This year’s Open Golf Championship winner will apparently be paid in US dollars rather than sterling.
That’s because the fall in the value of the pound since Brexit has caused the Royal & Ancient Golf Club to consider the change.
The 2017 Open, which begins on July 20 at Royal Birkdale, will see the winner pick up a cool $1.85m – or £1.4m, whichever takes your fancy.
That fall in the pound makes a big difference you know to our poor golfers.
I mean, who wants to win the Open, get paid in sterling and then find out if you had been paid in dollars you would have been about $50k better off?
It’s a disgrace and an afront to our stars of the sport, who are struggling enough as it is, what with inflation on the up and, oh, those heating bills!
I’ll be honest, this is the one thing in sport in the 21st century I find hard to stomach – the obsession of more and more prize money for the elite few.
Did you know this year’s Wimbledon singles champions will receive £2.2 million EACH! Why?
Are you telling me Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Caroline Wozniacki et al, would refuse to play at SW19 if the winner picked up a meagre £1.5m, instead of £2.2m? And if they did, that says alot about our current stars.
If the amount for winning isn’t a big enough disgrace, a first round loser at Wimbledon even pockets £35k... A third round loser gets £90k!
The thing is, I bet you have never heard of most of the round three losers and even less of the first round ones – well, apart from Stan Wawrinka!
At this rate, and by the time your average Premiership footballer is earning £500k a week, single winners at Wimbledon will be pocketing £5m and the winner of the Open £3m – while the rest of us will have had about 3% in 10 years!
It’s not going to change, I know that. I might as well moan at my carrots.
But it doesn’t stop it being disgustingly greedy.
By the time you read this, the British & Irish Lions will either be on a huge high... Or a disappointing low.
The third and final Test match between the Lions and the All Blacks took place at Eden Park this morning and victory in Auckland would secure only the Lions’ second series win over the world champions – who have not lost at Eden Park since 1994.
Obviously, I have no idea what happened!
But should the Lions have won, then it truly is a wonderful achievement.
The All Blacks don’t lose very often, especially in New Zealand.
Last Saturday’s defeat was their first loss at home in seven years - and their first to the British and Irish Lions in 24 meetings. That is quite some feat.
If, like me, you take your rugby in fits and starts, you can’t help but be impressed with all that is a Lions Tour.
Fans from all over the world, but especially Britain, save up for years to go and enjoy a Lions Tour – a bit like an England Cricket Tour of the Caribbean – that has always sounded like heaven to me.
But back to this morning’s fayre, let’s hope the Lions have done it.
Then again the All Blacks haven’t lost successive matches since 2011, before head coach Steve Hansen took charge.
Bah! History is there to be re-written... I wonder if it was?
I did think this was rather funny.
David Beckham has been inducted into Paris Saint-Germain’s ‘Hall of Fame’.
What’s so ‘funny’ about that?, I hear your cry.
Well, Becks only played 14 times in five months for the French giants in a brief spell in 2013, even though they did win another Ligue 1 title while he was there.
The Hall of Fame on the PSG website described Beckham as, a ‘fashion icon and ambassador’.
Silly me, how obvious – And I thought Becks, even in his prime, just kicked a bag of wind around a football pitch.
Back in my youth, I was half decent at cycle speedway. It’s basically speedway on pedal bikes, no brakes, racing round a cinder track.
I even reached the British U-21 final back in the 80s.
It’s quick stuff and a race is all over in a minute or so. But it was still knackering!
However, I contrast that one minute or so of agony to the pain which is the Tour de France. All that riding, all those hours, all those days.
I admire the riders hugely, but how on earth can they enjoy that?
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