Professional golf is a form of the game at which many of us can only stand and marvel. But amateur golf, now that’s our thing. Here at The Divot we admire amateur golfers the world over and respect their enthusiasm for the ancient game. Amateur golf is the bees’ knees, the whole shebang, the cat’s meaow. Without amateurs there would be no professionals.
A well-clad amateur pushed his tee into the ground of his opening hole at Rye Golf Club on England’s south coast at 10 minutes before 8 o’clock last Thursday morning. It marked the start of an annual amateur match-play event dating back to 1920 with play commencing more years than not on or around the 12th day of Christmas. In 2022, the first strokes in the President’s Putter signified the dawning of a new year of golf in the northern hemisphere, and despite a worldwide pandemic a reassuring air of calm settled over Rye.
In 2022, the first strokes in the President’s Putter signified the dawning of a new year of golf in the northern hemisphere, and despite a worldwide pandemic a reassuring air of calm settled over Rye.
There was plenty of golf elsewhere. In the US, many of the best professionals were in Hawaii and Viktor Hovland had his clubs delayed in transit to the first PGA Tour event of the year. When they did arrive, some were broken. In South Africa and the other countries south of the equator where golf is played, it is summer.
But at Rye, there had been a frost leaving rime on the grass, and there was a gentle bite in the air. Many golf clubs in Britain were using temporary greens and most were muddy underfoot. There was, as there always is at this time of year, the feeling of the start of term. Excited voices were heard to say to one another: “Hello, how are you? Did you have a good Christmas? Did you get those clubs you coveted? How about a new trolley?” The new year is barely 10 days old yet manufacturers’ latest offerings are already a talking point. Stealth golf clubs have arrived, whatever they may be. So have Rogue drivers. Whatever next?
Competitors in the President’s Putter are polite to a fault, self-deprecating and understated, achingly so. The fact that this year Jamie Warman became the first man in the competition’s history to win 100 games was greeted with quiet approbation. To make too much of a fuss would be a huge faux pas. Instead, last Thursday night, glasses were raised quietly to Warman in a restaurant on one of Rye’s cobbled streets.
And it could be said that glasses were raised to a new golfing year as well. “Fore please. On the tee, 2022. Play away please.”
E-MAIL JOHN
John Hopkins