One-time Colin Montgomerie caddie dies at 71

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
The sports of golf and horse racing have lost a highly popular figure in former caddie, Barry Court, who was known affectionately in both spheres as ‘The Judge.’
Barry, who was 71, died at a hospice in Rochester, Kent after suffering from Parkinson’s Disease for the past three years. He was recognised as a shrewd judge of horse flesh and golfing talent – hence the nickname – and enjoyed a successful career tramping the fairways of the world.
He worked for a number of leading professionals including Jim Payne, with whom he won two European Tour titles, Colin Montgomerie, Justin Rose and Jamie Spence.
Spence, Player Relations Director and two-time winner on The European Tour, was a close friend of Barry and commented:
“We both came from Kent and had been friends for many years. Barry was an extremely polite and popular figure among the players and caddies on Tour.
"Everyone enjoyed stopping for a chat with him about golf and horse racing and he was a very knowledgeable character. I dragged him out of retirement to caddie for me a few years ago in Dubai and tried to persuade to come back full-time but he could not resist the lure of the racetracks. He will be sadly missed by everyone in both sports.”

Colin Edwards reappointed captain of England team

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE ENGLISH GOLF UNION
Colin Edwards, who led England to a string of successes last year, has been re-appointed national captain for the coming season.
The 46-year-old from Bath was handed the captaincy in December 2008 on a one-year basis, but that has been extended and he will now guide England fortunes until the end of 2010.
“It’s a huge honour to be asked again,” said Edwards. “We had a successful year last year and I really enjoyed it. You can be successful and it not be enjoyable but that wasn’t the case. I also enjoyed working with the coaches and the officials.
“This year could also be exciting. We haven’t lost as many players to the pro ranks as I expected so we’ve still got the nucleus of last year’s team while there is a lot of young talent knocking on the door. So we should have a strong team again, especially for the European championships.” Last season, Edwards, a former international, led England to victory against Spain at La Reserva in March and to the Home Internationals title at Hillside in September. It would have been a clean sweep but his side finished runners-up to Scotland in the European men’s team championship at Conwy in July.
His re-appointment means he will be at the helm again when England face France at Chantilly in May, into the European championships in Sweden in July and the defence of the Home Internationals title at Ashburnham, Wales in August.
Edwards played 86 matches for England between 1991 and 2003, winning 47. He also represented Europe in the Bonallack Trophy and was a Walker Cup reserve in 1999. He also won several major titles including the 1995 Brabazon Trophy at Hillside, finishing tied with Mark Foster, the West of England Stroke Play and the Berkshire Trophy. He also reached the British amateur championship semi-finals in 1997 and the quarter finals two years later.
In his native Somerset he has won the county title 12 times, while his record for the county stretches back 30 years. He made his debut in 1979 at the age of 16 and has clocked up around 150 appearances. Colin, who works as a manager for an IT company in Bristol, is married to Julia and they have two sons, Matthew (12) and Tim (10).

N E ALLIANCE GOLF AT CRAIBSTONE CANCELLED Wednesday's restart of the North-east Golfers' Alliance season will be delayed with the cancellation of this week's competition at Craibstone Golf Centre. Secretary Ron Menzies is hopeful that the January 13 fixture at Peterhead Golf Club, which is much closer to the North Sea and consequently less vulnerable to snow and frost, will be the first of the year. The tee times reserved for the Craibstone meeting will be carried over to Peterhead.

Russell Knox and Jimmy Gunn back in

American satellite action this week

The two Scots playing on the leading American satellite tours, Jimmy Gunn from Dornoch and Russell Knox from Inverness, will both return to action this week after the Festive break.
Gunn, pictured right, is in the field for the Gateway Tour Desert Winter 1 tournament over the Persimmon course at Anthem Golf & Country Club, Arizona from Tuesday to Thursday.
The Persimmon course, designed by Greg Nash, is 7,200yd long off the back tees and has a signature double green - a la St Andrews' Old Course - of some 18,000 square feet which serves the ninth and 18th holes.
The other Anthem G&CC course, also designed by Nash, is the Ironwood of roughly the same length off the back tees.
Knox is playing in the NGA Hooters Tour Winter Series event at Shingle Creek Golf Club near Orlando, Florida. It also starts Tuesday and ends Thursday.

Tiger Woods' caddie a better driver than his boss!

FROM THE STUFF.CO.NZ WEBSITE
If Tiger Woods also had Steve Williams drive for him, things might have been looking a lot brighter for the world's No 1 golfer.
Woods' caddie captured the New Zealand Saloon Car title at Mt Maunganui's Baypark Speedway on Saturday night – and wants to continue his hot streak when he competes at the Huntly Speedway this weekend.
Williams, who won the North Island Saloon Champs title just days before in Rotorua, beat out a field of 60 competitors.
He started on the sixth row of the grid but shot to the lead on the second lap and wasn't headed to repeat the title he captured at the same track in 2006.
Now he has his sights on three victories in succession when he races in the New Zealand Super Saloon champs at Huntly starting on Friday night.
Williams, like his boss on the golf course, said he was always aiming to win.
"I always have high expectations," Williams said yesterday.
"You have to set your goals high. Sometimes they don't always work out that way but you have to always aim high."
Williams faces an indefinite spell away from golf after Woods announced late last year he would be taking a break from the sport following revelations about marriage infidelities that emerged after Woods was involved in an early-morning car crash outside his Florida home.
The game's most high-profile caddie wouldn't be drawn on whether he'd had any news from Woods as to when he'd be called back to work.
"I'm on holiday, mate," Williams grinned.
*Tiger Woods' wife Elin has told friends that she has agreed to a NZ$414 million (£185 million) divorce settlement, according to the "News of the World." The English Sunday newspaper said the 30-year-old former model told friends she received 'US$300 million as a Christmas present' from the world's No 1 golfer.
According to the Swedish paper "Express," Elin Woods, her twin sister, Josefin and five friends were in Chamonix in south-east France on a skiing holiday on New Year's Eve. Tiger Woods has been in seclusion for the past few weeks, but recent reports have him spotted at the Trump International Hotel in New York City, guarded by private security.

Jack Nicklaus can see the day when China

will dominate World of Golf

FROM THE PGA.COM WEBSITE

Jack Nicklaus has singled out Ireland's Padraig Harrington as Tiger Woods' closest current rival, but believes the game will be dominated by China in the future.
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Links to more golf stories:
Nicklaus joins Palmer as honorary Masters starter, shouldn't stop now
Woods never seeks golf advice from Nicklaus, who says that's okay
Nicklaus cheered by Watson's amazing week at Open last summer
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Woods remains peerless among his contemporaries with 14 major victories -- 11 more than Harrington, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh and only four short of Nicklaus' all-time record. However, since a knee injury forced him to miss the 2008 British Open and PGA Championship, Woods has not won any of golf's premier events.
Harrington took advantage to win the two tournaments in which Woods was absent, and with Mickelson playing a reduced schedule due to his wife's battle with cancer, Nicklaus believes the Irishman has proved himself a worthy challenger.
"Tiger is the only one who has been in the middle of it almost every time you turn around," said Nicklaus. "Harrington seems to do a pretty good job of it, certainly in the last couple of years.
"In the heat of the battle he has done very well," he added. "Vijay Singh did for a while but Tiger seems to have it pretty much by himself."
However, Nicklaus expects to see one nation, rather than one man, dominate the sport in years to come -- especially as golf has been added to the Olympics for 2016 and 2020.
"With the numbers in China and the way they approach their sport, I would not be surprised to see five of the world's top 10 in the next 20 years be Chinese," he added.
"They plan to build 1,400 public courses in the next five years if it becomes an Olympic sport, so they will obviously go after it and learn," he explained. "For me, that is fantastic because it grows the game on a worldwide basis.
"I don't think the Olympics will affect America and Britain as much as it will the rest of the world," he said. "The Olympic movement will be the most influential thing for the game. It will explode in the Asian countries.
"From their standpoint it will help produce some really good players. There will still be good US players and good British players but there will be more good players from around the world who will compete," he said.

"Golf is an international game. I couldn't care less whether it comes from America, Britain, Africa, Asia -- it doesn't make any difference."
Woods' loss to Korea's Y.E. Yang at the 2009 PGA Championship was the first time in his professional career he had lost a major having led heading into the final day, but Nicklaus still expects Woods to surpass his 18-major record.
"I would assume he will. I think everyone assumes he will," added Nicklaus. "My guess is he will break it and will probably break it fairly easily -- but he has yet to do it.
"When he does it that is fine, but don't put the cart before the horse," he explained. "What happened at the PGA was very unusual. Tiger has always played good solid golf down the stretch and then usually makes a birdie and all of a sudden everyone falls away.
"On this occasion he played solid golf down the stretch, but when Yang proceeded to play well, Tiger lost his patience," he said. "He made the kind of mistakes everyone else has been making, so it will be interesting when he comes back."

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