Larry Canning
What are our thoughts on having such a squashed up 4 months of men’s and women’s grand slams?
In the time from April 10th to July 31 we see every major for the year played! That’s 9 majors in the space of 17 weeks. Just writing that exhausts me…. How much time have I spent in my own bedroom in that period? Put it this way – I have no doubt by the time I have watched the winner of the final major for 2025, the AIG Women’s Open, being sprayed with Champaigne or a cheap bottle of water, I will finally open the door of my bedroom and find my wife has re-married and begun a new family.
Another concern is the amount of TV remote controls I have flung around the room courtesy of “Rory, Adam Scott and Jon Rahm etc!!” Mind you, we’re not talking the halcyon days of remote throwing when Greg Norman was constantly finding brand new ways to lose a major. In fact, my first remote toss was with a device with a lead attached to it. One had to be careful back then because that evil, possessed little gadget could spring back and catch me right on the Wilson label on my visor. Yes readers… When I was a young skinny golf pro with no protruding nasal hairs, I would often wear a visor and glove while watching a major on TV.
Wearing some golf gear in the loungeroom might appear a little strange to a lot of people but I wasn’t the only weirdo doing it. My favourite roomy, Hearny, would quite often be seen doing something similar. Mind you, it wasn’t totally intentional. Hearny had a serious issue with somnambulism or sleepwalking as we, who lack a PhD, call it.
When we were away playing somewhere and sharing a house with other aspiring young major winners, it wasn’t uncommon for us to be nodding off in front of the TV only to be awaken by our mate walking out from his bedroom wearing nothing but a pair of undies and a Prosimmon Cap asking if anyone had seen a Titleist number 3!
My lack of sleep and Hearny’s demonic out of body experience’s trying to find his pill under the coffee table would be nothing compared to those guys and girls not knowing if they have a start in each the majors. Given its such a condensed period between each of the big shows, imagine being on the edge of gaining a jumper and needing to somehow plan your qualifying attempts through whatever means are on the table and at the same time, trying to win enough spondooley to keep your job for the next 12 months.
“to further my reputation as not being the sharpest lob wedge in the Pro-Shop”
Every golfer who decides to play the game for a living, dreams of winning a Major or at the very least, teeing it up in one but when push comes to mortgage, there’s 17 weeks of other forms of tour golf taking place right in the guts of the Northern Hemisphere’s lucrative Spring and Summer. And without the best players in the world in those fields, this offers some wonderful prospects to make cabbage while the sun shines.
Then there’s the heartbreak of sacrificing these opportunities to chase the dream, only to watch it slip through your Cabretta Leather gloved fingers at the finish line. Have you seen the footage of a guy named Richard Teder holing a 70 yard wedge to snatch the final spot qualifying gig in this year’s Open at Royal Portrush?
Actually, it’s a brilliant yarn!! It turns out, Richard is from Estonia. I’m not going to shorten his name to Dick as that might mean something different over there and I do not need to offend my Estonian readers. In fact, what I did next, probably will offend Richard’s compatriots anyway, plus continue to further my reputation as not being the sharpest lob wedge in the Pro-Shop. On a mission to gain more info on, what I figured was a little-known country, I clicked on YouTube only to spot the very first video clip titled – “Why everyone is talking about Estonia” (except me).
The 20 year old amateur doubled the final hole to force a 3 way play-off but managed to file that disaster away with his pitch-in eagle on the 3rd play-off hole. The celebration with his caddy is pure gold! However, if you watch the clip closely, you might catch a glimpse of another, clearly dejected player, walking back through the crowd named Ronan Mullarney – an Irish journeyman on the brink a lifelong dream of teeing it up in his first Open Championship, and in his beloved Ireland. You’d have to wonder, what he had gone through to that point?
So my global friends from Mittagong to Estonia, do we all agree the majors desperately need to be spread out more? I’m always using the four grand slam tennis Championships as the perfect template for a truly world game with its Majors spread from January to September.
Not only that, but their Slams are also in four different countries! I leave you with this thought. I don’t know who we all lobby to re-arrange this, Jay Monahan? Donald Trump? Yasir Al-Rumayyan? My wife and Barry, her new husband? But let’s push to reignite the argument that the PGA Championship could, not only be pushed back to later in the year but also moved around the world. The US PGA, different to the US PGA Tour, owns this major and obviously profits from the revenue, but given they also own half the insanely profitable Ryder Cup, surly they can look outside their own personal gains and spread the game more globally?
Maybe even Estonia ….everyone is talking about the place!!
