18 October, 2006

A couple of weekends ago I went to the World Golf Championship on a full hospitality package at the main course clubhouse. The Grove is a fantastic course and I thoroughly enjoyed the event. Highlight of the day was obviously getting to meet Tiger Woods and wishing him good luck, as if he needed it! He romped home by 7 shots.

I also got to see Tiger miss a 3 foot eagle putt on the same hole my new favourite golfer Trevor Immelman eagled a few minutes earlier. Also walked past loads of celebs like Michael Douglas, Ian Wright etc.

Ernie and Michael Douglas are really tight, Ernie spotted him and went over for a big high five and back slap before stepping up to the tee and SMASHING a golf ball further than I’ve ever seen one fly!

Great day out, I can highly recommend going to watch a golf tournament, its really not as boring as it sounds, especially if you have VIP grandstand seats on the 18th green. Unfortunately no cameras allowed on the course so I don’t have any photos!

Quote of the weekend - Tiger Woods’ speech after “only” getting a birdie on the 530 yard 18th hole Par 5 when he had eagled the hole three days in a row: “Sorry about the bogey on the last hole, that is probably the toughest par 3 I’ve ever played!”

Last night BBC 2 broadcast a documentary on the South African tabloid newspaper The Daily Sun . I was alerted to the programme by my work colleagues who this morning told me that watching it made them never want to visit South Africa, in their exact words, “It looks like hell on earth!”.

Great, I thought, just the kind of negative publicity our country needs, as if we didnt have enough already! When I first came to Britain I was pretty scathing of this country’s predominantly tabloid media, as a South African I claimed the moral highground on the basis that South Africa’s written media wasn’t sensationalist or biased! Now however we have our own tabloid, and it is arguably far more asinine than anything produced in Britain. Given the serious social and political issues facing SA it is very sad that our nation chooses to read a newspaper that publishes ficticious stories about witchdoctors over the rape of 14 year old girls. At the same time The Daily Sun wields enormous power by virtue of their large readership, and I hope one day soon they turn their attention to improving South Africa by publicising and criticising the wrongs committed by our government in allowing the propagation of crime, corruption, AIDS etc.

Whilst they were at it, the BBC seemed to do a great job of making white people look elitist, patronising, rascist and totally out of touch with modern South Africa. I suppose one has to understand the BBC target audience - middle class Britain - they know very little about Africa and unfortunately take what they see on the BBC at face value, they are also the people our totally ineffective Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism are trying to target.

After a quick internet search I have found the link to the programme, dunno how long it will be there, but well worth watching, especially if you want to see how SA is portrayed in the British mainstream media. Watch it now, or go to the “BBC - This World” page.