Everyone is talking about Twitter and tweeting. Until Ian Poulter started doing it I hadn't paid any attention to Twitter. I had heard people talking about it but I didn't know how it worked. It's fun but it's not for me. I have a hard enough time keeping on top of my text and e-mail messages as it is.
I flew up here [to New York for the US Open] on Monday morning with Poults. He loves gadgets and all the craziness that goes with them. He is very different to me. For me, tweeting is another thing to add to what is already rather a crazy lifestyle.
One of my biggest problems is I find it hard to have downtime. Kate, my wife, is a big believer in that when it is family time the phone should be off. I need to get away from things, to shut off the outside world.
I played nine holes with Poults and Ross Fisher on Monday. It took quite a while - three hours and ten minutes! I liked the course on my first sight of it. I thought it was not overly tricked-up for a US Open course. It was very playable and very fair. But it sure was long with all the rain they have had.
The mistake I made at last year's US Open at Torrey Pines, San Diego, where I failed to make the cut, was that I focused too much on my long game. I was playing well but lacking in the short-game department. The reality is that the guys who are playing well still miss greens, still hit bad shots.
I was disappointed to have to pull out of the BMW PGA at Wentworth last month because my back flared up. But I recovered quickly. Antoni Jakubowski, my chiropractor, helped me to get back on the straight and narrow. I have also started working with a new fitness trainer, Justin Buckthorp. I am really excited about what I have been doing with him. Right now I feel as fit as I have felt for a long, long time.
The weather was fantastic when we were at home in England last month. From a lifestyle perspective it was great to go and have a coffee on the river in London, to hang out and catch up with my friends. It wasn't a wasted trip, even though I didn't play Wentworth. I went out and played a round at Worplesdon, at the New Zealand. The plan was to go round Surrey and play the hidden gems I hadn't really played before. New Zealand is an old school golf course and club. It is great. It is 5,800 yards and I don't think I broke par.
One day Kate and I strolled around London and found ourselves near Downing Street. It was the time of the MPs' expenses row. The media were camped out there. I don't know enough about the issue but the whole thing stinks. You could smell a rat and it is not nice when there are so many families in the country struggling and there are people claiming for helipads.
God knows what happened to me at the Memorial Tournament at the start of the month, where I missed the cut. I hit the same amount of greens as Luke Donald in the first round. He shot 64 and I shot 80. OK he was hitting the ball closer to the flagstick than I was, but you know ...
I have not been scoring well. I have got to be really patient now. It is a game of patience. If you get advice from Gary Player and Eduardo Romero, all the guys who have been round the block and who still view me as a young man, they say: “Be patient, it is going to happen. You have time on your side.”
This is going to be an emotional US Open because of Amy Mickelson, the wife of Phil who was found to have breast cancer last month. Amy is the kind of person who gets two weeks' work done in a day, a mother of three who takes the kids here, there and everywhere, e-mails, stays on top of things and is really bright.
You look at her and you think: “a beautiful, vibrant young woman who appears to have everything in the world.” It shows you how fickle life is and the fact that you're a pro golfer does not mean you are immune to any of that sort of stuff.
Source:The times
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Talks break down over F1 budget cap
Negotiations between Formula One's ruling body and the teams' association over the proposed changes to the sport have broken down.
Financial experts from Formula One Teams Association (Fota) and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) met to try to overcome an impasse over the controversial £40 million budget cap that has divided the sport.
However, the FIA has said that the talks ended almost as soon as they began due to Fota's inflexibility and that the proposals remain in place.
"Unfortunately, the Fota representatives announced that they had no mandate to discuss the FIA's 2010 financial regulations. Indeed, they were not prepared to discuss regulation at all," the ruling body said in a statement.
"As a result, the meeting could not achieve its purpose of comparing the FIA's rules with the Fota proposals with a view to finding a common position.
"In default of a proper dialogue, the Fota financial proposals were discussed but it became clear that these would not be capable of limiting the expenditure of a team that had the resources to outspend its competitors. Another financial arms race would then be inevitable. The FIA financial regulations therefore remain as published."
Ferrari have threatened to walk out on Formula One if the budget cap, designed to attract new teams and to allow existing ones to weather the credit crunch, is not scrapped. Renault, Toyota and the two Red Bull teams have also said they cannot accept the rules.
In a later statement, the FIA accused Fota of wanting to take over the sport. "Fota, made up of participants who come and go as it suits them, has set itself two clear objectives: to take over the regulation of Formula One from the FIA and to expropriate the commercial rights for itself," the FIA said. "These are not objectives which the FIA can accept."
The governing body added that the sport would have a full starting grid in 2010 with everyone competing under the same regulations. The FIA published its 2010 entry list on Friday with Ferrari and Red Bull as confirmed participants, against their wishes, and five other existing teams as provisional.
The five were given until Friday to make their entries unconditional, with a warning that other potential entrants were prepared to replace them and join three new teams.
There was hope that a solution would be found at the meeting after the FIA said it felt there had been a "large measure of agreement" in talks on Thursday with representatives of Ferrari, Toyota, Red Bull and Brawn GP.
"There are still the opportunities this week to resolve the issues and if the issues are resolved then we will be happy to enter," Ross Brawn, the Brawn team principal, said yesterday.
However the FIA also warned that there was an "element" within Fota that was "determined to prevent any agreement being reached".
Source:The times
Financial experts from Formula One Teams Association (Fota) and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) met to try to overcome an impasse over the controversial £40 million budget cap that has divided the sport.
However, the FIA has said that the talks ended almost as soon as they began due to Fota's inflexibility and that the proposals remain in place.
"Unfortunately, the Fota representatives announced that they had no mandate to discuss the FIA's 2010 financial regulations. Indeed, they were not prepared to discuss regulation at all," the ruling body said in a statement.
"As a result, the meeting could not achieve its purpose of comparing the FIA's rules with the Fota proposals with a view to finding a common position.
"In default of a proper dialogue, the Fota financial proposals were discussed but it became clear that these would not be capable of limiting the expenditure of a team that had the resources to outspend its competitors. Another financial arms race would then be inevitable. The FIA financial regulations therefore remain as published."
Ferrari have threatened to walk out on Formula One if the budget cap, designed to attract new teams and to allow existing ones to weather the credit crunch, is not scrapped. Renault, Toyota and the two Red Bull teams have also said they cannot accept the rules.
In a later statement, the FIA accused Fota of wanting to take over the sport. "Fota, made up of participants who come and go as it suits them, has set itself two clear objectives: to take over the regulation of Formula One from the FIA and to expropriate the commercial rights for itself," the FIA said. "These are not objectives which the FIA can accept."
The governing body added that the sport would have a full starting grid in 2010 with everyone competing under the same regulations. The FIA published its 2010 entry list on Friday with Ferrari and Red Bull as confirmed participants, against their wishes, and five other existing teams as provisional.
The five were given until Friday to make their entries unconditional, with a warning that other potential entrants were prepared to replace them and join three new teams.
There was hope that a solution would be found at the meeting after the FIA said it felt there had been a "large measure of agreement" in talks on Thursday with representatives of Ferrari, Toyota, Red Bull and Brawn GP.
"There are still the opportunities this week to resolve the issues and if the issues are resolved then we will be happy to enter," Ross Brawn, the Brawn team principal, said yesterday.
However the FIA also warned that there was an "element" within Fota that was "determined to prevent any agreement being reached".
Source:The times
Kevin Pietersen offers answer to leading question
Of all the contenders for the World Twenty20, England were the only side not to be captained by their established leader. Choice of locum for Andrew Strauss became an issue before the squad announcement and, after being knocked out under Paul Collingwood by West Indies on Monday night, it will be subject of similar speculation again before the next tournament, in the Caribbean, starting in April 2010.
Collingwood was a reluctant captain, saying only weeks before his appointment that he would need a lot of persuading to take on the role after his resignation last year. He has now declined to commit to the post for the future. He did not enjoy a good tournament, either with bat or armband, and alternatives are sure to be considered as part of the debrief.
Kevin Pietersen, the obvious replacement, would love another crack at some point despite his public humiliation at the hands of the ECB in January, when he pre-empted his sacking by resigning. Although he let it be known that a return would be too soon while the selectors deliberated for the present event, lingering anger may have calmed by the time that West Indies play host.
It is one thing to answer a hypothetical question with a show of no interest, quite another to reject a real approach by Geoff Miller, the national selector. Could Pietersen resist an offer couched in terms that his country needs him, especially when the job occupies only three weeks of what should be fun, rather than the whole package with its stresses and strains? He can leave that for Strauss.
Miller and his colleagues rejected an outsider in Robert Key this time because they were unsure that he could justify his place in the team. So, other than Pietersen, alternatives to Collingwood are sparse, if there at all. Stuart Broad, 23 next week, is too callow for now. James Anderson has matured impressively over the past year, but it is a big step from leading the bowlers to leading the team.
According to Adam Wheatley, Pietersen's agent, captaincy is “not at the forefront of his client's mind at the moment”. That is good to hear; the priority for Pietersen is to continue to build up fitness after Achilles tendon trouble and then to score stacks of runs in the Ashes. Perhaps, like Collingwood, who was unaware when England next play a 20-over international, Pietersen is not up to speed with commitments beyond the coming months.
The Australia series will dominate thinking between now and late August. On Monday, England announce an extended squad of perhaps 16 or 17 for a training camp later in the week, which may prove to be the last chance of a recall for Michael Vaughan. It effectively reproduces the start of an overseas tour, especially given the three-day warm-up match against Warwickshire from July 1, a week before the start of the first npower Test in Cardiff.
At some point, though, the selectors must return to Twenty20 strategy. The middle order clearly needs beefing up and Collingwood's role as nudger at No5 must be in jeopardy with Luke Wright, if he continues to open with Ravi Bopara, offering sup-port to the seam bowlers. England cannot afford to field a team with James Foster as high as No6 and Graeme Swann at 7, as they did two days ago.
But it runs deeper than a tinker here or there. The underlying principle that Test players can adapt to any format must be re-evaluated. Twenty20 needs certain skills, yet England were eliminated with four specialists from the squad in Graham Napier, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Key and Eoin Morgan out of the side. Collingwood said that England needed to be brave. In the end, they were too cautious.
Source:The times
Collingwood was a reluctant captain, saying only weeks before his appointment that he would need a lot of persuading to take on the role after his resignation last year. He has now declined to commit to the post for the future. He did not enjoy a good tournament, either with bat or armband, and alternatives are sure to be considered as part of the debrief.
Kevin Pietersen, the obvious replacement, would love another crack at some point despite his public humiliation at the hands of the ECB in January, when he pre-empted his sacking by resigning. Although he let it be known that a return would be too soon while the selectors deliberated for the present event, lingering anger may have calmed by the time that West Indies play host.
It is one thing to answer a hypothetical question with a show of no interest, quite another to reject a real approach by Geoff Miller, the national selector. Could Pietersen resist an offer couched in terms that his country needs him, especially when the job occupies only three weeks of what should be fun, rather than the whole package with its stresses and strains? He can leave that for Strauss.
Miller and his colleagues rejected an outsider in Robert Key this time because they were unsure that he could justify his place in the team. So, other than Pietersen, alternatives to Collingwood are sparse, if there at all. Stuart Broad, 23 next week, is too callow for now. James Anderson has matured impressively over the past year, but it is a big step from leading the bowlers to leading the team.
According to Adam Wheatley, Pietersen's agent, captaincy is “not at the forefront of his client's mind at the moment”. That is good to hear; the priority for Pietersen is to continue to build up fitness after Achilles tendon trouble and then to score stacks of runs in the Ashes. Perhaps, like Collingwood, who was unaware when England next play a 20-over international, Pietersen is not up to speed with commitments beyond the coming months.
The Australia series will dominate thinking between now and late August. On Monday, England announce an extended squad of perhaps 16 or 17 for a training camp later in the week, which may prove to be the last chance of a recall for Michael Vaughan. It effectively reproduces the start of an overseas tour, especially given the three-day warm-up match against Warwickshire from July 1, a week before the start of the first npower Test in Cardiff.
At some point, though, the selectors must return to Twenty20 strategy. The middle order clearly needs beefing up and Collingwood's role as nudger at No5 must be in jeopardy with Luke Wright, if he continues to open with Ravi Bopara, offering sup-port to the seam bowlers. England cannot afford to field a team with James Foster as high as No6 and Graeme Swann at 7, as they did two days ago.
But it runs deeper than a tinker here or there. The underlying principle that Test players can adapt to any format must be re-evaluated. Twenty20 needs certain skills, yet England were eliminated with four specialists from the squad in Graham Napier, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Key and Eoin Morgan out of the side. Collingwood said that England needed to be brave. In the end, they were too cautious.
Source:The times
Manchester United play Birmingham City in season opener
Premier League new boys travel to the champions on opening day of next season. All League fixtures have been released.
Premier League new boys Birmingham City face the toughest possible test on the opening day of next season after being handed a trip to play Manchester United at Old Trafford on August 15.
The champions then tackle Burnley - the Coca-Cola Championship play-off winners - the following weekend in a difficult start for the newly promoted teams.
All League fixtures were announced this morning.
United have to wait until the end of the month before their first match against one of the top four clubs as they take on Arsenal at Old Trafford on August 29, with the return fixture at Emirates Stadium on January 30. United visit Anfield to play Liverpool on October 24 and the Premier League runners-up are at Old Trafford on March 20.
Chelsea are the last of the other top four sides to face United as new manager Carlo Ancelotti's side are at home to the title holders on November 7, with the return fixture on April 3. United close the season at home to Stoke City on May 9.
Liverpool start and end their season with away fixtures, at Tottenham Hotspur on August 15 and Hull City on May 9. They visit Stamford Bridge on October 3 and play host to last season's third-placed team on May 1.
Rafael Benitez's side are at home to Arsenal on December 12 and visit the Gunners on February 9.
Ancelotti's first game in charge of Chelsea in English football will be at home to Hull on August 15, with the season finishing at home to Wigan Athletic on May 9. Chelsea are away to Arsenal on November 28 and at home to the Gunners on February 6.
Arsene Wenger's side open their campaign away to Everton and close the season with a home fixture against Fulham.
Wolverhampton Wanderers, the Championship winners, are at home to West Ham United on the opening day of the season and finish off with a home fixture against Sunderland.
Wolves fans will be looking forward to a December 15 trip to Old Trafford to play Manchester United and a home fixture against the champions on March 6.
Phil Neville, the Everton captain, believes against Arsenal on the opening weekend can set them up for another successful season. David Moyes's side finished fifth in the Premier League last season.
"I am like every other football fan when the fixtures come out," Neville said. "We all want to know who we have got in the first few weeks and over Christmas and the new year.
"The opening fixture of a new season is always an exciting one, but that we are playing a side like Arsenal adds even more spice to the occasion. A full house at Goodison on day one is something special and we will be looking to get off to a good start."
Source:The times
Premier League new boys Birmingham City face the toughest possible test on the opening day of next season after being handed a trip to play Manchester United at Old Trafford on August 15.
The champions then tackle Burnley - the Coca-Cola Championship play-off winners - the following weekend in a difficult start for the newly promoted teams.
All League fixtures were announced this morning.
United have to wait until the end of the month before their first match against one of the top four clubs as they take on Arsenal at Old Trafford on August 29, with the return fixture at Emirates Stadium on January 30. United visit Anfield to play Liverpool on October 24 and the Premier League runners-up are at Old Trafford on March 20.
Chelsea are the last of the other top four sides to face United as new manager Carlo Ancelotti's side are at home to the title holders on November 7, with the return fixture on April 3. United close the season at home to Stoke City on May 9.
Liverpool start and end their season with away fixtures, at Tottenham Hotspur on August 15 and Hull City on May 9. They visit Stamford Bridge on October 3 and play host to last season's third-placed team on May 1.
Rafael Benitez's side are at home to Arsenal on December 12 and visit the Gunners on February 9.
Ancelotti's first game in charge of Chelsea in English football will be at home to Hull on August 15, with the season finishing at home to Wigan Athletic on May 9. Chelsea are away to Arsenal on November 28 and at home to the Gunners on February 6.
Arsene Wenger's side open their campaign away to Everton and close the season with a home fixture against Fulham.
Wolverhampton Wanderers, the Championship winners, are at home to West Ham United on the opening day of the season and finish off with a home fixture against Sunderland.
Wolves fans will be looking forward to a December 15 trip to Old Trafford to play Manchester United and a home fixture against the champions on March 6.
Phil Neville, the Everton captain, believes against Arsenal on the opening weekend can set them up for another successful season. David Moyes's side finished fifth in the Premier League last season.
"I am like every other football fan when the fixtures come out," Neville said. "We all want to know who we have got in the first few weeks and over Christmas and the new year.
"The opening fixture of a new season is always an exciting one, but that we are playing a side like Arsenal adds even more spice to the occasion. A full house at Goodison on day one is something special and we will be looking to get off to a good start."
Source:The times
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