrounds of the Old Arcade, or ‘The Goat’. I will probably tell some that this is my choice. I will point to all the drawbacks of watching the match wandering around a field in the company of 49,999 other souls; “You won’t be able to see anything”, “You’ll never get a drink”, ”The queues to the toilets will be horrendous,””What. I’ve got to park in Tredegar Park and take the bus in?”, “What if it rains?”.

In truth it all comes down to one thing… money. As a Saturday Morning Ball School colleague put it, “£130! I’d want to play in the Ryder Cup for that amount of money.”

It will be expensive. Aside for the entrance fee and the £20 parking fee there’s the food and drink (you’re not allowed to take your own food and drink you know) and all the restriction on cameras, phones etc..

Is this too much? Couldn’t billionaire Terry, sorry multi- billionare Sir Terry lower the prices a little in these harsh times? There’s an argument on both side here. On the one hand ‘why should he. It’s his game and he can charge what he likes. If you don’t like it you can go to the Old A with Byron and watch it on tv.” On the other hand how much does Sir Terry need another million or two.

GB and Europe have already given up home advantage to play at a golf club few of the players have even driven past let alone played before so why not at least have a really partizan, working class crowd. In rugby a large proportion of the tickets go to the rugby clubs. Wouldn’t it be excellent if that happened in golf and hoards of everyday golfers descended on the Celtic Manor – now that would be a home advantage. I hardly think 50,000 champagne-swilling, blue-blazered, televison-golfers will put Phil Mickelson off his swing. The combined might of Bargoed, Castell Heights, Caerleon , etc. golfers may well do.

And what about after the Ryder Cup? Is it possible Sir Terry will stay? Why would he – he’s done it now. He’s had the supreme monopoly / fantasy golf game, played it and won. What could be next? Getting Wales to hold the 2020 Olympics, Canada to hold the 2022 World Cup? There were rumours of the Celtic Manor becoming a centre for sporting excellence – tennis in particular was mentioned. I can’t see it myself. Where is the motivation for Sir T in that. Having climbed Everest what did Sir Edmund Hilary do next? Neil Armstrong? Captain Webb, Chuck Yeager, Ricky Valance. Exactly. No-one knows. For golf in Wales it’s been good. Newport has a new road. Golfers now know, at least that Wales is not part of England, and by the end of the week they will have found out the hard way, that Newport is not part of Cardiff.

As for the match itself Tiger Woods will win all his matches. It’s inevitable. It’s all part of his master plan. Why do you think Tiger’s been out of action for so long – exactly, he’s focusing on the Ryder Cup. Anyone who has bought Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 for the Wii will know this. The game features the most accurate depiction of the course at Celtic Manor that you will ever see. It’s more accurate than being there – say some. Tiger has obviously been busy all summer learning the nuances of the course from the comfort of his armchair and will be a certainty for all points – mark my words.

So, I’ll watch Tiger Woods and the US team narrowly win the Ryder Cup from the discomfort of the Goat Major and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Unless of course someone were willing to offer me a free ticket.

<a href=”http://www.carreg-gwalch.com/product/tenby_to_celtic_manor_-_a_history_of_golf_in_wales/”>”Tenby to Celtic Manor” (Carreg Gwalch) - Byron Kalies</a>

Albert and playing partner contemplating going out for the first doubles match of the Winter

EXT. A COLD AUTUMN WEDNESDAY, BARGOED GOLF CLUB.

2 forlorn figures standing on the 132 yard, par 3, 13th.

Albert, a youngster (for Bargoed) of 48 takes out a 5 iron and swings it ferociously throughout the conversation. There is no wind.
Barry, a 52 year old writer looks on amazed.

BARRY
You know this is only 132 yards?

ALBERT
I do.

BARRY
You know you hit that 5 iron 160 yards on the last hole?

ALBERT
I do.

BARRY
So. Why?

ALBERT
I don’t want to take any chances.

BARRY
Take any chances on what?

ALBERT
On getting it into the hole.

BARRY
But that’s the point, isn’t it?

ALBERT
I never aim at the hole on par 3s on Wednesdays

BARRY
Why?

ALBERT
In case I get a hole in 1

BARRY
?

ALBERT
I don’t want to buy a round

BARRY
It’s Wednesday afternoon. By the time we get into the club there’ll only by 3 people there, including us

ALBERT
I know but Jimmy Pies will be there

BARRY
So

ALBERT
I’m not buying him a drink

BARRY
So you’d rather take 3 more clubs than you need on a hole you’ve never managed to get within 5 feet of in your life because there’s a bloke who may be in the club when you get back you won’t buy a drink for?

ALBERT
Correct

Albert smiles as his tee shot lands 20 yards behind the pin.

*****

It was Albert’s first year on the Scotland golf tour. Every 2 years the SMGS went to Scotland on the Wales v Scotland international weekend and played golf for a week, They played a number of golf clubs every day in and around Edinburgh and watched the match on Saturday. Albert was nervous. He’d been playing golf for a few years but had only encountered the electric, intense SMGS atmosphere on a few occasions and knew very few people in the group.
It was the first tee at a nameless, but tough and windy proper links course. There were 12 waiting around the first tee pretending to stretch and wake up and have their last cigarette (of the front nine).
Dev (has become the self appointed leader, and welcomer)

DEV
Albert. As a special honour you get to tee off first

Very muted applause, some abuse and a general murmur of ‘bandit’.

DEV
Here you are I’ll even put your tee in the ground for you and line you up. It’s tradition

Albert walks onto the tee and stares into the distance. He shakily places his ball on the tee and mutters to himself

ALBERT
Slow swing…slow swing

His bottom is going like a trout’s mouth as he lifts the club and hits it, not great but straight and quite long. He smiles at Dev.

Dev smiles back, turns Albert around 180 degrees

DEV
Well done. Now there’s the first fairway

He points down the fairway, in the opposite direction to Albert’s tee shot,

DEV
I suggest you wander back to your ball and see if you can hit a couple of 5 irons back in this direction

In 1926 a group of Penmaenmawr  professionals arrived in South Wales looking for work, women and beer. It was a Saturday and they had time on their hands while they waited for the pubs to open. To kill time they competed against a team of Sirhowy Valley seniors, but lost 13½ points to 1½ points.

Ianto Ryder, a wealthy Welshman, watched the competition, and agreed to provide a trophy to encourage the matches to be played on a regular basis. The inaugural Ianto Cup matches were played the following year at Bargoed Golf Club, and thereafter every two years, with the venue alternating between North and South Wales. In 1973 the Cup was played for in Llanbobl for the first time, and in 1979, after a period of North Walian supremacy, it was decided to include West Walian players in the competition. Since then the contest have been close, and the score remains Taffs 7 wins, Gogs 7 wins, and one tied match. The Ianto Cup remains one of the few great sporting competitions that is played for no prize money.

In 1926 the Saturday morning ball school came into being. The original members were Ianto, Ted the Bread, Aneurin Bevan and Keith. Over time most of the personnel have changed but the principles of fair play, respect, camaraderie and fairness are as distant today as they were nearly a century ago. Every Saturday since 1926 there has been a Saturday morning ball school, apart from a brief period in 1941 when German bombers rendered the course unplayable. As a memorial to the war the course remains as it was after that day – harsh, unplayable, with a dozen 40 feet bomb craters lining the 5th fairway.

The principle rule of the SMBS is turn up, moan, pay up. Although it is now possibly illegal to pay for cash and still be considered an amateur, there are members of the SMBS (well one) that has had to declare the SMBS as his primary source of income for tax purposes. The Club is fairly catholic in that any player born within a radius of almost 3 miles from the club, has a relative, or friend playing in the School and is willing to lose £1 a week  can take part.

There are rules, I suppose, although they tend to vary from week to week. There is however one constant – fun. You’re not allowed to have any. Over the past 8 decades there have been many SMBS members who have used the School as a springboard to go on to bigger and better things – amongst them Bradley Dredge, Ian Woosnam, Alun Hoddinot, Nicky Wire, Kathryn Jenkins and Ban Ki-Moon. All, in their way have contributed to making the world a nicer place – with the possible exception of Moony who left under a cloud still owing £1 (1,800 South Korean won)  from his last game when he lost his bet failed to make 4 after a great drive 80 yards short of the 18th green.

Dredgie was a regular in the school in the 80s but was forced to turn pro and take a drop in wages after the 1991 scandal involved Dredge, Dai Snips, Keith and a candlestick in the billiard room. Dai Snips who had a lucrative barber shop in the middle of Deri with celebrity clients including Julian Cope, was forced to sell up and move to Calgary, Alberta, Canada where he became a butcher and business consultant.

Keith has missed just 7 of the 4,897 Saturday games and still uses the same tee he was given for the inaugural event by Ianto Ryder. Keith has played on the professional circuit, finished runner up in the Welsh Open on 3 occasions and has won 5 cars for holes in one in the past year alone. He is currently playing off 15. He hasn’t handed a card in since 1956 and has 7 children.

Practise after dark and in disguise

Practice is often treated as a dirty word. You should be very careful when mentioning it in mixed company. Be careful where and when you use it and never, ever use it when you’re unsure of the opinions of everyone in the room. Only use it when you know you’re in a group of true believers;

Scene: Bargoed G.C., first tee, 8.03 a.m. Saturday morning, Autumn;

A gaggle of golfers shivering, moaning, talking general nonsense and catching up
Garin: Haven’t swung a club for 3 weeks.
Alun: Really. Thought I saw you up here last week.
Garin: That wasn’t me
Dev: I think it was I saw your car
Garin: Oh right – but I was only here for 10 minutes practising.
All stop their conversations and look at Garin. Huddle and announcement
Dev: We’ve decided to cut you 2 shots.
Much anger, discussion, rebuttal, denial, an appeal, witnesses called, more discussion and decision upheld.
The moral of the story – ‘Careless talk costs shots’.

So, under cover of darkness, on your own private golf course, or at a different golf course in a different country where no-one knows you, you should practice. It’s better if you can practice on your own – no witnesses. This is easier for some golfers than others. Some golfers can’t take a …. putt by themselves let alone play a whole round of golf. Others love it. However, at some stage in their lives, everyone needs to practice sometimes. Now there is practice and there is practice. Proper practice should be meaningful and designed to help you. It’s not much use wandering around the golf course hitting balls from positions you’d never be in with clubs you never realised you had in your bag. “If I hit my drive to here I’d need to draw a 2 iron over the pond” is never going to happen so save yourself some time and grief and golf balls and lay up.

You need to understand why you’re practising. If you’re not practising but having fun then by all means hit a driver from the fairway and try to bend a three wood around a forest of trees. However if you’re practising to play better it needs to be ‘context specific’. This nifty little phrase says that the way we behave totally depends on the context. If someone is running down the street you have no idea why they are doing it until you have more information. Are they robbing a bank or late for work? Similarly, the ugly duckling is only ugly in the context of the other animals around him. If he were brought up with ducks he would possibly be a good looking duck. OK dodgy analogy but you know what I mean.

In golfing terms if you are practising to improve your new grip then use it all the time. The practice round should be as close to a real round as possible. If you count all the shots in a real round (which I hope you do) you need to count all shots from a practice round. You need to play every ball from where it lands. You need to focus on every shot. You need to finish off every putt. If you use expensive Callaway Hex Tour golf balls in a real competition then you can’t use the old battered Precept Laddie you found at the bottom of the garden after the dog chewed it for the practice round.

Henry Cotton, talking about British Open Champion, Harry Vardon;
“He would not play any course twice in the same day. Why not? Because he was so accurate, that in his second round, his shots finished in the divot holes he had made in the morning, and that took the fun out of the game.”

Unless you’re Harry Vardon I guess you may need to get better;

“You can’t teach me anything about golf I’ve been playing it for 30 years.”
“Really?”
“That’s right. I’ve got 30 years experience.”

I suspect that Dai may be incorrect. I suspect that his 16 handicap is not the result of 30 years of experience but 1 year’s’ experience repeated 30 times coupled with the mathematical certainty that on a handful of occasions in those 30 years many of this better shots and his luck coincided in a beautiful day that resulted in a dramatic cut in his handicap - too harsh?

I think not. I think David Kolb (author of ‘Socrates In The Labyrinth: Hypertext, Argument, Philosophy’ exploring the nature of argument in linear and hypertextual space) would agree as well.
His (David’s not Dai’s) model of how we learn recognises that we have to do more than have an experience to learn anything;

New player on course to partner, “What do you hit from here?”
Experienced club member, “I generally hit a 4 iron.”
New player, “Well I hit the same distance as you so I’ll hit a 4.”
He hits a 4 iron short into the bunker.
New player “I thought you said you hit a 4 iron?”
Experienced club member, “I do and I always end up in the same bunker as you’re in.”

David Kolb believes you have to reflect after having had the experience – or the 90 little experiences that make up Dai’s game of golf. Reflecting is the key. For professionals it’s the job of the player, the coach, psychologist, nutritionist and manager to analyse everything about the game. For the likes of us it’s the 5 seconds thinking after we’ve hit a shot, the 2 minutes waiting on the tee, the 10 minutes in the car on the drive home and the 5 minutes before we go to sleep at night. My gut reaction is that we don’t have a particularly structured approach to this aspect of our game. The analysis may well be along the lines of “Sliced it again”, or “Couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo today”. I suspect Ian Poulter’s coaches would be more specific.

Reflecting and then drawing a conclusion from this is not as stifled, serious and difficult as it appears. To some extent we all do this, even Dai. On the first green if we hit it 20 feet past we’ll generally hit the putt coming back 5 feet short. At least we’re learning. The next hole is better and by the 18th we’ve just about got the pace of the greens ( A learning point here may be to have 36 putts of the putting green before we go out).

Apart from the putting though there’s little reflecting we do, and even less analysis and even lesser (not a real word I know) trying something different. We tend to adjust to our faults or rationalise them rather than try to change them;

Having gone through a phase of slicing the ball on every tee shot I starting aiming further and further left until I was practically aiming at my playing partners.

Dai always ends up in the bunker on the 10th ; “At least I get plenty of practice playing out of bunkers” - never any thought of changing.

To improve your game you need to learn. This means you need to reflect, conclude and DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. If you know you can’t reach the green with a 3 iron – hit a 3 wood. I know you’ll occasionally mess up and have a disaster but at least you’re trying something new and learning. It will be uncomfortable; “If you’re not churning, you’re not learning” is pretty much a truism. Constantly hitting a 3 iron short isn’t developing your game. Don’t end up like Dai.

Perhaps more importantly after a round take a little time to think about it. How did you play? What worked? What didn’t? Where did you lose the shots? Approach play?Putting? Driving? Work on this. I don’t mean spend 5 hours every evening on the putting green each evening, but just think about it. There was an experiment carried out by Dr. Blaslotto at the University of Chicago. He split people into three groups and tested each group on how many free throws they could make. The first group practised free throws every day for an hour. The second group just visualized themselves making free throws. The third group did nothing. After 30 days, he tested them again; the first group improved by 24%, the second group improved by 23% without touching a basketball and the third group did not improve at all.

So, theoretically you could improve your golf by just thinking about it. I believe that’s true to some extent. Very often we can’t see what’s happening when we’re involved in it – we can’t see the wood for the trees to use a cliché. If you can work out what’s going wrong you can, at least, know where to start fixing it. As Einstein defined, “If you keep doing what you’ve always been doing again and again and expect a different result – that’s insanity.”

Try something different.

From Tenby …..

My book, “Tenby to Celtic Manor.” (Carreg Gwalsch) (on sale from 31 July) is not;

a travel book detailing the 160 mile journey along the A4218, A478, A477, A40, A48, M4, A48 (again),  and B4236 between the South West seaside town of Tenby and the imposing Colditz-style fortress on the eastern side of Newport that is Celtic Manor;

a golf instruction book that includes an opening chapter about your grip with illustrations, a chapter dealing with the 10 most common faults all solved by hitting the ball close to where you’re aiming, chapters called, “Putting – The Game Within A Game”, “Understand Your Swing” or “Warming Up Before Your Round”;

A book with a foreword by a famous player I’ve never met (the best I could hope for is Bradley Dredge as my mum knows his mum, slightly) and as a member of Bargoed Golf Club my other link would be that I’ve had a drink or two in the Bradley Dredge lounge;

a book of colour illustrations of me, or more likely Bradley, shot on a Spanish golf course standing in a gorgeous yellow sandy bunker looking wise.

Reviews of the book will not be the same as the reviews of many golf books found on the shelves.

Reviews will not say;

“this book is the defining point of a lifetimes’s theories… free from jargon… contains everything you will ever need to know ” - ‘100% Golf’, David Leadbetter;

(the book is) “offering a fast track to a lower handicap for all” – ‘The Golf Instruction Manual’, Steve Newell;

“this eye-opening tutorial will empower golfers” - ‘The Negotiable Golf Swing’, Joseph Laurentino.

People will not say the following about my book;

“this masterpiece of simplicity offers a fast track to a lower handicap for all…each chapter offers fascinating insights that are guaranteed to save you shots. - P. Alliss ;

“it’s about as funny as someone shouting ‘one’ when your ball falls off the tee. - B. Forsyth”

“when I started reading this book I rarely broke 100. By page 10 I was playing in single figures. By chapter 5 I had won the weekly club stableford competition 3 times. A week later I was playing off scratch. By the time I had finished it I was on the professional circuit…… I can thoroughly recommend it. - B. Dredge ”.

What the book is a history of golf in Wales illustrated by a range of diverse golf clubs, with a number of themes running through the book; the role of women, religion, industry, poverty and class.

Extract 1: Acknowledgements

“This book is a selective trawl through the history of Golf in Wales to the present day. I’ve tried to get a mix of large Clubs and small Clubs, members’ Clubs and owners’ Clubs, urban Clubs and rural Clubs. This is a snapshot of golf as I saw it and heard it in the summer of 2010 in Wales.

Many thanks are due for the help, support and patience I’ve had from the Golf Club managers, secretaries, captains, members, Club historians and professionals across Wales. Special thanks to the people who have patiently hunted for papers in the backs of cupboards, answered my queries, sent me notes, records, books and photos.

Particular apologies to the club officials who don’t find their Club in this book. In attempting to give the widest range of Clubs in Wales I’ve had to be incredibly selective – sorry. “

Extract 2- Origins of golf

The last fifty years of the Victorian era were a time of dramatic change for Wales. The population virtually doubled between 1851 and 1901. In 1851, 35 per cent of the population of Wales earned their living in agriculture. By the early twentieth century this was down to 10 per cent. In 1850 almost all elected MPs were members of the land-owning classes; by 1914 only three of the thirty-four MPs representing Welsh constituencies were part of the landed gentry. The rôle of women was about to change, as was the power of the Church.
Golf, and sport in general, reflected of the changing times. In 1876 the Football Association was formed in Wales. In 1881 the Welsh Rugby Union was formed. In 1888 Glamorgan County Cricket Club was founded. In 1895 the Welsh Golfing Union was formed with a meeting of seven existing Clubs: Tenby, Porthcawl, Swansea Bay, Glamorganshire, Caernarvonshire, Borth-Ynylas, Aberdovey and Merionethshire…

… to Celtic Manor

This book (available 31st July 2010)  published by Carreg Gwalch features 18 golf clubs that tell the story of golf in Wales. These chapters are;
Tenby, Royal Porthcawl, Monmouth, Pwllheli, Newport (Gwent), Llandrindod Wells, Caerphilly, Southerndown, Wrexham, Vale of Llangollen, Dinas Powys, Tredegar and Rhymney, Pyle and Kenfig, Llanymynech, Rhosgoch, Penrhos, Dewstow and Celtic Manor.

Extract from Chapter 1:

TENBY

“Tenby is a bustling town on the southwest coast of Wales with an unusually high concentration of pubs. ” www.worldgolf.com

Tenby, Dinbych-y-Pysgod (’little fort of the fish’) in Welsh, has existed for a long time. It lies on the coast of southern Pembrokeshire, 27 miles west of Carmarthen. The first mention of the town was in a ninth-century bardic poem. It grew in the twelfth century. The Norman castle was built to keep out the Welsh. In the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was a major port. After this, however, the town slept until the railways woke it.

By the early nineteenth century Tenby had become a pretty, historical town with a busy fishing community. Victorians were keen on health, and ‘taking the waters’ was a great Victorian passion. The growth of the town and the tourism went hand in hand, and the trickle of tourists in the first half of the nineteenth century became a flood as the railway arrived at Tenby in 1863. By 1888 it was a tourist-driven town. Amongst the visitors to tenby at this time were novelists Lewis Carroll, Jane Austen, and George Elliot; the artist J. M. W. Turner; and Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit and friends.

There were hotel-owners and business-owners in the town who were keen golfers themselves and eager for something extra to attract their customers to the area. Setting up and developing the Club was a mixture of business and pleasure for them. In Tenby, as in a number of Welsh seaside towns, golf had a dual purpose: as well as the tourism angle, the Club became a focus for local businesspeople to relax, play and meet.
These days Tenby still pulls in the tourists. They come to walk the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, or to go across to Caldey Island to see the perfume-making monks, and the town itself has an annual Arts Festival. Not too far away is Laugharne, of Dylan Thomas fame. And of course, there is always golf …

<em>Beginnings</em>

Tenby is believed to be the oldest Golf Club in Wales. It was established after a meeting on 31 September 1888 in the Town Hall, when six people decided to form a Club. The first membership fees were 10/6d per year or 5/- per month (equivalent to £273 or £130 today).

However, there is some evidence that golf had been played at Tenby as early as 1875. A passage in Laws of Markets and Fairs published in that year refers to court proceedings being adjourned whilst the court officials took time off to play golf.

The first Club competition was held on 21 October 1888, when thirty-three gentlemen and ladies took part and a Mr. T. A. Rees was the winner with a gross 51, net 41 off a 10 handicap (9 holes).

The Club prospered in the early years. In 1889 there were ninety recorded members. In 1892 there was sufficient money and optimism to employ a groundsman. There is a record in 1911 of comparative wages: whilst the Professional was paid 15/- a week, the green-keeper was paid 35/- per week.

The Club developed in the late Victorian era. A number of improvements were made to the course and exhibition matches are recorded. It was also the time when Tenby played home and away matches with Ashburnham in 1896. This, the oldest surviving Welsh fixture, is still played today.

In 1907 James Braid developed the full eighteen-hole course which was opened at the Easter meeting that same year.

More alterations were made between the war years. It is recorded that part of the course was landmined in 1940.

There have been a number of clubhouses over the years, even one in the town. The current one was opened in 1966 at a cost of £40,000. Over recent years this has been refurbished and extended. It is also one of the most modern-looking clubhouses in Wales.

With the help of partners such as the Ryder Cup Legacy Fund the Club are working hard at improving facilities and attracting more members. The fund will help Tenby Club develop a three-hole short course specifically designed to make golf more accessible and enjoyable for juniors and newcomers to golf. There will also be better practice facilities. This is essential as the Club holds more prestigious tournaments. In 2010 the Club will host the Welsh Amateur Championship and the British Ladies Championship.

With the support of Golf Development Wales the Club Professional, Mark Hawkey, has introduced ‘taster sessions’over the past year. At a subsidised cost of around £1 a person over 150 potential new golfers have had the opportunity to try golf out and see if they like it.  Following on from this the Club has encouraged more people to join by considered more flexible membership deals with three-month trial memberships or six-monthly memberships.

So, whilst Tenby is justifiably proud of its heritage and its unique place in Welsh golf history, David Hancock (Secretary) sums up the approach: ‘It’s about not living in the past, but keeping moving forward.’  ………..

Waiting on the 2nd tee the discussion invariably was of the Open. In essence the argument was on who’s camp you were in. It was not Tiger v Phil Mickelson, but rather Phil Mickelson v Tom Watson. It was agreed (by some) that Tom Watson was ‘a real gentleman’ whereas Phil Mickleson was a bit arrogant, cocky and fundamentally too ‘smiley’.
“He doesn’t look like he suffers enough” said someone.

It became a theme of the round after that “What would Tom do?”. It seemed to have a profound effect as in the round we let a junior 2 ball though and waited for a green to clear before we drove off. Ah, the power of Tom.

This prompted me to do a little research on Tom. I had read that he had done at least one good thing in Kansas City so I looked for more tales. For people who don’t know Tom Watson had resigned from the ‘ultra-restrictive’ Kansas City Country Club to protest the club’s blackballing of Jewish tax-preparation tycoon Henry Bloch. Although Watson is not Jewish, his wife, Linda, and their two children are. Watson was quoted as saying that his conscience had forced him to resign “out of respect for my family—my wife, my children and myself.”

Well done Tom.

Then I read that Tom had been a member of this Country Club that had secret membership that seemed to be discriminatory for many, many years. So, why did Tom wait until a Jewish millionaire friend was rejected before he spoke out?

I looked for more Country Clubs Tom had resigned from or criticised because of perceived racist or religious discrimination. I was disappointed.  I read that earlier Tom had said that people should “chill out” and that private clubs had the right to choose their members.

I found other reports of Tom and controversy though. Apparently at the 1993 Ryder Cup pre-match dinner Sam Torrance picked up a programme and in a gesture of camaraderie walked over to ask Tom Watson for his autograph. Tom refused. He said that he didn’t want his players bothered by autograph hunters.

This seems as childish as the report of the 1969 Ryder Cup captain Eric Brown telling his players not to look for American balls in the rough.

He doesn’t seem to be popular with everyone; Los Angeles Times columnist Larry Stewart called Watson a “backstabber,” while Jonathan Rand of the hometown Kansas City Star settled for “stuffed shirt.”

Watson criticised Bill Murray for inappropriate antics in a charity Pro-Am.

He managed to get Gary McCord the sack for on-air quips by sending a handwritten demand to CBS director and producer Frank Chirkinian to “get rid of him, now.”

In a positive article John Garrity describes him;  “Watson always seeks the middle ground. He likes Rush Limbaugh……….”

Tom said of Tiger Woods, “I feel that he has not carried the same stature as other great players like Jack Nickolas, Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson or the Hogans, in the sense that there was language and club throwing on the golf course. You can grant that of a young person that has not been out here for awhile. But I think he needs to clean up his act and show the respect for the game that other people before him have shown.”

Tom Watson is a real old-fashioned, 18th century gentleman. He is a man from a different age. A man with real Victorian values. It’s no wonder he’s so popular with so many golf club members around the world – including Bargoed.

Phil Mickelson on the other hand is young and wore a bleeper during the 1999 U.S. Open when his wife Amy was expecting the couple’s first child (“Wouldn’t be allowed in Bargoed”)

In an article on Mickelson ArtSpander says “It bothers some that Mickelson plays without a scowl, waving at the fans who yell his name, eating up the approval…..Phil is outwardly gracious when asked about Tiger’s success, affirming him as the world No. 1. He’s agreed that, in the previous five months, with Woods not around, golf was poorer in his absence.

His personality is pretty well summed up in ‘Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post ‘:
“Without a doubt Mickelson is the most approachable star at Sheshan. When he hits a good shot he rewards fans’ applause by smiling or tipping his cap. When he goes through the crowd, if you put out your hand he’ll even give a ‘high-five.’ (“Wouldn’t happen in Bargoed”)