The Ryder Cup odyssey begins...

The flight from London to Louisville (via Detroit) is five hours old, I ve watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I ve read my book, I ve listened to my ipod, I ve walked around a bit and I ve even talked to Fergus so it s official; I m bored. With three more hours to pass until we land I ve decided to pass the time by penning my first blog of the GM Ryder Cup coverage of 2008. Glad to have you on board, so to speak.

So what can I possibly have to say about a tournament that takes place thousands of miles from my current position over the Atlantic Ocean? Well, at approximately 6 o clock this morning Fergus and I settled down for a healthy Heathrow airport fry-up when into the restaurant walked Marcus Day, Justin Rose s manager. He too was travelling to Detroit. After some early pleasantries, I decided to ask him the killer question does Justin know who he ll be paired with yet? Rather unsurprisingly Marcus didn t have the answer but he did mention that Rose and Poulter would be paired to play against the Swedish duo of Karlsson and Stenson in practice today. Rose had also told his manager that yesterday s practice round had taken a whopping seven hours. Our boys had been instructed by Captain Faldo to sign as many autographs as possible in a bid to winner over the locals a cunning trick that Bernhard Langer used in 2004.

In July 2023, Neil became just the 9th editor in Golf Monthly's 112-year history. Originally working with the best coaches in the UK to produce instruction content, he went on to become a feature writer interviewing many of the biggest names in the game including Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros, Rory McIlroy and Arnold Palmer.

A 5-handicap golfer, Neil is a club member who takes a keen interest in the health of the game at grassroots level. You’ll often now find him writing about club-related issues such as WHS, membership retention and how best to bridge the gap between the range and the course.