GORDON BRAND JUNIOR LOOKS FOR MORE SENIOR SUCCESS

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
As coach to some of the brightest young players, Gordon Brand junior always has one eye on the future but the former Ryder Cup player is also carefully plotting his own success on the European Senior Tour.
The Scot, picture left copyright of Getty Images,  enjoyed a superbly consistent 2010 campaign, capturing his maiden Senior Tour in the Matrix Jersey Classic and recording five other top five finishes to end the season fourth on the Order of Merit.
Brand also coaches the England Under-16 team, as well as the Gloucester and Somerset county boys, and while he feels the golfing future is in safe hands with the emerging generation, he is also eager to build on his own performances on the course.
His decision not to travel long haul anymore excluded the 52-year-old from opening trio of events on the 2011 Senior Tour schedule – in Australia, Japan and Mauritius – but Brand remains hopeful of competing at the top end of the Order of Merit this season.
“The target is to win again but I’m almost biting the hand that feeds me with the tournaments I miss,” he said.
“It is a big ask to finish any higher than I did in 2010, even one place. I’m playing a third less events than everyone else. I have to put the Order of Merit out of my head unless I come out and really dominate it. I want to enjoy my golf and try to get up there and see how good or bad I am. I’ve set my stall out with my schedule and I’m quite happy with it.
“Last year was a good season and I enjoyed it. It was nice to have the win. I had a couple of other good chances but over the year I’ve played fairly solid and had a lot of top tens.
“I played some of my best golf – certainly for the year – in Jersey to win. I really had the putter going. Anytime you win is special, especially as a professional golfer.
“It wouldn’t have been such a good year without the win – that was the icing on the cake. There was an anticipation that I should win (on the Senior Tour) so it was nice to do it. It was only my second tournament of the year so that was a lovely way to set up the rest of the year.”
An eight time champion on The European Tour and part of the European Ryder Cup Team in 1987 and 1989, Brand junior is one of a select group of players to make more than 500 European Tour appearances.
He joined the Senior Tour in 2008 and lost an epic six hole play-off to his namesake Gordon J Brand from Yorkshire on his debut in The De Vere Collection PGA Seniors Championship.
In addition to his playing accomplishments, Brand junior has also forged a burgeoning career in the media, as an on-course commentator, as well as continuing to nurture new talent near his home in Bristol.
“Commentating is a nice way of being involved in golf, like my teaching, without hitting a ball,” he said. “I also get the opportunity to watch some of the best in the world and pick up the odd tip here or there.
“The teaching is also going well. I enjoy passing on the information. We’ve got one young guy coming through called Chris Lloyd who looks very good. He’s not quite Matteo Manassero’s standards, as Manassero has obviously won on the main Tour, but Chris is 18 and certainly in the next few years he is a name to look out for.
"But if you watch any of the England boys and even some of the county boys, they’ve all got a real talent. It’s really for them what they do with that.
“That’s where the fall-down comes. They almost feel it is their right to wake up and shoot 65 every day. It’s the effort that has to go into that. We try to get them to understand how much work is involved. You have to treat like a job, even though it is your hobby that has turned into a job.”

DALLAS AMATEUR'S RECORD 600 ROUNDS IN ONE YEAR

FROM THE PGATOUR.COM WEBSITE
By Art Stricklin
IRVING, Texas -- Dallas amateur golfer Richard Lewis walked, literally, into golf history Sunday afternoon with his 600th round of golf of 2010, surrounded by family and friends at the TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas, home of the HP Byron Nelson Championship.
At 11 a.m. Sunday, he smashed the Guinness World Record for number of rounds in a single season for an amateur and also set one that never even existed by walking every single round, all at the TPC Four Seasons twosome of courses.
Four Seasons members paid up to $5,000 to play with Lewis, 64, on his milestone round in sunny and chilly conditions, with all money raised going to the First Tee of Dallas programme.
They raised a total of $8,800 for his milestone round and presented a cheque on the first tee at the Four Seasons before his round began.
"Did you ever think I would get to 600 rounds?" Lewis smiled as he celebrated his golfing accomplishment before a few dozen people late Sunday.
"I thought 400 was tough and 500 was a stretch, but 600 was what I had in mind all the time," he said. "It's a huge relief and sense of accomplishment."
In fact, Lewis felt he was slacking off on Sunday only doing 18 holes. He played 36 on Christmas Eve in cold rain and 36 more on Christmas Day.
"I can't remember the last time I did only 18 in a day," he said after carding an 86 in cold condition.
Lewis said he has already received the official documentation from the Guinness World Record Book officials in Europe to turn in his information and be listed in the 2011 record book.
When he plays his final 2010 round on Friday, he expects to have completed 611 loops in one unforgettable golf year.
He will shatter the previous record, 586, for documented rounds in a single year, set in Ohio in 1998. He also hopes to set new records for 11,000 holes in a single year, 611 rounds all walking at the same club and for playing the last 285 days of 2010.Lewis retired as president of an insurance company in April 2009. During his work career he played 2-3 times a week. Upon retirement, he began to consider what he would do with all his free time.
A member of the TPC Four Seasons Resort since 1987, Lewis learned there was a record for most rounds of golf played in a year, but no record for walking every round and no record for playing every round at the same place.
He drove from his house in DeSoto, Texas, just south of Dallas every day, arriving before 8 a.m. He would play 36 or 54 holes a day, spend a brief time in the Four Seasons sauna/spa to recover before eating a high-protein dinner and going to bed, only to repeat the routine the following day. He lost 35 pounds and four trouser waist sizes in his record quest.
His longtime girlfriend, Debbie Shaw, played some rounds with him at the beginning of the year, but rode in a cart to watch more and was on hand Sunday for photos.
"One thing, he's certainly found out what persistence is," she said.

ALLYN DICK'S STORY: THE EARLY YEARS

Image of Allyn Dick in action for Scotland at this year's Home Internationals by courtesy of Tom Ward Photography.
By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
This week on Scottishgolfview.com we are highlighting the golfing career of Allyn Dick, who is something of a rarity among leading amateur golfers ... he gained his first Scotland cap at the age of 31 earlier this year - and he works for a living!
If you have any questions to ask Allyn about his golf, past, present or future, or his views on any golf topic, E-mail them to me and I will pass them on to him.

ALLYN PIPPED STEVEN O'HARA FOR

LANARKSHIRE BOYS' TITLE IN 1995

By ALLYN DICK
I took up the game when i was seven or eight years old, playing golf in the local park, bashing a ball from end to end. It wasn't until I was 10 that i became a junior member at Shotts Golf Club.
I was lucky that the junior convenor at the time, Jim Boyd, took a real interest. Every summer holidays we would be shipped by bus to any boys' open competition that was within travelling distance!
It's only now when you look back at the things he said and did, you realise why - a perfect grounding for the future.
I was the Lanarkshire boys' stroke-play champion in 1995 at Colville Park, beating none other than Steven O'Hara by one or two shots. Also that year I was the Lanarkshire schoolboy champion, and Steven O'Hara, Steven Rennie and myself went to Lossiemouth for the Scottish schools championships.
It was there that Steven O'hara and Graeme Gordon made the Scotland boys team and went on to have fantastic amateur careers.
If i'm being brutally honest, i never kicked from being a boy golfer. I was overlooked for the Lanarkshire team of four in 1995 for the Scottish area team championship at boys' level, much to my annoyance. The team was picked before hand!
I sort of drifted away from golf after I left school. Stirling University was just starting out on the golf scholarships and that really interested me, but the draw of the money I was earning ruled my head.
I always played golf until 2001, but nothing serious. The Shotts club championship was always 'my major.'
Then I was made redundant from Motorola and got a job at Dalmahoy in August 2001. For seven months i practised every day. From then on, every weekend I was playing golf: an 18-hole open here, a 36-hole open there and the funny things is, my first 36-hole win came at Bathgate in the Livingston Trophy playing with Craig Elliott, who would be a future (winning) team-mate at Carrickvale Golf Club.
From there I got the bug and the desire to compete with better players, play bigger events, make myself a better golfer and win 'my major.'
It took me until 2004 to do so and the following week was runner up in the 2004 Scottish open mid-amateur championship at Hamilton Golf Club. Roger Roper, who beat me in the final, wrote me a letter afterwards and told me to keep my chin up and work hard. He said the rewards would come - and he was right!
Golf is my hobby. I love the buzz of a team match for Kingsknowe, Shotts and Carrickvale ...  even playing a Wednesday medal ... trying to get .1 off your handicap ... playing an 18-hole open trying to win the first scratch voucher to keep my wife happy.
I always bang on about competing with the full-time amateurs. That's just the way the game has changed and developed over the years, but all you need to do it is take Glenn Campbell as an example.
For years Glenn has had a job as he competed at the highest level, had children along the way and managed to maintain a high standard of golf.
As much as I would like to play full time, vouchers don't pay for the mortgage and nappies, so I'll continue to love the game for what it is, my hobby.
My target for 2011 is to make the Home Internationals team again, an experience I thought would pass me by, but one I'll never forget. I am happy to admit, that all of my golfing ambitions have been met and I don't know if there are many other golfers who can say that.

REMEMBER IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS YOU WANT ALLYN

DICK TO ANSWER, E-MAIL THEM TO Colin@scottishgolfview.com

+MORE OF THE ALLYN DICK STORY TOMORROW ON

 www.scottishgolfview.com

NOH STOPPING YOUNG SOUTH KOREAN IN 2011

FROM THE AOL GOLF NEWS SERVICE

By BEN HUNT

Of all the young golfers touted as one to watch in 2011, Noh Seung-Yul is among the most exciting and intriguing prospects.

The South Korean was largely unknown at the start of 2010 when he teed off in the Dubai Desert Classic. After all, in the previous year he was down in 176th place in the Race to Dubai rankings.

Yet over on the Asian Tour, he was carving out a reputation as a player with some potential. In his first full season as a professional

he finished in the top ten on the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit and followed

up with another solid performance in 2009.

Yet it was in 2010 where he would announce his arrival by winning the

Malaysian Open. The £216,000 first prize went some way to helping him win the Asian Tour Order of Merit. However, what was more impressive was that he achieved victory over his idol KJ Choi.

The victory also made him the youngest professional in history to win an Asian Tour event at 18 years and 281 days.

So what will 2011 hold for Noh? Well, victories in Europe and and invaluable experience of a Major are certainly on the horizon.

On receiving his Asian Tour Order of Merit title, he said: “In five years time, I

want to start contending in the majors. I am not in a hurry, but I would like to become the second Asian to win a major.

“The Order of Merit victory will get me

into the British Open next year and if I stay

in the top 100 in the world, I will also qualify

for the PGA Championship and I will try

to qualify for the US Open as well.

“Playing on the Asian Tour helped me a

lot as we play in different countries and different

courses. I had to adapt to the

changes in grass, food and travelling which

I think is important for a golfer.

“Next year, I want to focus on trying to

win in Europe. I would also like to play on

the US Tour as I think all the top players

want to play there.”

If he continues at his current rate of progresses

then there is no doubt Noh will

soon be realising his dream - and it could

all start to happen in 2011.