Bring golf back to the UK

How many professional golf tournaments are held in Great Britain annually? Let me ask another question, how many of those are held in England? The honest answer is not enough. In 2012 only two professional events will be held on English shores, one being the 141st Open Championship at Lytham St Annes, the other being the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. In essence one European Tour event is being held in England this year, the same as 2011 and 2010. Compare that to 2002 where there were five events, among them an English Open and International Open.

Where have those tournaments gone and why? Firstly, the name 'European Tour' holds little geographical significance as this year 20 out of 43 tournaments (including WGC events, excluding majors) are held outside of Europe. Golf really is a global game now and it's brilliant to see the big names playing in Australia one week and Spain the next. But Britain is the ancient heartland of the game and it seems the only time this is celebrated is at the Open. In the wind and rain of a British course are characters revealed and it's a shame this test is only seen at the Open and at the BMW Championship. Thank god there are still competitions in Scotland, Ireland and Wales because the game looks to be increasingly moving away from our shores to more lucrative areas.

As always it's all about the money. Sponsorship is the key to making a golf tournament the European Tour want to endorse and it's the reason why competitions haven't materialized in England for so many years. The English Open was first cancelled in 2003, rescheduled for 2009 but has been cancelled every year until sponsorship is agreed. It is a sad state of affairs when England can't agree big enough sponsorship deals. It's an Olympic year and golf is set to be included in the Olympics in 2016, surely it's a no brainer for  Of all the tournaments in the European Tour the ones that can pose the most unique conditions are the ones scrapped. Moreover the tournaments that have replaced them are non-events to many pros schedules.

This will seem like a digression but I go with it for good reason. The Masters is a brilliant competition, one of the best majors, if not the best. However I would argue the Masters has done an unbelievable marketing job on the world of golf. It only started in 1934 and is now regarded as the most historic and sentimental golf tournaments in the world. The home of golf is St Andrews and the Open is its traditional prize yet in many players' eyes the Masters jacket is the most sought-after possession in golf. This is what money and a brilliant marketing team will bring you in the long term. These are the kind of methods British and English golf should use more of and if they did we would have more pro tournaments and sponsorship to show off.

The top 3 players in the world are from Great Britain, two of them from England, from that we are more than deserving of professional golf events and the European Tour should open their eyes to this.

Mohammad Amir scandal

I recently watched the Mohammad Amir interview with Sky Sports' Michael Atherton about the spot fixing scandal and got a much better feeling of what went on back in 2010 when Pakistan toured England. I don't know about anyone else but the details were so sketchy when the story first broke and also afterwards and to hear what 19 year old Amir knew and felt about it was refreshing.

Obviously it was a mistake on his part; he'd been taken in by the web of corruption that stretched across Pakistani cricket and beyond. He co-operated with shadowy characters outside of cricket and sadly paid the price with prison time. What struck me was how close his relationship had been with the Pakistani captain Salman Butt. Amir told Atherton that he was like an older brother to him when he first started playing for Pakistan. It turned out Butt was the main person that encouraged Amir to get involved with the spot fixing, clearly betraying Amir's trust and disgracing his team and country.

Amir makes it clear he was pretty much tricked into co-operating with the spot fixers and didn't know about the money involved at all until the News of the World broke the story during the test match. From the Sky Sports interview you can really see how young Amir was at the time and still is. Just 18 years old when playing that test match, he had no idea what was going on, getting dragged into a shady underworld by his own captain, friend and confidant. You can tell from the way he speaks to Atherton that at the time he was just a boy enjoying his time in the limelight for taking a 5 wicket haul at Lords and prior to that being the youngest ever bowler to take 50 test match wickets. But this was when he was most vulnerable and I imagine Butt and the fixers knew this.

I have no doubt that Amir was being totally honest with Atherton in the interview. He was emotional but frank in his recounting of the events and it was reassuring to hear that Amir was proud to be playing for his country and was appreciative of what he had. However he also makes clear how vulnerable young players are starting out in professional sport and particularly in Pakistan which seems to be never too far from trouble. But from his own unique point of view he has the ability to warn other young stars about the pitfalls of corruption. I genuinely feel sorry for Amir and what he has been through but I hope he can come back strong after his 5 year ban because there is no doubt he has the talent, it's just whether he can handle the hysteria when that time comes.

Kony 2012

Not much to do with sport but plenty to do with using the internet to link ideas and raise awareness of a global cause...

SideSpin on Tumblr

SideSpin has just joined Tumblr so there's another place you can access our content. It'll mainly be for photos and videos because Tumblr is better for that stuff!

Here's the link:

http://sidespinsport.tumblr.com/