where art thou.

Whatever happened to Rick Harris ?The Welsh Wizard, future Ryder Cup star. I greatly miss his erudition, his masterly command of the English language etc.

Maybe he got serious about his game, and is now spending the time practicing instead of posting. If I practiced as much as I posted, I may end up being a Presidents Cup star.

He may have collapsed under the weight of his own talent (or ego). Or he may be on here under a different name. Who knows, or indeed, cares.

I dont think we should be so hard on the guy. After all very young and impressionable and was kind of led astray by a lot of nonsense spoken to him by people who should be a bit more measured in their praise.

I think theres a lot of people out there who do that to promising young players. My mate was one. He was always being told he was the 'anchor' of the junior team (he was off a double figure handicap at the time which tells you something about the standard of our junior section at the time) which didnt help him all that much.

In my opinion a lot of really good young golfers are being lost to the amateur game because of over eager parents/coaches/junior convenors.

They get pumped full of this nonsense about being pro material and then when they magically dont turn out to be in that top 0.01% that make it the clubs get binned for 10 years cos they are so fed up of so much work for no reward.

I know a young lad who went away to the states on one of those golf scholarship deals but ended up back home inside 2 years. He didnt play that much for about a year but then something happened, I dont know if it was himself deciding to become the best he could be regardless of what that was or whether someone told him not to waste his talent and start playing seriously again. Either way he worked hard and is now the good side of scratch (-0.1) and will very likely get into plus figures. He has played for the county team and has done very well at regional comps. Being a pro isnt always what it's about.

As for my mate, he now plays to 7 but has plenty of potential to go below 5 and stay there.

The fact of the matter now is that if a kid isnt 5 or less by the time they are 14 leading to scratch or better by 16 they arent going to become a tour pro. A few exceptions make it (McGinley and Rocca spring to mind) but its less and less these days.

Ricky is a sharp kid with lots of determination. I just think he needs someone around him who can impress upon him that being a top class amateur player isnt the worst thing you can do with your golf. The worst that can happen is that a young player puts all their eggs in one basket and lets their education slide for a dream that frankly isnt gonna happen.

I'm trying to be a realist rather than a pessimist here, sorry if it sounds too negative.

D.

__________________
Longniddry Golf Club Champ 2005.

In the Taylor Made Bag:

Callaway FT-3 Tour 9.5 Aldila NV 65S

Callaway Steelhead 3 Wood

Callaway Steelhead 5 Wood

Callaway X-16 3-PW

MacGregor Tourney 52 Degree

Cobra Phil Rodgers 59 Degree Rusty

Odyssey DFX 2-Ball

Callaway Tour iX