Turnberry, an essential stopoff point for any serious golfer on a trip to Scotland, is closing its doors to business at the start of November, writes Graham Otway.

However, while that may be inconvenient for the brave few who might venture out on to the Ayrshire coast during the depths of winter, it should by no means be a matter for despair. For when the 220-room resort hotel with its world famous Ailsa Course comes back on stream at the start of July next year, it will be a facility fit for golfing royalty.

Briton misses out on victory in Valderrama after Argentine’s final-day charge

One day after Soren Kjeldsen became the first Dane to win the Volvo Masters and Robert Karlsson the first Swede to claim the European Tour Order of Merit, history was made for the third time in the space of 24 hours at Valderrama, in Spain, when the Argentine Maria Paz Toranzo Alundate became the first woman to win the Volvo Masters Amateur title, writes Mike Wilson.

Statistics play an important part in helping to enhance a golfer’s game, whether the player is a professional, a keen club competitor or only a beginner, writes Graham Otway.

Now the world’s most powerful computerised statistics and analysis system has been made available on the internet to help improve performance at every level in the game.

For just £30 a year, golfers can log details of every shot that they play out on the golf course — just like playing a computer game — and then have their strengths and weaknesses highlighted.

Plummeting temperatures are no longer an excuse to lock your golf clubs in the garage during winter, writes Graham Otway.

The days when playing golf in waterproofs was like trying to swing a club while wrapped in a 12-tog duvet are long gone.