No play in Hawaii for the first three days of the first tournament of the year - and the world’s best golfer says he might stay at home when his sport re-enters the Olympics at Rio 2016.
It has not exactly been the cheeriest start to the new year, has it? Let’s look forward instead to what promises to be another bountiful campaign with five wishes for the new season.
1. Ian Poulter sticks to his new year resolution...
Over the Christmas period, Poults entertained us on Twitter with photos of everything from cutting the turkey to the inside of his son’s mouth. Three days of the new season was all it took for him to pick a fight with the commentator he loves to hate, Johnny Miller (see Quote of the Week).
Fresh: Ryder Cup hero Poulter will play just three tournaments before the Masters at AugustaBut the tweet that raised my spirits was the one revealing his early-season schedule, with only three tournaments between now and Augusta. Some players have to play a lot to be ready for the Masters. Poulter plays at his best when he is fresh. Don’t let anyone talk you into lucrative trips abroad, Poults. This can be your year in the majors.
2. No mid-season blues for Rory...
Love was in the air and it was duly cited for Rory McIlroy going missing between May and July last year. But this is also a period when the big events are played on tight venues that don’t fit Rory’s eye, like Sawgrass and Wentworth, and US Open set-ups such as Olympic last year and Merion in June.
It can’t be easy reining your instincts when you are the game’s most extravagant shotmaker, but let’s hope the value of experience starts to come to the fore and he shows us what he has learned.
Champion: McIlroy won the 2012 PGA Championship in South Carolina QUOTE OF THE WEEK'Johnny Miller - why don’t you come interview me live and say that stuff straight to my face?’
You can always rely on the television commentator Miller to shoot from the lip and, when he is the target, Ian Poulter to react accordingly.
Miller thought that Poulter, who was being buffeted by high winds, was taking too long over a putt.
The Englishman certainly did not take too long to respond to the accusations.
3. One more blooming Rose headline...
Yes, we’re sick of the same puns regarding the golfer whose name is a sub-editor’s dream. But I think we’d cope if we saw one along the lines of: ‘Rose in full bloom wins the Masters’.
Justin Rose has looked forward to seasons in the past believing it would be his year in the majors, only for that great bully expectation to rough him up. Following his Ryder Cup heroics and all-round progress, this should be the one where he can look expectation in the eye.
4. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club allow women to become members...
When the Ashes Test at Lord’s was held the same week as The Open in 2009, it was a source of grievance. This year, we might be glad that there is a clash to help with the burial of bad news. How embarrassing that even the green jackets of Augusta welcomed two women members before the R&A, the game’s governing body.
Now the showpiece occasion, run by the all-male R&A, will be staged at all-male Muirfield, and you can see the headlines from here. Any chance of the R&A stemming the torrent of anti-golf sentiment (deserved this time) by following Augusta’s lead? Yes, I know: not so much a wish as a fantasy.
5. The real Luke Donald shows up at majors; and luckless Lee enjoys fortune at last...
Luke Donald and Lee Westwood carry a heavy burden into the majors as the two best players not to have won one - and it shows.
One winds himself up so much he can’t perform; the other has done nearly everything right so often but can’t get over the finishing line.
Blank: Westwood (left) and Donald are both yet to win a majorNeither can be faulted for work ethic or desire. Indeed, those qualities might be part of the problem for the pair - they want to win too much.
Let’s hope Donald can learn to relax and cope as adeptly as he did when charged with the responsibility of leading Europe’s challenge on the last day of the Ryder Cup; and Westwood finally enjoys one of his good weeks on and around the greens.
Paradise Lost
Yes, I appreciate that it was heart-wrenching for those who had put in the hard graft as high winds battered Maui and made play impossible for three days of the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.
But, basking in the glow of our blessedly mild January weekend, golly, it was hard to suppress a smirk. There we were, a wind-free round on the links, followed by a beer on the patio.
Meanwhile, in ‘paradise’, the flags were bent sideways. Life plays some deliciously mischievous tricks, doesn’t it?
Wind: The weather played havoc with the Tournament of Champions eventMore... Why don't you say that to my face! Poulter lets rip at Miller as storm blows Tournament of Champions off course Rain stops play again! Hawaii weather ruins day two at Hyundai Tournament
