Dear Industry Colleague,

What a fantastic showcase the USPGA Championship was this weekend. Obviously our congratulations go to Brooks Koepka (a LIV convert), but also to Michael Block who so delighted the galleries and golf fans everywhere. 

I think it is also appropriate to congratulate the USPGA for putting on a magnificent display and for originally including Paul Casey in the field. Paul Casey is towards the end of his career and has been plagued by ongoing injuries, so playing a reduced number of events for more money was a high up on the reasons for his decision to join LIV. Casey is an experienced star player and despite an excellent run of form in recent majors had found that he had not qualified for the event. This is mainly due to the ongoing scandal that LIV events are not awarded Official Golf World Ranking (OGWR) points. It is high time that the world tours and the vested interests realised that their over-arching role is to gather the best players in the world for major championships, rather than deny access because they are not in ‘their gang’. I know the Saudis have some nasty habits, but this is not really about that, this is about power slipping from the PGA Tour and them controlling the golfing playground, because it’s ‘their ball’. 

The USPGA are a very different body from the PGA Tour and co-own the Ryder Cup and run their own major, as well as looking after thousands of PGA club professionals across the USA. They are not the poodle of the PGA Tour and actively want to encourage the strongest field in events that they support, even suggesting that they have no objections in principle to LIV golfers playing in the Ryder Cup - a loud ‘ouch’ was heard from the PGA Tour on that statement!

Nevertheless, the best events should be played by the best players, and the PGA Tour, abetted by their acquiescent colleagues in Europe (DP World Tour) are blocking this. Shame on them and three cheers for the USPGA. Shame too that Paul Casey put on the wrong size shoes and had to withdraw with severe blisters before hitting a shot - some irony after all the lengths that the PGA of America had been to in order to include him in the field.

We have had a number of range owners contacting us over the editorial last month, detailing the lasting, stronger economic performance that has been available to those operators who have invested in technology. We have yet to hear of any tales of buyer’s remorse and many who privately report their business to be positively buzzing. This is great news indeed.

It was very sad to hear of the passing of the South African golfer John Bland. As a rookie youth, I had the honour of playing with him and learnt much from his precision and tactical nouse. He had a stellar career and it got even better when he joined the Champions Tour - he swiped four victories in 1996, his first year, finishing third in the Order of Merit. He was also very kind to me, and a gentleman to all. 

Best wishes, 

Colin Jenkins