I love to gamble. It’s pretty straightforward; if you offer me a bet I bet you I’ll take it. With golf being my sport of choice, whether that’s playing on the pristine (not so much) fairways of Buckinghamshire, or planted well and truly into my imprint in the sofa enjoying Sky HD’s finest with a Budweiser, I love to get some money involved. Skybet have coined the phrase ‘it matters more when there’s money on it’ and I couldn’t put a more apt phrase into words on betting.

The PGA Championship week is an important week in golf and to quote Andrew Cotter, ‘the last shot at glory in the golfing calendar’. Being the last major of the year I felt it was only fair that I placed a sizeable wager on the event. Rickie Fowler was my first pick. Why wouldn’t he be? He came a close second the preceding week to a resurgent Adam Scott and at 25/1 he was a steal. I eagerly sipped at my bud whilst watching Rickie hit his 1st tee shot of the week, but slowly lowered my ice cold beer from my now gaping mouth as it went straight into the bunker resulting in a first hole bogey. Rickie would go on to shoot +4, thanks mate. Never to mind, at least I had backed Tiger Woods when he was -3 after his first 4 holes. ‘He’s back!’, I exclaimed to anyone who hadn’t already grown bored of my incessant announcements throughout the afternoon in the office. 21/1? A £10 stake is guaranteed to fill up the coffers with a healthy return then. I left the office and by the time I’d walked in Tiger had finished on +7 – never wanted that tenner anyway. More...

As any golfer will tell you, the weekends at this undesirable time of year are rendered extremely valuable as golf after work is not an option with the apparent lack of light. For this reason, I try and compact as much golf as possible into the two days that precede the weeks work. Last weekend, myself and Pete from the Teeofftimes.co.uk team had two matches lined up for Saturday and Sunday at two different courses; Magnolia Park Golf Club in Oxfordshire, and the second at De Vere Wokefield Park in Reading. The second being a grudge match against two of the lads from Golfbreaks.com; a must-win.

Having entered the weekend frankly buzzing to tear it up it didn’t exactly all go to plan. Saturday morning was freezing and having been reminded several times what an unprepared man I was standing in a polo and thin jumper I didn’t exactly feel great on the first tee. Nevertheless, I stood up to the ball, made an overly hasty and stiff swing and as expected hooked one into the water. More...

The most sought after honour in golf is without a doubt the hole in one. It’s so much more than just an eagle; it’s a ‘1’ on the scorecard and it’s the satisfaction of knowing you’ve reached the pinnacle of the sport. At least that’s my opinion. To some golfers it’s just a three-figure bar tab. I myself have never had one, but know many who have. A certain friend has even had 4, something he still claims to be skill and not luck.  More...

With this being my first blog I cannot help but relate this feeling of anxiety to that of my mindset when putting. Writers block; the equivalent of a 5ft left to right downhill putt – you just don’t know where to begin.

So rarely in golf does the long and short game fuse together for that sought after perfect round and so often in my case it’s the short game that lets me down. Playing off a handicap 7 my long game has become somewhat reliable but I’m still struggling to shoot really low as the short stick struggles to keep up. Constantly frustrated with this I have found it to be something of a recurrent theme amongst amateur golfers. I’m sure that many golfers have experienced the ‘why do I play this game’ feeling many times as a result of hitting a par 5 in two and 3 putting for the most soul destroying of pars. More...