UFO Info Week-End

Further to the west Arran is virtually blanketed in cloud for this is a grey day on the Ayrshire coast

Further to the west, Arran is virtually blanketed in cloud, for this is a grey day on the Ayrshire coast. “Just looking out here, I love the look and the feel,” Curtis said, “even if the weather is not the best. It feels like golf.”There were many remarkable features to Curtis’s victory last year He was completely unheralded, even up to the final round He was in 396th place on the world rankings. He was the first golfer for 90 years to win a major championship at his first attempt.

He was from Kent, Ohio, and received a warm reception from the denizens of Kent, England It was his first experience of links golf. To the left, one of the enormous grandstands was almost finished The back of another is visible behind the 17th green. Below was the final green, the fairway stretching back into the distance, with humps on the left and right the only hint, when viewed from behind, of the fiendish fairway bunkers with their huge faces. The Open champion fully appreciates the niceties of the game, and his excuse was immediately accepted. Curtis had flown in that morning from Cleveland, via New York, with his wife, Candace, and his golf clubs, but the rest of their luggage failed to make the journey with them.
With a little help from the clothes section of the professional’s shop, Curtis would play the course the following morning, before heading over to St Andrews and then up to Carnoustie. His mission was to give himself a primer on three of the next four Open venues before he tees up in this week’s Deutsche Bank Open in Heidelberg and then the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth.Curtis’s first proper glimpse of Royal Troon, where he will defend the title he won so unexpectedly last summer at Royal St George’s, came from the safety of the upstairs television room, where he was soon drawn to the magnificent view “So, this is the 18th,” he said.

A young American walked into the clubhouse wearing trainers, jeans, a T-shirt and a golf rain-jacket And he was not asked politely to leave He was certainly not asked impolitely But then Ben Curtis is not your average visitor. A funny thing happened at Royal Troon last week. He cried after last season’s Uefa Cup final defeat when his two goals were rendered meaningless by Porto’s extra-time winner “This place has been fantastic,” he said. “But everything has to come to an end and it’s my turn to go away.”PROBABLE TEAMS Celtic (probable 4-4-2): Marshall; Agathe, Balde, Varga, McNamara; Petrov, Lennon, Pearson, Thompson; Larsson, Sutton.Dunfermline Athletic (probable 4-4-2): Stillie; Shields, Skerla, Tod, Byrne; Nicholson, Mason, Dempsey, Bullen; Crawford, Brewster.. But I have my house back in Sweden and I can always go home if nothing comes up. If I am going to go somewhere else, it has to be where where I will be motivated.