GREG ALLENanswers the questions this week
(Golf commentator, RTÉ Radio)
Club: Blainroe GC
Handicap: 6
1 What's your favourite golf tournament (amateur or professional) and why?The US Open. It's to do with the venues and crowd atmosphere and not just because of the extraordinary success of Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy over the last two years. Though that helps. There's something about the US Open which struck me from my first day in 2004 at Shinnecock Hills. It's sort of links meets parkland and it was beautifully prepared, with high straw-coloured whin grasses off the fairway. I just had to walk the 18 holes and, in the late evening sun, it was a magical experience.
2 Best TV golf memory?Jack Nicklaus winning the Masters in 1986.
3 Parkland or links? Why?For years, my answer has always been links, but in recent years I have seen some spectacular parkland courses in America that have swayed me back to the centre of this argument and made me look more closely at Ireland's parkland masterpieces which are generally under-rated because of the prevalence of so many links gems.
4 What's your hidden gem of a course and why?Ballyliffin Old. It's overshadowed by its more dramatic duneland big brother Glashedy, but the Old Course is incredibly natural with lumpy bumpy fairways, great bunkering and greensites.
5 How would you deal with someone you suspected of cheating? Would you sign their card?If I were 100 per cent certain, I would not sign the card, but if it were just a suspicion, it would be very difficult to broach without causing serious offence. The stigma of cheating in golf can last a lifetime. You need to be absolutely certain before standing your ground.
6 If you could introduce one rule, how would you combat slow play?As someone who has been known to twitch and fiddle over the ball a bit myself, I feel a little under-qualified to make a rule. I might fall foul of it!
7 Has equipment technology had a detrimental effect on genuine talent/ability? If so, what changes would you make? Driver heads are too big and I would dial them back to around 300cc and, hopefully, thereby, drag my playing partners down to my level with the "big dog"'. I personally like the technological advances in the ball for handicap players, but at the top amateur and professional level, the skills required to get the most out of the old balata balls of 20 years ago were considerably higher.
8 What's in the bag? Today I have a driver, two fairway woods 13 and 17 degrees, two hybrids 19 and 24 degrees. Irons - 6, 7, 8, 9 and four wedges and a 43-inch belly putter. Tomorrow this could change. I own way too many clubs.
9 150 yards from the hole, what's in your hands? I will need to lean very hard on a seven-iron.
10 Playing among friends, would you play for a wager or what type of match? Standard front nine, back nine and overall. One, one and three we call it. Rarely for more than €5. I sometimes like to say that the amount doesn't matter and that it's the pride/pain of receiving/handing over the spoils. But that's a big fat lie. I'm on the painful side too often and I like to eat occasionally.
11 Who is the greatest – Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods? Other? In terms of Jack v Tiger, Jack is still the man until Tiger gets to 19 majors, and that may never happen. Bobby Jones retired when he was just 28 at which point he had won four US Opens, three British Opens, five US Amateurs and one British Amateur title. In nine US Opens from 1922 to 1930, he finished outside the top two just once. He effectively won 13 majors and his Grand Slam in 1930 of British Open and British Amateur along with US Open and US Amateur was astounding and might just be better than anything Jack or Tiger has achieved.
12 If you had one final round, who would be in your fourball and where? How morbid sounding is this question? It would be a privilege to play with Ireland's great modern day triumvirate, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Pádraig Harrington at Portmarnock Golf Club. Otherwise, with my buddies in Blainroe, and that would probably be a little easier to organise.
