On Tuesday, the Northern Ireland Executive will meet to review the progress our Province has made along the Roadmap to Recovery and I’m hoping there will be good news for golfers! Courses in England are preparing to reopen on Monday 29th March and I’ve heard rumours that we might be given the same date. Other sources claim that nothing will change until after Easter. We’ll just have to wait and see. It’s so frustrating – golf is such a Covid-compliant sport. Walking around Dungannon Park you’re likely to pass numerous people, whereas in four hours on the golf course you’re only going to see your golfing partners and, if they’re like mine, you’re probably only going to get to talk to them on the tee and the green (from a distance of 2 metres of course). To be honest, it’s because my ball tends to like the trees! The powers that be say they are aware of the relative safety of golf and recognise its benefits for both physical and mental health but sports such as golf and tennis have been banned in order to reinforce the “Stay at Home” message. Let’s hope that we get good news on Tuesday.
In the meantime, we can keep working on our putting at home. Talking of putting, I came across another European Tour “One Club Challenge” in which one of the pros had to play the hole using only his putter! If you could use a few minutes of light relief, watch Tommy Fleetwood, Lucas Herbert and Adri Arnaus face-off on the iconic 8th hole at Emirates Golf Club, home of the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic. The rules are simple: each player gets assigned a club that they must complete the hole with, the lowest score wins.
Sticking with the putting theme, Dungannon’s PGA Professional, Sean Morrison, has always been a big fan of Eyeline Golf products and he has recently completed their “4 Putting Elements Certification”. He’s running a free competition on Facebook and the prize is a 1hr assessment of your putting and green reading. Click here to go to Sean’s Facebook page.