“Detention for golf club attacker” plus 3 more

Detention for golf club attacker
Golf concept drives to Sears
Golf club for kids
Green overcomes loss of leg to play golf

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Posted: 22 Apr 2010 07:26 AM PDT

A teenager from Fife has been sentenced to more than three years in a young offenders' institute for attacking a 64-year-old man with a golf club.

Peter Paterson, now 17, admitted striking Robert Michie with the club so hard it snapped and then repeatedly stabbing him with the broken shaft.

Mr Michie had to have his spleen removed and was permanently disfigured following the attack.

An Edinburgh court heard Paterson had consumed a "large amount" of alcohol.

The attack took place on 3 October when Paterson, who was 16 at the time, had been to a house party in Cedar Avenue, Fife.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the teenager had been involved in "a playful fight".

Paterson left and returned with a baseball bat but it was taken off of him. He then went to get the golf club and on his return to the party bumped into Mr Michie on the street, who was a stranger to him.

He began shouting abuse at Mr Michie then struck him with a golf club.

The force of the blow broke the club so Paterson was left with the splintered shaft in his hand. In the ensuing struggle he stabbed Mr Michie twice in the back and once in the thigh.

After the attack Mr Michie was taken to Queen Margaret Hospital where he was treated for life-threatening injuries. One of the stab wounds was 10cm deep and he had to have his spleen removed.

'Lifelong penicillin'

Advocate Depute Michael Stuart said: "As a consequence of the removal of his spleen the victim required to be immunised against infection and will need lifelong penicillin due to increasing susceptibility to infection."

Paterson, of Kirkcaldy, Fife, earlier admitted assaulting his victim to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of his life. He was sentenced to 40 months in a young offenders' institute.

Defence solicitor advocate Iain Paterson said the incident could be described as out-of-character for Paterson and added: "He was drinking alcohol to great excess."

Judge Lord Uist said he would have ordered Paterson's detention for five years in a young offenders' institution had it not been for his guilty plea.

He also ordered that the teenager should be kept on supervision for a further 12 months.

Addressing Paterson Lord Uist said: "It is quite intolerable that an innocent man in his 60s in a public street should be subjected to this kind of attack by a drunken youth."

Print Sponsor

Golf concept drives to Sears

Posted: 22 Apr 2010 12:19 PM PDT

Golfers will be able to test clubs at select Sears stores this summer as part of a new initiative with Edwin Watts Golf Shops.

Sears Holdings announced a multiyear agreement with Edwin Watts Golf Shops to establish a "store-within-a-store" retail model. Edwin Watts will open 12 new service-oriented golf shops inside of existing Sears stores to test the concept.

One of the initial stores will be in Illinois, said Sears Spokeswoman Kimberly Freely. Although the location has not yet been announced, Sears tests many of their new concepts at Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee.

The first golf shop within a Sears store is set to open in Murray, UT, by the end of May. In addition to Illinois, stores in New York, Florida, Maryland and Kentucky will follow.

The new specialty store, about 3,000-square-feet, will feature room for product testing with an in-store putting green and hitting bay. Game improvement clinics, expert golf club and golf ball performance fitting, the latest equipment technology and apparel styles will be included in the mix.

Each location will feature select product assortments in golf equipment and apparel, electronics and related golf accessories from brands including Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist, FootJoy, Adidas Golf, Cobra, Wilson, Champions Tour and others. The golf area will be strategically positioned near other major departments, such as appliances, sporting goods or men's apparel, Freely said.

"We've been working on this for several months," Freely said, adding that this concept is similar to the Lands' End store-with-in a store idea.

"Sears is looking at it as a growth initiative," she said.

John Watson, CEO of Edwin Watts Golf Shops, said the partnership will give golfers of all levels access to "service-oriented golf retail." Edwin Watts Golf associates will staff the new concept stores.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Golf club for kids

Posted: 22 Apr 2010 01:00 PM PDT

Posted By

Posted 9 hours ago

(STAFF) -- The Optimist Club of Barrie invites girls and boys ages 8 to 14 to join its 2010 Beginner Golf League.

This will be the club's 12th season of providing youngsters with eight weeks of professional instruction, followed by nine holes of golf.

Teams of four kids, along with a coach, will play a best-ball format each Tuesday night throughout May and June.

Registration will be held April 10, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Optimist Club, 7 Currie Dr., Midhurst.

For more information, e-mail Bryan Whittaker at judybryan@rogers.com.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Green overcomes loss of leg to play golf

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 04:04 PM PDT

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The first big step in Ken Green's improbable return to golf came with a severe limp, just like every step since a horrific auto accident that took the lives of his girlfriend and brother and cost Green his right leg.

This was only a pro-am Wednesday on the Champions Tour, yet it carried so much uncertainty.

"All right, guys," he said quietly to his amateurs as he stood over his opening tee shot. "I don't know. This might be interesting."

Even more beautiful than the flight of his tee shot were the ropes lining both sides of the fairway at the Savannah Harbor Golf Resort, indisputable evidence that Green was back on the stage where some thought he might never return.

"I do want to have fun and enjoy it," Green said. "Because I don't know how many times I'm going to get the chance to do this again."

That he is even playing in the Legends of Golf, a two-man team event that starts Friday, is nothing short of amazing.

It was only nine months ago that Green, 51, was headed east on a Mississippi freeway when a tire blew out on his RV, sending it down an embankment and into an oak tree. His girlfriend, Jean Marie Hodgin, and brother, William Green, were killed, as was Nip, his beloved German Shepherd.

Green decided to have his lower right leg amputated a week later. It was his only hope of playing golf again.

"Golf is everything to me," he said.

Then came another dose of devastation. Three months into learning how to compete with a prosthetic limb that took away so much of his power, Green's 21-year-old son, Hunter, was found dead Jan. 22 in his dorm room at SMU. An autopsy revealed a combination of alcohol and prescription drugs.

Somehow, he kept moving forward.

"I don't know how I managed to say, 'OK, I'm going to still keep fighting the fight and go out there and try to play golf,'" Green said. "That's what the Big Guy wants me to do. You do the battle. But it's a tough one. There's a lot of crying moments, trust me."

The battle is nothing new to Green.

He says his stubbornness came from his mother, a single mom working three jobs so her son could play golf. He has done battle with the hierarchy on the PGA Tour and at Augusta National, where Green once celebrated a tee time with Arnold Palmer by drinking a beer walking up the fairway. He managed to win five times on the PGA Tour and play on a Ryder Cup team.

A rebellious nature might have prepared him for times like these.

"From the day I said, 'Cut my leg,' there was no doubt in my mind I was going to play," Green said. "Unfortunately, the mind thinks differently than the body. But I still believe that I can do this and I can pull this off. It's just going to be a little longer time than I probably would have liked. Realistically, it hasn't been that long."

The Legends of Golf is the ideal place to start. It's a better-ball competition over 54 holes, and he has a polar-opposite partner in Mike Reid, famous for being so gracious after a crushing loss in the 1989 PGA Championship.

They were partners last year, and when Reid heard about the accident, he sent Green a text a month later that said, "We can beat most of these teams on three legs, so get your game ready."

Over the last two months, as Green questioned whether his game was good enough for this level, he suggested Reid find a partner who could help him. Reid would have none of it.

"It's easy to say fellowship is more than important than championship," Reid said.

Green isn't sure what to expect. He has revamped his swing to play a draw so he can pick up extra distance. The loss of strength in his lower body means he can hit a driver only about 235 yards in the air. He no longer generates as much spin, and Green is still trying to find a comfortable stance for various chip shots.

He shot 68 at The Breakers near his home in West Palm Beach, Fla., but that was from a forward set of tees. Once he felt more comfortable and moved back, Green said he hasn't broken par.

Then again, par isn't the issue this week.

"I'm just glad to see him back," Hal Sutton said. "We all forget how good we have it. It's like Jackie Burke always says, 'Much always wants more.' We're always wanting more and not counting our blessings for the 'much' we have. Ken is a great example for all of us. I'm sure he has more than he thought he would."

Green never imagined being an inspiration to anyone, but he could feel it when he showed up in Savannah and began running into colleagues he had not seen since the accident.

"Every one of them has literally said, 'It doesn't mean a damn thing. It's just great that you're here,'" Green said. "For them to say that has really eased my tension level."

It used to be hardly anything made Green tense. Two days before the tournament starts, he already is feeling nervous. He is worried that his game is not ready to be showcased in the same tournament as Fred Couples, Tom Watson, or the twosome he will face Friday of Mark O'Meara and Nick Price.

But when his son died, Green realized life can take some cruel and unexpected turns.

"There's been numerous things that have happened," he said. "Who's to say that something else can't happy where you literally will never have a chance? I want to be able to say I have played, gone out there inside the ropes. There's a special feel inside he ropes playing golf."

He wants to play on his own this summer, hopefully the Dick's Sporting Goods Open in Endicott, N.Y. For now, the thrill is playing on tour with prize money at stake.

This is a big deal for Green, even bigger for those around him.

"It's easy to say, 'Boy, this is great for Ken. This is really going to lift his spirits.' But it's the other way around," Reid said. "He's lifting us. What a measure of courage to be here and to be committed. To see the reservoirs of strength that he's had to draw from a year ago to now, it lifts all of us. That's the message that I hope we don't miss this week."

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Golf Zone

Thursday, April 22, 2010