IN MY VIEW

Spring is my favourite time of the year, and surely most British golfers must feel the same? The clocks have just sprung forward, the days are lengthening and, most importantly, as the temperatures start to creep up the grass is starting to grow again!

Already Annika Sorenstam and Tiger Woods have been dominating proceedings on their respective tours, and

both will once again start favourites for the opening majors of the 2006 season - The Kraft Nabisco Championship, and The Masters. Some golf fans don't like the dominance of Annika and Tiger, but undeniably, their presence in any tournament gaurantees more media coverage, bigger gates, and an opportunity for everyone else in the field to have their week of glory, since Annika and Tiger are after all only human!

The prospects for the year ahead are incredibly exciting, with women's golf in particular having a wealth of talented young players trying to scare Annika. On both Tours year on year the participants are getting stronger and fitter. Nowadays, although Tiger is still one of the longer hitters, he is no longer the longest, with a number of players regularly driving the ball in excess of 400yards. In men's golf, it would seem that something must be done to restrict the distance players hit it, otherwise top courses will become obselete almost as soon as they're being built. Augusta has been lengthened yet again, and now measures just under 7,500 yards. Jack Nicklaus has publically made his

disapproval clear, so it will be interesting to see what the ruling bodies come up with.

Of the major international team events, we have The Curtis Cup and Ryder Cups to look forward to. At present of the four international matches played bi annually between either Great Britain & Ireland or Europe and America, the only one that "we" currently hold is The Ryder Cup. It would be no more than Ada Sullivan deserves if she could take what will be an almost entire team of Curtis Cup rookies to America at the end of July and regain the trophy!

I am looking forward to the golfing year ahead. Only the golfing gods know what's in store for us - I can't wait for it all to start!