Our first outing of 2010 took take place on Sat. 6th March in Royal Mountbellew Golf and Country Club. The format was a Scramble and there was a very good turn out on a lovely spring day.
Results were as follows:
1st ; Terry O Connor , Cathal Touhy, Chris Touhy 2nd ; Peter Donnellan , Henry Madden , Mike Gordon 3rd ; Paddy Flaherty , Mike Gilligan , Seamus Sheridan 4th ; Joe Burke , Eamonn Grady, Damien Oates. 5th ; Tommy Mcloughlin , Fergal Flannery, Joe Flannery 6th ; Brendan keane, Martin Keane, Aiden McDonnell.
Congrats to our new Secretary Anthony Jacob. We wish him all the best in the year ahead. A big thank you to Damien Oates who done sterling work for the past couple of years!!!
Chokes are more common than heroic victories in sport - it's easy to blow it to lack of concentration or fear. Golf is generally believed to be a largely mental game - the biggest guys don't win, the ones who can hold their nerve do. So let's take a look at the biggest chokes in golf history...
1. Jean Van De Velde - 1999 The Open
Van De Velde was a relatively unknown player, certainly not tipped to be in the driving seat on the 18th at Carnoustie. Unfortunately so it proved, the Frenchman found his ball in the sand, rough, the stands and, most famously, in the water.
The enduring image of the tournament is a bewildered Van De Velde taking off his shoes and socks to play a ball half submerged in water. He changed his mind but still made a triple bogey and lost to Paul Lawrie.
2. Greg Norman - 1996 Masters
It's unfair to characterise Norman's career by his numerous chokes; the "great white shark" was a phenomenal player, consistent and highly successful. However his choke in the '96 Masters is stuff of legend.
The Aussie started the final round with a six shot lead over eventual winner Nick Faldo. Norman eventually shot 78 whereas Faldo shot 67 - enough to swing from six ahead to five behind. Norman didn't feature in another Major until 2008's shock Open Championship charge.
3. Phil Mickelson - 2007 US Open
Going for his third successive major, "Lefty" had a terrible last round and hit only two fairways out of fourteen as well as hitting a hospitality tent and a tree. The burden of success most definitely weighed down on this occasion.
4. Retief Goosen - 2005 US Open
Despite a reputation for being cool under pressure, the goose choked spectacularly here. This could have been his third major in five years, instead he turned a three shot lead into an 11th place finish.
"I messed up badly. I obviously threw this away," Goosen said. "It was just one of those rounds … I couldn't make a putt to save my life."
5. Mike Glynn & Mike Gilligan 2010 StarComp.
Needing only a six on the 18th in Ballinasloe, a 241yard par 5, the boys amazingly managed to shank 3 shots each and finnish with a SEVEN each. Sean Byrnes (who reached the green with a 3wood) said “I could get a three with my eyes shut!"
