Hi everyone,

Many of you will have read my weekly email on the eve of the Olympics during which I talked about the golf industry and how I did not believe the Games could actually help.

Well, that's still my belief but having just watched an amazing final day which saw, once again, this year's Open champion, Henrik Stenson, go head-to-head with GB's Justin Rose for the gold medal it is hard to think of anything but positive thoughts.

Rose was one of the most positive of all the players about the Olympics and he made it common knowledge that he wanted Olympic Champion on his CV. Well, if his performance isn't proof that attitude is everything then I don't know what is. 

On a Sunday that many of us will remember for the rest of our lives, all of our big names stepped up. You almost had to feel sorry for Andy Murray having to follow Kenny, Whitlock, Rose and co as the pressure to continue the deliverance of gold must have been weighing on him.

I must admit to only watching the highlights but it looked a truly memorable match where both he and the Argentinian, Juan Martin del Potro, who recently returned from injury, gave their absolute best in the pursuit of an Olympic gold. Murray eventually prevailed to add to the incredible success of the GB team.

So what's my point? Well there's two actually:

Firstly, golf has actually turned out to be one of the bright stars at this Olympics. A fourth day saw two of the best players putting on a show because they clearly both wanted to win as much as they could ever do. Moreover it was apparently sold out which is in stark contrast to many of the other events, especially those in the main stadium. While I might not agree that the Olympics can help the game of golf I was absolutely delighted to see how good the contest was and even more that the rest of the world of sport has given golf a huge thumbs up. An awful lot of that is down to the attitude of Rose and Stenson at the end - Rose's reaction after sinking the winning putt was fantastic and then, as you would expect, there was total respect for each other.

Secondly, I want to come back to Rose's attitude to the whole thing. He clearly did everything in his power to win. That could also be said of Henrik Stenson and even of Marcus Fraser who was visibly disappointed that the last round didn't go his way. We can all learn from this. Week-in week-out we don't really notice the routines these players go through so that they play their best. Perhaps they find it hard to be totally focused every week.

But the Olympics, like the major tournaments, is different

Clearly not every player felt that but that makes it even more noticeable that someone who did ended up winning and was completely overjoyed to have done so. So if you go into a competition really wanting to win and then you give yourself your best chance by perhaps arriving early to warm up then don't be surprised if it happens more often. Equally, if you turn up last minute and proclaim to Stevie 'oh well, another point one' then don't be surprised when that happens more often as well.

Once again it was great to see golf go so well in the Olympics and for Justin Rose's wonderful attitude to the whole event get rewarded.


Chestfield News

Back home I was more than delighted to hear that the correct team won in the Kent v Rest of the World match. As some of you will know, I was actually born well outside Kent so, even though it was a close fought contest, the ROW came through quite rightly! Well done everyone who took part in what is now very much a mainstay on the Chestfield calendar mainly thanks to the hard work of Del Clark.

This weekend firstly sees the Junior Club Championship on Friday and then our Guildford Trophy team aim to carry on their very impressive run on Sunday. Good luck to everyone concerned and I hope you will all support both groups if you can.