Talk of Crisis Off the Mark

The Manchester United nay-sayers were out in force on Monday morning after their 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge left them in third place, but in reality the start made by Sir Alex Ferguson’s men has eclipsed what many had predicted back in August.

While United have lost three games at a relatively early stage of the season any talk of a crisis is so premature it makes you think Kai Wayne hasn’t even been born yet.

In a summer that saw Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez depart with Michael Owen, Gabriel Obertan and Luis Valencia brought in as replacements many expected United to be far further down the table than they currently find themselves, but those who had written off the Champions’ chances were as wide of the mark as an Anderson 25 yarder.

On the 13^th July, the day Ferguson handed over the famous number seven shirt from Ronaldo to Owen, he declared that United’s dealings in the summer’s transfer market were done with. Fans of Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea, as well as one or two over at Eastlands, rubbed their hands together at the prospect of a United team who they thought would not be able to finish in the top four, let alone win the league.

And despite a couple of below-par performances Ferguson’s new-look side has acquitted itself very well so far, and have only dipped below any new expectations that were made when United topped the table not one month ago, and not those of pre-season.

After the shock defeat to Burnley in their second game United bounced back with an unbeaten streak of eleven games, a run that saw them return to the top of the table at an earlier stage than they have experienced during the Premier League era.

That defeat was brought to an abrupt end at by Liverpool, but while it was hard to stomach it shouldn’t have worried United fans too much; even with the likes of Ronaldo and Tevez we lost there last season and still won the league.

The hoo-doo that Benitez’ side currently have over the Champions is no more than an annoying crisis of confidence. Beating Liverpool is not imperative in a league winning season, it is the icing on the cake, just ask Gary Neville.

United on the whole were poor that day, but it was those under the spot-light who looked the most threatening; Dimitar Berbatov looked sharp and dangerous on the ball, Valencia hit the bar at 1-0 and only a trademark Jamie Carragher drag-down prevented Owen from causing a full-scale Anfield riot.

But while that defeat dealt a huge blow to United pride, the defeat to Chelsea on Sunday has proved harder for many reds to take.

The message boards and pubs in the build-up to the game painted a pessimistic picture; United were going to lose and lose badly.

It was rare for United fans to be this down-beat before a game, but after some shoddy defending the Tuesday before against CSKA Moscow the writing appeared to be on the wall.

But even as the defeat did eventually come, it was the manner of it that hurt the most. With United the biggest under-dogs they have been for many years they outplayed Chelsea for large parts of the game. To come away pointless it was galling, but in reality there can be few complaints.

Cast your minds back to the end of August, where a controversial penalty and a bizarre own-goal put Arsenal to the sword at Old Trafford in a defeat for Arsenal that must have been harder for Gooners to take than ours at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

The truth is that these things do even themselves out over the season and while the defeat, unlucky or not, meant United go into the International break in third place Ferguson’s squad has shown enough already that they are capable of picking up the points one way or another, and any talk of a crisis is wishful thinking for the reds’ rivals.

PREVIEW: Manchester United vs. CSKA Moscow

Manchester United can seal qualification to the knock out rounds of the Champions League tonight with only a point against CSKA Moscow.

Ex-Tottenham manager Juande Ramos was in charge of the reverse fixture a fortnight ago, where United nicked a later winner through Luis Valencia, but has since been replace by Leonid Slutsky, and United boss Ferguson is wary of the threat a new manager can bring.

"You’d imagine the new coach will really want to win this game – obviously to strengthen his position in the job but also to enhance his reputation,” Sir Alex told the media at his pre-match press conference.

"You have to be aware that football can throw clangers into the mix. We don’t want that.”

Sir Alex is also concerned about the Russian side’s desire to win, with them facing a big hurdle domestically if they are to achieve European football again next season.

“I think they have to win their last three league games in order to finish third and be in with a chance of getting into the Champions League again," the United manager said.

"I expect CSKA to play their strongest team because a good result could give them a lot of confidence before their final three league matches.”

Michael Owen is set to lead the line for United with Wayne Rooney missing the clash after birth of his first son yesterday, while Dimitar Berbatov is struggling with a knee injury.

And while Ferguson is missing his first choice strike-partnership he is also without defensive pairing Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic who are still out with calf injuries, meaning that Wes Brown and Jonny Evans will continue in the heart of the United back-line after their strong display against Blackburn on Saturday.

In more bad news for the United boss he is also without Ryan Giggs and Ji-Sung Park, who are both out with knee complaints.

Darren Fletcher provides the only positive in the build-up to the game as the Scot returns from an ankle injury that has kept him out since the start of October.

The visitors have injury concerns of their own as they look for their first win on English soil, with former Liverpool winger Mark Gonzalez, Guilherme and Sekou Oliseh all out with knee and hip injuries respectively.

A Guide to Preston Golf Course

Narrated by the chief organiser of Preston's very successful juniors Neil Calvert, this is a slideshow telling you all you need to know about the course where they ply their trade.

Preston's Junior Golfers amongst best in the land

Preston Golf Club Juniors capped a magnificent season by finishing in the top 10 at the English finals in Oxfordshire, but their rise in recent seasons has proved to be the real success.

After finishing top of the North Lancashire league and being crowned Champions of the North West at the regional finals in Mere, Cheshire, the lads went on to the national finals where they competed against twelve of the nation’s finest.

Held in Thame, the tournament pits together regional Champions and runners up from all over the country, where competitors play two singles and three doubles matches, a formula which has proved very successful for Preston Juniors in recent years.

“We’ve won the North Lancashire league for the last two seasons now, with an 8 man team and 2 reserves. After winning the league last year we tied the regional finals, but this year we won it out-right for a place in the nationals. It’s been a great experience for the lads.” Junior organiser Neil Calvert said.

Finishing 8th out of 12, the Preston boys failed to re-capture the excellent form that has seen the team sweep all before them in the region.

“It just didn’t work out for the lads on the day” Calvert admitted. “Whether it was the nerves of being away from home I don’t know, but they didn’t play as well as they can do, which is a shame, but it was a fantastic experience”.

Best is yet to come

Despite the slightly disappointing performance at the finals, there is no doubt around the club that the team can better themselves in future.

A multi-million pound redevelopment programme at PGC appears to be paying dividends, with the team improving year upon year. Finishing 9th in 2007, this year’s progress provides hope for better performances for years to come.

The junior side, who had never made the cut before last year, have now competed nationally in the last two seasons. Tying with Chorley in the regional finals last year to make their debut, they beat Liverpool this year to make their second consecutive appearance, and it is no surprise given the time and effort ploughed into the team.

With a string of incentives in place for their dazzling juniors, the Golf Club can look forward to an extremely bright future and even more impressive results on the course.

Sammy Lee 6/12/08

Preston Golf Club
Mere Golf and Country Club

Preston Junior Golfers' Success No Surprise

The multi-million pound investment in Preston Golf Club is starting to bear fruit, with the youth at the club seen to be benefitting the most.

From the outside looking in you would be forgiven for thinking that the traditional club in Fulwood, north Preston, would be set in its ways, and governed by the old-guard that have such a strong-hold on the nation’s golf clubs.

But PGC, the premier golf club in the area, is different. When looking around the place you can sense a real energy: a will to provide for the next generation, and not rest on aging laurels.

The vast amounts of cash injected into the club have not been in vain; everything that has been improved and altered has gone towards revolutionising and energising the golf there, rather than giving the regulars a nice place to have a pint.

The redevelopment has come from different places for different purposes. The English Golf Union has provided the club with an academy for children as young as 5 from the local area to develop their game , while British Aerospace, a key employer in Preston, have invested nearly £2m in the site, as well as providing mind-blowing experiences for the club’s members.

The chief benefactors of the investment are the youth members, who are actively encouraged by the majority of the membership to be as involved as possible, and have been given every opportunity to be a part of a club that is notoriously difficult to get into.

The infrastructure that has been put in place at PGC is something to admire, and it’s no surprise that in the last two years the Preston Juniors have made the National finals on two consecutive occasions, with 2007 being the first time ever they have made the cut.

The collaboration between PGC and the English Golf Union is vital in getting the kids into the club in the first place, with the EGU going into local schools and providing young children with the opportunity to play golf, not something that every child gets the right to do.

There seems to be the perfect mixture of funding and nurturing within the club, which has had such a huge impact on the junior team who have performed so impressively over the past couple of years. The professionals at the club play a huge part in the development, with Jamie Dowling and Nick Shepherd, an ex-Junior Captain himself, working with the kids from the moment they turn up at the club until the time comes to be passed on to the man behind the juniors’ success, Neil Calvert.

Calvert is the junior team organiser, and it is under his leadership that the key changes have come into fruition. The way membership fees are paid have been revolutionised, with new payment schemes being brought in to accommodate young people’s limited funds, all so that they can get a foot in the door of the exclusive club.

It is Calvert who is the main champion of the youth at the club, and it is he who actively encourages them to be around the place as much as possible.

“We’ve got some very talented kids here, and we want to keep them. It’s good for the club; we don’t want the place full of old dodderers.”

The thing that strikes you most about PGC is the sheer amount of incentives and activities they offer their members, particularly the juniors.

The junior locker-room is filled with entertainment for the lads to enjoy whether they’ve been playing golf or not. Upon Calvert’s arrival he installed a pool table, table tennis table, table football and a television all to be enjoyed by the players. Even if they are bored one day with nothing to do, they can get down to the club and find something, all in the name of keeping them interested in the game of golf, and keeping them at PGC.

Life Experiences

Probably the best thing the club have to offer, however, is the backing of top professional Adam Scott. Sitting at number 17 in the world, Scott has local links, and his uncle is a member at PGC. On the day the academy was opened Scott came down and gave a demo to all the people watching and has continued to be involved at the club ever since; a huge commendation. Since then he has started a tournament for the junior members, who are all desperate to compete in it. After the tournament, played over 2 days, he hands out hundreds of pounds worth of prizes to the six finalists, as well as paying for everything to do with the event, including the parents’ meals and post-event drinks. The winners, one of which being Calvert’s eldest son Chris, receive around £150 worth of prizes from Scott’s sponsors, such as Titleist golf balls, Burberry and Rolex as well as a beautiful glass trophy that they can keep. It is without doubt the best prize board at the club, and it doesn’t stop there. Scott has recently donated a valuable Wedgewood trophy to be awarded to the winners of the annual Gents versus Juniors match, who are, needless to say, the juniors.

This is not just a token gesture from Scott, a golfer who doesn’t have to do these things to get by, or for additional publicity. He genuinely wants to be a part of a very promising golf club, and has even invited the winners up to meet him, at his expense, while he competed at the Open at Hoylake in 2006.

If that wasn’t enough, the funding from British Aerospace, which has not only built a swanky new clubhouse and maintains the academy, pays for the members of the club to go on golfing trips to Saudi Arabia for 5 days every year. The scheme is in place to improve relations between Britain and Saudi Arabia, and also to help boost participation and ability in sport in the country. PGC has been cherry-picked as a representative of British Aerospace, and Britain, for these trips. Initially, the senior members were jetted off all expenses paid to Riyadh to enjoy the greens and masses of sand, but last year the juniors were given their chance to shine, as ever, by the club.

Despite being in the middle of a desert, Calvert, the ambassador on the trip, says that the experience, and the quality of the courses, was exceptional.

“They’re tremendous hosts, fantastic experience. The two courses were amazing; they must have pumped in millions and millions of litres of water. On the way there we saw camels walking around and all of a sudden there were these beautiful golf courses, almost like an oasis.”

The trip was a success, and next year another 5 members of the juniors will go out and experience golf in other climates, as well as the way of life in vastly different surroundings.

With all these opportunities presented to the youth, it is no surprise that they have enjoyed so much success in recent times, and it would be no surprise if they were to top the regional charts again next year and make an even bigger mark on the national game.

Sammy Lee 6/12/08
Preston Golf Club
Adam Scott Official Website
English Golf Union Official Website
The Oxfordshire Golf Club

The Justin Timberlake Golf Tournament...

...Seriously. From the 13th to the 19th of October Justin Timberlake hosted his own Golf event in Las Vegas. When I heard about this, through my ignorant ears, I thought it would just be a ridiculous celebrity competition to give some of Hollywood’s more redundant characters a few days out in the sun. On closer inspection however it turned out to be a fully sanctioned PGA tour event, which, by all accounts, he did a very good job of hosting.
One reporter on a Golf television channel in America noted that; "Justin Timberlake is the best thing that's happened to the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods."
As with the tournament itself, though, this might not be as ridiculous as it sounds. As many of you will know , although I admit I did not, this is the time of the Golfing calendar known as ‘The Fall Period’, where interest wanes amidst a plethora of middle-of-the-road golfers competing for little more than small change. Or so I hear.
What Justin has done to the tour is brought a recognisable and agreeable face to a sport that many who follow his career will have little interest in, thus generating outside interest, while also boosting the popularity of the game in these quieter times of the year within the sport.
The latter is usually achieved by Woods whenever he shows his face, due to his enormous pulling-power and world-wide coverage. And bringing in publicity and generating interest in the tour can only be a good thing for all concerned. In light of that, you can’t really argue with Timberlake’s contribution to the sport in the last week.
When he was given the event last year he became the 14th celebrity to have a PGA tour bestowed upon them, following in the footsteps of such illustrious names as Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Sammy Davis, Jr.
He proved to be a massive attraction and was perhaps the most noticeable figure there, over-shadowing competitors such as Marc Turnesa, Michael Allen, Ken Duke, Chris Stroud, Matt Kuchar, Brad Adamonis and John Mallinger. Golfer that people like me will never have heard of.
A concert hosted at Planet Hollywood on Friday night by the man himself also pulled in the crowds, raising $1million for charity and boasted such acts as 50 Cent, Lionel Richie, Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Boyz II Men and the Jonas Brothers.
And of course, it was all in the name of charity, too, with the event fully titled ‘the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open’ .
Timberlake has been known to draw in the crowds and excel himself at golfing events before (he shot a 98 at Torrey Pines ahead of the U.S. Open in June in an exhibition round), but rarely has somebody from outside the sport generated so much interest in an event taking place at such a quiet time of the year.
This success could now open the floodgates for other high-profile celebrities to be offered a tour of their own, but if they do as well as Timberlake, then who’s complaining?
The full leader board can be found here:
http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboards/current/r047/

An introduction

Now, how’s your knowledge of the mating patterns of Amazonian spit-fire frogs? Probably better than my knowledge of golf.
I’m doing this blog as a University project, and instead of doing one about other sports I know a little more about, I thought ‘In for a penny, in for a pound’, and chose golf.
I’m doing it because I could really get into golf. All my housemates enjoy watching and playing it and I recently watched the Ryder Cup and really got into it. I did try a quick 9 holes on the back of it, but it signalled my retirement from the game after ending up about 204 over par.
To make up for that, I’m going to try and make a fist of this, posting my ill-informed opinions while trying to have a bit of fun with it and keeping myself entertained.
I’m going to mix it up a little, with news of whatever local golf is going on at the moment, well done to Clitheroe golf club getting the Open qualifying for 2010 (oh yes), and probably throw a few Wii-golf records up when I dust off my copy of Wii Sports. Might even have a look at the professionals, and Ronan Keating.
For those of you interested in Wii golf, my record is a 10 under! Go through the trees on the treacherous 7th ;)
So yeah, this is the start. I’ll be (probably) updating this page quite regularly, and I’m going to offer a guarantee on my first Golf post being ground-breaking, so check back.