“Speed, danger, angles, turns and curves – Golf and Formula 1 have so much in common!”

Apr 14, 2013 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft

Golf is, to me, the only sport that is not entirely a game, but more a science.  It is also quite unforgiving!
I love golf, but do not play it; yet.  Who knows?  There is still time, but if I could come back in another life, as another relatively good sportsman, I would be a Formula 1 racing driver!  Speed is real!
My entire experience of actually playing golf is exactly one afternoon’s experiment, while teaching Mathematics and Sports in Berkshire, England, in 2007/8.  I was quite terrible but enjoyed it immensely!
Having run on many around the world, I also love golf courses, for different energies they demand, if you use them, as I did in my cricket-playing days, covering mile after long mile.  They were all good!    Nothing, not even beaches, which I used much too; I lived near famous Unity beach in Guyana; could beat the undulating surfaces of golf courses for strengthening sinews and straining stamina.  Golf lives!
I caddied for West Indies opener Desmond Haynes and others when we toured New Zealand on that still remembered ill-fated tour of 1979/80, after we had beaten Australia, in Australia, for the first time.    I did similarly for Richie Benaud and Tony Greig in later fun times, while doing commentary in Australia!
So, looking at the 2013 Masters, one could only appreciate the stunning geometry, the tight angles and absolute engineering, even the slight “English’, on some strokes.
Speed, lie, line, pitch, wedge, flight, putts, wind speed, all need tremendous concentration and special abilities, if one is to relax and to perform well!
That 13th hole at Augusta is a dog, but it is the 15th, a seemingly innocuous divot that, given the breezy, sometimes tough conditions, could; have done too; jump up and bite players in the nether regions!
And, “Tiger” is back, playing brilliantly this year, and looking for yet another “Green Jacket”.  It just goes to show that anyone can make a come-back, given what he has endured in the last several years.
But the player who looks good for 2013 Masters honours is Jim Furyk.  With that “monkey” on him now, Jim will probably drop several strokes by Sunday evening, but be assured that he will fight all the way!
When Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods arrived at Augusta for his first ever Masters; 1997; his first comment was: “The grass here is just as green as that on any of my practice courses, and the trees look even smaller than I imagined them to be.  All I will do, then, is go out there and play my normal game!”
After only turning professional in 1996, “Tiger” won that, his first major, by an astonishing 12 strokes!
The most impressive aspect of both Woods and Furyk, in 2013, is their lean bodies.  No protruding bellies here.   They both actually look like jockeys, so slim and sleek they appear.  In another world, had they designed thusly, they could even have been Formula 1 drivers!
Talking about speed, engineering, tough conditions, slim fit, angles and corners, Formula 1 is the bomb!
I have been fortunate to attend a few races, starting in 1977, while I played county cricket for Lancashire.  I went to Silverstone, England, to look at my own F-1 hero, back then, USA’s Mario Andretti.
Mario won most races that year, but another pure driver, and magnificent survivor, in every way, Austria’s Niki Lauda, won that year’s Championship.  The excitement was truly unbelievable!
Last year, I saw both Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and my present day F-1 favorite, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonzo, while in London.  Paraphrasing Tiger’s comment for his first visit to Augusta, they looked small!
Somehow, looking at Tiger Woods in Augusta this weekend reminds me much of Lewis Hamilton; intense, cool, focused, yet somewhat playful, full of fun.  These guys are really special sportsmen!
Yet, they are dead serious about their respective sports, and can be so explosive too.
They live well, have expensive tastes, and are themselves expensive, and try to enjoy life to the fullest, but they are also some of the world’s most distinguished sportsmen, noting the fact that, at least in Formula 1, death is only about six inches away!
Probably the best racing driver to have lived was Brazilian ace Ayrton Senna.  Even he, like many others, perished when their fully scientific machine, built similar to modern day fighter aircraft, simply failed!
Indeed, Lauda, himself a three-time F-1 World Champion, who now manages Hamilton’s Mercedes team, is a miracle man, having somehow survived a horrendous car fire during 1976 German Grand Prix.
The present lack of détente or any sense of friendliness between Red Bull F-1 team-mates Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber also brings great pulsations to this weekend’s Chinese F-1.
Woods, Furyk, Vettel, Webber, Alonzo and so many golfers and F-1 drivers have just one major ambition in common.  They all want to win.  They give no quarter and ask none whatsoever.
These guys will do whatever it takes, as demonstrated by Vettel weeks ago, to be successful.  Expect Woods too to be in the mix come Sunday.  Enjoy!

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