thelastword Home Sengs MULLIGAN


Golf’s Man in the Rough


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This is my favourite time of the year. Days get longer and warmer, the


number of rounds played increases, the first major of the year is imminent and new product hits the shelves increasing the footfall in our shops. What could be better! The only downside at the moment is


that Jason Day – who last month in this column I tipped to win the forthcoming Augusta Masters (and who I have a couple of quid riding on) – is a doubt due to a thumb injury, and joins Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on the casualty list. The absence of these three would be hugely disappointing, although the odds on a UK winner would shorten significantly, and a UK winner would certainly do no harm to the turnover in our shops! Aſter the Augusta National announced in 2012 that it would allow women to join its membership, the pressure was on the 260-year-old Royal & Ancient Golf Club to follow suit.


Aſter 19 months of silence, the R&A has finally written to its 2,500 all male membership informing them that a ballot on this issue will be held later this year. In his letter, the chairman of the R&A's general committee wrote that ‘Now is the time to ask members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club to welcome female members into the club.’


I’m sure that some of those members on receiving this letter would have checked the date to make sure that it wasn’t April Fool’s Day, and


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then would have poured themselves a stiff ‘G & T’ on realising the letter was for real. The 2013 British Open was held at Muirfield, which also operates a male-only policy on membership, as does Troon (scheduled to host the Open in 2016) and Royal St Georges at Sandwich. A ‘yes’ vote would put pressure on all three clubs to follow the R&A lead. However, the R&A vote requires a


two thirds majority before it opens the doors to female members, and therefore nothing is guaranteed at this moment in time. We will await the outcome with interest. Last Christmas Mrs Mulligan gave me a book titled Walking with Jack: A Father's Journey to Become His Son's Caddie which I only got around to reading a week or so ago. Written by Don Snyder, it tells the


true story of a father who promised his young son that if he became good enough to play on a pro golf tour, he would accompany him as his caddie. Years later the son, Jack Snyder, had become more than just a useful golfer, and so Don, by this time fiſty-eight years old, leſt the comfort of his home in the USA and moved to St. Andrews to learn his craſt from the best caddies in the world. An excellent read well worth having


on your shelves come Father’s Day this June.


Happy Hacking!


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