HooperstarGolfer @ the Dunhill

Tuesday 24 September, 2013

Good morning and welcome to HooperstarGolfer @ The Dunhill, it is Tuesday morning and I will be in the media centre for a brief stint this morning before returning later today to host the #TuesdayTeeTime Google+ hangout live.

European Tour needs a kick up the back-side and O'Grady needs to move on

A quick glance at the entry list for this week shows that just 8 of the world's top 50 players are competing in what was one of the premier events on the European Tour International Schedule, for a tournament played on the stunning links of Kingsbarns, Carnoustie and St Andrews this is just not good enough and in my opinion the European Tour is failing in its duty to bring the world's best to Britain and Continental Europe.

For 18 years now the focus has been on developing the European Tour International Schedule, a sprawling global chase for cash and titles in far flung places like South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Qatar and Dubai, but now the tour must refocus its energies on producing a strong European segment of the Race to Dubai. No event more shows the decline of the European based schedule of our tour than the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, with every leading British golfer apart from Paul Lawrie and Paul Casey deciding to skip the tournament played on three of the world's best golf courses in favour of a rest.

Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Martin Laird have all turned down the chance to play at the Home of Golf and compete for crucial points on the Race to Dubai and Ryder Cup points. Firstly this reflects badly on the players, none of them are playing in the Presidents Cup and only Luke Donald and Justin Rose made it all the way to East Lake in the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Playoffs. The prize fund of $5m and first prize of $800,000 should surely be enough to tempt these guys to make one last trip back home during the season, especially if they really care about the European Tour.

For Rory McIlroy it would have been a chance to find some form ahead of the Final Series and pick up some early Ryder Cup points after a torrid season which has seen him slip to six in the official world golf rankings after starting the year as number one, and sit 56th on the Race to Dubai, in danger of missing the defence of his title in November. But the blame cannot solely sit at the door of the players, the European Tour chief executive needs to take some criticism here because despite the unprecedented success of European Tour members around the world and in the majors since 2010 the tour has suffered with many of its stars joining the PGA Tour and many of the tour's events struggling to survive.

The one's that have survived are not what they once were, and I have to agree with Paul Casey when he said “There are so many good things about the European Tour and it can it be such an unbelievable product given the places we go to, and the players we have,”

“But we are so far from maximising what we have and we need to freshen things up.

“It needs some new energy. Look at the fact we’ve just announced on our website that we’ve appointed a global search firm to find a new chairman, when the last one, Neil Coles, retired in May.

"Why on earth would that simple step take three months?

“There are some incredibly talented people in the world of business who are already involved in golf and would love to be our chairman.

"It’s important we get the right one, and they can dictate what happens right down the line.

"This is the time for change as it’s a great opportunity we’re missing.”

Yes, late September is far from ideal for a tournament in Scotland but this event has a buzz, and an atmosphere all of its own and the courses, and people deserve to attract a much deeper field than the one assembled here this week. Firstly the tour needs to look at its entry criteria, to have 23 invites in my mind is far too many but if there has to be 23 invites you need to hand them to players in need. Don't hand them out as a good will gesture or to a player who is still living off former glories. Only 12 Scots will tee it up this week and only 1 of those received an invitation. I am also pretty sure Sweden's Jesper Parnevik would give up his spot to see the talented youngster Joakim Lagergren tee it up in search of a vital top finish to keep his card for next year.

For players outside the top 110 on the Race to Dubai in need of an invite to be overlooked for the likes of David Duval, Vijay Singh, Ken Duke, Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel is, in my opinion, detrimental to this event and the European Tour. The tour does need new energy and direction to maximize the product it has and in my opinion that is not going to come from George O'Grady. Contenders for his job should be Colin Montgomerie, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jose Maria Olazabal or Bernhard Langer. An inspirational individual who has played in events all over the world and who has the passion to grow the tour brand should be leading the tour in that direction.

Thursday 26 September, 2013

Good morning and welcome to the first day of the 2013 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, it is a beautiful day out there and so far on this first morning the scoring is good with 24 players under par out of the 52 out on the course.

You can keep up to date with live scoring at www.europeantour.com and St Andrews Golf Magazine will be providing photos and updates on their twitter page.

Much fun had at Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Media Dinner

Wednesday night saw the annual media dinner take place in the Alfred Dunhill pavilion, the pavilion is perhaps the most incredible tent on the planet! Large, widescreen HD televisions all over the place, luxurious sofas and Dunhill products on display, free food and drink - it was a 5* experience in every way. Myself and Colin Donaldson went along as owners of St Andrews Golf Magazine and had a thoroughly great time, the continuous topping up of drinks was fantastic!

The buffet began just after half 7 and initially we sat down on an empty table before the lovely Tosh Denman, part of the Laureus team in the media centre, encouraged us to join her table with some other guys from various publications across the UK and Norway. The buffet was sumptuous and we did well in the quiz finishing in a respectable second place. It was a superb experience for both of us and continued to help us spread the word about St Andrews Golf Magazine.

This evening I attended the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Press Party hosted by the Old Course hotel at Ham's Hame with Kevin Kirk for St Andrews Golf Magazine, and what an unbelievable place Hamilton Grand is!

It was also a vital night to do some more networking and get the name of St Andrews Golf Magazine out there to more people within the media industry.