I've also learned there are some connections between golf and curling. Like Maria Hjorth, for example. Hjorth, from Sweden, has been a member of the LPGA Tour since 1998, and perennially a solid player and Solheim Cupper. She's also a great curler. Or at least was, before she left Europe. (I imagine most curlers' skills atrophy once they move to Florida, where Hjorth lives.)
As a youth in Sweden, Hjorth was a member of Swedish national teams. She and her teammates won a bronze medal at the 1992 World Junior Curling Championships, which she chose over a golf tournament. "I was picked for the Spanish amateur championship in golf the same week," Hjorth said, "but chose curling."
Hjorth continued playing, moving on into top-level curling competition in Sweden after her junior career ended. "I played in the highest division in Sweden for many years and got a bronze medal three times," Hjorth said. "I was the skipper and had my own team."
Hjorth joined the Ladies European Tour in 1996, and for two years split time between golf and curling. "It was not a problem to combine because the curling season finished in March," Hjorth said, and the golf season started in April.
Only when she moved to the LPGA in 1998 did Hjorth finally fully commit to golf over curling. A couple days ago on Twitter, Hjorth wrote:
... (F)inally I get to see some curling. It is so much fun to watch being a champion myself. I miss it sometimes!
Another connection between golf and curling: Ailsa Craig. You might not automatically recognize the name Ailsa Craig, but if you watched last year's British Open at Turnberry you've seen it. Turnberry's Ailsa Course, where Turnberry's Opens are played, is named after it.
Ailsa Craig is the giant rock that sits about 11 miles offshore of Turnberry (photos). The island is entirely granite. Curling stones are made of granite. A very specific type of granite: Blue hone granite. And blue hone granite is quarried at only one place in the world: Ailsa Craig.
Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel had a column last week explaining that Ailsa Craig is running out of the blue hone granite needed to make curling stones, which could put the sport in crisis at some indeterminate point in the future. Finding another material that matches the curling qualities of blue hone granite has proved difficult so far.
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Comments
This “sport” is a joke. Who in the world would ever call this geriatric event a sport? They need their heads examined. Curling could be called a skill, just like golf or table tennis are skills, but definitely not sport.
IMHO, if you can’t or don’t use enough muscles to sweat in an activity, it can never be a sport…and, yeah, even sex can be a sport but not an olympic one.
“and, yeah, even sex can be a sport” … great, one more tournament that tiger woods will win!
It’s not surprising to a Canadian to hear that his golf pro is an expert curler, and or hockey player.
Pat you have a bit of a point that curling isn’t quite as athletic as some sports — but who the heck luges? There are many Canadians who curl recreationally, so there’s lots of interest, despite the fact that Kevin Martin and Cheryl Bernard don’t do 2.5 twists, or ski thru moguls.
Try it sometime, and then tell me you don’t use your muscles or break into a sweat. What an ignorant post!