UK golf news on Road to Dubai

This week at lot of press has been about the Ryder Cup, mainly about Monty winning the right to pick three of his team, the other nine automatically qualifying from World Rankings and European Tour standings. Monty will have a great team, should be interesting to see what the US team will do to distract him (anything will work!).

In today’s Courier there is a small note about the European Tour’s major sponsor, Leisurecorp from Dubai. Their 100 million pounds is a major chunk of money. With the global financial crisis hitting Dubai very hard, Leisurecorp has been absorbed into the state-owned parent company Nakheel. This Sheik-down has not bothered the PGA tour who say “the five year contract is safe”.

Elsewhere in the papers there is mention of the RBS having a golf day yesterday on the closed Turnberry Ailsa Course, site for July’s OPEN. The course is closed until the Open and I am sure the R&A and the course staff are happy to have some play, otherwise the un-used greens can become too soft for the fast and firm conditions desired. Although RBS had not one sign posted, it was pretty obvious who was playing, Jack Nicklaus had RBS on his shirt as he gave the pre-round briefing. Who paid the 210 pound visitors fee? that doesn’t include lunch.