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The Shire, situated in North London, is poised to open for play next Spring and is Seve's first full design in England. We are offer a prize in including A fourball on the 7,200-yard 'Seve Masters' course,a fourball on the nine-hole 'Seve Challenge' course, plus food and free balls on the 'Seve School Of Natural Golf' driving range.

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So, who did win it for Europe?

CONFUSION over which European holed the winning putt at The K Club is still causing heated debates in clubhouses up and down the land.

Sky Sports, along with most of the media, said Henrik Stenson had officially won the Ryder Cup after he holed out on the 15th green to beat American rookie Vaughn Taylor.

But, Radio Five Live, and American TV channel NBC, reported that David Howell's putt to defeat Brett Wetterich had retained the trophy and that Luke Donald had holed the winning putt at the 17th as he defeated Chad Campbell 2 and 1.

The reason behind Five Live's thinking was that, at the time of Howell's putt, Europe had a total of 12 points on the board. But, crucially, there were two European dormie matches on the course meaning that, whatever happened, Europe had guaranteed two half points.

more....

The misunderstood law of the gimme

Ian Poulter took serious umbrage during the Seve Trophy at the Wynyard Club the other month when he was asked to hole a two-footer towards the end of a tight foursomes match.

It was on the 16th green against Niclas Fasth and Henrik Stenson.

To illustrate the point, Poulter laid his putter down from the hole to his ball as if to say: "Can you not see how close I am?"

Still fuming on his way to the next tee, he instructed partner Bradley Dredge not to concede anything to the Swedes for the remainder of the match.

It was one of several spiky moments that made this Seve Trophy by far the most compelling in its short history.

And this particular incident was one club golfers could particularly relate to.

Because we all concede putts to each other every time we play - outside, of course, from in the sacred monthly medal/bogey.

Often too generously, in my experience.

Be honest - when was the last time you played a competitive strokeplay round without missing at least one putt that would have been conceded in other circumstances?

That's because the concept of the gimme is badly misunderstood.

It isn't supposed to be an act of mercy, or a way to show generosity.

And it certainly wasn't designed to spare a golfer the embarrassment of lipping out from 18 inches.

As much as anything, it's a time-saving device.

It's a way of saying to your opponent: "Look, your ball is hanging over the very edge of the hole, you can't possibly miss from there so why don't we just pretend that you've gone through the whole rigmarole of marking, cleaning, replacing, lining up, plumb-bobbing, having a couple of practice strokes and then tapping it in just as you surely would do 100 times out of 100."

In other words, you don't concede a putt because you think your opponent OUGHT to get it - you do so because he can't possibly miss.

I'm not even sure why gimmes are part of matchplay - after all, there are no such allowances in strokeplay - but there's no doubt they add enormously to the psychological warfare that makes matchplay by far the most captivating form of the game to watch or play.

For example, if you're a bit shaky yourself over the short ones, there's a lot to be said for initiating a generous, warm-hearted spirit to the match whereby you concede anything within about four feet.

If your opponent is docile he may never realise that this policy is completely the opposite of what it appears - namely an attempt to ensure he never asks you to hole one out from an awkward distance that you might not really fancy.

Alternatively, to show your distaste for an opponent, or perhaps with the aim of dragging a superior player down into a war of attrition, you can get him to finish one off from a matter of inches.

Try it - and wait for the reaction.

It worked on Poulter.

But if you do indulge in such mind games - or maybe you just don't believe in conceding putts - make sure you appreciate that you're likely to reap what you sow at a later stage of the match.

So be prepared.

When the boot is on the other foot, the only reasonable reaction is to hole the tiddler with supreme competence.

Don't try to make a point, don't abandon your usual routine, don't attempt to smack the ball so hard into the back of the hole it jumps up six inches before dropping in, and certainly don't go for a dismissive one-hander while sneering at your foe.

Just hole it.

If the putt in question really ought to have been conceded, and if there really was no chance of you missing it, this will become obvious in the way you competently knock it in.

But there is one thing worth remembering.

There isn't a golfer in this world who hasn't missed the most agonisingly pathetic little tap-in of a putt at one time or another.

We all know full well - though we might not like it - that the very next two-footer we eye-up suspiciously might be one with our name on it.

The one that just doesn't come off the blade properly. That lurches to the left almost before you've hit it. That never even sees the two inches of break you allowed.

Remember that the next time your opponent remains deathly silent after your approach putt finishes next to the hole.

Deal with it. Knock the putt in.

Should you miss, furious though you may be, it's no-one's fault but your own. If it makes you feel better, blame a rogue spike mark or something.

But whatever you do, don't hold your opponent responsible.

Because what just happened has vindicated his decision perfectly.

By missing you proved him right - it wasn't a gimme.

And by the way, Poulter holed his tiddler - but lost the match anyway.

Dan Murphy

Woosie back for more?

Play it again Woosie?

So Ian Woosnam fancies another crack at the Ryder Cup captaincy?

It is something of an about turn from the Welshman from what he revealed to the press a couple of weeks before the matches at The K Club. Then, in the wake of Thomas Bjorn's eruption following his exclusion of the team at the expense Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke, he insisted it would be one time and one time only.

There were also whispers doing the rounds that he had not been as communicative with his prospective team as he might have been. It's amazing what a record-equalling victory can do. Just a couple of weeks after The K Club drubbing, the Welshman is pondering throwing his hat into the ring for the matches at Celtic Manor.

A Welsh captain in Wales - sounds obvious doesn't it? It's just that suddenly there is a bit of a log-jam en route to the European captaincy. In addition to Woosie, Colin Montgomerie quite fancies a go that time, as does Sandy Lyle. Jose Maria Olazabal is likely to be too old to make the team by then.

My feeling is Woosie should leave well alone and enjoy the words of praise he received following the win in September, when I do believe he was an outstanding captain.

I would go for Monty at Celtic Manor because by the time it reaches Gleneagles in 2014 he will be far removed from the tour and there might be just too much pressure captaining in his own country.

Another reason for Woosie staying clear of Celtic Manor you might say. My running order would be: Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal and Paul McGinley.

But we all now it doesn't really matter who captains. We're too good for them anyway, aren't we?

By Chris Bertram

Let me guess - the SSS at your course is too low as well

A club I played at recently have flown in the face of golfing fashion and actually shortened their course.

Strange, I know, even when it turns out that it's only one hole that's been chopped and the reasons for doing so are both sound and logical.

The hole in question runs parallel to the one before it and the back tee of the former was fairly tight against the green of the latter.

On competition days, this proximity was inevitably leading to delays - not to mention the danger of a wayward approach taking out the group in front.

What's more, a pair of large trees some 280 yards from the back tee makes an aggressive drive if not impossible then certainly foolhardy, so it's not as though trimming 30 yards or so from its previously 400-yard-plus length was going to ruin the hole.

So far so good. I understand the club in question did look into any possible ramifications when it came to their standard scratch score (SSS) and were told they'd be OK.

But having made the change official and had their course re-measured, they were shocked to be informed by the English Golf Union (EGU) that their SSS would be going down a shot as a result.

Cue: lots of disgruntled members.

Now, I'm not about to delve into the murky world of how SSSs are set or adjusted. (Though I would say that, in my experience, the slope rating system devised by the United States Golf Association (USGA) that is their equivalent to standard scratch seems to result in American handicaps being a good couple of shots more generous than ours. I think a 10-handicap over there is more like a 13 or 14 by our standards.)

But I couldn't help thinking that this was a refrain I'd heard before at other courses where par exceeds the standard scratch by at least a couple of shots.

Because everyone believes their standard scratch is too low. And there's always a club down the road where one of their mates plays.

Here, they'd have you believe, generosity knows no bounds and the standard scratch is more like a couple over par despite being a much easier track.

If we all played there, they say, we'd all be off at least a couple of shots lower.

Of course they would.

Everyone believes their own course is more fiendish than any other. Yes, it might be shorter than some, they concede (hence the low SSS), but what about the out-of-bounds that comes into play on six holes? What about the 10th having eight bunkers? Or the 12th green with contours so subtle that even after 30 years they're impossible to read?

Not to mention the greenkeeper who doesn't seem to believe in cutting rough and the fact it's particularly exposed so wind is more of factor. And so on.

Occasionally, the members may have a point. There are, no doubt, more than a few courses scattered about where an extra shot really should be added.

But that, surely, is what the Competition Standard Scratch (CSS) is for, isn't it? To reflect that scores on a given day have generally been higher or usual than normal.

And if they're still not convinced, I'd like to see them try maintaining a handicap at somewhere like Carnoustie, routinely regarded as the hardest course in these isles and one of a very select band where the SSS is set at three over par.

Let me put it this way. I sincerely doubt the handicap they currently maintain at a 6,200-yard parkland haven would be lower when they finally returned home.

As for the course with its shortened hole and subsequent SSS reduction, maybe they were just too honest.

Maybe they should simply have stuck the white pots next to the yellows for regular medals and the knockouts, using the back tee in question only a couple of times a year in scratch competitions.

No-one would have been any the wiser, would they? Or would the standard scratch police have sent a crack unit to expose and punish such devious chicanery...

by Dan Murphy

What Michelle should do next

Ladies' European Tour star Becky Brewerton offers her advice to schoolgirl sensation Michelle Wie IT'S tough at the top you know.

I faced an agonising decision to give LPGA Qualifying School a miss this year, despite thinking for much of 2006 that it was my No. 1 target.

But things change and, as I've explained in the past few weeks, it was not going to be the best thing for my career.

It's been a difficult time for me in that respect with all kinds of thoughts going through my head. So I can empathise very much with what Michelle Wie is going through right now.

Before I go any further, let me say that I believe Michelle has the ability to be the greatest player the ladies' game has ever seen.

Her talent is not in question and her swing, certainly as it was at the start of the year, is one anyone on the tour men or women would like to be the owner of.

She is as talented a player as I have seen in the flesh, and I've seen some pretty impressive ones in my career to date.

But, and I think you could tell there was a 'but' coming, I believe she needs to reassess her priorities for the sake of her short-term career. And, maybe, her long-term career too.

I get the impression she kind of feels the same way, judging by one or two of the things she's said after her last two tournaments.

Things seem to have got a bit on top of her and there is no shame in that.

She's a schoolgirl trying to do well in her lessons and at the same time try to compete alongside the best male players in the world.

Both aspects are pretty scary to me! Try doing them together and you've got a task which is pretty much Mission: Impossible.

We can all remember how difficult it was getting good grades and not allowing yourself to be sidelined by non-golfing distractions. Imagine if those distractions were flying to Switzerland to play in a tour event? And that's before you get to consider the distraction of playing a practice round with Sergio Garcia and then the first two rounds proper with Nick Dougherty!

Somehow, algebra or the poetry of Keats wouldn't be all that appetising after those four hours or so...

So, it is a tough assignment in anybody's book. Given we are talking about a teenager yet to reach 18 and I just think it's asking too much.

It's worth making the point about her age. Think what you were doing aged 17 and then imagine facing the world's press and cameras, playing against Sergio and Paul Casey and having everything you say and do analysed to death.

As I said, it's scary. I can't imagine how I'd have coped. And there was me worrying endlessly about how to get into the Wales side at the same age...

But do you know what will be making everything ten times harder to cope with right now? Not the maths or the photos or the press conferences. Her ball-striking. It's the be all and end all for golfers. If you're playing well, you're happy. You can cope with most things. Probably anything in fact.

If you're not swinging it as you want to, suddenly every little other thing that's not right becomes a huge issue.

And most people agree that Michelle is not swinging it like she can at the moment. She spent loads of time with David Leadbetter at the Women's British Open this summer working assiduously on the range.

From what I hear, she couldn't quite manage to make that work count on the course. She got it round, and all credit to her, but she was almost a mere mortal. Not someone with the world at her feet.

Try taking that kind of form into tournaments on the European and US men's tours and you've got no chance. It's actually cruel because you know from the outset that you're going to play poorly and end up last. Horrible.

The solution? Hard with work with 'Lead' on the range and get your swing and ball-striking back to where it was when you finished in the top three of nearly every Major in which you played.

Then, a reassessment of your schedule. Let the boys play among themselves for a while as you get your confidence back. Maybe make a promise to steer clear of them until you've won a ladies' tour event.

And concentrate on doing just that. Because doing that is not easy. The competition is fierce, and it's getting better by the year.

The good news? At you're best, you're probably the best lady golfer in the world. Go and enjoy proving that that is the case.

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Celebrity golf a turn off!

Celebrity golf a turn off!


Take the Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns and add some of Europe's best players, writes Steven Bancroft.

Sounds great to me so why ruin it by adding 'celebrity' golfers to the mix?

Every year the Dunhill Links Championship takes place at the Home of Golf and every year I wonder why the organisers feel the need to invite the likes of Kevin Costner, Samuel L Jackson and Michael Douglas.

Not that I bear any grudges towards these stars from the world of sport and entertainment because given half a chance I would jump at the chance of teeing it up at three of Scotland's best courses.

But the problem as I see it is that I just don't want to watch hackers - celebrity or amateur - chopping their way over the hallowed turf.

If I really wanted to see 15-handicappers taking eight shots to get out of the Road Hole bunker or taking a drop from the Barry Burn, I'd go to St Andrews or Carnoustie any other day of the year.

So why is there such a fixation with celebrity golfers?

Maybe we can blame the likes of Jimmy Tarbuck and Bruce Forsyth who were pioneers in the world of Pro-Celebrity golf in the 1980s.

Come to think of it why do celebrities feel they have the right to change the traditional Pro-Am name to Pro-Celebrity?

Because from what I've seen they really are no better than you and me!