I might be retired from professional sport but there was an early return of competition nerves on Wednesday morning!
The crowds were huge for the BMW PGA Championship pro-am and, even though I’d like to think I’m not too bad at golf, give me a last stone draw in an Olympic semi-final over the first tee anytime!
I’m happy to say that I came onto a good game and I was at my best off the tee and on the greens, where the biggest galleries were.
And for a while, our team with Victor Perez were top of the leaderboard.
Thank you Wentworth for an unforgettable day, alongside @m_goodfellow88 on the bag! #Castore👕@BMWUK1 @BMWPGA #BMW #BMWPGA #bornelectric #ad pic.twitter.com/llltJRmn53
— Eve Muirhead OBE (@evemuirhead) September 7, 2022
Victor was great company.
He’s made a name for himself over here after basing himself in Dundee with his fiancée, who is from this part of the world, and winning the Dunhill Links.
They’re moving to Edinburgh and he practices a lot at the Renaissance Club.
He’s definitely got the game to build on a couple of big wins and the Ryder Cup should be a realistic goal.
Plus, I played with Brooks Koepka and Brooke Henderson in pro-ams when they were on their way up, so that’s got to count for something!
The last golf event I was at was the biggest of them all – The Open.
That week I was on the media side of things and, even though it was the 150th anniversary and there were so many great golfing stories, the LIV Tour controversy over-shadowed it.
The bitterness has escalated since then but it was pleasantly surprising to see that the Wentworth crowds genuinely don’t appear to be as consumed by it all.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the spectator areas over the last couple of days and people have been enjoying the golf and star-spotting the same as they always do.
I think it’s probably all getting boring for most folk now.
But you can tell the tension between fellow pros is real.
There’s no faking the passionate words that have been coming out of the media conferences.
🚨#NEW: Tensions rise at Wentworth as Billy Horschel & Ian Poulter get into it on the putting green pic.twitter.com/LO6yPOy6dR
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) September 7, 2022
And an argument between Billy Horschel and Ian Poulter on the practice putting green seemed pretty real as well!
When Rory McIlroy says that relationships have been affected, you totally believe him.
None of us know how this is going to play out.
The lawyers will have as big a say as anyone.
But, in the here and now, the point the players who haven’t jumped ship make is hard to argue with.
There’s definitely a ‘wanting their cake and eat it’ motivation behind the likes of Poulter, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia turning up at Wentworth.
They say no publicity is bad publicity and, if that’s the case, a shoot-out between one man from one side and one man from the other in the last group on Sunday afternoon would get the event a bit of extra attention!
The new curling season is up and running but there’s been no big change at the top.
It was a double gold for Sweden in the Oslo Cup, with Teams Hasselborg and Edin both winning.
While they’ve been picking up where they left off, I’m quite happy with my win as part of Team Ugo Monye on Question of Sport!
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