To golfers this deliberate infliction of damage on one of the South West’s finest courses was an act of indefensible vandalism.

But to the eco-warriors who appear to be responsible it is part of a campaign to reduce water wastage before what some experts believe could be the worst drought for a century. The attacks will send a ripple of fear through golf course managers everywhere.

At least five clubs in the Bath area have already received threatening letters from an anonymous group demanding that they cut their water consumption by a quarter and return 10 per cent of their courses to nature. If they fail to comply, the letter says, they could suffer the same fate as the Park course, which was attacked on the night of March 30.

A well-thought out plan folks. Of course, you do realise that repairing the damage to that green will take considerably more water than the most intensive maintenance would have done all summer. Keep up the good work.

4/6/2006 10:14:38 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Live and exclusive from inside the pearly gates of Augusta National, GolfPunk's tutition expert Jonathan Yarwood, working his socks off and getting Michael Campbell prepared for the first major of the year.





'Yeah, I just hopped the fence and nipped through that gallery'

'I love this material'

Cambo: If I hold my pose no-one will notice that I've shanked it

'Macho, macho man'     

'Say tees'

'So I was thinking sausage and mash and a DVD?'

Visit Jonathan Yarwood's academy at www.jygolfacademy.com

4/5/2006 1:59:38 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Masters fever has fully taken hold now. We are more excited than the Time Team on an Cheroke burial ground. The next sage up is GP leaper Sifa, so what's going to happen Sif?

"If you asked me yesterday I would have gone for Woods. Despite Big Phil shooting the lights out last week only one player has won the BellSouth Classic then gone on to don the green jacket, that was our own Sandy Lyle. However, I think the winners will come out of a group of four Sergio Garcia, Craig Stadler, Zach Johnson and Fuzzy Zoeller. There is no science behind it, they are just the names I picked out the hat. Come on boys I have got a fiver on this!"                                                    

                                                                  IDIOT

Thanks for that Sifa, real reader service.

4/4/2006 5:01:03 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

"The case against several men accused of murder in a shooting at the Pali golf course is getting more serious.

Ethan Motta, Rodney Joseph Junior, and Kevin Gonsalves were indicted by an Oahu grand jury yesterday on several counts of murder and attempted murder in the aid of racketeering.

The three were charged in the shooting deaths of two men at Pali golf course in January of 2004.
 
Police said the shootings erupted from a dispute over who would provide security at illegal gambling houses.

"This is the type of activity which concerns us because this leads to gang wars, or this leads to (stumbles) underworld shootings, drive-by shootings and we cannot have this type of danger out in our communities when innocent citizens are around," said U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo.

Two other men including the alleged leader of the gambling business have also been indicted."

3/31/2006 5:13:05 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

"Donald Trump, the real estate and casino mogul who's worth $2.6 billion according to Forbes magazine, plans to build two golf courses on the northeast Scottish coast as part of a $500 million development.

Trump, who is half Scottish, will also construct a five-star hotel, a golf academy, a grass research center and apartments on the 800-acre Menie estate outside Aberdeen, development agency Scottish Enterprise said in an e-mailed statement today.

"I have never seen such an unspoilt and dramatic seaside landscape,'' the 59-year-old Trump said on his Web site.`The location makes it perfect for our development.''

Anyone forsee the 'Trump Apprentice vs Sugar Apprentice' reality golf/ find a new hotshot palaver coming soon to BBC 2?

3/31/2006 4:49:27 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Such is the wonder of modern technology that we've ended up sponsoring a racing team after being introduced through our web design team.

It turns out that HDTracing.com share a designer with us and knew of our website. The designer got in touch with us and asked if we'd be interesting in sponsoring them, we immediately got giddy at the prospect of Porsches, champagne and started leafing through property brochures of Monaco abd said 'yes'.

Seconds later their guy Matt skyped me, we exchanged pleasantries and now we sponsor Graham Coomes in his shiny HDT Racing GT2 Porsche. That's one for the world of binary.

Driving like a demon                           And, holding up traffic

3/31/2006 4:31:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Ben Evans is a junior who has slipped under the radar of our 'Kids wot are better than us' feature, yet he has an amateur record that is as formidable as any of our previous entrants.

So, as a means of apology and as an introduction to all our golf punks here's a little bit about the promising young fella.

Ben recently won the Sunningdale foursomes, teaming up with Danielle Masters to beat James Morrison and Colin Roope 2&1 in the final.

He's a former winner of the Faldo Series and notably trounced our GolfPunk against the world, Ollie Fisher, in both these events.

He didn't beat our travel Editor, Owen Blackhurst, when they played each other at Real World Golf on the Playstation in the poor man's living room, but I'm sure he didn't lose any sleep over it. Judging from his photo though....

Ben Evans                                         Uncle Pete

3/29/2006 3:27:28 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Tiger Woods has said that he will be cutting back on his golf when he becomes a father.

In an interview on US television show "60 minutes", Woods said that being a parent was a greater priority than golf. He said: "I will have to obviously make adjustments in my playing schedule to make sure that I'm there as much as possible so I can be there for their entire development, entire youth, their entire life."

That probably explains why he's trying hard to win every tournament he enters at the moment. 

To see the entire interview with Ed Bradley click on the link: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml

3/27/2006 10:37:20 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

A new report by the Golf Industry Association of Arizona finds that the sport has an economic impact of more than $3.4 billion annually.

The study was conducted by Troy Schmitz, a professor from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. It looked at both the environmental and economic impact the sport has on the state. The numbers gathered for the study are from 2004, the most recent year data was available.

Among the findings:

• The industry employs more than 19,000 Arizonans, earning $291 million in wages and benefits.
• Taxes generated annually from the golf industry total more than $76 million.

For the full story click on the link: http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/

3/17/2006 12:14:18 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0]