With the Golf Channel doggedly showing every one of Tiger's shots as he spiralled to a 74,75 weekend the story for me was one of the 3 lefties..
First Mike Weir 75, T77 knocked $10,788 off the $240,000 or so he needs for full status this year and he now has 3 events to get it in. Knowing Mike and his positive nature and complete belief in himself he will be on the range somewhere today working on his game, he is not playing next week, and so I looked into his stats to see what he has to work on. As I said yesterday his 78,75 weekend included 5 bogey's in a row on Saturday, unheard of for Mike
His wedge play is still great, he is 1st in GIR from 125, and 100 yards, but the rest of his numbers, albeit after 2 events which included his MC last week are awful.
Driving : Distance 183rd and Accuracy 174th.. He is almost 20 yards behind the tour average. He has never been long but why can't Mike get the ball in the fairway anymore ??
Irons : Approaches from 175-200 yards 42' 2" 181st
Approaches from 150-175 yards 18' 11" 9th-
Approaches from 125-150 yards 20' 6" 90th-
Approaches from 50-125 yards 12' 1" 16th
Approaches from 200-225 yards 41' 8" 113th
Approaches from 225-250 yards 25' 7" 5th -
Approaches from 250-275 yards 77' 10" 115th
In general he is 177th in GIR.
Putting : Putts per round 28.75 ranks 44th
Putting from Inside 5' 96.61% 85th
Putting from 5-10' 61.90% 43rd
Putting from - 10-15' 20.00% 95th
Putting from - 15-20' .00%
Putting from - 20-25' .00%
Putting from - > 25' .00% 123rd
Putting from 5-15' 48.39% 62nd
Putting from 15-25' .00% 152nd '
So he isn't driving it well, his iron play is spotty, but his wedges are still great and he isn't putting all that well. It seems to me that driving the ball straight is the key to his return to the form we all expect from this lefty.. We all know how much easier even our games are when we are always in the fairway, but Mike hasn't driven the ball well in over 2 years and I mean before his injured elbow and he is never going to get better until he sorts that driver out.
Bubba Watson made a clutch 12-foot birdie at the 18th, for a 5-under 67 to win the Farmers Insurance Open his second win and he beat the other lefty in my story Phil Mickelson by a shot after Phil chose to lay up after driving into the rough on 18 to try and make eagle for the tie with his lob wedge. He had Bones walk up to attend the flag and made a nice attempt but no cigar..
Why did he lay up ?? Mickelson said the grass was into his ball, and that a hybrid would not have been enough to clear the water. To hit 3-wood would have gone well over the green, which he saw as a difficult shot. He figured his best chance at eagle was from the fairway, using the bank behind the hole to feed it toward the cup.
So Bubba with his wide open stance, prodigious length out of that skinny body of his, huge divots with his short irons, religious tweets, and always seeming a moment or two away from breaking down and balling beat Mickelson by a shot, Dustin Johnson 66 and Jhonattan Vegas 68, by 3..
By the way, our Venezuela rookie tied Watson for the lead on the 10th hole and looked like he could well win back to back weeks until his mid iron on the 18th flew into the water.
Still his 3rd place was worth $336,400 and he is your money leader as they head to Pheonix next week and what about Nick Watney who won here in 2009 when it was called the Buick Open closing with a 63 which included 8 birdies and a staggering 28 on the back nine !!! to T6.
Finally I started this week talking about PUMA and their great hats and colourful clothing, well if you missed it Rickie Fowler who ended up T20 almost made me reach for my shades with his electric orange PUMA outfit yesterday. He was orange from head to toe, as Faldo said his wardrobe cupboard must just be humming at night !!
1 2 2 Bubba Watson (SC) -16 F -5 71 65 69 67 272
2 1 6 Phil Mickelson (SC) -15 F -3 67 69 68 69 273
T3 4 12 Dustin Johnson (SC) -13 F -6 69 69 71 66 275
T3 3 1 Jhonattan Vegas (SC) -13 F -4 69 69 69 68 275
5 2 25 D.A. Points (SC) -12 F -5 73 68 68 67 276
T6 50 45 Nick Watney (SC) -10 F* -9 70 73 72 63 278
T6 1 14 Anthony Kim (SC) -10 F E 68 67 71 72 278
T6 3 24 Hunter Mahan (SC) -10 F 1 69 67 69 73 278
T9 15 58 Troy Matteson (SC) -9 F -5 74 68 70 67 279
T9 4 32 Marc Leishman (SC) -9 F -3 67 72 71 69 279
T9 2 58 Brandt Snedeker (SC) -9 F -2 70 69 70 70 279
T9 8 5 Bill Haas (SC) -9 F 3 67 66 71 75 279
Right now the only Canuck in the field for Pheonix is Stephen Ames, no Tiger, Mickelson will be the headliner as Hunter Mahan who was T6 this week defends his title..
Bryan Angus
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Paul Casey wins in Bahrain..could move back into world's top 5
If Phil Mickelson slips up at Torrey Pines today and finishes worse than 2nd, Paul Casey will move into the number 5 spot in the world rankings, which would read Westwood, Kaymer, Woods, McDowell and Casey.
He hasn't won in 20 months, remember he was up to #3 in the world before he tore a muscle in his rib cage back in 2009, and he came down the 18th tied with Peter Hanson at -20, but Hanson made a mess of it, finally missing a 10 footer for par, leaving Casey the winner when he holed his 6 foot putt for par.
"It feels fantastic - the most important thing to me is winning and that was huge.
"The goal is obviously the Majors, but how are you going to win Major Championships if you can't win regular events
I'm watching the tape delayed version now on Golf Channel and it is obvious the wind has started to blow making this course much more difficult and Renton Laidlaw is saying that there have been some 23 lead changes today alone.
Earlier in the week I wrote about the players torching this Colin Montgomerie course and today before the wind got up there were course record rounds of 63 from Dane Søren Kjeldsen and England's Richard Finch.
1 CASEY, Paul -20 18 -4 67 67 66 68 268
T2 JIMÉNEZ, Miguel Angel -19 18 -5 68 65 69 67 269
T2 HANSON, Peter -19 18 -3 66 67 67 69 269
4 GALLACHER, Stephen -18 18 -5 70 64 69 67 270
5 KARLSSON, Robert -17 18 -6 69 67 69 66 271
T6 NOH, Seung-yul -16 18 -7 69 68 70 65 272
T6 EDFORS, Johan -16 18 -3 64 71 68 69 272
T8 QUIROS, Alvaro -14 18 -5 67 69 71 67 274
T8 RAMSAY, Richie -14 18 -5 72 68 67 67 274
T8 MOLINARI, Edoardo -14 18 -2 68 65 71 70 274
T8 NOREN, Alexander -14 18 -2 67 70 67 70 274
T8 CLARKE, Darren -14 18 +1 69 65 67 73 274
He hasn't won in 20 months, remember he was up to #3 in the world before he tore a muscle in his rib cage back in 2009, and he came down the 18th tied with Peter Hanson at -20, but Hanson made a mess of it, finally missing a 10 footer for par, leaving Casey the winner when he holed his 6 foot putt for par.
"It feels fantastic - the most important thing to me is winning and that was huge.
"The goal is obviously the Majors, but how are you going to win Major Championships if you can't win regular events
I'm watching the tape delayed version now on Golf Channel and it is obvious the wind has started to blow making this course much more difficult and Renton Laidlaw is saying that there have been some 23 lead changes today alone.
Earlier in the week I wrote about the players torching this Colin Montgomerie course and today before the wind got up there were course record rounds of 63 from Dane Søren Kjeldsen and England's Richard Finch.
1 CASEY, Paul -20 18 -4 67 67 66 68 268
T2 JIMÉNEZ, Miguel Angel -19 18 -5 68 65 69 67 269
T2 HANSON, Peter -19 18 -3 66 67 67 69 269
4 GALLACHER, Stephen -18 18 -5 70 64 69 67 270
5 KARLSSON, Robert -17 18 -6 69 67 69 66 271
T6 NOH, Seung-yul -16 18 -7 69 68 70 65 272
T6 EDFORS, Johan -16 18 -3 64 71 68 69 272
T8 QUIROS, Alvaro -14 18 -5 67 69 71 67 274
T8 RAMSAY, Richie -14 18 -5 72 68 67 67 274
T8 MOLINARI, Edoardo -14 18 -2 68 65 71 70 274
T8 NOREN, Alexander -14 18 -2 67 70 67 70 274
T8 CLARKE, Darren -14 18 +1 69 65 67 73 274
San Diego boy Mickelson ties for the lead at Torrey Pines... Weir dead last
Tiger Woods dropped 12 spots to a T24 at +2 74 and is not in contention, he is 8 shots back. So let's concentrate on the rest. He was 3 over through 5 holes, drove the ball erratically, had some shoddy wedge play and didn't putt particularly well to post his highest score ever at Torrey Pines
Phil Mickelson had a -4 68 today to join Bill Haas (71) at -12 in the lead. Unfortunately at the other end of the field, Mike Weir struggled to a +6 78 and is at 220, 16 shots behind and dead last. He birdied the 1st and the 18th but uncharacteristically had 8 bogey's in between including five in a row from 13-17 and I can't ever remember him doing that.
Mickelson has decided to shelve his go for broke style for a much more conservative approach to the Rees Jones re-designed South Course... I'm not taking on the risk. I'm just playing it much more conservative because the reward isn't there," he said. "This course doesn't reward you for taking on any challenge. And my more conservative approach into the greens, albeit boring, has led me to be on top of the leader board
Another of Sean Foley's pupils Hunter Mahan 69, eagled 18 as did lanky Bubba Watson,69, to sit a shot back of the leaders at -11 and Anthony Kim 71, is hanging in there at -10
Speaking of hanging in there, how about Jhonattan Vegas 69, beating Tiger by 5 shots to stand in there 6th and just 3 shots behind.
I was saddened to see John Daly slip to a +4 76, not so much the score, but as usual it is the way he seems to want to rush to self destruction as soon as he misses a couple of shots. Honestly if I was his caddy and I saw that fatal slide of his starting I would hide with his clubs somewhere in a portaloo just to make him slow down, have a smoke, think things through and realize he is still in it.
T1 --Phil Mickelson (SC) -12 F -4 67 69 68 204
T1 -- Bill Haas (SC) -12 F -1 color info 67 66 71 204
T3 -- Hunter Mahan (SC) -11 F -3 69 67 69 205
T3 -- Bubba Watson (SC) -11 F -3 71 65 69 205
3 -- Anthony Kim (SC) -10 F -1 68 67 71 206
6 -- Jhonattan Vegas (SC) -9 F -3 69 69 69 207
T7 D.A. Points (SC) -7 F* -4 73 68 68 209
T7 10 -- Brandt Snedeker (SC) -7 F -2 70 69 70 209
T7 Kevin Sutherland (SC) -7 F -1 69 69 71 209
T7 Dustin Johnson (SC) -7 F -1 69 69 71 209
T7 Rickie Fowler (SC) -7 F 1 65 71 73 209
T7 4 -- Fredrik Jacobson (SC) -7 F 1 color info 67 69 73 209
With cold weather and rain in the forecast the players will be paired in 3's for the final round and will go off the first and 10th. Haas, Mickelson and Mahan are the last pairing off #1 at 1005am or 1.05pm est.
Mike Weir ironically is off #10 at the same time playing in a twosome with our Canadian Open champ Carl Pettersson.
Bryan Angus
Phil Mickelson had a -4 68 today to join Bill Haas (71) at -12 in the lead. Unfortunately at the other end of the field, Mike Weir struggled to a +6 78 and is at 220, 16 shots behind and dead last. He birdied the 1st and the 18th but uncharacteristically had 8 bogey's in between including five in a row from 13-17 and I can't ever remember him doing that.
Mickelson has decided to shelve his go for broke style for a much more conservative approach to the Rees Jones re-designed South Course... I'm not taking on the risk. I'm just playing it much more conservative because the reward isn't there," he said. "This course doesn't reward you for taking on any challenge. And my more conservative approach into the greens, albeit boring, has led me to be on top of the leader board
Another of Sean Foley's pupils Hunter Mahan 69, eagled 18 as did lanky Bubba Watson,69, to sit a shot back of the leaders at -11 and Anthony Kim 71, is hanging in there at -10
Speaking of hanging in there, how about Jhonattan Vegas 69, beating Tiger by 5 shots to stand in there 6th and just 3 shots behind.
I was saddened to see John Daly slip to a +4 76, not so much the score, but as usual it is the way he seems to want to rush to self destruction as soon as he misses a couple of shots. Honestly if I was his caddy and I saw that fatal slide of his starting I would hide with his clubs somewhere in a portaloo just to make him slow down, have a smoke, think things through and realize he is still in it.
T1 --Phil Mickelson (SC) -12 F -4 67 69 68 204
T1 -- Bill Haas (SC) -12 F -1 color info 67 66 71 204
T3 -- Hunter Mahan (SC) -11 F -3 69 67 69 205
T3 -- Bubba Watson (SC) -11 F -3 71 65 69 205
3 -- Anthony Kim (SC) -10 F -1 68 67 71 206
6 -- Jhonattan Vegas (SC) -9 F -3 69 69 69 207
T7 D.A. Points (SC) -7 F* -4 73 68 68 209
T7 10 -- Brandt Snedeker (SC) -7 F -2 70 69 70 209
T7 Kevin Sutherland (SC) -7 F -1 69 69 71 209
T7 Dustin Johnson (SC) -7 F -1 69 69 71 209
T7 Rickie Fowler (SC) -7 F 1 65 71 73 209
T7 4 -- Fredrik Jacobson (SC) -7 F 1 color info 67 69 73 209
With cold weather and rain in the forecast the players will be paired in 3's for the final round and will go off the first and 10th. Haas, Mickelson and Mahan are the last pairing off #1 at 1005am or 1.05pm est.
Mike Weir ironically is off #10 at the same time playing in a twosome with our Canadian Open champ Carl Pettersson.
Bryan Angus
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Casey bidding for a spot in the World's top 5..... Tiger and Weir struggling in round 3
Paul Casey is the highest-ranked player in the field at #9 and if he wins he could make it four Europeans in the top five on the Official World Golf Ranking with Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell currently first, second and fourth'
He has taken a share of the lead at -16 (66) with Sweden's Peter Hanson (67) who is battling the flu at the Volvo Golf Champions in Bahrain.
"It was fun," said Casey. "I had good control of the ball for the first time this week and drove it very nicely."It was only one shot lower than the first two days, but a lot more comfortable and probably should have been lower." He missed from under six feet on the last.
Remember he failed to retain his Ryder Cup spot last year, and went through the season without a win in either Europe or America.
They have a one stroke advantage over Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke (67) and South African James Kingston (67)
Jimenez has a new putter in the bag after snapping his yesterday and was 4 shots (69) worse with it..
Italy is having a great week in Bahrain with 17 year old Matteo Manassero T6 (66) at -13 and the Molinari's T9 at -12
Our Puma pal Johan Edfors is still in there T6 (68), Sergio dropped 22 spots to T33 (73), and Open Champion Todd Hamilton tied the course record of -8 64 to move up 37 spots for a T13 at -11
T1 CASEY, Paul -16 18 -6 67 67 66 - 200
T1 HANSON, Peter -16 18 -5 66 67 67 - 200
T3 CLARKE, Darren -15 18 -5 69 65 67 - 201
T3 KINGSTON, James -15 18 -5 67 67 67 - 201
5 JIMÉNEZ, Miguel Angel -14 18 -3 68 65 69 - 202
T6 MANASSERO, Matteo* -13 18 -6 67 70 66 - 203
T6 EDFORS, Johan -13 18 -4 64 71 68 - 203
T6 GALLACHER, Stephen -13 18 -3 70 64 69 - 203
T9 MOLINARI, Francesco -12 18 -3 66 69 69 - 204
T9 NOREN, Alexander* -12 18 -5 67 70 67 - 204
T9 MOLINARI, Edoardo -12 18 -1 68 65 71 - 204
T9 HORSEY, David* -12 18 -7 69 70 65 - 204
PGA Tour
Play is under way at Torrey Pines and I can report that Tiger is +3 after 5 holes so far on today's round and Mike Weir who started on the 10th is a disastrous +5 through 7 holes... Recap to follow play
Bryan Angus
He has taken a share of the lead at -16 (66) with Sweden's Peter Hanson (67) who is battling the flu at the Volvo Golf Champions in Bahrain.
"It was fun," said Casey. "I had good control of the ball for the first time this week and drove it very nicely."It was only one shot lower than the first two days, but a lot more comfortable and probably should have been lower." He missed from under six feet on the last.
Remember he failed to retain his Ryder Cup spot last year, and went through the season without a win in either Europe or America.
They have a one stroke advantage over Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke (67) and South African James Kingston (67)
Jimenez has a new putter in the bag after snapping his yesterday and was 4 shots (69) worse with it..
Italy is having a great week in Bahrain with 17 year old Matteo Manassero T6 (66) at -13 and the Molinari's T9 at -12
Our Puma pal Johan Edfors is still in there T6 (68), Sergio dropped 22 spots to T33 (73), and Open Champion Todd Hamilton tied the course record of -8 64 to move up 37 spots for a T13 at -11
T1 CASEY, Paul -16 18 -6 67 67 66 - 200
T1 HANSON, Peter -16 18 -5 66 67 67 - 200
T3 CLARKE, Darren -15 18 -5 69 65 67 - 201
T3 KINGSTON, James -15 18 -5 67 67 67 - 201
5 JIMÉNEZ, Miguel Angel -14 18 -3 68 65 69 - 202
T6 MANASSERO, Matteo* -13 18 -6 67 70 66 - 203
T6 EDFORS, Johan -13 18 -4 64 71 68 - 203
T6 GALLACHER, Stephen -13 18 -3 70 64 69 - 203
T9 MOLINARI, Francesco -12 18 -3 66 69 69 - 204
T9 NOREN, Alexander* -12 18 -5 67 70 67 - 204
T9 MOLINARI, Edoardo -12 18 -1 68 65 71 - 204
T9 HORSEY, David* -12 18 -7 69 70 65 - 204
PGA Tour
Play is under way at Torrey Pines and I can report that Tiger is +3 after 5 holes so far on today's round and Mike Weir who started on the 10th is a disastrous +5 through 7 holes... Recap to follow play
Bryan Angus
Haas continues fine play to lead at Torrey Pines.. Weir makes the cut
Jhonattan Vegas got all the publicity last week when he won the Hope, but those keener's amongst you will remember he beat Gary Woodland and Bill Haas in the playoff.
Well Jhonny Vegas continues his fine play, he is T12 at -6 69 60 138 the same score incidentally as a certain Tiger Woods, but it is Jay's son Bill Haas to is atop the field by 2 shots as we go into the weekend, with a tightly packed leader board.
He is at -11 67 66 133. The son of former PGA TOUR player Jay Haas, he was a can't-miss kid out of Wake Forest who plodded along until winning twice last year.
Jay Haas won this tournament in 1978, so long ago that Gene Littler was a runner-up and the South Course was only 7,021 yards. In the modern era -- the South was lengthened to 7,698 yards to host the 2008 U.S. Open -- Bill Haas thrived. He ran off four straight birdies around the turn and dropped two shots on par 3s.
Nice to see Anthony Kim back in contention, now recovered from that debilitating thumb injury and with a new much more appreciative attitude. He was actually tied for the lead before dropping a couple on his back nine.
Mickelson, another of the story's this week made back-to-back birdies at the end of his round for a 3-under 69 on the North Course
John Daly, resplendent in electric lime green is in a group of 7 who are T3 -8 67 69 136.
Here's the synopsis of Tiger's round as much is being made of some shoddy bunker play..
Woods ran off four straight birdies early in his round and at one point was only three shots out of the lead. But he twice took two shots to get out of bunkers and was as many as eight shots behind until the final half-hour. He laced a 5-iron into 12 feet for birdie on the 16th, made a 20-foot par putt after a plugged lie in the face of a bunker on the 17th, then hit 5-wood from 248 yards over the water and onto the green on the par-5 18th, two-putting for birdie.
Of our Canucks only Mike Weir made the cut which fell at -1. His scores ..T58 -2 72 70 142, so he will get a paycheck this weekend as he strives to get full status via the money list. Remember he has this week then 3 others to make around $240,000, so though he won't win this weekend every shot goes towards that goal...
Chris Baryla 71 78 149
David Hearn 74 75 149
Stephen Ames 75 75 150
Matt McQuillan 74 77 151
1 4 -- Bill Haas (SC) -11 F* -6 67 66 133
2 13 -- Anthony Kim (SC) -9 F -5 68 67 135
T3 2 -- Fredrik Jacobson (SC) -8 F -3 67 69 136
T3 51 -- Bubba Watson (NC) -8 F* -7 71 65 136
T3 1 -- Rickie Fowler (SC) -8 F -1 65 71 136
T3 2 -- Phil Mickelson (NC) -8 F* -3 67 69 136
T3 2 -- John Daly (NC) -8 F* -3 67 69 136
T3 19 -- Hunter Mahan (NC) -8 F -5 69 67 136
T3 32 -- Ben Crane (NC) -8 F* -6 70 66 136
T10 12 -- Brian Davis (NC) -7 F -4 69 68 137
T10 6 -- Chris Kirk (SC) -7 F -1 66 71 137
T12 10 -- Dustin Johnson (NC) -6 F* -3 69 69 138
T12 10 -- Kevin Sutherland (NC) -6 F* -3 69 69 138
T12 10 -- Jhonattan Vegas (SC) -6 F -3 69 69 138
T12 10 -- Tiger Woods (SC) -6 F -3 69 69 138
T12 23 -- Brendan Steele (NC) -6 F* -4 70 68 138
EUROPEAN tour
Round 3 is well under way in Bahrain with the leaders two thirds of the way through their rounds and I can tell you the Swede Peter Hanson has a 2 shot lead, I will wrap this later this morning..
Bryan Angus ( research and some notes pgatour.com, europeantour.com)
Well Jhonny Vegas continues his fine play, he is T12 at -6 69 60 138 the same score incidentally as a certain Tiger Woods, but it is Jay's son Bill Haas to is atop the field by 2 shots as we go into the weekend, with a tightly packed leader board.
He is at -11 67 66 133. The son of former PGA TOUR player Jay Haas, he was a can't-miss kid out of Wake Forest who plodded along until winning twice last year.
Jay Haas won this tournament in 1978, so long ago that Gene Littler was a runner-up and the South Course was only 7,021 yards. In the modern era -- the South was lengthened to 7,698 yards to host the 2008 U.S. Open -- Bill Haas thrived. He ran off four straight birdies around the turn and dropped two shots on par 3s.
Nice to see Anthony Kim back in contention, now recovered from that debilitating thumb injury and with a new much more appreciative attitude. He was actually tied for the lead before dropping a couple on his back nine.
Mickelson, another of the story's this week made back-to-back birdies at the end of his round for a 3-under 69 on the North Course
John Daly, resplendent in electric lime green is in a group of 7 who are T3 -8 67 69 136.
Here's the synopsis of Tiger's round as much is being made of some shoddy bunker play..
Woods ran off four straight birdies early in his round and at one point was only three shots out of the lead. But he twice took two shots to get out of bunkers and was as many as eight shots behind until the final half-hour. He laced a 5-iron into 12 feet for birdie on the 16th, made a 20-foot par putt after a plugged lie in the face of a bunker on the 17th, then hit 5-wood from 248 yards over the water and onto the green on the par-5 18th, two-putting for birdie.
Of our Canucks only Mike Weir made the cut which fell at -1. His scores ..T58 -2 72 70 142, so he will get a paycheck this weekend as he strives to get full status via the money list. Remember he has this week then 3 others to make around $240,000, so though he won't win this weekend every shot goes towards that goal...
Chris Baryla 71 78 149
David Hearn 74 75 149
Stephen Ames 75 75 150
Matt McQuillan 74 77 151
1 4 -- Bill Haas (SC) -11 F* -6 67 66 133
2 13 -- Anthony Kim (SC) -9 F -5 68 67 135
T3 2 -- Fredrik Jacobson (SC) -8 F -3 67 69 136
T3 51 -- Bubba Watson (NC) -8 F* -7 71 65 136
T3 1 -- Rickie Fowler (SC) -8 F -1 65 71 136
T3 2 -- Phil Mickelson (NC) -8 F* -3 67 69 136
T3 2 -- John Daly (NC) -8 F* -3 67 69 136
T3 19 -- Hunter Mahan (NC) -8 F -5 69 67 136
T3 32 -- Ben Crane (NC) -8 F* -6 70 66 136
T10 12 -- Brian Davis (NC) -7 F -4 69 68 137
T10 6 -- Chris Kirk (SC) -7 F -1 66 71 137
T12 10 -- Dustin Johnson (NC) -6 F* -3 69 69 138
T12 10 -- Kevin Sutherland (NC) -6 F* -3 69 69 138
T12 10 -- Jhonattan Vegas (SC) -6 F -3 69 69 138
T12 10 -- Tiger Woods (SC) -6 F -3 69 69 138
T12 23 -- Brendan Steele (NC) -6 F* -4 70 68 138
EUROPEAN tour
Round 3 is well under way in Bahrain with the leaders two thirds of the way through their rounds and I can tell you the Swede Peter Hanson has a 2 shot lead, I will wrap this later this morning..
Bryan Angus ( research and some notes pgatour.com, europeantour.com)
Friday, January 28, 2011
Players torch the Royal Golf Club in Bahrain... Daly blasts the Hope and Pheonix..
Of the top 60 and ties that have made the cut at this Volvo Golf Champions only 3 players shot over par 72 and I have posted 17 who are within 3 shots of the lead and eight players are separated by a single shot as the field has torched this Colin Montgomerie designed course at the Royal Golf Club in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
4 are tied for the lead at -11 Edoardo Molinari 65, Raphael Jacquelin 65, Miguel Angel Jimenez 65, and Peter Hanson 67.
Jimenez, lost it for a moment, snapped his putter in two and still made birdies at 15,16 and 17 using his lob wedge to putt with.
Molinari, starting on the 10th, birdied his first 6 holes out in 30 back in 35 and by the way his brother Francesco is at -9 69, just 2 shots back
Darren Clarke is so determined to improve his putting, that he has made up his mind to sink 100 putts from 4 feet and under before he leaves the putting green every evening. It is paying off, he is T5 69 65 just a shot back
Still with the greens running at only 9 on the stimp meter and the cut falling to -2 the stroke average for the field is 71 and for the top 30 guys just 68.5..
T1 MOLINARI, Edoardo* -11 18 -7 68 65 - - 133
T1 JACQUELIN, Raphaël* -11 18 -7 68 65 - - 133
T1 JIMÉNEZ, Miguel Angel -11 18 -7 68 65 - - 133
T1 HANSON, Peter -11 18 -5 66 67 - - 133
T5 KINGSTON, James* -10 18 -5 67 67 - - 134
T5 GALLACHER, Stephen* -10 18 -8 70 64 - - 134
T5 CLARKE, Darren -10 18 -7 69 65 - - 134
T5 CASEY, Paul -10 18 -5 67 67 - - 134
T9 MOLINARI, Francesco* -9 18 -3 66 69 - - 135
T9 EDFORS, Johan -9 18 -1 64 71 - - 135
T11 HANSEN, Anders* -8 18 -4 68 68 - - 136
T11 STORM, Graeme* -8 18 -2 66 70 - - 136
T11 GONZALEZ, Ricardo -8 18 -7 71 65 - - 136
T11 GARCIA, Sergio -8 18 -3 67 69 - - 136
T11 QUIROS, Alvaro -8 18 -3 67 69 - - 136
T11 KARLSSON, Robert -8 18 -5 69 67 - - 136
T11 WEBSTER, Steve* -8 18 -4 68 68 - - 136
PGA Tour
Play is just under way at the Farmers Insurance Open at the 2 courses (North and tougher South) at Torrey Pines in San Diego and all 5 of our Canucks are off within this hour, all of them except Stephen Ames are on the South course.
For all you Tiger watchers he is off at 10am local time.. 1pm est.
Watch here for updates as the day unfolds but before it does I see that John Daly cut loose with the media after his 67 yesterday, slamming the Hope and the Pheonix Open for not giving him a sponsors exemption vowing never to play there again.
Now I am always rooting for JD, it's taken him a long time to grow up. I will say that I have reported and written countless times where he has been invited to play at an event where he has shot 75 then packed it in with an 88, missed the cut, made some half assed excuse before heading off to the sponsor's tent for a belly full of beer. The old addage is 'what goes around, comes around" ...
Here's part of that report..
Daly, a two-time major champion, has not won in seven years and has not had full PGA Tour status since 2006. He has been relying on sponsor exemptions or his status as a past champion. He already received two exemptions this year, to the Sony Open and to the Farmers Insurance Open, where he opened with a 67 on Thursday at Torrey Pines.
Daly was talking about his schedule for the year and that he hopes to get into the minimum 15 events. Without prompting, he went after two tournaments that didn't invite him.
“I'll tell you this — I'll never go back to the Hope, and I'll never go back to Phoenix, no matter what happens,” Daly said. “I won't even send letters anymore.”
Daly said he was bothered because the tournaments owed him for his past support.
“I'm just saying that if you look at my past, everything the Thunderbirds (at the Phoenix Open) have ever wanted me to do for 17, 16 years, I'm sure I did it for them,” he said. “I helped celebrities go to the Hope. I went to their parties and did everything for them.
“That's the kind of stuff that we all want our young players to do out there to help tournaments, and I felt like I did my part.
“It hurt me for those two tournaments not to give me spots,” he said. “So I'll go to Europe on those weeks.”
Most tournaments are allowed four exemptions they can give to any player, and there is competition for those spots each week. Daly was awarded an exemption to the Sony Open over Tom Lehman, Brad Faxon and Tadd Fujikawa, a crowd favourite in Honolulu.
Most players who get exemptions are expected to attend an additional pro-am or a cocktail party to support the sponsors.
When he first lost his card, Daly had so many offers to play that he had to turn down some invitations. That was in 2007. He has not finished higher than 188th on the PGA Tour money list since then.
Unlike some other players who have lost their cards and returned to Q-school to try to earn back full privileges — such as Billy Mayfair and David Duval — Daly has not tried the six-round tournament.
“I don't think right now I need to,” Daly said. “I feel my majors will still hopefully get me in 15 events each year. If not, I'll think about it. But for me to go to Q-school is just tough. I feel I don't really need to go that route yet because of the European Tour.”
Daly has European Tour privileges through his 1995 British Open win. He plans to go to the Qatar Masters next week, and somehow get in enough European events for full membership.
Bryan Angus
4 are tied for the lead at -11 Edoardo Molinari 65, Raphael Jacquelin 65, Miguel Angel Jimenez 65, and Peter Hanson 67.
Jimenez, lost it for a moment, snapped his putter in two and still made birdies at 15,16 and 17 using his lob wedge to putt with.
Molinari, starting on the 10th, birdied his first 6 holes out in 30 back in 35 and by the way his brother Francesco is at -9 69, just 2 shots back
Darren Clarke is so determined to improve his putting, that he has made up his mind to sink 100 putts from 4 feet and under before he leaves the putting green every evening. It is paying off, he is T5 69 65 just a shot back
Still with the greens running at only 9 on the stimp meter and the cut falling to -2 the stroke average for the field is 71 and for the top 30 guys just 68.5..
T1 MOLINARI, Edoardo* -11 18 -7 68 65 - - 133
T1 JACQUELIN, Raphaël* -11 18 -7 68 65 - - 133
T1 JIMÉNEZ, Miguel Angel -11 18 -7 68 65 - - 133
T1 HANSON, Peter -11 18 -5 66 67 - - 133
T5 KINGSTON, James* -10 18 -5 67 67 - - 134
T5 GALLACHER, Stephen* -10 18 -8 70 64 - - 134
T5 CLARKE, Darren -10 18 -7 69 65 - - 134
T5 CASEY, Paul -10 18 -5 67 67 - - 134
T9 MOLINARI, Francesco* -9 18 -3 66 69 - - 135
T9 EDFORS, Johan -9 18 -1 64 71 - - 135
T11 HANSEN, Anders* -8 18 -4 68 68 - - 136
T11 STORM, Graeme* -8 18 -2 66 70 - - 136
T11 GONZALEZ, Ricardo -8 18 -7 71 65 - - 136
T11 GARCIA, Sergio -8 18 -3 67 69 - - 136
T11 QUIROS, Alvaro -8 18 -3 67 69 - - 136
T11 KARLSSON, Robert -8 18 -5 69 67 - - 136
T11 WEBSTER, Steve* -8 18 -4 68 68 - - 136
PGA Tour
Play is just under way at the Farmers Insurance Open at the 2 courses (North and tougher South) at Torrey Pines in San Diego and all 5 of our Canucks are off within this hour, all of them except Stephen Ames are on the South course.
For all you Tiger watchers he is off at 10am local time.. 1pm est.
Watch here for updates as the day unfolds but before it does I see that John Daly cut loose with the media after his 67 yesterday, slamming the Hope and the Pheonix Open for not giving him a sponsors exemption vowing never to play there again.
Now I am always rooting for JD, it's taken him a long time to grow up. I will say that I have reported and written countless times where he has been invited to play at an event where he has shot 75 then packed it in with an 88, missed the cut, made some half assed excuse before heading off to the sponsor's tent for a belly full of beer. The old addage is 'what goes around, comes around" ...
Here's part of that report..
Daly, a two-time major champion, has not won in seven years and has not had full PGA Tour status since 2006. He has been relying on sponsor exemptions or his status as a past champion. He already received two exemptions this year, to the Sony Open and to the Farmers Insurance Open, where he opened with a 67 on Thursday at Torrey Pines.
Daly was talking about his schedule for the year and that he hopes to get into the minimum 15 events. Without prompting, he went after two tournaments that didn't invite him.
“I'll tell you this — I'll never go back to the Hope, and I'll never go back to Phoenix, no matter what happens,” Daly said. “I won't even send letters anymore.”
Daly said he was bothered because the tournaments owed him for his past support.
“I'm just saying that if you look at my past, everything the Thunderbirds (at the Phoenix Open) have ever wanted me to do for 17, 16 years, I'm sure I did it for them,” he said. “I helped celebrities go to the Hope. I went to their parties and did everything for them.
“That's the kind of stuff that we all want our young players to do out there to help tournaments, and I felt like I did my part.
“It hurt me for those two tournaments not to give me spots,” he said. “So I'll go to Europe on those weeks.”
Most tournaments are allowed four exemptions they can give to any player, and there is competition for those spots each week. Daly was awarded an exemption to the Sony Open over Tom Lehman, Brad Faxon and Tadd Fujikawa, a crowd favourite in Honolulu.
Most players who get exemptions are expected to attend an additional pro-am or a cocktail party to support the sponsors.
When he first lost his card, Daly had so many offers to play that he had to turn down some invitations. That was in 2007. He has not finished higher than 188th on the PGA Tour money list since then.
Unlike some other players who have lost their cards and returned to Q-school to try to earn back full privileges — such as Billy Mayfair and David Duval — Daly has not tried the six-round tournament.
“I don't think right now I need to,” Daly said. “I feel my majors will still hopefully get me in 15 events each year. If not, I'll think about it. But for me to go to Q-school is just tough. I feel I don't really need to go that route yet because of the European Tour.”
Daly has European Tour privileges through his 1995 British Open win. He plans to go to the Qatar Masters next week, and somehow get in enough European events for full membership.
Bryan Angus
Rookie Korean sensation leads at Torrey Pines
On a day when all eyes were on Tiger Woods and to a certain extent Phil Mickelson it was the youth movement led by 24 year old Korean rookie Sunghoon Kang who stole the show on a beautiful day for golf along the southern California coastline.
Kang, who finished T16 at 2010 PGA tour Q School and was Rookie of the Year on the Korean tour last year shot a -8, 64 in his third career round on the PGA TOUR. Kang, who turned 24 on January 4, was -4 on the par-5s and he threw in an eagle chip in on 14.
This course, all the par 5s are reachable, so I really tried to keep to the fairways and it worked really well," Kang said. "And I really had a good chance on the par 5s. That's why I played very well today."
I mentioned the youth movement and yesterday I wrote about Puma getting a bang for their buck with Johan Edfors wearing their cap as he leads in Bahrain, well it was another of their stars Rickie Fowler who was voted the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year in 2010 and Alex Prugh who are second at -7 65 then Chris Kirk -6 66 who finished second on the Nationwide Tour last year
Nice to see John Daly in at -5 67 T5. Remember his playoff win in 2004, then his meltdown a year ago after he missed the cutafter rounds of 79-71, and told everyone that he was done.
Phil Mickelson is also in T5 67 -5
Tiger is T22 -3 69 no bogey's 3 birdies, no fireworks.
Nothing remarkable from our Canucks either..
Chris Baryla T54 -1 71
Mike Weir T77 E 72
David Hearn T113 +2 74
Matt McQuillan T113 +2 74
Stephen Ames T124 +3 75
As for last weeks big story Jhonattan Vegas.. He is also T22 like Tiger at -3 69, but yesterday he was already the forgotten man, as was everyone for that matter, as expected all that mattered to the media was Tiger...
More of the same to follow later today..
1 4 Sunghoon Kang (NC) -8 F* -8 64 64
T2 8 Alex Prugh (NC) -7 F -7 65 65
T2 13 Rickie Fowler (NC) -7 F* -7 65 65
4 10 Chris Kirk (NC) -6 F* -6 66 66
T5 52 John Daly (SC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 29 Brandt Jobe (NC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 5 Bill Haas (NC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 18 Keegan Bradley (NC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 46 Fabian Gomez (SC) -5 F* -5 67 67
T5 32 Ryuji Imada (NC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 21 Fredrik Jacobson (NC) -5 F* -5 67 67
T5 52 Y.E. Yang (NC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 52 Phil Mickelson (SC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 27 Marc Leishman (NC) -5 F* -5 67 67
Bryan Angus
Kang, who finished T16 at 2010 PGA tour Q School and was Rookie of the Year on the Korean tour last year shot a -8, 64 in his third career round on the PGA TOUR. Kang, who turned 24 on January 4, was -4 on the par-5s and he threw in an eagle chip in on 14.
This course, all the par 5s are reachable, so I really tried to keep to the fairways and it worked really well," Kang said. "And I really had a good chance on the par 5s. That's why I played very well today."
I mentioned the youth movement and yesterday I wrote about Puma getting a bang for their buck with Johan Edfors wearing their cap as he leads in Bahrain, well it was another of their stars Rickie Fowler who was voted the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year in 2010 and Alex Prugh who are second at -7 65 then Chris Kirk -6 66 who finished second on the Nationwide Tour last year
Nice to see John Daly in at -5 67 T5. Remember his playoff win in 2004, then his meltdown a year ago after he missed the cutafter rounds of 79-71, and told everyone that he was done.
Phil Mickelson is also in T5 67 -5
Tiger is T22 -3 69 no bogey's 3 birdies, no fireworks.
Nothing remarkable from our Canucks either..
Chris Baryla T54 -1 71
Mike Weir T77 E 72
David Hearn T113 +2 74
Matt McQuillan T113 +2 74
Stephen Ames T124 +3 75
As for last weeks big story Jhonattan Vegas.. He is also T22 like Tiger at -3 69, but yesterday he was already the forgotten man, as was everyone for that matter, as expected all that mattered to the media was Tiger...
More of the same to follow later today..
1 4 Sunghoon Kang (NC) -8 F* -8 64 64
T2 8 Alex Prugh (NC) -7 F -7 65 65
T2 13 Rickie Fowler (NC) -7 F* -7 65 65
4 10 Chris Kirk (NC) -6 F* -6 66 66
T5 52 John Daly (SC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 29 Brandt Jobe (NC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 5 Bill Haas (NC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 18 Keegan Bradley (NC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 46 Fabian Gomez (SC) -5 F* -5 67 67
T5 32 Ryuji Imada (NC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 21 Fredrik Jacobson (NC) -5 F* -5 67 67
T5 52 Y.E. Yang (NC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 52 Phil Mickelson (SC) -5 F -5 67 67
T5 27 Marc Leishman (NC) -5 F* -5 67 67
Bryan Angus
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Puma getting a bang for their buck in Bahrain !!
Ok what do Lexi Thompson, Anna Nordqvist, Rickie Fowler and Johan Edfors have in common ??
Yes they are all golfers and they are all sponsored by the company with the wildest hats on tour right now, Puma who are really getting a bang for their sponsorship bucks these days with Fowler starting 2011 as the reigning PGA tour Rookie of the Year, and now Johan Edfors who hasn't won since 2006 setting a new course record to lead this Volvo Golf Champions by 2 shots, all with the trademark big blue puma leaping across his over sized white cap
Apart from John Daly's clothing sponsored by Loudmouth Pants ( note they haven't caught on with any other pro golfers ) Puma also a newcomer to golf have hit on an idea for their hats that are fun, bright and unmistakable.. Here is their promo slogan..
PUMA is here to give golf tradition a fashionably shod kick in the back nine
I have been watching some of this on the Golf Channel this morning, and when you watch Edfors ( newly married at 35) play I wonder why he hasn't won in over 100 events since 2006. His game seems sound and complete. "I think I am a lot better player than five years ago, but the results have not really shown that," he said. He had 9 birdies, just one bogey to beat the Montgomerie Course record of 65.
Following Edfors are Peter Hanson, his Ryder Cup team-mate Francesco Molinari, England's Graeme Storm and Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal.
Sergio Garcia is just one further back after a bogey-free start to his season and Paul Casey the highest-ranked player in the field at ninth in the world - also shot 67.
Paddy Harrington is T36 -2 70 and Ian Poulter T67 E 72. Monty who is also at E,72 had a triple bogey 7 on the very course he designed
1 EDFORS, Johan* -8 18 -8 64 - - - 64
T2 LARRAZÁBAL, Pablo -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T2 HANSON, Peter* -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T2 MOLINARI, Francesco -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T2 STORM, Graeme -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T6 NOREN, Alexander -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 KINGSTON, James -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 GREEN, Richard* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 GARCIA, Sergio* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 QUIROS, Alvaro* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 MANASSERO, Matteo* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 CASEY, Paul* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 SINGH, Jeev Milkha* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
PGA tour
Play is underway at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open and yes Tiger made par on his first hole, #10 on the NC.
Remember we have 5 Canucks in the field and I will update you with all the scores later.
Bryan Angus
Yes they are all golfers and they are all sponsored by the company with the wildest hats on tour right now, Puma who are really getting a bang for their sponsorship bucks these days with Fowler starting 2011 as the reigning PGA tour Rookie of the Year, and now Johan Edfors who hasn't won since 2006 setting a new course record to lead this Volvo Golf Champions by 2 shots, all with the trademark big blue puma leaping across his over sized white cap
Apart from John Daly's clothing sponsored by Loudmouth Pants ( note they haven't caught on with any other pro golfers ) Puma also a newcomer to golf have hit on an idea for their hats that are fun, bright and unmistakable.. Here is their promo slogan..
PUMA is here to give golf tradition a fashionably shod kick in the back nine
I have been watching some of this on the Golf Channel this morning, and when you watch Edfors ( newly married at 35) play I wonder why he hasn't won in over 100 events since 2006. His game seems sound and complete. "I think I am a lot better player than five years ago, but the results have not really shown that," he said. He had 9 birdies, just one bogey to beat the Montgomerie Course record of 65.
Following Edfors are Peter Hanson, his Ryder Cup team-mate Francesco Molinari, England's Graeme Storm and Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal.
Sergio Garcia is just one further back after a bogey-free start to his season and Paul Casey the highest-ranked player in the field at ninth in the world - also shot 67.
Paddy Harrington is T36 -2 70 and Ian Poulter T67 E 72. Monty who is also at E,72 had a triple bogey 7 on the very course he designed
1 EDFORS, Johan* -8 18 -8 64 - - - 64
T2 LARRAZÁBAL, Pablo -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T2 HANSON, Peter* -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T2 MOLINARI, Francesco -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T2 STORM, Graeme -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T6 NOREN, Alexander -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 KINGSTON, James -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 GREEN, Richard* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 GARCIA, Sergio* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 QUIROS, Alvaro* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 MANASSERO, Matteo* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 CASEY, Paul* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 SINGH, Jeev Milkha* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
PGA tour
Play is underway at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open and yes Tiger made par on his first hole, #10 on the NC.
Remember we have 5 Canucks in the field and I will update you with all the scores later.
Bryan Angus
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tiger returns to Torrey Pines..Euro Tour visits the Kingdom of Bahrain
PGA tour
Farmers Insurance Open
Thursday Jan 27 – Sunday Jan 30, 2011
Torrey Pines Golf Course · La Jolla, Calif.
Purse: $5.8 million Winning Share: $954,000
Defending Champion Ben Crane
Canucks . Weir, Baryla, Hearn, Ames, McQuillan
All eyes will be on the 10th tee, North Course on Thursday where Tiger and Rocco will be together again at Torrey Pines as they begin their 2011 season. I wrote my thoughts yesterday on Tigers return ( New world order adds spice to Tiger's return) but I can say his coach Sean Foley has indicated that Tiger has come a long way in practice and that he expects a great year from him and Sean is in San Diego to be with Tiger, Stephen Ames and Hunter Mahan... Remember the duel that Rocco and Tiger had in their Monday playoff thatdecided the 2008 U.S. Open... Funny how they got paired together isn't it >>
The other story here is the appearance of Jhonattan Vegas after his historic win last week and he is paired with Charley Hoffman who is a San Diego native who has played this course often and Nick Watney who won at Torrey Pines in 2009. .
Of our 5 Canucks David Hearn is stuck in a group with Tommy Gainey and Zack Miller right behind Tiger
Mike Weir, now down to 4 events to make his $228,000 is on the 10th tee North Course with Kenny Perry and John Rollins and Matt McQuillan is just 2 groups behind him
Chris Baryla is also on the North Course but off the first tee
Sean Foley has 2 of his clients Stephen Ames and Hunter Mahan paired together on the 10th tee South Course
EUROPEAN Tour
Volvo Golf Champions
27-30 January
The Royal Golf Club,Kingdom of Bahrain,Bahrain
€1,700,000
For the first time in the history of The European Tour, The Middle East in 2011 will be hosting five tournaments in a single season. They are: Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, Volvo Golf Champions, Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy, Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the Dubai World Championship presented by DP World
"These are incredibly exciting times for European golf and for The European Tour and to have a brand new event in the Middle East at a time when the sponsorship market is very tough indeed is clear evidence that our golf circuit is in great shape, on and off the golf course.” said new Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal and when you think about it what a mecca the middle east has become for this tour when you consider the recession that is still ravaging the world, including the USA...... and what a wonderful sponsor Volvo is, in fact they have just announced a new venue for their event in China....
Here is the announcement of yet another strong area of golf growth for this tour..
The 17th edition of the Volvo China Open will see China's oldest professional golf event move to an iconic new destination with a prize fund increase of 20 per cent.
Luxehills International Country Club, in the historic city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, south west China, will host the event, which has a new date of April 21-24.
There will also be a new prize fund of RMB 20 million (approx. US$ 3million), which is up 20 per cent on 2010.
Per Ericsson, President, Volvo Event Management – Golf, said: “These are three major building blocks in the next stage of our vision for the Volvo China Open and takes the national open golf championship of China, golf’s fastest-growing market onto a new level of prestige and significance in the world of golf.”
This week it is the Kingdom of Bahrain where the big boys are taking the week off ( Westwood, Kaymer and McDowell )
The Kingdom of Bahrain is a group of 33 islands located just off the eastern coastline of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. The largest island is Bahrain Island ruled by King HAMAD bin Isa Al-Khalifa
Modern causeways connect the four main islands, and all are connected to Saudi Arabia by the 16-mile-long King Fahd Causeway. Similar to numerous other Arab states, Bahrain had a long relationship with the United Kingdom, until declaring its independence in 1971. It joined the United Nations that very year.
Leading the way are seven men from the top 30 of the Official World Golf Ranking – Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Francesco Molinari, Robert Karlsson, Edoardo Molinari, Miguel Angel Jiménez and Padraig Harrington
Sergio Garcia makes his return, and sounds refreshed and interested in playing golf again. Garcia took a brief break from the game after the US PGA Championship last year and has slipped down to World Number 80, a long way from when he was World Number Two a little under two years ago
I wonder if he will ever recover his confidence completely. Remember 2007 when he lost the Players to Mickelson then the real crusher when he seemed in command at the Open at Carnoustie until that 12 footer on the 72nd lipped out and he lost in the playoff to Paddy Harrington, who cruelly beat him again the next year at the PGA followed by Vijay snatching the Barclay's out of his hand at the end of the year just to add insult to injury
He's never been the same since, so like Tiger we will watch with interest.
CHAMPIONS Tour
Jan. 28 - 30 Champions Skins Game #
Royal Kaanapali Golf Course, Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii
Purse: $770,000*
Jack Nicklaus,
Tom Watson (D)
$175,000
pgatour.com...Two of the greatest performers in sports -- Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson -- will defend their title against fellow Hall of Fame members and major championship winners as the 24th Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game returns to the beautiful island of Maui, Hawaii and the Royal Ka'anapali Golf Course Jan. 29-30, 2011.
If the dynamic twosome of Nicklaus and Watson are not enough, this year's field also includes three more Hall of Fame members Ben Crenshaw, Bernhard Langer and Nick Price. In addition, three of golf's most recognized personalities and multiple major championship winners Fred Couples, Mark O'Meara and Fuzzy Zoeller will compete.
For the sixth consecutive year, the players will compete in the alternate-shot, team format which has produced memorable shots
Bryan Angus ( research and notes from pgatour.com, europeantour.com, CIA the world fact book..)
Farmers Insurance Open
Thursday Jan 27 – Sunday Jan 30, 2011
Torrey Pines Golf Course · La Jolla, Calif.
Purse: $5.8 million Winning Share: $954,000
Defending Champion Ben Crane
Canucks . Weir, Baryla, Hearn, Ames, McQuillan
All eyes will be on the 10th tee, North Course on Thursday where Tiger and Rocco will be together again at Torrey Pines as they begin their 2011 season. I wrote my thoughts yesterday on Tigers return ( New world order adds spice to Tiger's return) but I can say his coach Sean Foley has indicated that Tiger has come a long way in practice and that he expects a great year from him and Sean is in San Diego to be with Tiger, Stephen Ames and Hunter Mahan... Remember the duel that Rocco and Tiger had in their Monday playoff thatdecided the 2008 U.S. Open... Funny how they got paired together isn't it >>
The other story here is the appearance of Jhonattan Vegas after his historic win last week and he is paired with Charley Hoffman who is a San Diego native who has played this course often and Nick Watney who won at Torrey Pines in 2009. .
Of our 5 Canucks David Hearn is stuck in a group with Tommy Gainey and Zack Miller right behind Tiger
Mike Weir, now down to 4 events to make his $228,000 is on the 10th tee North Course with Kenny Perry and John Rollins and Matt McQuillan is just 2 groups behind him
Chris Baryla is also on the North Course but off the first tee
Sean Foley has 2 of his clients Stephen Ames and Hunter Mahan paired together on the 10th tee South Course
EUROPEAN Tour
Volvo Golf Champions
27-30 January
The Royal Golf Club,Kingdom of Bahrain,Bahrain
€1,700,000
For the first time in the history of The European Tour, The Middle East in 2011 will be hosting five tournaments in a single season. They are: Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, Volvo Golf Champions, Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy, Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the Dubai World Championship presented by DP World
"These are incredibly exciting times for European golf and for The European Tour and to have a brand new event in the Middle East at a time when the sponsorship market is very tough indeed is clear evidence that our golf circuit is in great shape, on and off the golf course.” said new Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal and when you think about it what a mecca the middle east has become for this tour when you consider the recession that is still ravaging the world, including the USA...... and what a wonderful sponsor Volvo is, in fact they have just announced a new venue for their event in China....
Here is the announcement of yet another strong area of golf growth for this tour..
The 17th edition of the Volvo China Open will see China's oldest professional golf event move to an iconic new destination with a prize fund increase of 20 per cent.
Luxehills International Country Club, in the historic city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, south west China, will host the event, which has a new date of April 21-24.
There will also be a new prize fund of RMB 20 million (approx. US$ 3million), which is up 20 per cent on 2010.
Per Ericsson, President, Volvo Event Management – Golf, said: “These are three major building blocks in the next stage of our vision for the Volvo China Open and takes the national open golf championship of China, golf’s fastest-growing market onto a new level of prestige and significance in the world of golf.”
This week it is the Kingdom of Bahrain where the big boys are taking the week off ( Westwood, Kaymer and McDowell )
The Kingdom of Bahrain is a group of 33 islands located just off the eastern coastline of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. The largest island is Bahrain Island ruled by King HAMAD bin Isa Al-Khalifa
Modern causeways connect the four main islands, and all are connected to Saudi Arabia by the 16-mile-long King Fahd Causeway. Similar to numerous other Arab states, Bahrain had a long relationship with the United Kingdom, until declaring its independence in 1971. It joined the United Nations that very year.
Leading the way are seven men from the top 30 of the Official World Golf Ranking – Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Francesco Molinari, Robert Karlsson, Edoardo Molinari, Miguel Angel Jiménez and Padraig Harrington
Sergio Garcia makes his return, and sounds refreshed and interested in playing golf again. Garcia took a brief break from the game after the US PGA Championship last year and has slipped down to World Number 80, a long way from when he was World Number Two a little under two years ago
I wonder if he will ever recover his confidence completely. Remember 2007 when he lost the Players to Mickelson then the real crusher when he seemed in command at the Open at Carnoustie until that 12 footer on the 72nd lipped out and he lost in the playoff to Paddy Harrington, who cruelly beat him again the next year at the PGA followed by Vijay snatching the Barclay's out of his hand at the end of the year just to add insult to injury
He's never been the same since, so like Tiger we will watch with interest.
CHAMPIONS Tour
Jan. 28 - 30 Champions Skins Game #
Royal Kaanapali Golf Course, Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii
Purse: $770,000*
Jack Nicklaus,
Tom Watson (D)
$175,000
pgatour.com...Two of the greatest performers in sports -- Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson -- will defend their title against fellow Hall of Fame members and major championship winners as the 24th Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game returns to the beautiful island of Maui, Hawaii and the Royal Ka'anapali Golf Course Jan. 29-30, 2011.
If the dynamic twosome of Nicklaus and Watson are not enough, this year's field also includes three more Hall of Fame members Ben Crenshaw, Bernhard Langer and Nick Price. In addition, three of golf's most recognized personalities and multiple major championship winners Fred Couples, Mark O'Meara and Fuzzy Zoeller will compete.
For the sixth consecutive year, the players will compete in the alternate-shot, team format which has produced memorable shots
Bryan Angus ( research and notes from pgatour.com, europeantour.com, CIA the world fact book..)
Monday, January 24, 2011
New links venue for Scottish Open makes perfect sense..
For the last 15 years the Scottish Open has been played on the beautiful course at Loch Lomond..
Problem is that course is a lush parkland track, not the type of course you want to play to hone your skills for the Open the week following..
So the announcement today that they have selected a new Highland links venue for this year is a welcome one in my books and I think it will attract a much stronger field, since many of the guys go and play on links courses in Ireland instead of the Scottish because of it's previous venue at Loch Lomond
CASTLE STUART GOLF LINKS TO STAGE THE 2011 BARCLAYS SCOTTISH OPEN
The European Tour has entered into an agreement with Castle Stuart Golf Links, situated between Inverness and Nairn on Scotland’s Moray Firth coast, which has been confirmed as the venue for the Barclays Scottish Open. The 2011 Championship will be played from July 7-10.
Castle Stuart Golf Links will be the seventh Scottish course to play host to the prestigious tournament since 1972; following in the footsteps of Downfield, St Andrews, Haggs Castle, The Gleneagles Hotel, Carnoustie and Loch Lomond Golf Club, which staged proceedings over the last 15 years from 1996 to 2010.
The ground breaking trip to the Highlands also begins a two week festival of links golf which spans the entire length of the United Kingdom, as it is followed by The 140th Open Championship at Royal St George’s in Kent, England; the fortnight perfectly showcasing the best of what is new in links golf at Castle Stuart as well as celebrating the heritage of the links game at Sandwich.
The prize fund for the 2011 Barclays Scottish Open remains at £3 million and to claim the first prize of £500,000, the players will have to conquer a new golf course which has received worldwide praise since its official opening in the summer of 2009.
Co-designed by Managing Partner Mark Parsinen – who was also responsible for the design of Kingsbarns in Fife – and American golf course architect Gil Hanse, the course was voted as Best New Course for 2009 by Golf Magazine USA while Ron Whitten, writing in the December 2010 issue of Golf Digest USA, stated that “Castle Stuart might be the most perfectly conceived and executed design ever built.”
Italian Edoardo Molinari will defend the title against a stellar field including Graeme McDowell, the 2008 champion, and Phil Mickelson, winners of the US Open and the Masters Tournament respectively in 2010, and three time Major Champion Padraig Harrington, who have all, at this early stage, committed to playing at Castle Stuart in July (see Player Quotes in Note to Editors).
Course co-designer Parsinen commented: "I fell in love with links golf in the British Isles 40 years ago and have spent the past 15 honing certain links sensibilities, firstly with the crafting of Kingsbarns in St Andrews and now with Castle Stuart in the Highlands.
“All of us involved with Castle Stuart know what a privilege it is to host the Barclays Scottish Open as the first stop in a two week celebration of links golf in the British Isles."
“We have always received requests from professionals to host the Barclays Scottish Open at a links course and we are delighted The European Tour has selected Castle Stuart.
Bryan Angus
Problem is that course is a lush parkland track, not the type of course you want to play to hone your skills for the Open the week following..
So the announcement today that they have selected a new Highland links venue for this year is a welcome one in my books and I think it will attract a much stronger field, since many of the guys go and play on links courses in Ireland instead of the Scottish because of it's previous venue at Loch Lomond
CASTLE STUART GOLF LINKS TO STAGE THE 2011 BARCLAYS SCOTTISH OPEN
The European Tour has entered into an agreement with Castle Stuart Golf Links, situated between Inverness and Nairn on Scotland’s Moray Firth coast, which has been confirmed as the venue for the Barclays Scottish Open. The 2011 Championship will be played from July 7-10.
Castle Stuart Golf Links will be the seventh Scottish course to play host to the prestigious tournament since 1972; following in the footsteps of Downfield, St Andrews, Haggs Castle, The Gleneagles Hotel, Carnoustie and Loch Lomond Golf Club, which staged proceedings over the last 15 years from 1996 to 2010.
The ground breaking trip to the Highlands also begins a two week festival of links golf which spans the entire length of the United Kingdom, as it is followed by The 140th Open Championship at Royal St George’s in Kent, England; the fortnight perfectly showcasing the best of what is new in links golf at Castle Stuart as well as celebrating the heritage of the links game at Sandwich.
The prize fund for the 2011 Barclays Scottish Open remains at £3 million and to claim the first prize of £500,000, the players will have to conquer a new golf course which has received worldwide praise since its official opening in the summer of 2009.
Co-designed by Managing Partner Mark Parsinen – who was also responsible for the design of Kingsbarns in Fife – and American golf course architect Gil Hanse, the course was voted as Best New Course for 2009 by Golf Magazine USA while Ron Whitten, writing in the December 2010 issue of Golf Digest USA, stated that “Castle Stuart might be the most perfectly conceived and executed design ever built.”
Italian Edoardo Molinari will defend the title against a stellar field including Graeme McDowell, the 2008 champion, and Phil Mickelson, winners of the US Open and the Masters Tournament respectively in 2010, and three time Major Champion Padraig Harrington, who have all, at this early stage, committed to playing at Castle Stuart in July (see Player Quotes in Note to Editors).
Course co-designer Parsinen commented: "I fell in love with links golf in the British Isles 40 years ago and have spent the past 15 honing certain links sensibilities, firstly with the crafting of Kingsbarns in St Andrews and now with Castle Stuart in the Highlands.
“All of us involved with Castle Stuart know what a privilege it is to host the Barclays Scottish Open as the first stop in a two week celebration of links golf in the British Isles."
“We have always received requests from professionals to host the Barclays Scottish Open at a links course and we are delighted The European Tour has selected Castle Stuart.
Bryan Angus
New World order adds spice to Tiger's return
For many of you the return of Tiger Woods to competitive golf this week at Torrey Pines (was originally called "The Andy Williams San Diego Open Invitational " back in 1968 when Tom Weiskopf won the first one, it's now on it's 9th title " The Farmers Insurance Open" ) will be the first time you pay any attention to golf in 2011, it isn't of any interest to many of you unless Tiger is playing...
No number of great stories, like Jhonattan Vegas overcoming the odds to become the first Venezuelan to win on the PGA tour to qualify for the Masters, or Martin Kaymer's stunning 8 shot win over a world class field in Abu Dhabi etc etc are of any interest, just Tiger.
For those of you who read all my stuff or listen to me on the radio you will know that I say there is good and bad in that. Good that Tiger draws attention from all fans to our sport, bad that our sport does not matter unless Tiger is playing and you know that my stance is that is bad for golf now and in the long run.
However the recent well documented change in power in world golf from the PGA tour to the European tour and the emergence of the best players in the world from that tour has only added spice to the ballyhoo you will experience with Tiger's return on Thursday.
It was of great enough interest to see how he is driving it, pitching and putting it, especially on 2 courses and in a tournament he has won 6 times, but more importantly now he has a mountain to climb.
No longer does he strike fear into the heart of the rest of the field, in fact at times last year there was empathy from his fellow pros, many of whom like Martin Kaymer this weekend still call him "the greatest player in the world"
No longer does he command our unmitigated respect and admiration for him as a man and all he stood for as his all too human personal life and his gradual recovery from it unravels in front of us.
No longer is he #1 or #2 in the world and guys he is not even close to being #3 or even #53..
Here are some facts from 2010.. Driving Accuracy 165th, GIR 167th, Scoring Average 138th, Sand Saves 123rd, Total Driving 192nd, Putts per round 58th, GIR fron fairway bunkers 149th, Total Eagles 122nd, Total Birdies 184th, Money List 68th etc etc..
Any of that sound like a world #3 ? In 2009 he was 1st in many of these categories.. How far his game has fallen.
Here is the new top 10 in the world
1 Lee Westwood, Eng 8.69 399.85 46 -25.10 0.00
2 Martin Kaymer, Deu 8.09 388.43 48 -23.37 56.00
3 Tiger Woods, USA 7.13 285.03 40 -30.23 0.00
4 Graeme McDowell, Nir 6.42 359.24 56 -13.85 39.60
5 Steve Stricker, USA 6.02 258.94 43 -23.84 19.98
6 Phil Mickelson, USA 5.99 263.63 44 -26.57 2.02
7 Rory McIlroy, Nir 5.93 319.96 54 -21.41 33.60
8 Jim Furyk, USA 5.65 271.04 48 -21.99 7.00
9 Paul Casey, Eng 5.63 247.73 44 -21.51 3.92
10 Luke Donald, Eng
None of them except for Phil Mickelson are in the field this week ( incidentally all 5 of our Canucks are ) and we won't see Tiger up against the likes of McDowell, Kaymer or Westwood for 3 weeks when he goes to the middle east to play in Dubai. After that, they come over to play in the WGC Matchplay in late February or the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral in the 2nd week of March when the European tour guys start their run over here for the Masters..
Remember how Graeme McDowell stuffed Tiger right in his own Chevron tournament late last year.!!
You see he has a mountain to climb now, and with the new world order it is going to be fascinating to watch him climb it, or fall on his arse trying...
Note : Congratulations are in order to Rod Spittle our Canuck on the Champions Tour for his T16 at the Mitsubishi in Hawaii... John Cook birdied 5 holes in a row to beat Tom Lehman., and to Dion Sirianni of Kamloops who tied for 25th place at the Asian Tour’s qualifying tournament in Thailand on Saturday to earn full playing privileges for 2011
No number of great stories, like Jhonattan Vegas overcoming the odds to become the first Venezuelan to win on the PGA tour to qualify for the Masters, or Martin Kaymer's stunning 8 shot win over a world class field in Abu Dhabi etc etc are of any interest, just Tiger.
For those of you who read all my stuff or listen to me on the radio you will know that I say there is good and bad in that. Good that Tiger draws attention from all fans to our sport, bad that our sport does not matter unless Tiger is playing and you know that my stance is that is bad for golf now and in the long run.
However the recent well documented change in power in world golf from the PGA tour to the European tour and the emergence of the best players in the world from that tour has only added spice to the ballyhoo you will experience with Tiger's return on Thursday.
It was of great enough interest to see how he is driving it, pitching and putting it, especially on 2 courses and in a tournament he has won 6 times, but more importantly now he has a mountain to climb.
No longer does he strike fear into the heart of the rest of the field, in fact at times last year there was empathy from his fellow pros, many of whom like Martin Kaymer this weekend still call him "the greatest player in the world"
No longer does he command our unmitigated respect and admiration for him as a man and all he stood for as his all too human personal life and his gradual recovery from it unravels in front of us.
No longer is he #1 or #2 in the world and guys he is not even close to being #3 or even #53..
Here are some facts from 2010.. Driving Accuracy 165th, GIR 167th, Scoring Average 138th, Sand Saves 123rd, Total Driving 192nd, Putts per round 58th, GIR fron fairway bunkers 149th, Total Eagles 122nd, Total Birdies 184th, Money List 68th etc etc..
Any of that sound like a world #3 ? In 2009 he was 1st in many of these categories.. How far his game has fallen.
Here is the new top 10 in the world
1 Lee Westwood, Eng 8.69 399.85 46 -25.10 0.00
2 Martin Kaymer, Deu 8.09 388.43 48 -23.37 56.00
3 Tiger Woods, USA 7.13 285.03 40 -30.23 0.00
4 Graeme McDowell, Nir 6.42 359.24 56 -13.85 39.60
5 Steve Stricker, USA 6.02 258.94 43 -23.84 19.98
6 Phil Mickelson, USA 5.99 263.63 44 -26.57 2.02
7 Rory McIlroy, Nir 5.93 319.96 54 -21.41 33.60
8 Jim Furyk, USA 5.65 271.04 48 -21.99 7.00
9 Paul Casey, Eng 5.63 247.73 44 -21.51 3.92
10 Luke Donald, Eng
None of them except for Phil Mickelson are in the field this week ( incidentally all 5 of our Canucks are ) and we won't see Tiger up against the likes of McDowell, Kaymer or Westwood for 3 weeks when he goes to the middle east to play in Dubai. After that, they come over to play in the WGC Matchplay in late February or the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral in the 2nd week of March when the European tour guys start their run over here for the Masters..
Remember how Graeme McDowell stuffed Tiger right in his own Chevron tournament late last year.!!
You see he has a mountain to climb now, and with the new world order it is going to be fascinating to watch him climb it, or fall on his arse trying...
Note : Congratulations are in order to Rod Spittle our Canuck on the Champions Tour for his T16 at the Mitsubishi in Hawaii... John Cook birdied 5 holes in a row to beat Tom Lehman., and to Dion Sirianni of Kamloops who tied for 25th place at the Asian Tour’s qualifying tournament in Thailand on Saturday to earn full playing privileges for 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Kaymer's clinic in Abu Dhabi moves him to #2 in the World...Shootout in store at the Hope..
Martin Kaymer still considers Tiger Woods the best player in the world and said of being ahead of him in the rankings: "Hopefully I can stay there for a while."
Typically modest of this 25 year old German superstar who has just decimated a very strong field to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship for the 3rd time in a row, they'll need a new trophy next year because he gets to keep this one.
He shot 66,66 this weekend for a record breaking -24 264 total, eight shots clear of Rory McIlroy who had a 65,69 ( -16 total) weekend of his own !! Retief Goosen (64) and who else, Graeme McDowell (67) were T3 at -14.
Kaymer did not have a single bogey in his final 60 holes..Of his last 18 rounds 15 have been in the 60's.. He becomes the quickest player to earn over €10 million in European Tour Official Career Earnings, in just 100 events, beating the previous record of Sergio Garcia who took 111 events to pass the €10 million mark in 2007..
I consider this my home course, it suits my game perfectly he would say afterward.. No kidding !!
The records go on and on, and trust me for those of you who don't follow this guy, he will be the world's number 1 player sooner rather than later.
For the first time in 18 years, European golfers occupy the top 2 spots in the world. Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer were the last. Graeme McDowell has also pushed Phil Mickelson out of the #4 spot.
Phil Mickelson (70) T37 was never a factor and now flies back to Torrey Pines where he and Tiger will get all the hoopla next week
Lee Westwood (73) had a poor showing this week and ended up T64 and Charl Schwartzel (72) cooled off but still finished T8
Paddy Harrington visited the broadcast booth with some great insight, notably that he thought Rory McIlroy's game will improve more playing in Europe this year as opposed to the States because every time he tees it up in Europe he is expected to be in contention, if not to win, and being in contention every week will make him a better player..
Paddy also talked about how he grew up playing with a half set of clubs, his brother had the other half, and he is adamant that young players should do the same to make them better shot makers. He would not let them use any wedge higher than a PW and would take their drivers out of the bag.
Finally he also mentioned that Martin Kaymer's father would not let him use a tee, forcing him to learn how to 'squeeze" the golf ball when striking it..
World Rankings
1. Lee Westwood
2 Martin Kaymer
3 Tiger Woods
4 Graeme McDowell
5 Steve Stricker
6. Phil Mickelson
Leader board
1 KAYMER, Martin -24 18 -6 67 65 66 66 264
2 MCILROY, Rory -16 18 -3 71 67 65 69 272
T3 GOOSEN, Retief -14 18 -8 70 71 69 64 274
T3 MCDOWELL, Graeme -14 18 -5 66 70 71 67 274
T5 MAYBIN, Gareth -12 18 -3 71 67 69 69 276
T5 LYNN, David -12 18 Par 69 68 67 72 276
7 CABRERA-BELLO, Rafael -11 18 -6 71 73 67 66 277
T8 MOLINARI, Francesco -10 18 -6 71 72 69 66 278
T8 GONZALEZ, Ricardo -10 18 -5 72 68 71 67 278
T8 SCHWARTZEL, Charl -10 18 Par 64 71 71 72 278
PGA Tour.. Bob Hope Classic
10 players are within 5 shots of the lead going into today's final round, and most of them are a bunch of guys in their 20's including the 2 leaders Gary Woodland (66) and Jhonattan Vegas (66) at- 24
Chris Baryla (70), Mike Weir (72) and Matt McQuillan (77) all missed the cut
Stephen Ames (68) sterts the day 9 shots off the lead..
Leader board
T1 4 Gary Woodland (PP) -24 65 69 64 66 264
T1 3 Jhonattan Vegas (PP) -24 64 67 67 66 264
3 11 Martin Laird (PP) -22 68 68 64 66 266
T4 14 Chris Kirk (PP) -21 69 68 64 66 267
T4 10 Bill Haas (PP) -21 69 68 68 62 267
T4 15 Daniel Summerhays (PP) -21 69 66 68 64 267
T4 24 Keegan Bradley (PP) -21 66 67 68 66 267
8 36 Greg Chalmers (PP) -20 67 67 65 69 268
T9 21 Kevin Na (PP) -19 69 67 68 65 269
T9 40 Charles Howell III (PP) -19 66 66 70 67 269
T9 7 Matt Kuchar (PP) -19 66 70 67 66 269
T9 23 Boo Weekley (PP) -19 65 66 72 66 269
Bryan Angus
Typically modest of this 25 year old German superstar who has just decimated a very strong field to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship for the 3rd time in a row, they'll need a new trophy next year because he gets to keep this one.
He shot 66,66 this weekend for a record breaking -24 264 total, eight shots clear of Rory McIlroy who had a 65,69 ( -16 total) weekend of his own !! Retief Goosen (64) and who else, Graeme McDowell (67) were T3 at -14.
Kaymer did not have a single bogey in his final 60 holes..Of his last 18 rounds 15 have been in the 60's.. He becomes the quickest player to earn over €10 million in European Tour Official Career Earnings, in just 100 events, beating the previous record of Sergio Garcia who took 111 events to pass the €10 million mark in 2007..
I consider this my home course, it suits my game perfectly he would say afterward.. No kidding !!
The records go on and on, and trust me for those of you who don't follow this guy, he will be the world's number 1 player sooner rather than later.
For the first time in 18 years, European golfers occupy the top 2 spots in the world. Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer were the last. Graeme McDowell has also pushed Phil Mickelson out of the #4 spot.
Phil Mickelson (70) T37 was never a factor and now flies back to Torrey Pines where he and Tiger will get all the hoopla next week
Lee Westwood (73) had a poor showing this week and ended up T64 and Charl Schwartzel (72) cooled off but still finished T8
Paddy Harrington visited the broadcast booth with some great insight, notably that he thought Rory McIlroy's game will improve more playing in Europe this year as opposed to the States because every time he tees it up in Europe he is expected to be in contention, if not to win, and being in contention every week will make him a better player..
Paddy also talked about how he grew up playing with a half set of clubs, his brother had the other half, and he is adamant that young players should do the same to make them better shot makers. He would not let them use any wedge higher than a PW and would take their drivers out of the bag.
Finally he also mentioned that Martin Kaymer's father would not let him use a tee, forcing him to learn how to 'squeeze" the golf ball when striking it..
World Rankings
1. Lee Westwood
2 Martin Kaymer
3 Tiger Woods
4 Graeme McDowell
5 Steve Stricker
6. Phil Mickelson
Leader board
1 KAYMER, Martin -24 18 -6 67 65 66 66 264
2 MCILROY, Rory -16 18 -3 71 67 65 69 272
T3 GOOSEN, Retief -14 18 -8 70 71 69 64 274
T3 MCDOWELL, Graeme -14 18 -5 66 70 71 67 274
T5 MAYBIN, Gareth -12 18 -3 71 67 69 69 276
T5 LYNN, David -12 18 Par 69 68 67 72 276
7 CABRERA-BELLO, Rafael -11 18 -6 71 73 67 66 277
T8 MOLINARI, Francesco -10 18 -6 71 72 69 66 278
T8 GONZALEZ, Ricardo -10 18 -5 72 68 71 67 278
T8 SCHWARTZEL, Charl -10 18 Par 64 71 71 72 278
PGA Tour.. Bob Hope Classic
10 players are within 5 shots of the lead going into today's final round, and most of them are a bunch of guys in their 20's including the 2 leaders Gary Woodland (66) and Jhonattan Vegas (66) at- 24
Chris Baryla (70), Mike Weir (72) and Matt McQuillan (77) all missed the cut
Stephen Ames (68) sterts the day 9 shots off the lead..
Leader board
T1 4 Gary Woodland (PP) -24 65 69 64 66 264
T1 3 Jhonattan Vegas (PP) -24 64 67 67 66 264
3 11 Martin Laird (PP) -22 68 68 64 66 266
T4 14 Chris Kirk (PP) -21 69 68 64 66 267
T4 10 Bill Haas (PP) -21 69 68 68 62 267
T4 15 Daniel Summerhays (PP) -21 69 66 68 64 267
T4 24 Keegan Bradley (PP) -21 66 67 68 66 267
8 36 Greg Chalmers (PP) -20 67 67 65 69 268
T9 21 Kevin Na (PP) -19 69 67 68 65 269
T9 40 Charles Howell III (PP) -19 66 66 70 67 269
T9 7 Matt Kuchar (PP) -19 66 70 67 66 269
T9 23 Boo Weekley (PP) -19 65 66 72 66 269
Bryan Angus
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Vegas joined by Woodland on top at the Hope..Kaymer running away in Abu Dhabi
AP...Gary Woodland shot an 8-under 64 on Friday to join Jhonattan Vegas in the lead after three rounds of the Bob Hope Classic, remember they play 5 here.
Vegas maintained his steady play with a -5 67, on the Silver Rock course, keeping a share of the lead for the second straight day.
Woodland and Vegas are the same age (26) with the same Nationwide Tour background, and they have similarly ferocious power off the tee. They're among the longest hitters in the Hope field.
Australia's Greg Chalmers (65) was a stroke back at 17-under 199, while Scotland's Martin Laird was 16 under after a bogey-free 64. Sixteen players were within five shots of the lead, including Matt Kuchar (13 under after a 67) and second-round co-leader Boo Weekley, also 13 under after a 72 at Silver Rock
Currently the cut is projected at -7, so here are our Canucks's scores.
Stephen Ames -11 shot another -4 68 and is at La Quinta today, 7 shots back
Chris Baryla is right on the cut line at -7 also playing LQ today he shot -2 70 on Friday
Matt McQuillan shot a +1 73 Friday and he is at -2 playing LQ today so needs 67 at least today maybe lower
Mike Weir is at +2 and will miss the cut..
EUROPEAN TOUR
I was out early at the gym this morning then over for the big Scottish breakfast I make Dad every Saturday so we didn't see a shot of this so here is the leader board and remember Kaymer has won this the last 2 years !!
With a 5 shot lead it should be three !!
1 KAYMER, Martin -18 18 -6 67 65 66 - 198
2 MCILROY, Rory -13 18 -7 71 67 65 - 203
3 LYNN, David -12 18 -5 69 68 67 - 204
T4 NOREN, Alexander -10 18 -5 66 73 67 - 206
T4 SCHWARTZEL, Charl -10 18 -1 64 71 71 - 206
T6 MAYBIN, Gareth -9 18 -3 71 67 69 - 207
T6 MCDOWELL, Graeme -9 18 -1 66 70 71 - 207
T8 GOYA, Tano* -8 18 -7 70 73 65 - 208
T8 COLSAERTS, Nicolas -8 18 -3 72 67 69 - 208
T8 ECHENIQUE, Rafa -8 18 -1 69 68 71 - 208
T8 FASTH, Niclas -8 18 -1 66 71 71 - 208
CHAMPIONS TOUR
I watched a bunch of this last night and these guys make what is a tough Hualalai course at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Kaupulehu-Kona, Hawaii with a steady breeze blowing right off the Pacific look easy. Freddie got a lot of air time with his new running /golf shoes by ECCO, but Russ Cochrane has come alive ever since they went to play in Korea late last year.
Here is the AP report
Russ Cochrane had two eagles and six birdies in a career-best 10-under 62 on to take the first-round lead in the Champions Tour's season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship.
The 52-year-old left-hander, a two-time winner last season, was near-perfect in his bogey-free round on a breezy day at Hualalai. He had a two-stroke lead over defending champion Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw.
With son Ryan on the bag, Cochran missed just one green in regulation. After making the turn in 32, Cochran had two eagles and two birdies in the next six holes to shoot atop the leaderboard.
On the 566-yard 11th, Cochran hit a 4-iron to 5 feet for eagle. He took the outright lead at 9 under four holes later, sinking a 20-foot eagle putt after a second hybrid approach.
Cochran's 6-foot birdie putt on No. 15 gave him a two-stroke lead over the Hall of Fame duo Watson and Crenshaw, who were already in the clubhouse. Cochran had birdie putts on the last three holes, but couldn't add to his lead.
After going decades on the PGA Tour without touching a trophy, Cochran last year won the Posco E&C Songdo Championship and SAS Championship in consecutive starts in September and had 11 top-10 finishes. He ended up fourth on the money list with nearly $1.8 million
Bryan Angus
Vegas maintained his steady play with a -5 67, on the Silver Rock course, keeping a share of the lead for the second straight day.
Woodland and Vegas are the same age (26) with the same Nationwide Tour background, and they have similarly ferocious power off the tee. They're among the longest hitters in the Hope field.
Australia's Greg Chalmers (65) was a stroke back at 17-under 199, while Scotland's Martin Laird was 16 under after a bogey-free 64. Sixteen players were within five shots of the lead, including Matt Kuchar (13 under after a 67) and second-round co-leader Boo Weekley, also 13 under after a 72 at Silver Rock
Currently the cut is projected at -7, so here are our Canucks's scores.
Stephen Ames -11 shot another -4 68 and is at La Quinta today, 7 shots back
Chris Baryla is right on the cut line at -7 also playing LQ today he shot -2 70 on Friday
Matt McQuillan shot a +1 73 Friday and he is at -2 playing LQ today so needs 67 at least today maybe lower
Mike Weir is at +2 and will miss the cut..
EUROPEAN TOUR
I was out early at the gym this morning then over for the big Scottish breakfast I make Dad every Saturday so we didn't see a shot of this so here is the leader board and remember Kaymer has won this the last 2 years !!
With a 5 shot lead it should be three !!
1 KAYMER, Martin -18 18 -6 67 65 66 - 198
2 MCILROY, Rory -13 18 -7 71 67 65 - 203
3 LYNN, David -12 18 -5 69 68 67 - 204
T4 NOREN, Alexander -10 18 -5 66 73 67 - 206
T4 SCHWARTZEL, Charl -10 18 -1 64 71 71 - 206
T6 MAYBIN, Gareth -9 18 -3 71 67 69 - 207
T6 MCDOWELL, Graeme -9 18 -1 66 70 71 - 207
T8 GOYA, Tano* -8 18 -7 70 73 65 - 208
T8 COLSAERTS, Nicolas -8 18 -3 72 67 69 - 208
T8 ECHENIQUE, Rafa -8 18 -1 69 68 71 - 208
T8 FASTH, Niclas -8 18 -1 66 71 71 - 208
CHAMPIONS TOUR
I watched a bunch of this last night and these guys make what is a tough Hualalai course at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Kaupulehu-Kona, Hawaii with a steady breeze blowing right off the Pacific look easy. Freddie got a lot of air time with his new running /golf shoes by ECCO, but Russ Cochrane has come alive ever since they went to play in Korea late last year.
Here is the AP report
Russ Cochrane had two eagles and six birdies in a career-best 10-under 62 on to take the first-round lead in the Champions Tour's season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship.
The 52-year-old left-hander, a two-time winner last season, was near-perfect in his bogey-free round on a breezy day at Hualalai. He had a two-stroke lead over defending champion Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw.
With son Ryan on the bag, Cochran missed just one green in regulation. After making the turn in 32, Cochran had two eagles and two birdies in the next six holes to shoot atop the leaderboard.
On the 566-yard 11th, Cochran hit a 4-iron to 5 feet for eagle. He took the outright lead at 9 under four holes later, sinking a 20-foot eagle putt after a second hybrid approach.
Cochran's 6-foot birdie putt on No. 15 gave him a two-stroke lead over the Hall of Fame duo Watson and Crenshaw, who were already in the clubhouse. Cochran had birdie putts on the last three holes, but couldn't add to his lead.
After going decades on the PGA Tour without touching a trophy, Cochran last year won the Posco E&C Songdo Championship and SAS Championship in consecutive starts in September and had 11 top-10 finishes. He ended up fourth on the money list with nearly $1.8 million
Bryan Angus
Friday, January 21, 2011
Kaymer opens up a 3 shot lead after round 2 in Abu Dhabi.. Harrington disqualified
Round 2 has just wrapped up in Abu Dhabi and 3 of the hottest names in golf are at the top, and one called Padraig Harrington isn't, more on that later..
Martin Kaymer shot a beautiful -7 65, -12 132 total good for a 3 shot lead over guess who Charl Schwartzel who 'slipped' to a -1 71 -9 135 and the ever present Graeme McDowell -2 70 -8 136.
Rory McIlroy got back into contention with his -5 67 -6 138, he is T7.
Phil Mickelson had a -2 70 and is T25 and Lee Westwood is right on the cut line at E after an uncharacteristic +3 75 which included 2 doubles and a bogey on a back nine of 41..
1 KAYMER, Martin -12 18 -7 67 65 - - 132
2 SCHWARTZEL, Charl* -9 18 -1 64 71 - - 135
3 MCDOWELL, Graeme* -8 18 -2 66 70 - - 136
T4 LYNN, David -7 18 -4 69 68 - - 137
T4 FASTH, Niclas -7 18 -1 66 71 - - 137
T4 ECHENIQUE, Rafa -7 18 -4 69 68 - - 137
T7 MAYBIN, Gareth -6 18 -5 71 67 - - 138
T7 MCILROY, Rory* -6 18 -5 71 67 - - 138
T7 KJELDSEN, Søren -6 18 -3 69 69 - - 138
T7 COLES, Robert -6 18 -2 68 70 - - 138
PADDY HARRINGTON DISQUALIFIED
Following on the heels of Eliot Saltman's 3 month ban for incorrectly marking his ball, Padraig Harrington has been disqualified for touching his ball after he marked it on the 7th green. The ball moved a dimple and a half forward and he failed to replace it.
Here is the official story from his press conference including his views on the penalty and the role of TV in penalties and you will notice the lack of yelling and arguing with the referee like so many other sports despite Paddy's bitter disappointment
Padraig Harrington has been disqualified from the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship after being called to review an incident in his opening 65.
The three-time major winner, one off the lead overnight in Abu Dhabi, did not tee off in the second round after his hand brushed the back of his ball as he replaced it in front of his marker on the seventh green.
Andy McFee, European Tour Senior Referee, explained the ruling in a statement which said: “Harrington was disqualified for a breach of Rule 6-6d for signing for the wrong score on hole seven during the first round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
“On the seventh green, Padraig replaced his ball and as he began to remove his marker, his finger was seen on TV to brush the ball, causing it to move. The movement of the ball during the specific act of replacing it is covered by Rule 20-3a and there is no penalty to this movement, but the ball must be replaced.
“Because the ball was not replaced, there is a breach of Rule 20-3a, the penalty for which is two strokes. As this penalty was not included in the score for hole seven, Padraig was disqualified for a breach of Rule 6-6d, signing for the wrong score on hole seven.”
Harrington said: "I was aware I hit the ball picking up my coin. I looked down at the time and was pretty sure it had just oscillated and had not moved, so I continued on.
"In slow motion it's pretty clear the ball has moved three dimples forward and it's come back maybe a dimple and a half.
"At the end of the day that's good enough, but I wouldn't have done anything differently yesterday - there was nothing I could do about it at that moment in time.
"If I'd called a referee over it would have been pointless because if he'd asked me where my ball was I'd have said it was there. As far as I was concerned it didn't move."
He added: “I felt I knew the rule at the time. I applied the rule as best I could in the situation but looking at the video today, it's pretty clear that it, you know, it's a hundred per cent looks like the ball has moved forward and not far enough back, and that's the issue at heart.
“I do believe that the rule is correct in terms of we have to be very precise about how we mark our golf balls and position the golf ball is in, and I do agree, I do fully agree, even though it's only a dimple and a half, in the end of the day, you know, somebody down the road could use five dimples as being okay and the next guy would use an inch as being okay.
“So I think it's fair enough that the penalty is there on the face of it.”
McFee also said: "It's a minute movement, but it's a movement and he never replaced it, so he should have included a two-stroke penalty.
"The fact that he is unaware he moved the ball unfortunately does not help him. Because he signed for a score lower than actually taken the penalty is disqualification."
The severity of the penalty will inevitably spark debate but Harrington was swift to back the rules.
“I would argue, though, in general, it does serve the game well that we have the best rules of any sport. They are applied across the board all the time. It's the one thing all golfers love about their sport is the fact that we can stand up and say, we have the best rules, we are the fairest, we call them on ourselves.
“I think in this situation and other situations like that, with the new technology, maybe going forward, that the penalties can be changed. But the actual rulings have to stay where they are. You know, as I said, 1 1/2 dimples becomes, as I said, half an inch becomes an inch; where do you stop?
“The rules are good, we abide very well, the players love the fact that we apply them and everybody who plays the game. You know, if there's somebody in your golf club that doesn't apply the rules, you know, everybody knows about it, and everybody ostracizes them. We love the standard that we play by. We have to stick to that, that's the best thing about our game.”
The role of television in this incident will also be a hot topic but again Harrington was swift to answer that point.
"I want to be on television. I want to have those ten million people watching me because that means I'm doing well.
"f I'm not on television and nobody is watching, I'm missing the cut.
"At the end of the day, like anything else, there's a little bit of extra responsibility not just with the rules but your etiquette, everything like that. When you get up the ranks and you get on that television, you have responsibilities and you're playing with a bigger audience and there's more distractions and there's more things going on.
"And if you want to be the best player in the world, if you want to be one of those players, you have to accept that there is the little bit of extra responsibility as you become a better player, and you'd better embrace it.
"The fact that the camera isn't on the guy who is down the field doesn't make any difference. As he becomes a better player, it will be on him. There's no competitive edge, let's say in, that sense. And it's fair enough. That's the responsibility of any player doing what it takes."
Bryan Angus
Martin Kaymer shot a beautiful -7 65, -12 132 total good for a 3 shot lead over guess who Charl Schwartzel who 'slipped' to a -1 71 -9 135 and the ever present Graeme McDowell -2 70 -8 136.
Rory McIlroy got back into contention with his -5 67 -6 138, he is T7.
Phil Mickelson had a -2 70 and is T25 and Lee Westwood is right on the cut line at E after an uncharacteristic +3 75 which included 2 doubles and a bogey on a back nine of 41..
1 KAYMER, Martin -12 18 -7 67 65 - - 132
2 SCHWARTZEL, Charl* -9 18 -1 64 71 - - 135
3 MCDOWELL, Graeme* -8 18 -2 66 70 - - 136
T4 LYNN, David -7 18 -4 69 68 - - 137
T4 FASTH, Niclas -7 18 -1 66 71 - - 137
T4 ECHENIQUE, Rafa -7 18 -4 69 68 - - 137
T7 MAYBIN, Gareth -6 18 -5 71 67 - - 138
T7 MCILROY, Rory* -6 18 -5 71 67 - - 138
T7 KJELDSEN, Søren -6 18 -3 69 69 - - 138
T7 COLES, Robert -6 18 -2 68 70 - - 138
PADDY HARRINGTON DISQUALIFIED
Following on the heels of Eliot Saltman's 3 month ban for incorrectly marking his ball, Padraig Harrington has been disqualified for touching his ball after he marked it on the 7th green. The ball moved a dimple and a half forward and he failed to replace it.
Here is the official story from his press conference including his views on the penalty and the role of TV in penalties and you will notice the lack of yelling and arguing with the referee like so many other sports despite Paddy's bitter disappointment
Padraig Harrington has been disqualified from the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship after being called to review an incident in his opening 65.
The three-time major winner, one off the lead overnight in Abu Dhabi, did not tee off in the second round after his hand brushed the back of his ball as he replaced it in front of his marker on the seventh green.
Andy McFee, European Tour Senior Referee, explained the ruling in a statement which said: “Harrington was disqualified for a breach of Rule 6-6d for signing for the wrong score on hole seven during the first round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
“On the seventh green, Padraig replaced his ball and as he began to remove his marker, his finger was seen on TV to brush the ball, causing it to move. The movement of the ball during the specific act of replacing it is covered by Rule 20-3a and there is no penalty to this movement, but the ball must be replaced.
“Because the ball was not replaced, there is a breach of Rule 20-3a, the penalty for which is two strokes. As this penalty was not included in the score for hole seven, Padraig was disqualified for a breach of Rule 6-6d, signing for the wrong score on hole seven.”
Harrington said: "I was aware I hit the ball picking up my coin. I looked down at the time and was pretty sure it had just oscillated and had not moved, so I continued on.
"In slow motion it's pretty clear the ball has moved three dimples forward and it's come back maybe a dimple and a half.
"At the end of the day that's good enough, but I wouldn't have done anything differently yesterday - there was nothing I could do about it at that moment in time.
"If I'd called a referee over it would have been pointless because if he'd asked me where my ball was I'd have said it was there. As far as I was concerned it didn't move."
He added: “I felt I knew the rule at the time. I applied the rule as best I could in the situation but looking at the video today, it's pretty clear that it, you know, it's a hundred per cent looks like the ball has moved forward and not far enough back, and that's the issue at heart.
“I do believe that the rule is correct in terms of we have to be very precise about how we mark our golf balls and position the golf ball is in, and I do agree, I do fully agree, even though it's only a dimple and a half, in the end of the day, you know, somebody down the road could use five dimples as being okay and the next guy would use an inch as being okay.
“So I think it's fair enough that the penalty is there on the face of it.”
McFee also said: "It's a minute movement, but it's a movement and he never replaced it, so he should have included a two-stroke penalty.
"The fact that he is unaware he moved the ball unfortunately does not help him. Because he signed for a score lower than actually taken the penalty is disqualification."
The severity of the penalty will inevitably spark debate but Harrington was swift to back the rules.
“I would argue, though, in general, it does serve the game well that we have the best rules of any sport. They are applied across the board all the time. It's the one thing all golfers love about their sport is the fact that we can stand up and say, we have the best rules, we are the fairest, we call them on ourselves.
“I think in this situation and other situations like that, with the new technology, maybe going forward, that the penalties can be changed. But the actual rulings have to stay where they are. You know, as I said, 1 1/2 dimples becomes, as I said, half an inch becomes an inch; where do you stop?
“The rules are good, we abide very well, the players love the fact that we apply them and everybody who plays the game. You know, if there's somebody in your golf club that doesn't apply the rules, you know, everybody knows about it, and everybody ostracizes them. We love the standard that we play by. We have to stick to that, that's the best thing about our game.”
The role of television in this incident will also be a hot topic but again Harrington was swift to answer that point.
"I want to be on television. I want to have those ten million people watching me because that means I'm doing well.
"f I'm not on television and nobody is watching, I'm missing the cut.
"At the end of the day, like anything else, there's a little bit of extra responsibility not just with the rules but your etiquette, everything like that. When you get up the ranks and you get on that television, you have responsibilities and you're playing with a bigger audience and there's more distractions and there's more things going on.
"And if you want to be the best player in the world, if you want to be one of those players, you have to accept that there is the little bit of extra responsibility as you become a better player, and you'd better embrace it.
"The fact that the camera isn't on the guy who is down the field doesn't make any difference. As he becomes a better player, it will be on him. There's no competitive edge, let's say in, that sense. And it's fair enough. That's the responsibility of any player doing what it takes."
Bryan Angus
'Jhonny' Vegas beats the odds to lead the' Hope' with Boo..
In his home country of Venezuela golf is viewed by President Hugo Chavez as a pastime of the rich, and he is constantly threatening to take over the land they occupy to build homes..
Maybe if Jhonattan Vegas keeps up his fine play and wins the Hope, he will be able to temper his President's viewpoint,.. no telling what a little positive publicity not to mention a financial contribution can do to win over a politician !!!
I noticed the wind had got up a bit in otherwise perfect scoring conditions ( what else do you ever see at the Hope) and Vegas shot a 5-under 67 on the Nicklaus private course to go with his opening 64 -13 131
Weekley had a 66 to match Vegas at -13. Charles Howell III (66) and Chris Couch (65) were a stroke back at -12
Mike Weir continues to struggle in a tournament he usually excels at. He shot at nasty +3 75 which included 3 double bogey's, he leads the tournament in that category with 4 already. He is all over the place with his driver T119 in accuracy and T117 in GIR. He is T121st near the bottom of the field and I can already hear the question " is Weirsy done ?"
Better news for Stephen Ames who moved up 24 spots to a T30 with a -4 68 -7 total, 6 shots off the lead. He had 6 birdies in his round playing the North Palmer course and he is our top Canuck
Chris Baryla dropped 8 spots T62 @-5 after his -2 70 on the same course. He had 4 birdies on the first nine but slipped a bit with 3 bogey's and a birdie on the back
Matt McQuillan came back to earth with a thud. He took a double bogey 6 on his first hole, dropping 76 spots to a T80 after a +4 76 on the North Palmer course. He went on to add 5 bogey's and 3 birdies and although he putted well (T15) he is near the bottom of the field T117 in GIR and driving accuracy T108..
T1 1 3 Jhonattan Vegas (NP) -13 F* -5 64 67 131
T1 3 1 Boo Weekley (NP) -13 F* -6 65 66 131
T3 7 11 Charles Howell III (PP) -12 F -6 66 66 132
T3 17 12 Chris Couch (SR) -12 F -7 67 65 132
T5 5 23 Keegan Bradley (PP) -11 F -5 66 67 133
T5 15 24 Brian Davis (NP) -11 F* -6 67 66 133
T7 13 38 Cameron Tringale (NP) -10 F* -5 67 67 134
T7 3 16 John Senden (LQ) -10 F* -4 66 68 134
T7 47 16 Jeff Overton (PP) -10 F -7 69 65 134
T7 13 38 Greg Chalmers (PP) -10 F* -5 67 67 134
T7 3 38 Peter Tomasulo (LQ) -10 F -4 66 68 134
T7 3 38 Gary Woodland (LQ) -10 F* -3 65 69 134
Bryan Angus
Maybe if Jhonattan Vegas keeps up his fine play and wins the Hope, he will be able to temper his President's viewpoint,.. no telling what a little positive publicity not to mention a financial contribution can do to win over a politician !!!
I noticed the wind had got up a bit in otherwise perfect scoring conditions ( what else do you ever see at the Hope) and Vegas shot a 5-under 67 on the Nicklaus private course to go with his opening 64 -13 131
Weekley had a 66 to match Vegas at -13. Charles Howell III (66) and Chris Couch (65) were a stroke back at -12
Mike Weir continues to struggle in a tournament he usually excels at. He shot at nasty +3 75 which included 3 double bogey's, he leads the tournament in that category with 4 already. He is all over the place with his driver T119 in accuracy and T117 in GIR. He is T121st near the bottom of the field and I can already hear the question " is Weirsy done ?"
Better news for Stephen Ames who moved up 24 spots to a T30 with a -4 68 -7 total, 6 shots off the lead. He had 6 birdies in his round playing the North Palmer course and he is our top Canuck
Chris Baryla dropped 8 spots T62 @-5 after his -2 70 on the same course. He had 4 birdies on the first nine but slipped a bit with 3 bogey's and a birdie on the back
Matt McQuillan came back to earth with a thud. He took a double bogey 6 on his first hole, dropping 76 spots to a T80 after a +4 76 on the North Palmer course. He went on to add 5 bogey's and 3 birdies and although he putted well (T15) he is near the bottom of the field T117 in GIR and driving accuracy T108..
T1 1 3 Jhonattan Vegas (NP) -13 F* -5 64 67 131
T1 3 1 Boo Weekley (NP) -13 F* -6 65 66 131
T3 7 11 Charles Howell III (PP) -12 F -6 66 66 132
T3 17 12 Chris Couch (SR) -12 F -7 67 65 132
T5 5 23 Keegan Bradley (PP) -11 F -5 66 67 133
T5 15 24 Brian Davis (NP) -11 F* -6 67 66 133
T7 13 38 Cameron Tringale (NP) -10 F* -5 67 67 134
T7 3 16 John Senden (LQ) -10 F* -4 66 68 134
T7 47 16 Jeff Overton (PP) -10 F -7 69 65 134
T7 13 38 Greg Chalmers (PP) -10 F* -5 67 67 134
T7 3 38 Peter Tomasulo (LQ) -10 F -4 66 68 134
T7 3 38 Gary Woodland (LQ) -10 F* -3 65 69 134
Bryan Angus
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Why Lee Westwood will not be at the Players Championship
Here is the reason behind world number 1 Lee Westwood's decision not to play at the Players Championship in May, considered the toughest field in golf and the fifth major, and it all comes down to his decision not to play primarily on the PGA tour this year, and also to the rules the PGA tour has governing non members
Clearly this will cause a controversy over here, but it is simply a result of the hectic world wide schedule that he is committed to..
Here is what he told the media in Abu Dhabi just minutes ago..
Reuters..Lee Westwood has defended his decision not to play in golf’s unofficial fifth major at the Players Championship and criticised PGA Tour members for not coming over to Europe.
The British world number one finished joint fourth last year at one of the sport’s most lucrative events (Players) and his decision will not please the PGA Tour, which would want the world’s top-ranked player in the elite Sawgrass field. “I am not a member of the PGA Tour so I don’t need to play the event,” Westwood told Reuters after posting a three-under-par 69 in the Abu Dhabi Championship first round on Thursday.
“After the two opening World Golf Championships (events) I would bracket our (European Tour) PGA Championship in May as just as important as it offers exemption for anybody in the world’s top 50 to play,” he added.
“I don’t see many of them (Americans) wanting to take up that offer. So you can’t really please everyone, can you?”
A non-PGA Tour member is entitled to accept three invitations, and if he is inside the top-50 in the world rankings, can contest the Players Championship.
Westwood has accepted invitations to play the Honda Classic in March, the Houston Open the week before the year’s first major at the U.S. Masters in April, and the St. Jude Championship in June where he is the defending champion.
The Englishman will also play three events in a row starting with the Feb. 23-27 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona, the Honda Classic and the WGC-Cadillac Championship.
“Even with an invite I would not be able to prepare properly and that’s not the way to go into a big event like the Players,” added the 37-year-old Englishman. “I can understand what the PGA Tour might feel about my decision and they have every right to think that.”
Westwood intends to take a week’s break when the Players tournament commences on May 12 at Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida.
“I wouldn’t want to be playing in the Players Championship given that I wouldn’t have played (on the U.S. Tour) since the Masters in early April,” he said.
Westwood will also play in the inaugural Indonesian Masters at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club in from April 21-24 before taking part in the Ballantine’s Championship in South Korea the following week.
Here is Lee's proposed schedule for the early part of 2011
20 - 23 January 2011
Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship: Abu Dhabi Golf Club, Abu Dhabi, UAE
03 - 06 February 2011
Commercialbank Qatar Masters: Doha Golf Club, Qatar, UAE
10 - 13 February 2011
Omega Dubai Desert Classic 2011: Emirates Golf Club, Dubai, UAE
23 - 26 February 2011
WGC - Accenture Match Play Championship: Ritz Carlton GC, Dove Mountain, Marana, Arizona, USA
03 - 06 March 2011
The Honda Classic: PGA National Champion Course, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, USA
10 - 14 March 2011
WGC - Cadillac Championship: Doral Resort & Spa, Doral, Florida, USA
31 March 2011 - 03 April 2011
Shell Houston Open: Redstone GC Tournament Course, Humble, Texas, USA
07 - 10 April 2011
MASTERS TOURNAMENT: Augusta National, Georgia, USA
21-24 April 2011
Indonesian Masters- Royal Jakarta GC
28 April 2011 - 01 May 2011
Ballantine's Championship: Blackstone GC, Icheon, Seoul, South Korea
June 09 - 12
FedEx St. Jude Classic..TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee
16 - 19 June 2011
US OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: Congressional CC, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
14 - 17 July 2011
THE 140TH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: Royal St George's, Sandwich, Kent
11 - 14 August 2011
US PGA CHAMPIONSHIP: Atlanta Athletic Club, Johns Creek, Georgia, USA
Bryan Angus
Clearly this will cause a controversy over here, but it is simply a result of the hectic world wide schedule that he is committed to..
Here is what he told the media in Abu Dhabi just minutes ago..
Reuters..Lee Westwood has defended his decision not to play in golf’s unofficial fifth major at the Players Championship and criticised PGA Tour members for not coming over to Europe.
The British world number one finished joint fourth last year at one of the sport’s most lucrative events (Players) and his decision will not please the PGA Tour, which would want the world’s top-ranked player in the elite Sawgrass field. “I am not a member of the PGA Tour so I don’t need to play the event,” Westwood told Reuters after posting a three-under-par 69 in the Abu Dhabi Championship first round on Thursday.
“After the two opening World Golf Championships (events) I would bracket our (European Tour) PGA Championship in May as just as important as it offers exemption for anybody in the world’s top 50 to play,” he added.
“I don’t see many of them (Americans) wanting to take up that offer. So you can’t really please everyone, can you?”
A non-PGA Tour member is entitled to accept three invitations, and if he is inside the top-50 in the world rankings, can contest the Players Championship.
Westwood has accepted invitations to play the Honda Classic in March, the Houston Open the week before the year’s first major at the U.S. Masters in April, and the St. Jude Championship in June where he is the defending champion.
The Englishman will also play three events in a row starting with the Feb. 23-27 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona, the Honda Classic and the WGC-Cadillac Championship.
“Even with an invite I would not be able to prepare properly and that’s not the way to go into a big event like the Players,” added the 37-year-old Englishman. “I can understand what the PGA Tour might feel about my decision and they have every right to think that.”
Westwood intends to take a week’s break when the Players tournament commences on May 12 at Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida.
“I wouldn’t want to be playing in the Players Championship given that I wouldn’t have played (on the U.S. Tour) since the Masters in early April,” he said.
Westwood will also play in the inaugural Indonesian Masters at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club in from April 21-24 before taking part in the Ballantine’s Championship in South Korea the following week.
Here is Lee's proposed schedule for the early part of 2011
20 - 23 January 2011
Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship: Abu Dhabi Golf Club, Abu Dhabi, UAE
03 - 06 February 2011
Commercialbank Qatar Masters: Doha Golf Club, Qatar, UAE
10 - 13 February 2011
Omega Dubai Desert Classic 2011: Emirates Golf Club, Dubai, UAE
23 - 26 February 2011
WGC - Accenture Match Play Championship: Ritz Carlton GC, Dove Mountain, Marana, Arizona, USA
03 - 06 March 2011
The Honda Classic: PGA National Champion Course, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, USA
10 - 14 March 2011
WGC - Cadillac Championship: Doral Resort & Spa, Doral, Florida, USA
31 March 2011 - 03 April 2011
Shell Houston Open: Redstone GC Tournament Course, Humble, Texas, USA
07 - 10 April 2011
MASTERS TOURNAMENT: Augusta National, Georgia, USA
21-24 April 2011
Indonesian Masters- Royal Jakarta GC
28 April 2011 - 01 May 2011
Ballantine's Championship: Blackstone GC, Icheon, Seoul, South Korea
June 09 - 12
FedEx St. Jude Classic..TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee
16 - 19 June 2011
US OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: Congressional CC, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
14 - 17 July 2011
THE 140TH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: Royal St George's, Sandwich, Kent
11 - 14 August 2011
US PGA CHAMPIONSHIP: Atlanta Athletic Club, Johns Creek, Georgia, USA
Bryan Angus
Schwartzel leads in Abu Dhabi... McQuillan just 2 behind at La Quinta.
I've been writing a lot about Charl Schwartzel early in this 2011 season, after his sensational South African swing culminating in his win last week in Joburg and earlier this morning he continued his great play with a -8 64 to take the first round lead at this Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
During that swing and including today he is only- 69 for his last 17 rounds !!! Obviously the world's hottest golfer right now and he thinks he is having trouble with his swing !!
“I've been struggling with my game, with my swing, for a while. Around a golf course like this, it's not best thing to be doing that.
“It just worked well today - drove the ball well and gave myself lots of opportunities and converted most of my chances, just a really solid round.”
He is #23 in the OWGR right now....“I feel I'm a good enough player to be in the top ten in the world. I don't like to think too far ahead, sort of play with each week what it gives you.
Padraig Harrington is second at -7 65 and he has a new putting practice routine where he makes 3 practice putts over the top of the ball !! "One thing showed up in the States last year. I was about 156th in every putting category, so something needed to be done."
He hasn't won on tour since the 2008 PGA
Graeme McDowell is still red hot and he showed it by making birdie on his last 5 holes to come home in 30 for a -6 66, good for 3rd along with Niclas Fasth and Alex Noren, both Swedes..
Defending champ Martin Kaymer -5 67 and Lee Westwood is at -3 69.. Phil Mickelson is at -1 71 playing in the middle East for the first time.
Figure this one out.. World #1 Lee Westwood confirmed that he will not be playing the Players Championship in Florida in May because of US PGA Tour restrictions placed on him as a non-member. More on that later.
McDowell held his breath because he had to have a ruling from the referee after his round, but Andy McPhee ruled his ball had oscillated but not moved as he addressed it before his pitch to the last.
1 SCHWARTZEL, Charl -8 18 -8 64 - - - 64
2 HARRINGTON, Padraig* -7 18 -7 65 - - - 65
T3 NOREN, Alexander* -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T3 MCDOWELL, Graeme -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T3 FASTH, Niclas* -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T6 KAYMER, Martin* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 WILLETT, Danny -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T8 BOYD, Gary* -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 EDFORS, Johan -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 HANSEN, Anders* -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 GARRIDO, Ignacio* -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 RUMFORD, Brett -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 COLES, Robert* -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 GREEN, Richard -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T15 WESTWOOD, Lee* -3 18 -3 69 - - - 69
PGA TOUR Bob Hope Classic
Much is made of rookies on tour being at a disadvantage in part because they have to learn all the nuances of new tour courses...
Kingston's Matt McQuillen made nonsense of that theory, firing a -7 65 to T4 in a group that included Boo Weekley.
My pal and fine golf writer for the Sun and Golf News Now Ian Hutchinson was the first I saw to mention that Matt had been out in California practising in preparation for this season and it has obviously paid off..
He scorched the first 9 holes on the Palmer Private course with 4 birdies and an eagle for 30 !!
He only got into the field because Donnie Hammond withdrew.
Chris Baryla of Vernon, B.C., and Calgary's Stephen Ames both shot a -3 69 T53 on the Palmer course while Mike Weir of Bright's Grove, Ont., opened with an even-par 72 T107, also over the Palmer course.
The leader is tour sophomore Derek Lamely who's -9 63 included a birdie/eagle streak of 7-under (Nos. 2-7/B-B-B-B-E-B) in 6 holes !!!
Play is under way in round 2.
Bryan Angus
.
McDowell survived a rules inquiry after his round, with European Tour senior referee Andy McFee judging that the Ulsterman's ball had oscillated but not moved as he addressed it before his pitch to the last.
His 66 stood as a result and Willett was alongside him after another birdie at the 17th, but the 23 year old vicar's son finished with a disappointing bogey six and slipped back to joint sixth.
During that swing and including today he is only- 69 for his last 17 rounds !!! Obviously the world's hottest golfer right now and he thinks he is having trouble with his swing !!
“I've been struggling with my game, with my swing, for a while. Around a golf course like this, it's not best thing to be doing that.
“It just worked well today - drove the ball well and gave myself lots of opportunities and converted most of my chances, just a really solid round.”
He is #23 in the OWGR right now....“I feel I'm a good enough player to be in the top ten in the world. I don't like to think too far ahead, sort of play with each week what it gives you.
Padraig Harrington is second at -7 65 and he has a new putting practice routine where he makes 3 practice putts over the top of the ball !! "One thing showed up in the States last year. I was about 156th in every putting category, so something needed to be done."
He hasn't won on tour since the 2008 PGA
Graeme McDowell is still red hot and he showed it by making birdie on his last 5 holes to come home in 30 for a -6 66, good for 3rd along with Niclas Fasth and Alex Noren, both Swedes..
Defending champ Martin Kaymer -5 67 and Lee Westwood is at -3 69.. Phil Mickelson is at -1 71 playing in the middle East for the first time.
Figure this one out.. World #1 Lee Westwood confirmed that he will not be playing the Players Championship in Florida in May because of US PGA Tour restrictions placed on him as a non-member. More on that later.
McDowell held his breath because he had to have a ruling from the referee after his round, but Andy McPhee ruled his ball had oscillated but not moved as he addressed it before his pitch to the last.
1 SCHWARTZEL, Charl -8 18 -8 64 - - - 64
2 HARRINGTON, Padraig* -7 18 -7 65 - - - 65
T3 NOREN, Alexander* -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T3 MCDOWELL, Graeme -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T3 FASTH, Niclas* -6 18 -6 66 - - - 66
T6 KAYMER, Martin* -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T6 WILLETT, Danny -5 18 -5 67 - - - 67
T8 BOYD, Gary* -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 EDFORS, Johan -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 HANSEN, Anders* -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 GARRIDO, Ignacio* -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 RUMFORD, Brett -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 COLES, Robert* -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T8 GREEN, Richard -4 18 -4 68 - - - 68
T15 WESTWOOD, Lee* -3 18 -3 69 - - - 69
PGA TOUR Bob Hope Classic
Much is made of rookies on tour being at a disadvantage in part because they have to learn all the nuances of new tour courses...
Kingston's Matt McQuillen made nonsense of that theory, firing a -7 65 to T4 in a group that included Boo Weekley.
My pal and fine golf writer for the Sun and Golf News Now Ian Hutchinson was the first I saw to mention that Matt had been out in California practising in preparation for this season and it has obviously paid off..
He scorched the first 9 holes on the Palmer Private course with 4 birdies and an eagle for 30 !!
He only got into the field because Donnie Hammond withdrew.
Chris Baryla of Vernon, B.C., and Calgary's Stephen Ames both shot a -3 69 T53 on the Palmer course while Mike Weir of Bright's Grove, Ont., opened with an even-par 72 T107, also over the Palmer course.
The leader is tour sophomore Derek Lamely who's -9 63 included a birdie/eagle streak of 7-under (Nos. 2-7/B-B-B-B-E-B) in 6 holes !!!
Play is under way in round 2.
Bryan Angus
.
McDowell survived a rules inquiry after his round, with European Tour senior referee Andy McFee judging that the Ulsterman's ball had oscillated but not moved as he addressed it before his pitch to the last.
His 66 stood as a result and Willett was alongside him after another birdie at the 17th, but the 23 year old vicar's son finished with a disappointing bogey six and slipped back to joint sixth.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Champions Tour is on the Big Island in Hawaii
The Champions TOUR starts this Friday in Hawaii and this year we have a Canuck to cheer for Rod Spittle..
Mitsubishi Electric Championship
Site: Kaupulehu-Kona, Hawaii.
Schedule: Friday-Sunday.
Course: Hualalai Resort Golf Club (7,107 yards, par 72).
Purse: $1.8-million.
Winner’s share: $305,000.
Canadians: Rod Spittle
While I've been writing about Abu Dhabi and the Hope I haven't forgotten the old guys as the Champions Tour kicks of 2011 in Hawaii on the Big Island this Friday with another of those select fields, this year 42 of them, tour winners from the last 2 years including our own Rod Spittle, and a slew of sponsor invitees and past majors winners, like Tom Watson who defends his title.
Remember last year when Freddie burst onto the scene winning 2 of the first 3 events and just losing this one to Watson who birdied the last 2 holes, and Bernhard Langer was the player of the year winning back to back majors, 5 titles and his 3rd consecutive Player of the Year award as well as the Charles Schwab Cup, incredible !!
Expect him to be the man to beat again this year..
Here is the full field
1. Michael Allen
2. Phil Blackmar
3. Brad Bryant
4. Russ Cochran
5. John Cook
6. Fred Couples
7. Allen Doyle
8. David Eger
9. Keith Fergus
10. Dan Forsman
11. David Frost
12. Fred Funk
13. Mike Goodes
14. Jay Haas
15. Gary Hallberg
16. Bernhard Langer
17. Tom Lehman
18. Mark McNulty
19. Larry Mize
20. Lonnie Nielsen
21. Mark O'Meara
22. Tom Pernice Jr.
23. Nick Price
24. Mike Reid
25. Loren Roberts
26. Eduardo Romero
27. Ted Schulz
28. Jeff Sluman
29. Rod Spittle
30. Bruce Vaughan
31. Bobby Wadkins
32. Denis Watson
33. Tom Watson
34. D.A. Weibring
Sponsor Exemptions
35. Ben Crenshaw
36. Hale Irwin
37. Tom Kite
38. Bruce Lietzke
39. Corey Pavin
40. Craig Stadler
41. Curtis Strange
42. Fuzzy Zoeller
CHAMPIONS SKINS GAME
The following week 8 of the guys move over to Ka'anapali on Maui to play in the Champions Skins game where Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson will defend their title..
For the sixth consecutive year, the players will compete in the alternate-shot, team format which has produced memorable shots, a sprinkle of intrigue and a bundle of player commentary. The players will play nine holes each day, with Golf Channel televising the Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game on a tape-delayed basis from 6-8:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, Jan. 29 and from 6-8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 30 (Times vary in different areas; check your local listings). The broadcast will also be available on Golf Channel
Nicklaus and Watson, who are paired for the sixth consecutive time, return to the Royal Ka'anapali Golf Course to defend their title against 2009 champions Crenshaw and Zoeller. Couples and Price will team for the second consecutive year, while Langer and O'Meara are paired together for the first time
Bryan Angus
Mitsubishi Electric Championship
Site: Kaupulehu-Kona, Hawaii.
Schedule: Friday-Sunday.
Course: Hualalai Resort Golf Club (7,107 yards, par 72).
Purse: $1.8-million.
Winner’s share: $305,000.
Canadians: Rod Spittle
While I've been writing about Abu Dhabi and the Hope I haven't forgotten the old guys as the Champions Tour kicks of 2011 in Hawaii on the Big Island this Friday with another of those select fields, this year 42 of them, tour winners from the last 2 years including our own Rod Spittle, and a slew of sponsor invitees and past majors winners, like Tom Watson who defends his title.
Remember last year when Freddie burst onto the scene winning 2 of the first 3 events and just losing this one to Watson who birdied the last 2 holes, and Bernhard Langer was the player of the year winning back to back majors, 5 titles and his 3rd consecutive Player of the Year award as well as the Charles Schwab Cup, incredible !!
Expect him to be the man to beat again this year..
Here is the full field
1. Michael Allen
2. Phil Blackmar
3. Brad Bryant
4. Russ Cochran
5. John Cook
6. Fred Couples
7. Allen Doyle
8. David Eger
9. Keith Fergus
10. Dan Forsman
11. David Frost
12. Fred Funk
13. Mike Goodes
14. Jay Haas
15. Gary Hallberg
16. Bernhard Langer
17. Tom Lehman
18. Mark McNulty
19. Larry Mize
20. Lonnie Nielsen
21. Mark O'Meara
22. Tom Pernice Jr.
23. Nick Price
24. Mike Reid
25. Loren Roberts
26. Eduardo Romero
27. Ted Schulz
28. Jeff Sluman
29. Rod Spittle
30. Bruce Vaughan
31. Bobby Wadkins
32. Denis Watson
33. Tom Watson
34. D.A. Weibring
Sponsor Exemptions
35. Ben Crenshaw
36. Hale Irwin
37. Tom Kite
38. Bruce Lietzke
39. Corey Pavin
40. Craig Stadler
41. Curtis Strange
42. Fuzzy Zoeller
CHAMPIONS SKINS GAME
The following week 8 of the guys move over to Ka'anapali on Maui to play in the Champions Skins game where Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson will defend their title..
For the sixth consecutive year, the players will compete in the alternate-shot, team format which has produced memorable shots, a sprinkle of intrigue and a bundle of player commentary. The players will play nine holes each day, with Golf Channel televising the Ka'anapali Champions Skins Game on a tape-delayed basis from 6-8:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, Jan. 29 and from 6-8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 30 (Times vary in different areas; check your local listings). The broadcast will also be available on Golf Channel
Nicklaus and Watson, who are paired for the sixth consecutive time, return to the Royal Ka'anapali Golf Course to defend their title against 2009 champions Crenshaw and Zoeller. Couples and Price will team for the second consecutive year, while Langer and O'Meara are paired together for the first time
Bryan Angus
Davis Love to be named US Ryder Cup captain
Expect Ryder Cup veteran Davis Love III to be named the next captain of the US Ryder Cup team (2012) in a news conference at Medinah in Chicago tomorrow
On Tuesday Jose Maria Olazabal was named captain of the European squad..
Bryan Angus
On Tuesday Jose Maria Olazabal was named captain of the European squad..
Bryan Angus
Matt McQuillan added to the field at the Hope
Matt McQullan, listed as an alternative, has been added to the field at the Bob Hope Classic and becomes the 4th Canuck, joining Weir, Ames, and Baryla
He tees off at 1045am (245pm est)
Play is under way on all 4 courses and I will report back later tonight, including the story on our Canucks..
Bryan Angus
He tees off at 1045am (245pm est)
Play is under way on all 4 courses and I will report back later tonight, including the story on our Canucks..
Bryan Angus
Woods will start 2011 next week at Torrey Pines... Mickelson back on the burgers !!
Although his website lists his first event of 2011 as the Omega Dubai Desert Classic as I reported yesterday, Tiger has decided to return to the scene of his most prolific success, Torrey Pines in San Diego where he has won 5 times, in fact the last five times he has played there..
As is so often the case these days we found out about it on Twitter... Here is the AP story.
“I've been working hard on my game, it's game time hooah!!”
With that tweet, Tiger Woods confirmed he will open his 2011 campaign at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego.
While the tournament has become the traditional start of his season since 2006, Woods has not played the PGA Tour stop at Torrey Pines the last two years. He missed the 2009 event while recovering from knee surgery and last year he was dealing with personal problems related to his extramarital affairs.
Woods has won the last five times he played Torrey Pines, including the 2008 U.S. Open in a playoff over Rocco Mediate.
Woods will be joined in San Diego by Phil Mickelson, who will also make his 2011 PGA Tour debut after competing in the HSBC Championship in Abu Dhabi this weekend.
Woods, who lost his No. 1 ranking to Lee Westwood last year, has not won since the Australian Masters in November 2009.
Prior to Wednesday, the only other tournament listed on Woods 2011 schedule was the Dubai Desert Classic in February. Many believe Woods could play as many as five tournaments before the first major of the year, the Masters.
So great news for Farmer's Insurance who have a mediocre field headlined by hometown favourite Phil Mickelson, but now the spotlight is on for them, the PGA tour, CBS and golf fans around the world.
How will Tiger play, has Sean Foley got him back on track. You'd think that with 2 months off to practice everyday he would be all set with his swing, his putter and his confidence, playing on a course he loves..
We shall see.. Tell me, what do you expect from Tiger next week ??
Phil Mickelson gave his press conference in Abu Dhabi earlier this morning and announced he has packed in his Veggie diet and is back on the burgers !!
Here is that report from the Europeantour.com and Reuters..
ABU DHABI - Masters champion Phil Mickelson has abandoned the strict vegetarian diet he adopted to combat psoriatic arthritis during his disappointing 2010 season when victory in Georgia was his only success.
The 34-year-old American joins his three fellow major champions -- Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen and defending titleholder Martin Kaymer -- on Thursday in the strongest Abu Dhabi championship in the event’s six-year history.
“I was a strict vegetarian for five months, and that went okay but ultimately, it was doomed to fail,” he told a news conference on Wednesday. “I learned a lot from that as far as eating habits and diet and so I’ve implemented a lot of the things from that.
“I continue to eat a lot more vegetables than I have in the past and I’m trying to have a better balance now than instead of all protein.
“But as far as the arthritis, that’s something that will never go away but I was fortunate. I was fortunate because I got on it right away.
“So the key for me now was getting on it right away before there was permanent damage to any joints or whatnot.”
Mickelson, who is making his competitive debut in the Middle East, has slipped to fourth in the world rankings alongside McDowell. The pair will play alongside on the first two days at the National Club course.
“My goal this year in 2011 is to have the year I expected 2010 to be,” Mickelson said. “With the exception of the Masters, it wasn’t the year I had hoped for. And so I’ve been working hard in the off-season to make 2011 the year I believe I can have and the one I had hoped for last year.”
The former world number two said he had struggled with his strength work in the gymnasium.
“I had lost a lot of strength over the summer from some medications I took before I was really getting treatment,” he said.
“I was having difficulty getting that strength back, and so I have added protein back into my diet, and since then I’ve been able to get back to lifting weights and so forth to what I was lifting before.”
Mickelson like so many ( eg..Colin Montgomerie ) has struggled with his diet over the years, fighting the flab as the great Terry Wogan used to say became more of a focus for him 3 years ago when he decided to take his fitness seriously by eating sensibly and incorporating daily sessions in the gym as part of his regime.
Bryan Angus
As is so often the case these days we found out about it on Twitter... Here is the AP story.
“I've been working hard on my game, it's game time hooah!!”
With that tweet, Tiger Woods confirmed he will open his 2011 campaign at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego.
While the tournament has become the traditional start of his season since 2006, Woods has not played the PGA Tour stop at Torrey Pines the last two years. He missed the 2009 event while recovering from knee surgery and last year he was dealing with personal problems related to his extramarital affairs.
Woods has won the last five times he played Torrey Pines, including the 2008 U.S. Open in a playoff over Rocco Mediate.
Woods will be joined in San Diego by Phil Mickelson, who will also make his 2011 PGA Tour debut after competing in the HSBC Championship in Abu Dhabi this weekend.
Woods, who lost his No. 1 ranking to Lee Westwood last year, has not won since the Australian Masters in November 2009.
Prior to Wednesday, the only other tournament listed on Woods 2011 schedule was the Dubai Desert Classic in February. Many believe Woods could play as many as five tournaments before the first major of the year, the Masters.
So great news for Farmer's Insurance who have a mediocre field headlined by hometown favourite Phil Mickelson, but now the spotlight is on for them, the PGA tour, CBS and golf fans around the world.
How will Tiger play, has Sean Foley got him back on track. You'd think that with 2 months off to practice everyday he would be all set with his swing, his putter and his confidence, playing on a course he loves..
We shall see.. Tell me, what do you expect from Tiger next week ??
Phil Mickelson gave his press conference in Abu Dhabi earlier this morning and announced he has packed in his Veggie diet and is back on the burgers !!
Here is that report from the Europeantour.com and Reuters..
ABU DHABI - Masters champion Phil Mickelson has abandoned the strict vegetarian diet he adopted to combat psoriatic arthritis during his disappointing 2010 season when victory in Georgia was his only success.
The 34-year-old American joins his three fellow major champions -- Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen and defending titleholder Martin Kaymer -- on Thursday in the strongest Abu Dhabi championship in the event’s six-year history.
“I was a strict vegetarian for five months, and that went okay but ultimately, it was doomed to fail,” he told a news conference on Wednesday. “I learned a lot from that as far as eating habits and diet and so I’ve implemented a lot of the things from that.
“I continue to eat a lot more vegetables than I have in the past and I’m trying to have a better balance now than instead of all protein.
“But as far as the arthritis, that’s something that will never go away but I was fortunate. I was fortunate because I got on it right away.
“So the key for me now was getting on it right away before there was permanent damage to any joints or whatnot.”
Mickelson, who is making his competitive debut in the Middle East, has slipped to fourth in the world rankings alongside McDowell. The pair will play alongside on the first two days at the National Club course.
“My goal this year in 2011 is to have the year I expected 2010 to be,” Mickelson said. “With the exception of the Masters, it wasn’t the year I had hoped for. And so I’ve been working hard in the off-season to make 2011 the year I believe I can have and the one I had hoped for last year.”
The former world number two said he had struggled with his strength work in the gymnasium.
“I had lost a lot of strength over the summer from some medications I took before I was really getting treatment,” he said.
“I was having difficulty getting that strength back, and so I have added protein back into my diet, and since then I’ve been able to get back to lifting weights and so forth to what I was lifting before.”
Mickelson like so many ( eg..Colin Montgomerie ) has struggled with his diet over the years, fighting the flab as the great Terry Wogan used to say became more of a focus for him 3 years ago when he decided to take his fitness seriously by eating sensibly and incorporating daily sessions in the gym as part of his regime.
Bryan Angus
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Global schedule creates headaches for top ;pros..
One of my favs is Ernie Els and he is featured in this article by Doug Ferguson of AP.....
HONOLULU - For all the miles he has flown and all the trophies he has won on the six major tours around the globe, Ernie Els would seem to be the biggest supporter of a move toward a world golf tour.
Far from it.
“I hope not, because it won't work,” he said. “The egos won't let it work.”
Els wasn't referring to players demanding appearance money or expecting to be otherwise pampered. His angst is aimed at administrators who seem to be tripping over themselves to stake out territories, not to mention weeks on the calendar.
“It's going to be a mess.” A week later, he found out just how messy.
The Sunshine Tour announced over the weekend that the South African Open will be played Nov. 17-20 “as a result of the congestion on the worldwide golfing calendar.”
There's just one problem.
Not only is Els very much South African, he is the defending champion and a five-time winner of his national open. The date change means the South African Open will be held the same week as the Presidents Cup in Australia. Els is the premier global player of his generation, yet even he hasn't figured out how to be two places at once.
And right now, he's not sure which one to play.
Would he skip the Presidents Cup to defend his title in South Africa? His body language — an angry stare and raised eyebrows — suggested he is seriously thinking about it. Remember, Els missed the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994 to play in the British Masters and honour a commitment to longtime supporter Johann Rupert.
The timing of the decision is even more peculiar considering how the last South African Open turned out. It was a 1-2-3-4 finish by Els, Retief Goosen, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, with Tim Clark in a tie for ninth. Those five South Africans currently occupy the top six spots in the Presidents Cup standings.
“It doesn't make sense,” Els said. “This is my national open. I don't get a chance to play there often. I don't know about the timing of this, but I'm sure the U.S. tour had the date set already for the Presidents Cup. Then the European Tour comes in and ... why are they trying to (mess) with myself and Retief and Tim? Don't they have any regard for the Presidents Cup?”
Europe is involved because it co-sanctions the South African Open and is trying to play its season in a calendar year. The South Africa events that once kicked off a “new” year in December have been brought forward a month so the European Tour season can end in Dubai, which has been moved back because of the Presidents Cup and World Cup.
What a mess.
“We had no alternative but to compromise our schedule for 2011 for obvious reasons,” Sunshine Tour Commissioner Gareth Tindall said in an email. “One also has to bear in mind that the Sunshine Tour ... has no input whatsoever to the Presidents Cup, we are not consulted on scheduling and, more importantly, we derive no financial benefit from the event. And yet we may have up to five players qualifying.”
Els realizes there are no easy solutions.
He might not be as frustrated had he been involved in the discussions, and the Big Easy should have been shown that courtesy given his worldwide support. At a time when the PGA Tour is asking its top players to add events, Els has been doing that for years. He was on the verge of playing New Orleans this year until a conflict in Asia arose.
And part of the frustration is feeling as though he has been burned before.
Els was leading the European Tour money list late in the 2007 season. The season-ending Volvo Masters was pushed back a week to clash with the Singapore Open, even though Els said tour officials knew he had signed a three-year deal to play in Singapore. He honoured his commitment, and Justin Rose won at Valderrama to secure the Order of Merit.
And now, Els said, they're pulling this again.
It's a mess, all right, and not just the week of the Presidents Cup.
—Nov. 10-13 has the Singapore Open, Australian Open and Taheiyo Masters in Japan. Adam Scott, who is Australian, is the defending champion in Singapore.
—Nov. 17-20 has the Presidents Cup, South African Open, Johor Open and Dunlop Phoenix, a top event on the Japan Golf Tour that surely would miss Ryo Ishikawa if the teen sensation is on the International team in Australia.
—Nov. 24-27 is the weekend of the World Cup in China, the Dunhill Championship in South Africa, the Australian PGA and Casio World Open in Japan.
The worst of it might be Dec. 1-4, which features these tournaments and their defending champions — Chevron World Challenge (Graeme McDowell), Hong Kong Open (Ian Poulter), Nedbank Challenge (Lee Westwood) and Australian Masters (Stuart Appleby).
McDowell wants to be in it all and he says, that means going consecutive weeks from China to California to Dubai.
“Geographical nightmare,” McDowell said. “There's a lot of golf going on.”
And it's not likely the calendar will get any easier after this year, not with the PGA Tour already in Malaysia and looking to add tournaments in China, South Korea and Japan. Perhaps one tournament official said it best last year when asked about the co-operation among tours as golf continued to expand.
“The Far East looks a lot like the Wild, Wild West.”
Too much of a good thing ?? they should learn from women's tennis too many events...
Best Bryan Angus
HONOLULU - For all the miles he has flown and all the trophies he has won on the six major tours around the globe, Ernie Els would seem to be the biggest supporter of a move toward a world golf tour.
Far from it.
“I hope not, because it won't work,” he said. “The egos won't let it work.”
Els wasn't referring to players demanding appearance money or expecting to be otherwise pampered. His angst is aimed at administrators who seem to be tripping over themselves to stake out territories, not to mention weeks on the calendar.
“It's going to be a mess.” A week later, he found out just how messy.
The Sunshine Tour announced over the weekend that the South African Open will be played Nov. 17-20 “as a result of the congestion on the worldwide golfing calendar.”
There's just one problem.
Not only is Els very much South African, he is the defending champion and a five-time winner of his national open. The date change means the South African Open will be held the same week as the Presidents Cup in Australia. Els is the premier global player of his generation, yet even he hasn't figured out how to be two places at once.
And right now, he's not sure which one to play.
Would he skip the Presidents Cup to defend his title in South Africa? His body language — an angry stare and raised eyebrows — suggested he is seriously thinking about it. Remember, Els missed the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994 to play in the British Masters and honour a commitment to longtime supporter Johann Rupert.
The timing of the decision is even more peculiar considering how the last South African Open turned out. It was a 1-2-3-4 finish by Els, Retief Goosen, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, with Tim Clark in a tie for ninth. Those five South Africans currently occupy the top six spots in the Presidents Cup standings.
“It doesn't make sense,” Els said. “This is my national open. I don't get a chance to play there often. I don't know about the timing of this, but I'm sure the U.S. tour had the date set already for the Presidents Cup. Then the European Tour comes in and ... why are they trying to (mess) with myself and Retief and Tim? Don't they have any regard for the Presidents Cup?”
Europe is involved because it co-sanctions the South African Open and is trying to play its season in a calendar year. The South Africa events that once kicked off a “new” year in December have been brought forward a month so the European Tour season can end in Dubai, which has been moved back because of the Presidents Cup and World Cup.
What a mess.
“We had no alternative but to compromise our schedule for 2011 for obvious reasons,” Sunshine Tour Commissioner Gareth Tindall said in an email. “One also has to bear in mind that the Sunshine Tour ... has no input whatsoever to the Presidents Cup, we are not consulted on scheduling and, more importantly, we derive no financial benefit from the event. And yet we may have up to five players qualifying.”
Els realizes there are no easy solutions.
He might not be as frustrated had he been involved in the discussions, and the Big Easy should have been shown that courtesy given his worldwide support. At a time when the PGA Tour is asking its top players to add events, Els has been doing that for years. He was on the verge of playing New Orleans this year until a conflict in Asia arose.
And part of the frustration is feeling as though he has been burned before.
Els was leading the European Tour money list late in the 2007 season. The season-ending Volvo Masters was pushed back a week to clash with the Singapore Open, even though Els said tour officials knew he had signed a three-year deal to play in Singapore. He honoured his commitment, and Justin Rose won at Valderrama to secure the Order of Merit.
And now, Els said, they're pulling this again.
It's a mess, all right, and not just the week of the Presidents Cup.
—Nov. 10-13 has the Singapore Open, Australian Open and Taheiyo Masters in Japan. Adam Scott, who is Australian, is the defending champion in Singapore.
—Nov. 17-20 has the Presidents Cup, South African Open, Johor Open and Dunlop Phoenix, a top event on the Japan Golf Tour that surely would miss Ryo Ishikawa if the teen sensation is on the International team in Australia.
—Nov. 24-27 is the weekend of the World Cup in China, the Dunhill Championship in South Africa, the Australian PGA and Casio World Open in Japan.
The worst of it might be Dec. 1-4, which features these tournaments and their defending champions — Chevron World Challenge (Graeme McDowell), Hong Kong Open (Ian Poulter), Nedbank Challenge (Lee Westwood) and Australian Masters (Stuart Appleby).
McDowell wants to be in it all and he says, that means going consecutive weeks from China to California to Dubai.
“Geographical nightmare,” McDowell said. “There's a lot of golf going on.”
And it's not likely the calendar will get any easier after this year, not with the PGA Tour already in Malaysia and looking to add tournaments in China, South Korea and Japan. Perhaps one tournament official said it best last year when asked about the co-operation among tours as golf continued to expand.
“The Far East looks a lot like the Wild, Wild West.”
Too much of a good thing ?? they should learn from women's tennis too many events...
Best Bryan Angus
Olazabal picked to captain 2012 Ryder Cup team
This comes as no surprise as my pal Gordie Simpson of the European Tour has sent out this press release..
Jose Maria Olazábal has accepted an invitation from the Tournament Committee of The European Tour, ratified by The European Ryder Cup Players and Stakeholders Board, to captain the European team in The 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Illinois, United States of America, from September 28-30, 2012.
Olazábal, who was born in Fuenterrabia, Spain, on February 5, 1966, becomes the 23rd golfer to captain a Ryder Cup team against the United States and the second Spaniard following Seve Ballesteros, the winning captain in 1997 when Europe triumphed 14 ½ - 13 ½ at Club de Golf Valderrama, Sotogrande, Spain.
Olazábal made the first of seven Ryder Cup appearances in 1987 when Europe created history by winning on American soil for the first time and he was also on the winning European team in 1997 and 2006 in a Ryder Cup playing career that spanned 19 years. Olazábal and Ballesteros formed the most successful partnership in Ryder Cup history in the fourballs and foursomes with 11 wins and two halved matches from 15 played, and with 18 wins and 20½ points, Olazábal stands fifth in the European lists for most matches won and most points won respectively.
Following Europe’s 14 ½ - 13 ½ win at The Celtic Manor Resort, City of Newport, Wales, Olazábal succeeds Colin Montgomerie as captain with the aim of retaining The Ryder Cup which Europe has won eight times and the United States seven times with one match tied since players from the Continent of Europe became eligible in 1979. Europe’s victories were achieved under the captaincies of Tony Jacklin (1985, 1987), Bernard Gallacher (1995), Ballesteros (1997), Sam Torrance (2002), Bernhard Langer (2004), Ian Woosnam (2006) and Montgomerie (2010) with Jacklin being the captain when the match was tied in 1989.
Olazábal said: “The two Masters wins at Augusta National are the highlight of my playing career but this is my proudest moment. Golf has been my life and representing Europe in The Ryder Cup has given me so much enjoyment. So to be named the European Ryder Cup captain is something very special and I am looking forward to the next 20 months before we reach Medinah.
“Seve was also our Captain at Valderrama in 1997 and that was especially significant because the match was played in Spain and on the Continent for the first time and, of course, we won. In all I’ve played under five Captains – Tony Jacklin, Bernard Gallacher, Mark James, Ian Woosnam and Seve – and the last in 2006 with Woosie was one to remember because we won 18 ½ - 9½. I played two fourball matches with Sergio (Garcia) and we won both and then I beat Phil Mickelson in the singles which was the last match I played.
“It was also a wonderful experience to be involved as a vice captain with Nick Faldo in 2008 and then again with Colin Montgomerie when we regained the Cup at Celtic Manor last year. I’ve learned a lot along the way and linked to my own experiences I look forward to drawing on all that knowledge with the aim, of course, to keeping the Cup in our possession. We all know The Ryder Cup is one of the most exciting and important competitions in the golfing calendar, and that it always inspires team members and spectators alike, but there is nothing like holding that trophy at the end of the week.
“I have accepted the captaincy but I think my desire to keep playing is known by everyone. This is the first of four tournaments in succession I am playing on the Desert Swing of The European Tour International Schedule. I am looking forward to competing again and giving myself the chance to win.
Olazábal, who won the Masters Tournament in 1994 and again in 1999 after recovering from rheumatoid polyarthritis in three joints of his right foot and two in his left, struck his first shots at the age of two at the Real Golf de San Sebastian, set in the lush foothills of the Pyrenees. He was drawn to the golf course because it was where his father, Gaspar, worked as the greenkeeper and his mother, Julia, as wardrobe mistress. It was on the practice range at Real Golf de San Sebastian in 1979 that Olazábal also met Sergio Gomez, who would go on to become his long-time friend and manager.
Olazábal has won 23 times on The European Tour International Schedule with 30 wins in all worldwide and he became the second Spaniard to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame when he joined his great friend Seve Ballesteros (inducted in 1999) in that illustrious group during a moving ceremony at St Augustine, Florida, in November, 2009.
Medinah Country Club’s Number 3 Championship Course, close to Chicago, has hosted three Major Championships – the US Open in 1949, 1975 and in 1990 when Olazábal finished tied eighth and the US PGA Championship in 1999 and 2006. It has also staged a US Senior Open. The course was designed by Scotsman Tom Bendelow and carved out of an oak tree forest in rolling terrain and opened in 1928. After the 1999 US PGA Championship Rees Jones, the renowned architect, undertook a modification project and the course played to more than 7,500 yards from the championship tees in the 2006 US PGA Championship.
Bryan Angus
Jose Maria Olazábal has accepted an invitation from the Tournament Committee of The European Tour, ratified by The European Ryder Cup Players and Stakeholders Board, to captain the European team in The 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Illinois, United States of America, from September 28-30, 2012.
Olazábal, who was born in Fuenterrabia, Spain, on February 5, 1966, becomes the 23rd golfer to captain a Ryder Cup team against the United States and the second Spaniard following Seve Ballesteros, the winning captain in 1997 when Europe triumphed 14 ½ - 13 ½ at Club de Golf Valderrama, Sotogrande, Spain.
Olazábal made the first of seven Ryder Cup appearances in 1987 when Europe created history by winning on American soil for the first time and he was also on the winning European team in 1997 and 2006 in a Ryder Cup playing career that spanned 19 years. Olazábal and Ballesteros formed the most successful partnership in Ryder Cup history in the fourballs and foursomes with 11 wins and two halved matches from 15 played, and with 18 wins and 20½ points, Olazábal stands fifth in the European lists for most matches won and most points won respectively.
Following Europe’s 14 ½ - 13 ½ win at The Celtic Manor Resort, City of Newport, Wales, Olazábal succeeds Colin Montgomerie as captain with the aim of retaining The Ryder Cup which Europe has won eight times and the United States seven times with one match tied since players from the Continent of Europe became eligible in 1979. Europe’s victories were achieved under the captaincies of Tony Jacklin (1985, 1987), Bernard Gallacher (1995), Ballesteros (1997), Sam Torrance (2002), Bernhard Langer (2004), Ian Woosnam (2006) and Montgomerie (2010) with Jacklin being the captain when the match was tied in 1989.
Olazábal said: “The two Masters wins at Augusta National are the highlight of my playing career but this is my proudest moment. Golf has been my life and representing Europe in The Ryder Cup has given me so much enjoyment. So to be named the European Ryder Cup captain is something very special and I am looking forward to the next 20 months before we reach Medinah.
“Seve was also our Captain at Valderrama in 1997 and that was especially significant because the match was played in Spain and on the Continent for the first time and, of course, we won. In all I’ve played under five Captains – Tony Jacklin, Bernard Gallacher, Mark James, Ian Woosnam and Seve – and the last in 2006 with Woosie was one to remember because we won 18 ½ - 9½. I played two fourball matches with Sergio (Garcia) and we won both and then I beat Phil Mickelson in the singles which was the last match I played.
“It was also a wonderful experience to be involved as a vice captain with Nick Faldo in 2008 and then again with Colin Montgomerie when we regained the Cup at Celtic Manor last year. I’ve learned a lot along the way and linked to my own experiences I look forward to drawing on all that knowledge with the aim, of course, to keeping the Cup in our possession. We all know The Ryder Cup is one of the most exciting and important competitions in the golfing calendar, and that it always inspires team members and spectators alike, but there is nothing like holding that trophy at the end of the week.
“I have accepted the captaincy but I think my desire to keep playing is known by everyone. This is the first of four tournaments in succession I am playing on the Desert Swing of The European Tour International Schedule. I am looking forward to competing again and giving myself the chance to win.
Olazábal, who won the Masters Tournament in 1994 and again in 1999 after recovering from rheumatoid polyarthritis in three joints of his right foot and two in his left, struck his first shots at the age of two at the Real Golf de San Sebastian, set in the lush foothills of the Pyrenees. He was drawn to the golf course because it was where his father, Gaspar, worked as the greenkeeper and his mother, Julia, as wardrobe mistress. It was on the practice range at Real Golf de San Sebastian in 1979 that Olazábal also met Sergio Gomez, who would go on to become his long-time friend and manager.
Olazábal has won 23 times on The European Tour International Schedule with 30 wins in all worldwide and he became the second Spaniard to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame when he joined his great friend Seve Ballesteros (inducted in 1999) in that illustrious group during a moving ceremony at St Augustine, Florida, in November, 2009.
Medinah Country Club’s Number 3 Championship Course, close to Chicago, has hosted three Major Championships – the US Open in 1949, 1975 and in 1990 when Olazábal finished tied eighth and the US PGA Championship in 1999 and 2006. It has also staged a US Senior Open. The course was designed by Scotsman Tom Bendelow and carved out of an oak tree forest in rolling terrain and opened in 1928. After the 1999 US PGA Championship Rees Jones, the renowned architect, undertook a modification project and the course played to more than 7,500 yards from the championship tees in the 2006 US PGA Championship.
Bryan Angus
Golf's stars in the desert, but in Abu Dhabi, not Palm Springs..
Last year world #1 Lee Westwood ruffled a few feathers on the Yankee turkey when he announced he would not be playing full time on the PGA tour, concentrating rather on the European tour instead. That followed on the heels of similar decisions by world #3 Martin Kaymer and #12 Rory McIlroy.
This weekend brings an early indicator of the new world order as Martin Kaymer defends his title in Abu Dhabi
16 of the world's top 30 will travel to the desert of the middle east to play the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, including #4 Phil Mickelson, while only 2 will travel to the Palm Springs desert to play the Bob Hope Classic
12 others are not playing in either including the likes of Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Dustin Johnson and Hunter Mahan who have chosen not to play their PGA tour event... Now the Hope, once a classic, Arnie won it 5 times, is not every one's cup of tea or should I say tee, anymore.. 5 days ( 4 with amateurs) on 4 very easy courses (Palmer course PGA West where Duval shot 59, Nicklaus course PGA West, La Quinta and Silver Rock ) with a winning score usually around 30 shots under par.. Mike Weir won in 2003 with a total of 330.. it doesn't make it a great draw for the world's elite although Canucks Weir, Ames Baryla are in the field and McQuillan is an alternative..
The European Tour starts it's 4 week desert swing as follows...
Jan 20 Jan 23 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship
Abu Dhabi Golf Club,Abu Dhabi,United Arab Emirates
$2,700,000
Jan 27 Jan 30 Volvo Golf Champions
The Royal Golf Club,Kingdom of Bahrain,Bahrain
€1,700,000
Feb 03 Feb 06 Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy
Doha GC,Doha,Qatar
$2,500,000
Feb 10 Feb 13 Omega Dubai Desert Classic
Emirates GC,Dubai,United Arab Emirates
$2,500,000 where Tiger Woods is scheduled to start his 2011 campaign,,
while the PGA tour has this lineup, none of it with world #1 Lee Westwood or Tiger Woods..
Jan. 19 - 23 Bob Hope Classic
PGA West (Palmer Course), La Quinta, California
PGA West (Nicklaus Course), La Quinta, California
La Quinta CC, La Quinta, California
Silver Rock, La Quinta, California
Purse: $5,000,000
Bill Haas (D)
Jan. 27 - 30 Farmers Insurance Open
Torrey Pines (South Course), San Diego, California
Torrey Pines (North Course), San Diego, California
Purse: $5,800,000
Ben Crane (D)
Feb. 03 - 06 Waste Management Phoenix Open
TPC Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona
Purse: $6,100,000 GOLF
Hunter Mahan (D)
Feb. 10 - 13 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, California
Monterrey Peninsula CC, Pebble Beach, California
Spyglass Hill GC, Pebble Beach, California
Furyk and Stricker normally don't play next until the following week at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera which Stricker won last year and Mickelson will likely get back on a plane from Abu Dhabi to play the Farmers Insurance at Torrey Pines since he is from San Diego.
The Pheonix Open has been moved up this year to the week before Pebble Beach.
A feast of golf for sure, but the early in the 2011 season, the stars are in the desert of the middle east..
Abu Dhabi's slogan.... This is not big it's major !! and in the near-40 year history of The European Tour there has never been such a superb field so early in the season. Here is a breakdown of the world's top 30 this week..
Key: Abu Dhabi (16) Bob Hope (2) NP not playing at either (12)
1 Lee Westwood, Eng 8.83 406.14 46 -18.81 0.00
2 Tiger Woods, USA 7.31 292.59 40 -22.67 0.00 NP
3 Martin Kaymer, Deu 7.05 338.21 48 -17.59 0.00
4 Graeme McDowell, Nir 6.24 343.11 55 -10.38 20.00
4 Phil Mickelson, USA 6.24 268.24 43 -19.93 0.00
6 Steve Stricker, USA 6.02 264.87 44 -17.91 19.98 NP
7 Jim Furyk, USA 5.76 276.53 48 -16.50 7.00 NP
8 Paul Casey, Eng 5.65 248.80 44 -16.52 0.00
9 Luke Donald, Eng 5.50 297.15 54 -13.41 0.00 NP
10 Ernie Els, Zaf 5.40 302.54 56 -14.41 5.64
10 Ian Poulter, Eng 5.40 270.12 50 -12.18 9.50
12 Rory McIlroy, Nir 5.40 291.65 54 -16.13 0.00
13 Matt Kuchar, USA 4.82 255.42 53 -11.71 20.06
14 Dustin Johnson, USA 4.42 220.92 50 -12.16 7.00 NP
15 Francesco Molinari, Ita 4.33 237.99 55 -8.45 4.63
16 Retief Goosen, Zaf 4.30 241.06 56 -13.76 0.00
17 Robert Karlsson, Swe 4.21 180.93 43 -5.90 0.00 NP
18 Louis Oosthuizen, Zaf 4.03 209.74 52 -9.85 22.00
19 Edoardo Molinari, Ita 4.03 213.61 53 -10.22 0.00
20 Tim Clark, Zaf 3.83 206.89 54 -9.29 28.13
21 Hunter Mahan, USA 3.80 205.37 54 -11.60 2.60 NP
22 Robert Allenby, Aus 3.56 199.09 56 -11.22 0.00 NP
23 Charl Schwartzel, Zaf 3.55 198.57 56 -8.71 25.43
24 Adam Scott, Aus 3.50 181.93 52 -7.19 3.13 NP
25 Geoff Ogilvy, Aus 3.47 169.90 49 -10.77 0.00 NP
26 Padraig Harrington, Irl 3.46 190.05 55 -10.82 0.00
27 Miguel A Jimenez, Esp 3.44 192.79 56 -9.12 0.00
28 Zach Johnson, USA 3.43 181.79 53 -12.21 2.85 NP
29 Kim Kyung-Tae, Kor 3.34 176.79 53 -4.97 0.00 NP
30 Rickie Fowler, USA 3.33 133.17 40 -5.26 0.00 NP
Bryan Angus bryanangus4@gmail.com
This weekend brings an early indicator of the new world order as Martin Kaymer defends his title in Abu Dhabi
16 of the world's top 30 will travel to the desert of the middle east to play the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, including #4 Phil Mickelson, while only 2 will travel to the Palm Springs desert to play the Bob Hope Classic
12 others are not playing in either including the likes of Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Dustin Johnson and Hunter Mahan who have chosen not to play their PGA tour event... Now the Hope, once a classic, Arnie won it 5 times, is not every one's cup of tea or should I say tee, anymore.. 5 days ( 4 with amateurs) on 4 very easy courses (Palmer course PGA West where Duval shot 59, Nicklaus course PGA West, La Quinta and Silver Rock ) with a winning score usually around 30 shots under par.. Mike Weir won in 2003 with a total of 330.. it doesn't make it a great draw for the world's elite although Canucks Weir, Ames Baryla are in the field and McQuillan is an alternative..
The European Tour starts it's 4 week desert swing as follows...
Jan 20 Jan 23 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship
Abu Dhabi Golf Club,Abu Dhabi,United Arab Emirates
$2,700,000
Jan 27 Jan 30 Volvo Golf Champions
The Royal Golf Club,Kingdom of Bahrain,Bahrain
€1,700,000
Feb 03 Feb 06 Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy
Doha GC,Doha,Qatar
$2,500,000
Feb 10 Feb 13 Omega Dubai Desert Classic
Emirates GC,Dubai,United Arab Emirates
$2,500,000 where Tiger Woods is scheduled to start his 2011 campaign,,
while the PGA tour has this lineup, none of it with world #1 Lee Westwood or Tiger Woods..
Jan. 19 - 23 Bob Hope Classic
PGA West (Palmer Course), La Quinta, California
PGA West (Nicklaus Course), La Quinta, California
La Quinta CC, La Quinta, California
Silver Rock, La Quinta, California
Purse: $5,000,000
Bill Haas (D)
Jan. 27 - 30 Farmers Insurance Open
Torrey Pines (South Course), San Diego, California
Torrey Pines (North Course), San Diego, California
Purse: $5,800,000
Ben Crane (D)
Feb. 03 - 06 Waste Management Phoenix Open
TPC Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona
Purse: $6,100,000 GOLF
Hunter Mahan (D)
Feb. 10 - 13 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, California
Monterrey Peninsula CC, Pebble Beach, California
Spyglass Hill GC, Pebble Beach, California
Furyk and Stricker normally don't play next until the following week at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera which Stricker won last year and Mickelson will likely get back on a plane from Abu Dhabi to play the Farmers Insurance at Torrey Pines since he is from San Diego.
The Pheonix Open has been moved up this year to the week before Pebble Beach.
A feast of golf for sure, but the early in the 2011 season, the stars are in the desert of the middle east..
Abu Dhabi's slogan.... This is not big it's major !! and in the near-40 year history of The European Tour there has never been such a superb field so early in the season. Here is a breakdown of the world's top 30 this week..
Key: Abu Dhabi (16) Bob Hope (2) NP not playing at either (12)
1 Lee Westwood, Eng 8.83 406.14 46 -18.81 0.00
2 Tiger Woods, USA 7.31 292.59 40 -22.67 0.00 NP
3 Martin Kaymer, Deu 7.05 338.21 48 -17.59 0.00
4 Graeme McDowell, Nir 6.24 343.11 55 -10.38 20.00
4 Phil Mickelson, USA 6.24 268.24 43 -19.93 0.00
6 Steve Stricker, USA 6.02 264.87 44 -17.91 19.98 NP
7 Jim Furyk, USA 5.76 276.53 48 -16.50 7.00 NP
8 Paul Casey, Eng 5.65 248.80 44 -16.52 0.00
9 Luke Donald, Eng 5.50 297.15 54 -13.41 0.00 NP
10 Ernie Els, Zaf 5.40 302.54 56 -14.41 5.64
10 Ian Poulter, Eng 5.40 270.12 50 -12.18 9.50
12 Rory McIlroy, Nir 5.40 291.65 54 -16.13 0.00
13 Matt Kuchar, USA 4.82 255.42 53 -11.71 20.06
14 Dustin Johnson, USA 4.42 220.92 50 -12.16 7.00 NP
15 Francesco Molinari, Ita 4.33 237.99 55 -8.45 4.63
16 Retief Goosen, Zaf 4.30 241.06 56 -13.76 0.00
17 Robert Karlsson, Swe 4.21 180.93 43 -5.90 0.00 NP
18 Louis Oosthuizen, Zaf 4.03 209.74 52 -9.85 22.00
19 Edoardo Molinari, Ita 4.03 213.61 53 -10.22 0.00
20 Tim Clark, Zaf 3.83 206.89 54 -9.29 28.13
21 Hunter Mahan, USA 3.80 205.37 54 -11.60 2.60 NP
22 Robert Allenby, Aus 3.56 199.09 56 -11.22 0.00 NP
23 Charl Schwartzel, Zaf 3.55 198.57 56 -8.71 25.43
24 Adam Scott, Aus 3.50 181.93 52 -7.19 3.13 NP
25 Geoff Ogilvy, Aus 3.47 169.90 49 -10.77 0.00 NP
26 Padraig Harrington, Irl 3.46 190.05 55 -10.82 0.00
27 Miguel A Jimenez, Esp 3.44 192.79 56 -9.12 0.00
28 Zach Johnson, USA 3.43 181.79 53 -12.21 2.85 NP
29 Kim Kyung-Tae, Kor 3.34 176.79 53 -4.97 0.00 NP
30 Rickie Fowler, USA 3.33 133.17 40 -5.26 0.00 NP
Bryan Angus bryanangus4@gmail.com
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