56 2GM Wednesday April 8 2020 | the times
SportGolf
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UK Athletics has shocked a number of
British athletes and coaches by
rescheduling the national champion-
ships in Manchester for early August.
The governing body made the
announcement yesterday, with senior
coaches privately complaining that
they were not consulted before reading
the news on the Athletics Weekly
website.
The championships were originally
due to be held at the end of June, with
them serving as trials for the now
postponed Tokyo Olympics.
“The whole point of the postpone-
ment was to take the pressure off
athletes who were worried about trying
to train because of the lockdown,” one
coach said yesterday.
Another, who also wanted to remainNew championship date stuns coaches
anonymous, said: “I appreciate they
have sold all the tickets, and right now
there is still a European Champion-
ships to qualify for at the end of August,
but I now have athletes asking me when
need to start training again.”
UK Athletics is under pressure
financially, and remains concerned
about the status of the Anniversary
Games at the London Stadium in early
July if West Ham United are back
playing football by then. Under the
terms of agreement the football club
appears to take precedence over
athletics.
In its statement UKA said: “British
Athletics have been in constant
communication with our partners at
European Athletics, World Athletics
and the Diamond League to coordinate
the schedule of athletics events in 2020,
prioritising the safety and health of our
sport and spectators at all times.“We are still working on the basis that
all British Athletics events will be going
ahead although we will continue to
adhere to all government advice and
guidelines to ensure the safety of those
involved.
“We have now finalised discussions
for a new National Championships
weekend alongside other federations.
As a result, should there be an
opportunity to recommence competi-
tion during this outdoor season, the
British Athletics Championships will be
rescheduled from its original date of
June 20-21 to August 8-9 2020 [at
Manchester Regional Arena].”
Yesterday, World Athletics
suspended the qualification period for
the Olympic Games until November
30, again to ease the pressure on
athletes. The governing body also
placed 50 per cent of its staff on
furlough leave.Athletics
Matt Lawton Chief Sports CorrespondentPlayer, right, is a three-
times Masters champion“The pros simply play a different
game to everyone else but the
amateur golfer is the backbone of the
game. The average club member
should have access to all the latest
technology and the ball to make a
very difficult game easier. The pros
should play with the same equipment
to more clearly distinguish who the
very best are.
“Almost all the great courses thatstage major pro events have become
obsolete, but designers are also to
blame in the quest for longer courses.
Many pros hit the ball 400 yards
today. Most amateurs cannot hit it- Where does that leave the game?”
This week marks 45 years since Lee
Elder became the first black man to
play at the Masters. By 1975 civil
rights activists had long targeted
Player for awful pro-apartheid
remarks made in print. He later said
he was brainwashed by a propaganda
machine and changed his views. “I
travelled with armed security guards
and had death threats,” he says. “They
threw ice and telephone books at me
on the 1st tee [at the 1969 PGA
Championship]. They shouted at the
top of my backswing or when I was
about to putt.”
The recognition of Elder’s
anniversary will now have to wait
until at least November. As will
McIlroy’s sixth attempt to complete
the career grand slam, joining a select
band comprising Player, Woods,
Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Gene
Sarazen; Bobby Jones did the pre-
Masters version. “Rory is getting
better and better,” Player says. “He is
maturing, he is the best all-round
player in the game and I believe he
will complete the grand slam.”
McIlroy-led dissent appears to have
fatally undermined the Premier Golf
League — a proposed world tour to
rival the PGA which would feature
the world’s 48 top professionals — but
Player still thinks a world golf tour is
a good idea. “The 100th-ranked
player on the PGA Tour will
earn over a million dollars
in a mediocre season and
the top players will
make more in one year
than Nicklaus, [Arnold]
Palmer and I made in
our entire careers. [But]
the players have become
more insular. That’s why
a truly world tour would be
good for the game. It needs to
include all existing pro-tour
organisations. A breakaway tour
just for the elite that disrupts the
global tour cannot be good for the
game. The ATP Tour seems the way
to go.”
In these troubled times it is worth
casting the mind back to last April
when golf provided a story that
seemed off the scale. Woods’s triumph
is a reminder of how sport can lift the
weariest spirit. Two years earlier, at
the champions’ dinner at the Masters,
Woods told Player that he thought he
was done. “I never thought he would
win any event again let alone a
major,” Player says.
His ceremonial tee shot can wait
but he believes Woods’s strokes from
12 months ago provide a message
worth holding on to. “Never give up.”
9
Majors won by
Gary Player, tied with
Ben Hogan for fourth most.
The South African is the
only man in the top five
from outside the USbut there will come a point when golf
gets out.
When it does, Player believes the
game needs to split. The same age as
the Masters, he thinks someone will
soon drive the 445-yard first hole at
Augusta National. The R&A has said
it wants to break “the ever-increasing
cycle of hitting distance” but Player
thinks it has taken far too long.
“Bifurcation is the answer,” he says.A
t about 8am tomorrow
Gary Player was due to
saunter on to the 1st tee at
Augusta National with
Jack Nicklaus and strike
the traditional shots to start the
Masters. That was before a pandemic
refused to stand on ceremony. So
instead of driving along Magnolia
Lane, the 84-year-old nine-times
major winner takes a diversion down
memory lane before offering his
blueprint for the future.
The South African also says that
the best film to watch during the
lockdown is The Shawshank
Redemption. He may have a point. As
we wait for sport to be released, the
vintage drama about hope and fear
within prison walls has a timely motif.
“I hope people will appreciate
everything more once this is
behind us but I’m not
convinced,” Player says. “We
have more important matters
to deal with than sport right
now.”
Nevertheless, sport is
a welcome diversion,
even in hiatus. Player
still thrills to Tiger
Woods’s win at
the Masters a year
ago — “simply
phenomenal” — but
is unimpressed
by the planned
reboot of
Woods’s
£7 million
match with Phil
Mickelson. It is believed
that plans are advancing
for that mid-crisis duel‘Give pros same
clubs, then we’ll
see who’s best’
with no fans present. “The first was a
complete flop,” Player says. “If there is
another then perhaps they [could] add
two other interesting people and
donate 100 per cent of the money to
the coronavirus victims.
“My concern [now] is less for the
millionaire athletes and more for the
myriad of support people around golf
because without them the tours
simply cannot continue.”
Other opinions tumble forth. Player
backs golf’s premier villain Patrick
Reed — “social media and every
armchair fan have become the judge
and executioner in sport” — and has
faith in Rory McIlroy to complete the
career grand slam. There is also
advice for us.
“All things shall pass,” says Player,
who is staying with his wife and
family at his daughter’s house in
Philadelphia. “Keep calm and try your
best to carry on. Be proactive and
don’t wait to make alternative plans.
Most people are going to be
negatively affected by this crisis and
we need to accept this and take
action. Whatever you do, keep
moving.”
That goes for both the couch potato
and the game of golf. “We’re in
lockdown, coping
very well and
staying at home
with some family
members,” he
says. “We are
trying to remain
positive, have
meals together.
We have some
fun dancing,
yoga and
challenging each
other to do push-
ups and sit-ups.”
With the Open
cancelled and the
three other majors
shoehorned into a
Ryder Cup autumn,
he says this is the
time to “step back,
reconnect with
family, to read and
listen to music”,Gary Player has a lot
of ideas but top of his
list is for golf to cater
for amateurs better, he
tells Rick Broadbent
Player was due to take part in the ceremonial tee-off at the Masters tomorrow
DAVID CANNON/GETTY IMAGESCanadian Grand Prix is
latest F1 postponement
Motor racing The Canadian Grand Prix
is the latest race to be postponed as the
coronavirus outbreak continues to
affect Formula One.
The Montreal race is the ninth to
have been postponed this season.
Organisers have said that tickets
remain valid, with more information to
follow when a new date is confirmed.
Francois Dumontier, the Canadian
Grand Prix president and chief
executive, said that he was pleased that
the sport’s teams had been helping to
manufacture ventilators during the
pandemic.
“I am proud to see how such wonder-
ful initiatives and technical advance-
ments stemming from Formula One
are being applied in a time of crisis,” he
said. “It is crucial that all of our energies
be put together to overcome Covid-19.
We will welcome you with open arms at
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as soon as it is
safe to do so.”Buttler’s auctioned shirt
raises £65k for hospitals
Cricket The England wicketkeeper Jos
Buttler has raised over £65,000 for the
Royal Brompton and Harefield
Hospitals charity after auctioning off
his World Cup final shirt.
The 29-year-old played an integral
role in England winning last year’s
showpiece at Lord’s, hitting a half-
century before whipping off the bails to
complete the run-out that secured the
Super Over win against New Zealand.
Buttler decided to put the powder blue
one-day shirt — which will for ever hold
a place in English cricket history — on
eBay a week ago to raise money for two
specialist heart and lung centres dealing
with the coronavirus crisis.
“It’s a very special shirt,” Buttler said.
“But it takes on extra meaning with it
going to an emergency cause.”
The response was huge and 82 bids
were made before the 7.30pm deadline
last night, with the winner bidding
£65,100.