Nice to see the course fully open, I'm ever hopeful we will be able to get the competition played on Saturday. It will be a 16 hole non-qualifying individual Stableford. With only two events left in the Winter Order of Merit there is all to play for - here are the current standings.

Division One

Division Two

The final Winter Order of Merit event, I hope to play the two holes format 4BBB that I was to play for my 50th birthday competition. This will be on 21st February and should enable a large field to get round prior to the AGM at 5.00pm.

The Vice-Captain and Lady Vice-Captain are having a guess the distance of their combined drives for their drive in on Sunday 22nd February in aid of their respective charities. The Captain will be supporting Help for Heroes which needs no introduction, and The Lady Captain will be supporting Emma Maltby Memorial Fund, which specialises in educational support for teenagers and young adult cancer sufferers by providing specialist learning mentors at St James and The LGI. Guesses can be had in the shop, three guess for a contribution. (Suggested £5.00)

Open moves to Sky

So Sky Sports have won the rights to show the Open from 2016 - Peter Alliss said "I don't think there will be a golfer that won't be bitterly disappointed at the news today." Well Peter I'm going to disagree with you. The way we watch sport now has changed, and a national organisation such as the BBC cannot do the sport justice. Sports that have been taken on exclusively by Sky have seen huge growth. The £5 billion plus deal for football matches is mind boggling, but sports like cycling even sponsored by Sky, netball, darts have all grown without any coverage on the BBC. People argue that we will see a drop off in participation because golf won't be shown on terrestrial TV. The BBC has been showing the Open for the past 60 years and the numbers have been falling so that obviously isn't the answer.

The extra money from the Sky deal which does pale into insignificance next to the football deal will be reinvested back into growing the game by the R&A - maybe more than can be said of the Premiership money. I think a two hour prime time highlights spot on the BBC will actually attract more people to watch The Open, keen to see a condensed summary of the great shots in this much busier society we now live in. So I for one Peter will not be bitterly disappointed - I look forward to the build-up for two weeks before and not having to endure Gary Lineker talking about a sport he knows little about. No doubt my comments will create some conversations in the pro shop over the coming weeks!

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