GOLF IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
Hoodies armed with ...hybrids Kids on Baffin Island just love their golf! eenagers in hoodies and headphones... they’ve got to be up to no good, haven’t they? Well, no actually – certainly not the industrious group of youngsters from the Arctic community of Pond Inlet who are filling their days on remote Baffin Island by taking up golf! There isn’t much to do 1,500 miles north of Montreal, above the 72nd parallel, but some of the younger inhabitants of the 1,315-strong village have got their hands on some clubs and balls from the local store. “It’s great fun to watch,” says Patrice Halley, who took the photographs. “Although they use proper equipment, their style is a mix between golf, baseball and, even though they are not aware of the sport, cricket.” Halley also revealed the Inuit kids often take a Happy Gilmore-style run up before hitting each shot around the three-hole course they’ve set up in an open field in the centre of the village. Unlike Adam Sandler’s iconic character they don’t have any drivers, although they still tee the ball up for their opening iron shots, and putt on a square of carpet laid over a hole dug in the frozen dirt. Brilliant!
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WIN
WIN A POWAKADDY TROLLEY & BAG WORTH OVER £500! Four chances to start the season with a terrific new powered trolley A YEAR’S SUPPLY OF PERSONALISED TAYLORMADE TOUR PREFERRED BALLS
BALL COMPETITION
We’ve teamed up with TaylorMade to offer you the chance to win a year’s supply of TaylorMade Tour Preferred Golf Balls... stamped with your own lucky number. It’s a service usually only reserved for TaylorMade’s Tour staff professionals, but now 10 lucky winners will be able to stamp a number of their choice, between 00 and 99, on to their year’s supply of TaylorMade TP balls. Both TP balls – the Red and the Black – feature new aerodynamics called Low-Drag Performance (LDP) that promote improved distance on the most common types of off-centre driver strikes. And if you’re stuck for a lucky number, try the pros for a little inspiration. Spanish superstar Sergio Garcia has ‘00’ stamped on his ball, while 2007 Order of Merit-winner Justin Rose has ‘99’ on his. Apparently his wife’s lucky number is 9, so Justin thought he’d double his luck with an additional 9! HOw TO ENTEr: Just answer this easy question: TaylorMade player Justin Rose burst onto the scene with a sterling finish at the 1998 Open Championship. But where was that Open held? A. Royal Birkdale B. St Andrews C. Carnoustie Leave your answer on our website at www.todaysgolfer.co.uk/ competitions. Postal entries should be sent to TaylorMade Competition, Today’s Golfer, Media House, Lynchwood, Peterborough, PE2 6EA. Deadline for entries is February 25, 2009. Terms and conditions apply.
Anton DU BEKE
LoRD of thE DAncE He’s performed in front of millions on Strictly – but could Anton du Beke waltz off with TG’s £20 note?
bY CHRIs beRTRAM PHOTOGRAPHY MARK FAGeLsON
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he ideal next step in my career? I’d like to get to scratch. Then I’d like to win the Amateur Championship. “And because I won the Amateur I’d get invites to the Masters and The Open. “I’d like to make the cut in the Masters as an amateur. Then I’d like to play for GB&I in the Walker Cup.” Two things spring to mind upon hearing this statement: firstly, Anton du Beke knows his golf; and secondly, those lofty ambitions are all very well, but hang on a minute, let’s see if you can snatch the TG20 first! It’s a crisp December morning when TG goes head to head with the star of Strictly Come Dancing who’s taken his energy and sense of fun onto other shows such as Hole in the Wall and Step up to the Plate. The Buckinghamshire in west London is the venue and it’s immediately clear that a friendly but competitive round lies ahead. Du Beke offers his handicap as six and with TG off 11 there are only going to be two shots given on this nine-hole challenge.
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It’s only nine because du Beke is recuperating from a shoulder injury just as, strangely enough, is TG. “Did you get yours from lifting a lady above your head?” du Beke asks with a characteristically cheeky smile as he tees up his ball on the par-5 opening hole. Despite his relatively long break from the game due to injury he begins with a fine drive. TG produces a less impressive effort but eventually walks off the green on the 481-yard 1st with a half after two fives. It was indicative of the close match which was to unfold with du Beke’s accurate driving making him the most gritty of opponents. This acutely ambitious golfer is not totally happy though... “I’ve got a tidy all-round game,” he says. “I’m not long but I’m fairly straight with a nice enough short game. “I would like to hit it a bit further off the tee, though, so that I could go for some par 5s in two. It would be nice to attack them now and again. ➤
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COURSES BoWood PARK
PARK LIFE
Wiltshire has a parkland gem in its midst… and you can play it for just £24. We checked out Bowood Park... by Duncan LennarD photography JaMes cheaDLe
hat a tragedy that Capability Brown, England’s revered landscape architect, was plying his trade back in the 18th Century, when golf had scarcely left the Scottish coastline. His capacity for transforming bland lands into sweeping swards furnished with dazzling copses and silver lakes would surely have placed him in great demand as a 21st Century course designer. We can only wonder. But we can, at least, content ourselves with the next best thing – a modern Dave Thomas design laid sympathetically on top of Capability Brown parkland at Bowood Estate. The decision to turn Brown’s rolling acres from Wiltshire farmland into a course came in 1988, and was taken by Marquis Lansdowne – whose descendants have resided here since 1754. But just how do you sculpt a championship course out of Grade 1 listed parkland? “Naturally there were constraints,” says Thomas. “We had to pass everything by English Heritage, and past Marquis Lansdowne himself, who is very protective of the historical aspect of his grounds. There was a height restriction on mounding of around 2.5m, and I had to safeguard various vistas and certain trees. “My approach was to use the special features for definition. So if a towering oak couldn’t be moved, I’d try to place it at the corner of a dogleg or to frame a green. “I also minimised the visual impact of ➤
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NNORTH SOUTH EAST WEST
Bark can bite Centuries-old trees are a familiar obstacle at Bowood Park.
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