Mr Hahn

I'll be surprised if Donald ever gets near the top 10 again, he doesn't hit it anywhere near far enough. It was remarkable he ever got to number one at all, but for 18 months or so he was one of the best putters in the world. I'm inclined to agree with you, especially on the PGA tour where driving distance seems to be a fairly accurate measure of success. Would like to see him competing near the top of the leaderboard at tournaments again though. He's got a lovely swing to watch.

This got me thinking about players that have been at the top, had a real dip in the rankings only to come back strong again. Lee Westwood went from #4 in May 2001 to #255 by June 2003 and we all know the player he went on to be. Paul Casey, ranked #3 in August 2009, has been as low as #168 in June 2013 and back to #11 by June 2018. Henrik Stenson, #5 in May 2009 to #224 in May 2012, back to #2 by June 2014. Still waiting on Luke Donald making a big comeback after being #1 in 2012 to #595 in 2019, currently sitting at #410. Find this quite interesting for some reason, obviously everyone has good and bad seasons. Probably missing some better examples.

Jeezo, I remember him bursting onto the scene. Didn't he win at Wentworth a few years ago? He's got time at least, there's so many of the top pros who have been through the wilderness a bit at some point in their career.

I don't know what's more pathetic? That you'd rather call him a bigot than actually refute his argument or that you created an account with the sole purpose of doing so. Society regresses from behaviour like this.

I loved Higdon. Superb striker for us, such a clinical finisher. I've gone for Moult however for similar reasons as other posters have. He scored barrels of goals even when the rest of our team was very average to be kind.

I realise this came from Long's mouth himself to a certain extent but he needs to have some ability to hold the ball up. He can't be expecting every ball he ever receives to be an on-the-money through ball that he can chase. Fair enough, his main game is running in behind but if his hold up play is shite and he doesn't seem to be improving, I suspect his number of starts will reflect this and I'd be more inclined to go for Cole/Scott who have more balanced games.

Awkward weekend again for Mr McIlroy...

I think you're misunderstanding the point I'm making. This debate absolutely should happen, the number of people involved is irrelevant in that regard. My point was that I was surprised how riled up so many people seem to be getting over it and how all encompassing it seems to have become given the small number of people it affects. It's rare for me to go on my twitter feed and not see posts about it which, given I have little interest in the debate, is what my point is. There is no excuse for hate crimes of any sort, of course trans people should be able to live their lives as freely as everyone else. But clearly some people have very strong feelings about this upcoming legislation, including politicians who I have a great deal of respect for. So there should be able to be a debate around it without the need to call names (that includes Campbell as the latter part of my post acknowledges). I'm not defending Stuart Campbell, in fact that last paragraph in my post explicitly says he's also guilty of this. People hurling abuse followed by abuse in response never gets anyone anywhere which is pretty much the theme of my post. I like Wings, the website. I like it's content on the independence debate. As for Stuart Campbell, the man, I don't care for the way he often goes about debate on Twitter. I think he's quite capable of having a reasoned argument without resulting to the name calling as the quality of his output on his website has shown.

All? I've never seen him claim that every single one is a pervert. If he did, that's obviously incorrect but he's hardly the only person that's raised concerns about protecting single sex spaces in this debate.

And that's to his discredit. I'm not claiming to be a fan and he's not immune to criticism. It's the manner of some of it that I take issue with. Like I said, not an issue I'm familiar with and wasn't going to talk about it at all in my post initially. If he's wrong he's wrong. Not claiming he's right about it.

I like Wings. I read his website from time to time and generally agree with the articles he writes about independence but don't agree with him on everything. But the way to disagree with people is to debate, not to dismiss them as bigots or whatever. There's far too much of that right now, it's such a bail out. Claim offence and immediately it would appear you are given the upper hand. It shuts down debate, and the independent Scotland that I would like to see is one in which arguments are won and policy made is by robust debate where people can express their view. I don't quite get what people's problem with his entering this trans debate is either. He's allowed to have views on other things outside of independence and this is a debate that many, not just him, are interested in having. Take Joanna Cherry for example, IMO the SNP's best MP. I don't agree or disagree with his point of view, quite frankly how it's become such a hotly debated topic is a bit baffling to me given the tiny amount of people it affects, but if people want to have this debate then they should be able to have it, and similar debates, without being instantly labelled (insert here)phobe by people who don't agree with them. It's a tactic to shut down debate and for attention seeking shitebags who can't defend their position to bail out with. The whole Dugdale thing was a prime example and I was fully supportive of Wings in that particular case. His views on Hillsborough might be wrong, he might be right. I wouldn't know, it was before my time. I've never experienced those kinds of stadiums and don't know enough about the incident but if you disagree with him, debate him. Blaming fans for poorly policed and unsafe stadiums on the face of it seems wrong to me so I'd be inclined to disagree with him, but this is where someone from the other side of the argument should tell him he's wrong and why, not just hurl abuse at him. To be fair, he could have this accusation leveled at him as well. Too often on Twitter he does seem to result to swearing and hurling abuse and for that, he's fair game to be critisised. I think there's a lot to be said for putting forward a point of view eloquently, which I think he often does in his articles with excellent evidence to back up his claims. However, he does have a habit of reducing some issues to insulting people and I do wish sometimes he stick to what he's exceptionally good at on his website which is arguing his side with evidence.

Yeh that's it. I gather there were some very strong words at the committee meeting when this was announced to members. Hardly surprising, a f**k up like that could end a golf club.

It's been in the papers up here that my golf club is struggling financially too after what sounds like some massive mistakes when constructing our new driving range facility. I gather there was a fairly difficult committee meeting recently when it was reported the club had overspent on the project by £220,000. I don't really know about these things but I struggle to fathom how the project overshot its budget by that amount but here we are. End result is a 5% increase in our fees but someone at the meeting suggested a £200 levy for each member. I gather this was rejected as the committee predicted it was result in too big a loss in membership. Absolutely hate hearing all these stories of courses being in financial difficulty but I suspect the case of my club will garner significantly less sympathy than the closure of some of these local municipals.

Feel pretty bad for the player. Article just says "sound of a smartphone" but I'm assuming someone was taking a photo of him. Why can't people just watch the golf instead of needing to get their phone out. One of the worst examples I've seen was Tiger at the US Open this year. He was absolutely surrounded by spectators taking a shot from the rough and you could barely pick out a single one that didn't have their phone out. Reacting like that is unacceptable but 3 years is ridiculous and I can understand his frustration during the incident.

Not sure I agree, I like Grimshaw at right back. You're probably right that he's not better than Tait but I think he's perfectly serviceable at right back in this league. He's fit, decent pace, strong, can win a header, not afraid of a tackle and comfortable enough on the ball for that position. We could do a lot worse than Grimshaw as a starting right back in my opinion. Edit to add: I'd rather have Grimshaw than Cadden at right back.

Nice one! From your post it sounds like you're recently getting back into the game, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm in the same boat having played ~1-2 times a year for the past 10 years. I've found the long game came back fairly quickly but, as your experience seems to suggest, the short game, especially putting, takes some time. My putting is still pretty poor despite having almost a season under my belt now. Anyway I'm two cards down, one to go for regaining my handicap. It won't be as low as yours but I'm expecting between 9 and 11. If I don't get single figures, that'll be the initial goal and then down to around 6 I think should be achievable for me within a couple of seasons.

Looked absolutely brilliant today with a 65. Difficult windy conditions too which he seems to have adapted to far better than anyone else. Draining some very long putts which is always nice!

I've been to two ranges up here including the one at my golf club that have that kind of tech. The Paul Lawrie Golf Centre has top tracer and I must say I thought it was pretty accurate. When I hit a good shot, it went around the distance I'd expect. When I hit a bad shot, it was a little short or long depending on the nature of the bad shot. The range as my club has Trackman set up at it and it's really good too. Slightly different in that you have to install the app and use your phone as the screen but really helpful for making practice sessions more than just banging off 50 balls without thinking too much about them.

I decided to shell out on quite a few new clubs this season and it's made a world of difference. Replaced my old Taylormade Burner from well over 10 years ago with a Cobra F9 and my average distance from the guy's trackman went from 265 to 290ish. Replaced my old Nickent 4 wood with a Callaway Epic Flash sub zero 3 wood which quickly became my go to club from the tee if I needed to hit a fairway, fantastic club. Replaced my Taylormade 2 hybrid with a Callaway utility 2 iron which seems to suit my game far better than the hybrid. Last but not least I replaced my ancient Callaway wedges with Titleist SM7s, 52 & 58 degrees. I still play with 10+ year old Mizuno irons but tbh I still love them so will be sticking with them for a little while longer at least. I think if you are playing with old clubs and fancy something new, the woods (especially the driver) are the area where you'll get most improvement with more up to date equipment. That's been my experience anyway.

Yeh pretty much the exact complaint I've heard about it from others, very poor drainage. Always looks lovely when driving past it but not sure I'll ever actually stop off and play Cardona. So I've heard, part of a trio of courses in that general area including Royal Dornoch and Brora that I'm very keen to play but may have to let the bank balance recover between visits before I take in the other two! Castle Stuart is top of my list atm.

I've heard Roxburghe is superb but Cardona is very hit or miss with its condition? Only courses I've played in that region are Kelso and Melrose but I've got family down there's no excuse for not ticking Roxburghe off the list.

Jealous. Two quality courses there. I've not played any courses other than my own this year in the hope that I can convince my dad to play Castle Stuart with me next year. One I've been wanting to tick off the list for a while but he's a big fearty so always takes a fair bit of convincing to get him to play harder courses.

Interesting. With the SSS system, I wonder if it's possible to put in a card on someone else's course and have it count towards getting your handicap. I know when I joined my new club here, there was some kind of universal system of handicaps that they looked up to try and find me. They found a couple of players on the system with my name but I couldn't confirm if either was me (got my handicap at Strathaven as a junior) so I had to start again and get a new one.

I like how if you go down to the putter with the poorest stat in that table, his surname is Yip.

Yeh, that's how it always was at Strathaven, my old club, and the two non-competition rounds had to played with a member who would sign the card. Was a tad surprised to hear you needed to play 3 comps to get it up here.