LAUNCH OF MOROCCAN INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPS

The comparatively new Ocean Course at Agadir, Morocco. Venue for a European Tour event and a Ladies European Tour event during the same week next April and also now to stage the inaugural Moroccan International men's and women's open amateur championships next October.

YOUR CHANCE TO JOIN THE STARS ON THE ROAD TO MOROCCO

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

News today of a bumper bundle of amateur golf tournaments at an exotic location, with a programme designed to cater for low-handicap men and women, low-handicap senior men and senior women, and also anyone whose handicap does not make him or her eligible to play in these championships.

Three excellent courses at Agadir on Moroccan's western Atlantic coastline will be utilised for the inaugural Moroccan international open amateur championships during the week beginning Monday, October 17, 2001.

Just when top amateurs over the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Continent were  thinking of packing away their clubs for the winter, they are being given a chance to play in two events that will be recognised as counting for the male and female World Amateur Golf Rankings.

There is a big difference between these events and other amateur championships in Europe.

Mohamed Fakir of London-based Menara Travel will be organising flights, hotel accommodation and meals as well in packages that will include the tournament entry fees.
So how do you enter any of these tournaments?
E-mail Mohamed Fakir of Menara Travel at info@morocco4golf.com and register your interest in going to Agadir. Let him know what departure airport would suit you best and he will take over your case from there.

It is hoped to attract the best male and female amateur golfers, under and over 50 years - to these championships from not only the United Kingdom and Ireland but also the Continent of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, etc.
We shall be approaching the four home unions and the Federations across Europe to ask them to send representatives to what we are confident will soon become an end-of-the-season competitive amateur golf highlight.
And we are not forgetting amateur golfers whose handicaps are not low enough to play in the aforementioned championships.
We will be putting on the Agadir open amateur championships at The Dunes golf course for them during the same week in October.

MOROCCAN INTERNATIONAL OPEN AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPS

AT AGADIR, OCTOBER 18-21, 2011

MEN’S 72-HOLE STROKE-PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

Tuesday-Friday, October 18-21.

RandA World Amateur Golf Rankings event.

The Ocean Golf Club.

Handicap limit: 9.
No halfway cut.
Prize vouchers for four-round gross totals
1st – 500 Euros (+ championship trophy).
2nd – 400 Euros
3rd – 300 Euros
4th – 200 Euros
5th – 100 Euros
6th -- 75 Euros

Link to Menara Travel website for more information:
http://www.morocco4golf.com/Morocco_International_Amateur_Men_Open.html

WOMEN’S 72-HOLE STROKE-PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
Tuesday-Friday, October 18-21.
Women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings event.
The Ocean Golf Club
Handicap limit: 11.
No halfway cut.
Prize vouchers for four-round gross totals
1st – 500 Euros (+ championship trophy).
2nd – 400 Euros.
3rd – 300 Euros.
4th – 200 Euros.
5th – 100 Euros
6th – 75 Euros.


Link to Menara Travel website for more information:
http://www.morocco4golf.com/Morocco_International_Amateur_Women_Open.html

SENIOR MEN’S 54-HOLE STROKE-PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
Wednesday to Friday, October 19-21.
Golf du Soleil Golf Club.
Age eligibility: 55 years and over on first day of championship.
Handicap Limit: 15
No two-round cut.
Prize vouchers for three-round gross totals.
1st – 500 Euros (+ championship trophy)
2nd – 400 Euros
3rd – 300 Euros
4th – 200 Euros
5th – 100 Euros
6th – 75 Euros


SENIOR WOMEN’S 54-HOLE STROKE-PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
Wednesday to Friday, October 19-21
Golf du Soleil Golf Club.
Age eligibility: 50 years and over on first day of championship.
Handicap limit: 18.
No two-round cut.
Prize vouchers for three-round gross totals
1st – 500 Euros (+ championship trophy).
2nd – 400 Euros.
3rd – 300 Euros.
4th – 200 Euros.
5th – 100 Euros.
6th – 75 Euros.

+More information will be available about the senior championships within the next day or two.

AGADIR OPEN AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Wednesday to Friday, October 19-21
The Dunes Golf Club.

MEN’S 54-HOLE STABLEFORD TOURNAMENT
Handicap limit: 28.
No two-round cut
Prize-vouchers for three-round points totals
1st – 250 Euros
2nd – 200 Euros
3rd – 150 Euros
4th – 100 Euros
5th – 50 Euros
6th – 40 Euros


WOMEN’S 54-HOLE STABLEFORD TOURNAMENT
Handicap limit: 36
No two-round cut
Prize vouchers for three-round points totals
1st – 250 Euros.
2nd – 200 Euros.
3rd – 150 Euros.
4th – 100 Euros.
5th – 50 Euros.
6th – 40 Euros

SENIOR MEN’S 54-HOLE STABLEFORD TOURNAMENT
Age eligibility: 55 years and over on first day of tournament.
Handicap limit: 28
No two-round cut.
Prize vouchers for three-round points totals.
1st – 250 Euros.
2nd – 200 Euros.
3rd – 150 Euros.
4th – 100 Euros.
5th – 50 Euros.
6th – 40 Euros.


SENIOR WOMEN’S 54-HOLE STABLEFORD TOURNAMENT
Age eligibility: 50 years and over on first day of tournament.
1st – 250 Euros.
2nd – 200 Euros.
3rd – 150 Euros.
4th – 100 Euros.
5th – 50 Euros.
6th – 40 Euros.

+The Tournament Director reserves the right to reduce the prize list for any event which attracts fewer than 60 competitors.

ARNOLD PALMER, STILL MOST ACCESSIBLE, POPULAR PRO IN GOLF

FROM THE CBS SPORTS.COM WEBSITE

By Steve Elling

CBSSports.com Senior Writer
ORLANDO, Florida: Unbeknown to most, Arnold Palmer has never been comfortable with the moniker he picked up many decades ago, when he was fixed squarely on the velvety golfing throne, and his peers and fans were essentially minions by the millions.
A half-century later, the King thing, he says, still makes him flinch.
"There's no one king," Palmer said.
True enough, and there were a couple of kings from the same broad cultural era, guys who were every bit as impactful as it relates to their chosen fields: Elvis Presley and Richard Petty were rocking and rolling royalty, literally. Palmer, of course, was every bit the voice and driving force in his vocation.
"It's nice to be thought of as someone who helped the game," Palmer said.
Helped it? He reinvented it.
With the holiday season at hand and little live golf to televise, the Golf Channel rolled up Palmer's garage door as part of a dozen-segment instructional series airing this month called "12 Nights at the Academy." Palmer imparted his swing-coaching magic in a 30-minute swatch, as did Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Sean Foley, Hank Haney and several other luminaries.
Palmer, 81, truly was in his own element -- tinkering in the wide-open garage workshop of his lakeside Bay Hill condo as cameras rolled and he imparted wisdom gleaned over parts of nine decades in the game.
Talk about an open-door policy. When the Golf Channel asked if a handful of scribes wanted to watch the taping, to enjoy an audience with the King, there were only two possible answers: "Absolutely" and "Well, duh."
The session was edited down for its half-hour slot, minus commercials, which means perhaps 22 minutes of Palmer pearls saw the light of day. Pity, because just standing and watching the guy puttering in his workshop was a priceless experience in itself, regardless of whatever advice he offered.
From a purely comparative standpoint, Palmer's garage workshop in Orlando is a broom closet relative to the massive, museum-sized warehouse he keeps at his summer home in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where thousands of old clubs are stored.
"Not even close," he said.
As Palmer taped the session, everybody eyeballed the smaller treasure trove on his walls and workbench, where he still re-grips his own clubs. He used to get guff from other players about how often he re-gripped his clubs, and says he once won the Houston Open with three different sets of grips on the same sticks, because he had to have them just so.
"Most of the pros on tour have never done this," he said, adding double-sided tape and a fresh grip to one of his clubs.
As is occasionally the case with TV, what happens off the air is as illuminating and entertaining as what made the final cut. With Palmer, comfortably shooting the breeze with segment host Kelly Tilghman, you just never know when he might duck in a gem.
He talked about his mom's recipe for squirrel stew. He offered his favourite self-deprecating one-liner: "My game's so bad, I can hear it land."
He noted how much the game has fulfilled him. And how much he left on the table.
Palmer and a few of his running mates were the money and motive forces behind the formation of the Golf Channel, which launched in early 1995. Palmer had a hefty stock option at the time.
"Do you know how much it would have been worth if I had taken all the stock I could have taken?" he asked off the air.
Everybody shrugged.
"A billion," Palmer said, shaking his head.

That's not a typo. A 24-hour golf network? Hey, who knew?

Not that he needs the cash. For a man in his economic strata -- he remains one of the great product endorsement horses -- he lives like a pauper, not a prince. Given his blue-collar background, something about acorns falling close to the tree comes to mind.

On his workshop wall -- he parks his Cadillac SUV outdoors because there's no room in the garage -- are dozens of sets of size 11 golf spikes and Bay Hill caps. He's not one to ditch something just because it's been used a few times. He might be the king, but his Tower of London is a humble abode and the crown jewels aren't exactly ostentatious.

Leaning on the wall in the corner is an old Schwinn bike, near a dorm-sized refrigerator for the hot summer months. A case of Arnold Palmers, a mix of iced tea and lemonade that he's credited with inventing, is on the floor. It brought to mind a line from Ireland's Paddy Harrington, who was in a Florida restaurant a few years back when he overheard someone order an Arnold Palmer for the first time.

"That's when you know you are famous," Harrington laughed. "When they name a drink after you."

Given the limited time, observers to the taping were drinking in the behind-the-curtain scene in AP's garage. An old Rockwell grinder is bolted to his workbench, so he can whittle away on his irons. Although, basically, this is where he holes up when he doesn’t want sparks to fly.

Some guys gnash teeth. AP grinds clubs. A bowl for his faithful yellow lab, Mulligan, never far from Palmer's side, is on the floor.

"Nobody knows where I am," he smirks, "unless I tell them."

Palmer remains, in some ways, the most accessible, popular pro in the game. A few years ago, before a morning round of what is now called the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a local sports-talk radio station was broadcasting from a tent located about 150 yards from the Bay Hill clubhouse. It was shortly after dawn when Palmer was spotted while taking his morning constitutional with Mulligan, now 9 years old, alongside.

The radio guys waved. Palmer came over, sat down, put on a set of headphones and gabbed through an impromptu segment, live and without a leash.
Small wonder the guy remains as popular as any pro in the game, as evidenced by the Q ratings marketing yardstick released earlier this year, when he ranked atop Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in popularity and likeability. Now a great-grandfather, he's enjoyed that enviable position for much of the past 50 years.
Between taping sessions, Palmer, a notorious needler, ambled out of his garage and cracked jokes about his age.

"The makeup helps," I said, figuring I'd better get in the first salvo.

"Thanks a lot," he laughed.

One of the cool things about growing older is that you don’t fret nearly as much over what people think. For instance, his electric cart is parked nearby and it contains two sets of clubs, including a bag armed with six different Callaway drivers. At this point, Palmer admitted that he isn’t above using all the toys at his disposal to win a few bucks from members in the afternoon shootout across the street at Bay Hill.

Palmer is no Johnny Miller, but at this point in the ballgame he's capable of reeling off some brusque, honest answers. He laughed when asked about the series of coaches that Tiger Woods has used over the years. Palmer essentially had one instructor, his father.

"I just sort of giggle," he said. "I think Tiger has a basically sound swing and he should stick to it. Always changing, it just takes away from something that is really very good."

He bemoans the lack of singular characters on tour. Cookie-cutter swings, bland personalities and clichés rule these days.

"Hogan developed a style, Nelson developed a style," he said.

With that trademark slash at the ball, Palmer also had charisma and panache to match, which is why the man still resonates with multiple generations. It's been a long ride and he witnessed much of the before and after. Top prize at his first victory was $2,000 and only the top 15 players got paid when his tour career began. Now he envisions a unified world tour someday soon, worth gazillions.

The camera crew has finished taping the promos and is beginning to pack up its gear, so the garage is clearing out. The scribes head off to chronicle the PGA Tour's Disney World tournament taking place a few miles away. Palmer's tournament at Bay Hill, always a huge draw for fans, is set for March 24-27.

"I’d like to think I've convinced the world that there's more to this game than hitting a golf ball," he said.

That's a wrap.

For more from Steve Elling, check him out on Twitter: @EllingYelling

MARTIN LAIRD HIT BY DUNHILL LINKS CLASH OF DATES

FROM THE SPORT.SCOTSMAN.COM WEBSITE

http://sport.scotsman.com/golf

By MARTIN DEMPSTER

Martin Laird's hopes of playing in the Dunhill Links Championship for the second year running have been put in doubt by a clash of dates that has left Scotland's highest-ranked golfer with a major dilemma.

Next year the pro-am event at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns is being held the same week as the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open, which Laird won last year in Las Vegas and came close to defending in October, losing in a play-off to Jonathan Byrd.

"I have noticed that the Dunhill Links is the same week as the Las Vegas next year and I was extremely disappointed to see that," the 28-year-old told The Scotsman newspaper.

"I had such a great time playing in the Dunhill Links for the first time this year and was looking forward to hopefully making a return trip next year for the event."

TO READ THE REST OF MARTIN DEMPSTER'S STORY

ON THE SCOTSMAN WEBSITE

 http://sport.scotsman.com/

CLICK HERE
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WORLD TOP 50 RANKING GETS LAIRD INTO

ALL NEXT YEAR'S MAJORS, WGC EVENTS

FROM THE HERALDSCOTLAND.COM WEBSITE
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/golfBy ED HODGE

Martin Laird will play in all the majors next year after holding his place in the top 50 of the world rankings at the end of 2010.
The 27-year-old Glaswegian, who is based in Arizona and mainly plays on the US PGA Tour, has capped an excellent season by retaining 50th spot in the last official rankings for this year. Despite a week still remaining of 2010, the rankings will not be updated until after the first week of January.
The top 50 in the world are guaranteed starts in all four majors and the World Golf Championship events in 2011.
Laird was already looking forward to his Masters debut at Augusta in April and starts in the Open and US Open but can now add the season’s final major, the US PGA at Atlanta Athletic Club in Georgia, to his schedule, as well as several other lucrative tournaments.
Laird, the first Scot to reach the top 50 in the world since Colin Montgomerie in 2007, has enjoyed a terrific season after making his big breakthrough when he won his maiden US PGA title at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas last year.
The former Scottish youth champion, who graduated from Colorado State University in 2004, continued his progress with six top-10s this season, including two play-off defeats.
Laird will now join the former US Masters champion Sandy Lyle as the only Scots to contest the new season’s first major at Augusta starting on April 7.
England’s Lee Westwood finishes the year as world No.1, ahead of Tiger Woods and Martin Kaymer. Stephen Gallacher is the next best-placed Scot in 89th spot.
While Laird will be satisfied with his season’s work, Paul Casey ends the 2010 campaign believing it could have been the most successful of his career had he not lost a bit of his killer instinct in pursuit of technical excellence.
A year which began with the long-hitting Englishman, who, like Laird, mainly plays in the US, cautiously recovering from a lingering rib injury will end with him back to full fitness and comfortably established in the world’s top 10.
His one frustration after producing consistently good golf on both sides of the Atlantic was his failure to win a tournament, in his view a possible result of the ongoing hard work on his swing.
“It was very close to being a fantastic year,” said the world No.8. “Overall I am slightly disappointed and frustrated with no wins. I played some very good golf, gave myself lots of opportunities but didn’t close anything out. So from that angle I’m not happy.”
Casey recorded seven top-10s in 17 starts on the US PGA Tour, including runner-up spots at the high-profile WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and the BMW Championship.
“It’s another season where I felt like I have progressed and I am a better player than I was before, trying to tick all the boxes on things that need work,” the 33-year-old said.
“And I’ve done a good job at that, but is that at the sacrifice of losing that slight killer instinct when you’ve got to close out a tournament? I don’t know.”
As for next season, Casey’s goals mirror those of 2010.
 “It’s still the majors,” he said. “The performances of the three European Tour-based players this year – Louis (Oosthuizen), Graeme (McDowell) and Martin (Kaymer) – their major wins just highlight how wide open it is right now.
“They are all great players but I think there are 20-odd guys in the world now going, ‘I want that first major.’ And these guys have illustrated that it’s right there.”

MORE GOLF FOR YOU TO READ ON THE HERALDSCOTLAND WEBSITE

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/golf