Opinion

  • Bad Golf’s John Robins: “I love the camaraderie (and many pints) of a golf trip”

    Friday 30 July 2021

    We’ve all been missing foreign golf trips, but for comedian and broadcaster John Robins an overseas golf adventure changed his life for the better. In his exclusive Today’s Golfer column, the co-creator of hit YouTube channel Bad Golf explains how an anxiety inducing invitation actually helped him discover his love of golf. For a long time during both lockdowns, playing a round...

  • Meghan MacLaren: “Golfers searching for perfection is a waste of time”

    Thursday 29 July 2021

    Ladies European Tour star Meghan MacLaren explains why the pursuit of golfing perfection is a waste of time. Golf is complicated, isn’t it? One day you go out and play and you’re hitting your irons the best you ever have. You think you’ve stumbled upon some great secret to success and you can’t believe it could be so simple – for...

  • Meghan MacLaren: “Joint male-female events are vital for golf’s future”

    Thursday 17 June 2021

    Ladies European Tour star Meghan MacLaren explains why mixed male-female tournaments are vital for golf’s future. By the time you read this, the Scandinavian Mixed on the Ladies European Tour and the European Tour will have taken place. You will already know what stories it throws up; who ultimately comes out on top; who shines and who grinds – and, perhaps...

  • Bad Golf’s John Robins: “What makes the perfect golf partner?”

    Tuesday 15 June 2021

    What makes the perfect golf fourball? Comedian and broadcaster John Robins, co-creator of YouTube channel Bad Golf, explains his perfect group. Last year I joined my first ever golf club at the tender age of 38 and after less than a year of being a member I’ve seen my handicap drop around three shots. RELATED: Bad Golf: “We’ll always be sh*t at golf,...

  • Meghan MacLaren: “Class is permanent but success is never predictable”

    Wednesday 19 May 2021

    Ladies European Tour star Meghan MacLaren explains that while class may be permanent at the highest levels of golf, it’s never a guarantee of success. So far, 2021 has been the year of the comeback. In the last few months we’ve had Jordan Spieth, Lydia Ko, Ariya Jutanugarn, Brooke Henderson, Hideki Matsuyama – even Rory McIlroy could be included in this...

  • Bad Golf’s John Robins: “How I shot my lowest ever score”

    Wednesday 19 May 2021

    Award-winning comedian and BBC Radio 5Live host John Robins is the co-creator of YouTube channel Bad Golf, but if his current form continues then it will need a rebrand. We’ll let him explain… Over the course of these columns I have attempted to represent the experience of the average golfer. Though I refer to myself as a ‘bad golfer’, the stats...

  • Meghan MacLaren: “What you can learn from pro golfers’ mentalities”

    Friday 7 May 2021

    Ladies European Tour star Meghan MacLaren explains what we can learn from professional golfers’ mentalities and how knowing our weaknesses can help limit their impact.  How many times have you heard someone say, after a great round or a tournament victory, that they didn’t look at a leaderboard once? Do you believe them? If I’m being honest, I’ve always found it...

  • Why are golf courses green fees so high?

    Tuesday 4 May 2021

    In compiling our all-new Golf World Top 100 Courses For £60 And Under, rankings editor Chris Bertram discovered that too many of Britain and Ireland’s courses are charging far too much money for the quality they offer. Researching the courses that were eligible for our first Top 100 Under £60 ranking was eye-opening. I had pre-conceived ideas about what would be...

  • Bad Golf’s John Robins: “I putted like a pro… unless it was within three feet”

    Friday 16 April 2021

    Golf is back from its Coronavirus closure and award-winning comedian, BBC Radio 5Live host and Bad Golfer John Robins’ return to the course saw him putting like a pro… for a few holes, at least. There is no better way to start my latest Today’s Golfer column than with words doubtless uttered on every fairway, green and tee box this last...

  • Meghan MacLaren: “How to make the most of your ‘golf IQ'”

    Monday 12 April 2021

    Meghan MacLaren explains the key part of ‘golf IQ’ is knowing what works for you and sticking to it.  There is an old cliché in golf that to be truly successful, you must be one of two things: extremely intelligent or extremely not-intelligent. The truth, like most things in life, is more likely that we all lie somewhere in the middle,...

  • Bad Golf’s John Robins: “Solving slow play is simple…”

    Monday 29 March 2021

    In his exclusive Today’s Golfer column, award-winning comedian, BBC Radio 5Live host and Bad Golfer John Robins tackles one of golf’s biggest issues – slow play – and thinks he’s come up with the solution. Slow play. It can be a bit of a mystery to the new golfer. In fairness, when your entire brain is focused on getting the ball in the...

  • Meghan MacLaren: “All golfers are frustrated perfectionists”

    Monday 15 March 2021

    Every one of us is capable of playing bad shots, even the game’s Major-winning greats. But as Ladies European Tour star Meg MacLaren explains in her exclusive column, it’s how you react to them that determines so much. Like a lot of people, particularly over the last year, I’ve been through more than my fair share of Netflix. Whether I’m rewatching...

  • Andrew Cotter: “Bryson DeChambeau is the monster golf created”

    Written by Andrew Cotter on Monday 8 March 2021

    Bryson DeChambeau distance drew headlines again as the US Open champion powered his way to his eighth PGA Tour victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. But, as our columnist Andrew Cotter muses here, golf must always be a game of skill over power. Tam Arte Quam Marte… I do like to start off with a bit of Latin – it creates an...

  • Bad Golf’s John Robins: “All I can think of is the joy of playing again”

    Monday 1 March 2021

    In his exclusive Today’s Golfer column, award-winning comedian, BBC Radio 5Live host and Bad Golfer John Robins sets out his golf goals ahead of golf’s return in England and reflects on what he’s missed most about the game in lockdown. I do hope with all my heart that this Today’s Golfer column finds you in a state of high anticipation for the imminent...

  • Meghan MacLaren on waiting for golf’s return

    Monday 15 February 2021

    Amid the uncertainty of lockdown, LET star Meghan MacLaren is still in the dark over when the new season will begin again – or how it will look. I vividly remember the December/January off-season that preceded 2020. I’d spent many winter breaks wrestling with the same dilemma – spend the following season on the Symetra Tour, the feeder tour to the...

  • Bad Golf’s John Robins: “Playing with four clubs improves your game”

    Friday 5 February 2021

    In his exclusive Today’s Golfer column, award-winning comedian, BBC Radio 5Live host and Bad Golfer John Robins explains how playing a round with just three clubs and a putter is helping his game. For this month’s column I’ve decided to completely ignore the state we’re in. I’m heartbroken, frustrated, but also grudgingly accepting of the current situation as regards golf, as I’m sure...

  • Meghan MacLaren: “Sponsor’s invites over Major champions is wrong”

    Monday 1 February 2021

    Ladies European Tour golfer Meghan MacLaren is unimpressed that the LPGA failed to find space for Major champions Sophia Popov and A. Lim Kim in their season-ending tour championship. If you are more productive with your time than I am, you might miss the various instances of outrage on ‘Golf Twitter’. The one that amazed – and infuriated – me the most...

  • Andrew Cotter: “It was a privilege to work with Peter Alliss”

    Written by Andrew Cotter on Monday 1 February 2021

    Today’s Golfer columnist and BBC commentator Andrew reflects on his time working with the late, great Voice of Golf, Peter Alliss. “The thing is… if I died now it would really spoil the evening.” The delivery was as crisp and perfectly-timed as all of his lines...

  • Bad Golf’s John Robins: “Practise less to improve your game”

    Monday 4 January 2021

    In his exclusive Today’s Golfer column, award-winning comedian, BBC Radio 5Live host and Bad Golfer John Robins explains why practising less could actually improve your golf. For many golfers, winter is a time where more balls are hit on the driving range than on the course. Bad weather and new year’s resolutions combine to convince us that this year it’ll be different. This January...

  • Meghan MacLaren on trying to play golf without fear

    Friday 18 December 2020

    Meghan MacLaren ponders why, as both golfers and humans, experience gradually erodes the fearlessness of youth. I played a pro-am in the UK recently. My three playing partners were a club captain, a self-made businessman, and the businessman’s 14-year-old son. They were all decent golfers and lovely people, but four hours with the 14-year-old caused me a mixture of intrigue and mild...

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