Golfing weekend

My good run continued with a third successive win when Louis Oosthuizen took the South African Open at Johannesburg. Oosthuizen has never won his national trophy before though he has a Major in his golf bag and I classified him in that group with Adam Scott and Charl Schwartzel who are unlikely to add or their list of majors.

Schwartzel in particular is in poor form and Adam Scott had had to change his putting technique after the ban on holding a long putter to the stomach. Some think that long putters have been banned but it’s the attaching to the stomach that is now illicit.

I was not interested in the US PGA shoot-out event which had a doubles format. I don’t really like this tinkering. I was relieved to learn over lunch in the week with a former captain of Royal St George’s, the only southern course to host an Open, that finally the golfing authorities are addressing the issue of slow play with a change enabling putters not to have wait for the player whose right to play is based on greater distance from the flag but to play the shot as they will.

There are are few more tedious sights in any sport than a golfer lining up his putt laboriously when he has little chance of winning the tourney.

I have noticed that the gambling industry is under fire and frankly I’m not surprised. Here is link to an anti gambling article on the BBC sport website – BBC

At a recent Rust social gathering I spoke to Bob Tickler as to whether he would invest in a betting company. He held one such company in his portfolio which performed well but he sold it when the FTSE peaked at 7500. He said it was not an ethical decision but that rather he had anticipated the blanket betting advertising that beleaguered us sport-watchers on SKY and BT Sport has reached saturation point.

Denise Coates CEO and shareholder of 365 has to manage on a £217m salary though 365 is one of the few that does not reside outside the UK to avoid tax. Although ethically correct to do something, bookie-bashing will affect some areas of sport, notably horse racing which is dependent on betting sponsorship.