GOLFMADCHICK 
GIRLS ON TOUR – WEST COAST OF IRELAND – BY NUMBERS
20 girls, 3 rounds of golf, two 60th birthday celebrations, 1 bust rib, 1 lost voice, 1 broken wrist … but only ONE Irish Champion, step forward Patti Crone.
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We did it … 44,000 steps, 30km and £10,000 raised for Macmillan. Thank you to all our supporters and very patient caddies.
And now for the weather …
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SEVENTY TWO holes, 20 miles, 15 hours and over 350 golf shots in a single day – competing against clubs nationwide in The Longest Day.
Last year saw over 3,000 teams cross the UK sign up to play 72 holes of golf in just one day, and raise £1.5 million for people affected by cancer.
This year the aim is to smash that total and raise even more money to help Macmillian continue to support people affected by cancer, from diagnosis, through treatment and beyond, ensuring no one faces cancer alone.
Which is why twenty barking/barmy golfers are teeing off at 4.30am on 29th July 2017 at Wimbledon Park Golf Club, and taking on this epic challenge.
There are now an estimated 2.5 million people living with cancer in the UK. This number has grown by an extra 400,000 people in the last five years. It is projected to rise to 4 million people in the year 2030.
Fifteen hours spent trudging around a golf course on repeat enduring blisters and backache is frankly small change compared to what this disease brings.
Life is life. Everybody dies. But not everybody lives.
I hope you’ll support us along the way.
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“Burnt peach,” said one. “Butternut squash,” chimed another. “Definitely Bahamas pink beach,” a voice cried out from the back. “No it’s atomic coral,” insisted someone gulping determinedly from her glass of Leduc.
What the hell is atomic coral I pondered quietly to myself while the debate raged on over the colour of my new golf sweater?
IJP DESIGN
If an item of clothing can generate such unexpected interest among ladies golfers, imagine the enthusiasm levels when a package marked Ian Poulter Autumn Winter Collection was delivered by the postie for my attention.
IJP Design, the high-end golf clothing brand founded by the Ryder Cup star strikes a balance between function, femininity and flair. As one might expect, his wide range of quality garments does not conform to your average pro-shop assortment. It is more exciting high performance clothing without being outlandish.
Before excessive rainfall seemingly closed most golf courses in the UK, I had the opportunity to review his sporty mix and match collection. If the key to modern-golf apparel is layering, Poulter has mastered the art of providing unrestricted freedom of movement during the golf swing. Read More
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Ireland Golf Tour 2015
If only the Solheim Cup ladies had hunkered down together in a dark tavern before this weekend’s tournament in Germany with a bottle or two of classic Riesling and watched the video below.
They well may have avoided the worst act of bad sportsmanship I’ve ever witnessed in 29 years of playing golf.
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There’s an old line about bottled water being twice as expensive as petrol per litre, which is true when purchased in small quantities.
This month it was revealed that milk in the UK is now cheaper to buy than bottled water thanks to a fierce supermarket war.
The price per litre of milk, when bought in a four-pint bottle, has dipped to 43p, compared to 44p for bottled still water.
Keep that number in mind the next time you wander into a golf pro shop in search of mineral water.
Because that’s exactly what I did over several balmy weeks when my Wimbledon golf course was closed and transformed into Britain’s most expensive car park while the country endured the hottest month on record.
As the mercury clocked 36.7C, roads melted, train tracks buckled and weather map turned a rainbow hue of very hot reds and purples … I stepped out to play golf in Surrey.
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WITH JUST A TOUCH OF HESITATION, REPETITION AND DEVIATION
My shame-faced story
No one likes a judgemental nitpicker. No one more so than the (non-self appointed) navigator of a 250-plus mile journey from Londontown into neighbouring France.
Our driver had been hit on route by some rather somber news and was in an understandable state of mourning. The other was strangely arranged across the back seat, blissfully unaware of her surrounds and absorbed in the latest lifestyle review section of the Daily Telegraph. I wouldn’t have minded so much but I’m more of a Times of London kind of girl.
And so it was that I, a fresh faced young slip of a thing from the colonies, ended up with the weighty yet reluctant task of delivering our Press Golfing Society trio from England to take on the Northcliffe Society at Golf de Belle Dune on Promenade du Marquenterre in Fort Mahon. Ranked I’m told amongst the 10 finest French courses – but more about that later.
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I have a friend. He is a veteran golf writer, master of the English language and one of life’s fiercest critics when it comes to all things clichés. Not surprisingly this makes for dangerous ground since he not only frequents Golfmadchick.com, but as regular readers will know, this is a blog positively riddled with these vulgar, over-used, meaningless fillers.
According to him I am forbidden from using the words: picturesque, shrouded, idyllic, must see, etc. But since I have itchy feet and this blog is going somewhat off the beaten track, my January short sunshine break can only be described as, wait for it … a hidden gem! Read More
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It’s midday and I am lying in bed with more drugs raging through my system than an aging rocker on a day trip to Pfizer’s world-renowned research lab. I have acute bronchitis. It is day eight. I wouldn’t mind so much, but it‘s the second bout in two months and what’s worse … it’s my office Christmas party tonight.
While friends and colleagues are reaching for their most festive bib and tucker, the postman is attempting to deliver yet another box of golf shoes through the front door. Only trouble is, every time I attempt a get-out-of-bed vertical manoeuvre, a drug induced head spin kicks in, resulting in an unseemly coughing fit which upsets the predictably unruffled pooch next door and drives our once hardcore postie to seek sanctuary at number 130. Read More
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HONOURING THE FALLEN
The first thing that hits you are the crowds standing in their thousands side by side in respectful ghostly stillness interrupted only by random bursts of camera flashes.
“Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” is a reminder that the best art can imitate life — and death. The poppy is a simple, yet significant symbol. One poppy. One life.
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Hearty congratulations to the 2014 Centenary Bowl champions: Wimbledon Park Golf Club.
Despite some tight matches and tough competition against the Leatherhead ladies, our girls in green waltzed in with a storming 5 – 0 victory to take home the silverware.
The final of the scratch knock out team competition took place at Kingswood Golf Club in Surrey and produced a day of thrilling performances on and er, off the course. Read More
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Dubbed the Blitz of Biarritz, it quickly plummeted into Blitzed in Biarritz, as two competing societies The Press Golfing Society (PGS) and the Association de la Presse et du Golf (APG) thrashed it out for the 24th Wryter Cup in France.
Hosted by Golf de Chantaco in the charming coastal town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a dozen miles south of Biarritz and close to the Spanish border, it is one of the most famous courses in the Basque country with exceptional views of the Pyrenees. Read More
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Europe and the US are ready for battle in golf’s Ryder Cup. Oh, and Ukip leader Nigel Farage has popped up in a pretty cool Paddy Power ad for the contest too.
The world is a precarious place. Britain may be at war by the weekend. Scotland is more divided than ever before. The Queen is not amused with our prime minister. The leader of the opposition forgot the deficit. And now, Ukip’s Eurosceptic chief Nigel Farage has come out swinging in support of Europe (see video). Read More
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In my experience heterosexual males are lousy at remembering birthdays. Facebook and Twitter has helped occasionally attract their attention to your really big day and nothing can beat persistent vocal reminders along the lines of, ‘I really can’t believe that next month I shall actually be 40.’
The combination of these three prompted one of my male colleagues to come up with a surprisingly bright idea, although I strongly suspect that he was really angling to celebrate his birthday which also ended in a nought, only in his case the big six-oh. Read More
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Fourteen ladies flew to the west coast of Ireland to play golf.
This is what happened: Read More
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When the phone-hacking allegations piled up and eventually took down the News of the World, I was there to witness it all.
Here is my story, from diary extracts during the last week of the newspaper, as published on Channel 4 News this week: Read More
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It is the greatest sport in the world and after a year of intense preparation and anticipation, it has finally arrived. That’s right, golf’s US Open kicks off today. Hit the button
CYPRUS LADIES OPEN COMPETITION
Attention all lady golfers … fancy a week strolling the fairways beneath a sizzling Cyprus sun?
Golfmadchick has teamed up with Red Tee Breaks for this special offer golf break staying at the luxury Intercontinental golf resort, Aphrodite Hills. Read More
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“Your mother has cancer” … Ironically four little words that almost killed me. It was the deluge of tears that made for poor visibility as I sprinted out of the newsroom and across Gray’s Inn Road while furiously Googling: ‘Mum has breast cancer what do I do?’ which resulted in a face-first near miss with the 341 bus. Read More
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It all started off so promisingly as the young man in a bow tie rushed up to me in the car park. “Miss Barlow” he shrieked, arms outstretched in my direction. “Welcome to Mid Ocean Golf Club, the jewel in Bermuda’s golf crown.”
Wow! What a welcome I thought, looking startled and vaguely bemused. I tried to deduce if this was the typically friendly Bermuda way, an over excitable PR executive or someone I had met at The Swizzle Inn after one too many Dark and Stormy cocktails. Read More
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