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...and now for something completely different & really quite sensational (if true).

I was watching the LPGA (Ladies) golf at the weekend, the Joburg Ladies Open, & the commentators mentioned a really weird stat featuring New Zealander Amelia Garvey. She's not a world-beater (World Ranking 142) but had a good Tournament, finishing 13th.

So I went over to Wiki to check it, & sure enough, the stat was confirmed on there...


In 2024, during the final round of the Royal St Cloud Women's Championship on the NXXT Women's Pro Tour in Florida, Garvey made history being the first professional golfer to record a par, birdie, eagle, hole in one, and albatross all in one round, a one in 4.5 trillion likelihood.[9] She also had a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and a 6 on her scorecard.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Garvey





It's so unlikely that it's a struggle to believe it happened, but all the google searches seem to confirm it, as did the commentators on the TV.

I'm also a bit perplexed how they worked out the odds of 4.5 trillion to one, or whatever it actually was. How would they work that out?

Most satisfying.

I may have inadvertently contributed to Tom's error.

The 12th & 15th holes are parallel, smack adjacent & in the same direction, with both Greens side by side.

After an errant tee-shot I had elected to go up the "wrong" Fairway, as I was blocked out by trees. My ball landed just shy of the wrong green, as planned, (in a bunker actually) just leaving me a chip over the "wrong" green onto the correct one.

So maybe Tom saw me stood by the wrong green & assumed he should be aiming there.

I could see he was lining up for the wrong Green, but if you say anything whilst he's on his pre-shot routine he gets a bit mardy so I decided it'd be best to say nothing. Etiquette & all that. Besides, our Stabbo scores were tied at the time.

Even after hitting his shot, he never clicked, & strolled up to the Green looking quite pleased with himself, & it was some time before the penny dropped.

Bottom line, he blobbed, I scored 5/3, & I won the round by 2 Stabbos.

Most pleasing.

All my tinkering has to be done in the set up, my brain refuses to work whilst the club is in motion. As soon as the swing starts the neurological pathways shut down and I become an observer waiting to see what will happen.

I shot a 95 yesterday. It would have been better but Tony deliberately and delightedly stayed silent as I played my ball to the wrong green, resulting in a blob for me and a win for him.

His shot, played on to the correct green finished about 5ft from the hole, at which point, with a straight face, he asked for a gimme.

Great shooting today Ralph, glad you turned it around. Golf is an addictive, frustrating bugger of a game. I'm playing tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday because next week I'm away for 7 days and need an extra fix to survive.

I was horrendous on Saturday in the medal. Lost my swing completely and played absolutely clueless almost embarrassing golf. I am a bit of a tinkerer with my golf swing in the endless search for something close to perfection and sometimes the new swing ideas seem to erase a basic fundamental, as there's only room in my skull for so many swing thoughts, and on Saturday I was topping fairway woods which are usually my favourite clubs, and smothering all of my iron shots, even short irons - it was the stuff of nightmares and I couldn't figure out how to fix it at the time. Returned a 95 net 80 with breaking 100 the only bright spot.

I remembered the fundamental that had temporarily slipped my mind today and shot a soothing 85 off the yellows which included a few 3putts, but it came as a great relief to dispel Saturday's horror-show as I feared I might play like that for evermore in some kind of Greek mythological golfer's Hades.

A couple of days off now to do chores etc. then it's the first Senior Medal on Thursday.

Media attention has totally changed. It is no longer led by journalists. Just by click-obsessed AI, which has little or no regard for what is traditionally newsworthy.

Man Utd are traditionally the biggest club in the UK. Right now, probably the 3rd or 4th best-funded. And achieving the sort of form that they should have had for the last 10 years is (in this new world order) not newsworthy. Whereas it really should be.

My Club is Spurs. I get the media interest in whether we might go down. What I cannot quite fathom is why a club that has always been popular (for a variety of reasons-we like to think it is because we play the game the "right" way, but coming close without winning much is a factor too) is suddenly reviled. The hate coming from people is something I have never previously experienced. Poking fun at our troubles? Fine. It is the hatred I don't get.

Meanwhile no-one seems to want to mention the £hundreds of millions of rule-bending (at the very least) of Man City or Chelsea. The brilliance of Unai Emery at Villa is not newsworthy. The Liverpool board spend £450 million making the Champions worse, but they seem to be held to a different standard to that of Spurs.

Strange world.

Finally we’re off the radar as the two North London clubs and the Toon battle it out for media attention.

Sema. Nooooooo!

Bring the Welsh woman back.

The corner pockets look massive this year compared to last when they were extremely tight.

I know I'm a grumpy old bugger, but where did they find this extremely annoying Welsh woman?

She makes Sima look and sound like a superstar!

Give me a break

Calm down lovely boy.