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NEWS FROM AROUND THE GOLFING WORLD FROM BILL ABBOTT

LADIES WEETABIX BRITISH OPEN, ROYAL LYTHAM ST ANNES

The Ladies Tour arrived at Royal Lytham for the British Open in the middle of a heatwave in the UK.  I can only assume that short skirts and shorts were packed in abundance, but when the girls actually arrived, the weather had changed considerably with grey skies and strong winds being the order of the day.  The line outside the woolly hat shop must have been quite a sight to see!!

The Ladies Champsionship is something we will be following with interest as the EGTF is fortunate enough to have two former winners of the title as members, Corinne Dibnah and Alison Nicholas.  Myself and Senior Staff Instructor, Stewart Craig went up to the Wednesday practice day and were indebted to Alison who enabled us to gain access to the players on the practice ground and the putting green. 

It was certainly a great experience to be able to see all the top players in the world up close, video their swings and be able to have a chat to them.  There are very few girls on tour who have their own coach, so it was an opportunity to make a few contacts, because as we know, everyone needs help!  Stewart is already flying the flag for us at the Ladies Welsh Open, where he will be working in an official capacity as tour coach to Corinne Dibnah.  Good luck to both.

We moved our attention to the putting green to watch the practice routines that the players go through just before a major tournament.  On hand to maybe help the girls hole a few more putts was the putting doctor, Harold Swash, who had a variety of C Groove Putters for the players to try out, hoping that as last year, the winner would carry one of his designs.

The girls had practiced hard on a variety of low punch shots to counteract the strong winds, only to wake up on Thursday morning to blue skies and hardly a breath of wind (sometimes golf can be a funny game!)  Scoring was good on day 1, with plenty of players under par and looking forward to some low scores throughout the week.  The weather changed a little over the next three days to a mixture of cloud and sun and scores never really threatened to get ultra low.

Come Sunday evening, Sheri Steinhauer had outlasted the rest of the pack to claim her third Weetabix title, by three shots from Christie Kerr and Sophie Gustafson.

From my point of view, it was a fantastic experience to be up close to such accomplished players and I think if you get the chance to go along to a tour event, it will give you a good insight into how players at top level hit the ball.

NATALIE GULBUS WRAPPED UP AGAINST THE ELEMENTS

CHRISTINA KIM AND STEWART CRAIG

                                                      ALISON NICHOLAS AND STEWART CRAIG TALKING TO CHRISTINA KIM

 MICHELLE WIE AND KARRIE WEBB ON THE PUTTING GREEN                  KARRIE WEBB AND ALISON NICHOLAS

 YES GOLF ON THE PUTTING GREEN (HAROLD SWASH)