by David Park, former Tour Professional and now The European Tour’s Charity Executive.
By far and away the Open Championship is the truly “Open Golf Championship of the World”. Professionals and Amateurs from around the world spend their time and money endeavoring to secure a place in the field. Whether the players are exempt from their successful play on the Golf Tours around the globe or they enter and play in the various qualifying events internationally or in the Turnberry vicinity, every golfer with a sense of the history of the game wants desperately to play in the oldest Major Championship in Golf.
Who can blame them, in my playing career I had the privilege of playing in two Opens. Both were wonderful experiences, the game of Golf started on the links courses of Scotland and there is nothing quite like Open Championship links golf. The atmosphere is electric, thousands of golf fans crowding the fairways and the greens to see golf’s modern day greats battling the elements, the course and themselves to claim the famous Claret Jug. It doesn’t get better than that.
Every player this week will be visualizing, some with an air of hope, that these famous words will be uttered before his name come Sunday afternoon “Champion Golfer and winner of the Gold Medal……”
Tuesday 14 July 2009
Wednesday 8 July 2009
Russell Fuller of BBC 5 Live on Wimbledon 2009
Thank goodness for a few drops of summer rain on the second Monday afternoon, or we would never have seen Wimbledon's stunning new roof .. nor for that matter witnessed the standing ovation which greeted the moment the two halves of the roof collided. It will become an integral part of Wimbledon - and who knows, maybe one day we'll see scheduled night matches under the lights.
It was great to watch the expectation - rather than the hope - that Andy Murray would progress deep into the tournament. Andy Roddick was just too good in the semi-final, and nearly too good for Roger Federer in the final. That was an amazing final set: they were both serving so well that it came as a real surprise when Federer finally broke through.
As for the BBC Radio Five Live commentary team, we always start the day in one of the bunkers in the broadcast centre .. leafing through match notes and eating the odd sausage roll, before rolling into the commentary box. We are provided with more statistics than it's healthy to remember, but have a fantastic courtside view on both centre and number one court, and the company of some terrific expert summarisers, including a couple of former Wimbledon champions. Looking forward to next year's sausage rolls already.
It was great to watch the expectation - rather than the hope - that Andy Murray would progress deep into the tournament. Andy Roddick was just too good in the semi-final, and nearly too good for Roger Federer in the final. That was an amazing final set: they were both serving so well that it came as a real surprise when Federer finally broke through.
As for the BBC Radio Five Live commentary team, we always start the day in one of the bunkers in the broadcast centre .. leafing through match notes and eating the odd sausage roll, before rolling into the commentary box. We are provided with more statistics than it's healthy to remember, but have a fantastic courtside view on both centre and number one court, and the company of some terrific expert summarisers, including a couple of former Wimbledon champions. Looking forward to next year's sausage rolls already.
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