The Honourable Company Of Edinburgh Misogynists
The Sunday Times has it’s knives out for golf today, using the title of this post to describe the men-only club that runs Muirfield; the venue of this year’s Open Championship.
It would be interesting to know if the misogynists had ever had a gay member! The law of averages said that they must have!
Interestingly, the Mirror says this of Fred Goodwin in this article.
He also likes to shoot pheasants on a friend’s estate, and play leisurely rounds of golf at the historic Muirfield course.
Fred maybe a man whose business practices have been condemned, but I suppose he isn’t a woman!
Good For Maria
Maria Miller won’t be going to the Open Golf next week, due to the fact it’s being held at a men-only venue. The report is in The Times.
Hugh Robertson and Alex Salmond won’t be going either.
Good for them all!
HS2 Is A Good Idea
It must be as according to The Times, golfers are leading the protest against the line.
Hip Transplants At Wigan
The BBC is running a story about the first hip transplants at Wrightington Hospital near Wigan in the 1960s. There’s a lot more in the Wikipedia entry for John Charnley, the surgeon who led the pioneering work.
At Liverpool University in the 1960s, I was in digs at Huyton. My landlord’s daughter, Sheila Vaughan, was one of the nursing sisters at the hospital and told us about the work there.
Sheila had been a very good golfer, who’d played in the Curtis Cup.
The Comeback To End All Comebacks
Europe’s win in the Ryder Cup is being celebrated as one of the great comebacks.
It is a great comeback, but in many ways it pales into insignificance compared to that amazing, cold and wet Saturday afternoon on the 21st December 1957, when Charlton Athletic beat Huddersfield Town seven-six at the Valley after being five-one down, with only ten men. It must be one of the few Second Division matches of the era to have its own Wikipedia page.
Reading that Wikipedia page, you find that Huddersfield were managed by Bill Shankly and he had rested a young Denis Law. Shankly later said about the match.
one of the most amazing games I have ever seen
And he’d seen a few matches!
Condolezza Rice Invited To Join Augusta National
Augusta National seems to have forgone it’s ban on women members, by inviting two women to join, one of whom is Condolezza Rice. It’s all here in the Guardian.
I remember a tale from a few years back, where someone in Houston, was employing a new secretary. One of those who came for interview,said, that she was a woman, black and Jewish and therefore she ticked three boxes. She got the job, as coincidentally, she was also the best applicant.
So did Augusta choose Connie because she ticked two? The other lady is white and blonde!
I have a feeling that Tiger Woods is not a member!
But then I’m very much in agreement with Groucho Marks on clubs.
I wouldn’t join any club, that would have me as a member.
But then, I’m a member of that dark club called widowhood.
Race, gender and sexual orientation are not restrictions as to membership.
Crazy Golf at the Olympics?
I took this picture yesterday morning from the Emirates Air-Line.
Crazy Golf at the Olympics?
It looks like a one hole floating golf course for the Olympics. But then golf isn’t going to be part of the Olympics this year, although it is to be added in the future.
That is a disgrace, as golf isn’t a sport, but a pastime played by rich men in diamond check jumpers.
I suspect it could be something to do with the Olympic Opening Ceremony, as it was heading down river towards the River Lee and Stratford.
How Do You Get Away From The Golf?
My two favourite channels, BBC 1 and Radio 5 Live are both broadcasting continuous golf. Now I will watch it in moderation, but I’m not keen to have it rammed into both my eyes and ears.
Admittedly, I have the cricket on Sky and soon the cycling will start, but the sooner the Open golf goes to Sky, the better.
As someone famously said, golf is a good way to ruin a walk.
The Olympic Torch Relay is not even on the red button!
Smoking And The Open
I just heard on the BBC Open commentary, that Lee Westwood is puffing away between holes.
Surely, this should be banned, as it sets such a terrible example.
Imagine what would happen if Gareth Bale or whoever, had a quick cough and a drag, every time they had a long run upfield.
Does Trump Have A Brain?
In this report from the BBC, about the opening of Donald Trump’s new golf course near Aberdeen, there is these two paragraphs.
The development at Menie has been controversial, with environmental campaigners opposed to the construction of a course on protected sand dunes.
However, Mr Trump said he believed he had created the world’s greatest course.
I know nothing about golf, except a few good jokes, but no sporting venue could be called the greatest in the world, just after it opened. If I take my local football stadium, the Emirates, where Arsenal play, it was designed to be one of the best club grounds in the world and it is certainly good. But no Gooner would say it is the best for a few years yet, until he or she has visited every club ground with a capacity of over 60,000 or so.
Trawl the Internet and there is a lot of deep discussion about this golf course. I have read some tonight on respected web sites and I can’t get it out of my head, that the development has annoyed too many people to succeed. As I said, I know nothing about golf, but many others do and they will build developments, that will appeal to Trump’s target market. If they are better courses, the punters won’t go to Trump’s course. Trump should also remember he’s not dealing with bumpkins in the Southern part of the United States, but proud Scots, who don’t like being told they are wrong. Has he ever watched Local Hero?
I also feel that Trump is going to have to fight the dunes at Menie. I used to live at Felixstowe and I know Suffolk isn’t Scotland, but the dunes there had a mind of their own, which didn’t help the golf course by the Deben.
The Anonymous Widower 