Golf stories from journalist Peter Stone

World Golf Hall of Fame

Just the other day, the World Golf Hall of Fame announced that American Ken Venturi would be inducted into its ranks in March next year in the Lifetime Achievement category and, while widely acclaimed in the US golfing media, it again exposes the anomalies in the selection process for one of golf’s highest honours.

One is not to doubt Venturi’s qualifications as a 14-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the 1964 US Open, and his years as an analyst in golfing telecasts, but it is my opinion, shared by the way by other non-Americans, that there those far better credentialed who are continually ignored by the US dominated panel of “experts”.

Shark

Well, I’ll be buggered. Now I am curious as to what Greg Norman had screwed up or, to the contrary, done exceedingly well that day he stood in front of the mirror alongside me at the hand basin in the locker-room at Kingston Heath in his birthday suit.

Now, I realise I must have missed something that day 15 or so years ago in around 40 years of Shark watching after his revelation in part two of the ABC’s Australian Story programme on him.

After a brief re-cap of part one, Norman was on screen saying: “I always looked myself in the mirror, to this day I still do, and not cleaning your teeth, not pruning, brushing your hair or making yourself look good but actually standing there – if you want to do it bare-arsed naked, do it bare-arsed naked.

Michelle Wie

B.J. Wie stood behind the line of players on the Royal Canberra practice range checking the time on his watch and then glancing over his shoulder. His daughter Michelle’s caddie Mark Wallington stood beside him checking the yardage book and pin placement sheet for Friday’s second round of the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.

Who’s to guess whether she was running late or not? If she was, it was best she was, as there was no berths left and, on arrival, she was kept waiting for five minutes or so before securing a spot on the far right. To pass the time, she did some back stretching exercises.