All the best for 2013 !! My #1 golf highlight of 2012

New Year's Eve is for amateur's and if you are one of them please don't be throwing up on your neighbours rug at 1 in the morning.... You will have to face them later in the day !!

From the Angus family point of view, we are pretty glad to see the back of 2012 with health concerns, and job uncertainty at times, but there were many bright moments as well and we are heading into the new year with momentum..

As I said in my year in review it was another dramatic, exciting season, and just to warm your hearts here is my highlight of the year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRnFdoaPEyY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXmBXiBfwSo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPouI_SVbgM


All the best to you all

Bryan

Merry Christmas!!.. 2012 my Year in Review

Christmas Day has finally arrived, and I wish all of you a really nice day, the rushing around, frayed tempers, stress have all gone.. today will decide if it was worth it !!

Well Rory was the Story this year, but as always there was so much more, For me it was great for the game this year to see that Sean Foley finally has Tiger back as a serious contender, and the Ryder Cup finale on the last day of September at Medinah starting with Rory damn near missing his tee time right through to Martin Kaymer's pressure packed 10 footer to complete the most memorable comeback ever will never be topped.... or will it..

For my complete Year in Review click www.nextsportstar.com

In a couple of weeks last year's winners on the PGA tour will take their families out to Hawaii for the season opener as they ease into 2013 and we'll start all over again

Brad Fritsch joins our Canadian contingent, and we will see how the likes of Rebecca Lee-Bentham, Stephanie Sherlock and Alena Sharp do on the LPGA tour...

As always your comments are welcomed and don't forget you can watch me every morning from 7-9 on the Breakfast Club at www.nextsportstar.com  and listen every Sunday morning between 8-10 on TSN1050radio on the International Sports Report.


Bryan Angus
twitter@mummmbles
www.isr1050.com
www.nextsportstar.com
twitter@nextsportstar

No surprise.. Rory wins European Tour Player of the Year

Rory McIlroy has been named The 2012 Race to Dubai European Tour Golfer of the Year, capping a sensational year for the World Number One.

The 23 year old Northern Irishman succeeds Luke Donald as winner of the coveted award, having also replicated the Englishman’s previously unprecedented achievement of winning both The Race to Dubai and the US PGA Tour Money List in the same season.

In August, McIlroy captured his second Major Championship, claiming the US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island by eight strokes and in doing so set a new record for the largest winning margin in the Championship, beating the seven stroke triumph of Jack Nicklaus at Oak Hill in 1980. It also matched the winning margin he achieved during his maiden Major triumph in the 2011 US Open Championship at Congressional.

He also won three times on the US PGA Tour – in The Honda Classic, the Deutsche Bank Championship and the BMW Championship – and played a vital role in Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup winning team, before ending a magnificent personal year by winning The European Tour’s season finalé, The DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, in style, birdieing the final five holes on the Earth course to triumph by two strokes.

That fifth title worldwide in 2012 also meant McIlroy finished The European Tour season with record earnings of €5,519,118, beating the previous mark of €5,323,400 set by Donald last year, as he became the youngest player to win the Harry Vardon Trophy since Scotland’s Sandy Lyle in 1980 and the fourth youngest in total behind Seve Ballesteros, Dale Hayes and Lyle.

McIlroy can now add The Race to Dubai European Tour Golfer of the Year award to his list of accomplishments in 2012, which includes winning the Golf Writers’ Trophy on this side of the Atlantic as well as the PGA Tour Player of the Year honours in the United States.

The judging panel, which featured golf journalists from newspapers and magazines as well as commentators from radio and television, also reserved praise for several other worthy candidates, specifically Englishman Ian Poulter, who won four points out of four in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory as well as claiming his second World Golf Championship title in China in November, and South African Branden Grace, who won four times on The European Tour in 2012 after securing his card at Qualifying School the previous November.

But McIlroy, who was announced as the winner at the annual Golfer of the Year Luncheon at the Lancaster Hotel in London, received the unanimous vote from the panel to become only the second Northern Irishman, following his friend Graeme McDowell (who shared the award with Germany’s Martin Kaymer in 2010), to receive the accolade


europeantour.com

Rookie Popovic wins Aussie PGA, Schwartzel laps the field at the Dunhill

COOLUM, Australia -- Australasian Tour rookie Daniel Popovic completed an improbable wire-to-wire victory in the Australian PGA, shooting a 3-under 69 earlier this morning for a four-stroke victory.

Popovic finished at 16-under 272 at the Palmer Coolum resort. The Australian opened with rounds of 64, 70 and 69.

Rod Pampling birdied the first six holes to take the lead after nine holes, but dropped four strokes on the final three holes -- making bogeys on 16 and 17 and a double bogey on 18 -- to fall into a tie for second with fellow Australian Anthony Brown. Pampling had a 69, and Brown shot 71.

Popovic nearly quit golf earlier this year to care for his seriously ill father.

Pampling looked set for his first win since the Australian Masters in 2008. He has two wins on the U.S. PGA Tour, the last in 2006 at the Bay Hill Invitational. This year, he finished just outside the top 125, 127th place to lose his PGA tour card, then failed at qualifying school two weeks ago, meaning he will have only conditional status next year in the U.S.

Errant tee shots on 16 and 17 led to bogeys, then his approach on 18 went into the water.

Geoff Ogilvy, trying to be among the top three here to ensure he'd finish inside the top 50 in year-end world ranking and earn a spot in the U.S. Masters next year. But shot 69 a Sunday and tied for fourth, a stroke short.

Meanwhile is South Africa.  http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2013/tournamentid=2012096/leaderboard/index.html?showLeaderboard=Y

MALELANE, South Africa --  Charl Schwartzel won by a huge margin for the second week running as the South African coasted to a comprehensive 12 shot victory in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek.

A winner by 11 shots in Thailand last Sunday, the talk at the start of the day was not whether the 28 year old would win an eighth European Tour title, but if he could better Tiger Woods’ 15-shot winning margin at the 2000 US Open Championship in doing so. That remains the largest in European Tour history.
A third straight 64 would have seen last year’s Masters Tournament champion equal Ernie Els’ record 29 under par total, but as it was Schwartzel settled for a three under par 69 and 24 under total on a final day disrupted by thunderstorms.

Schwartzel's return to full fitness and form has become clear after he struggled for much of 2012 with a torn chest muscle.

In his last five tournaments, he has finished fifth at the South African Open, tied for third at the season-ending World Tour Championship in Dubai, second at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, won in Thailand, now wins again here. He collected the Alfred Dunhill title in 2004 for his first career win on the European Tour


BryanA  ( stories from CP and AP)

Tom Watson named 2014 US Ryder Cup captain

Tom Watson has been named United States Ryder Cup captain to be held at Gleneagles in 2014.
Arguably the greatest Open champion of the past 100 years he will captain the team for the second time.
Three weeks after his 65th birthday he is the oldest American captain of all time, he is a good decade older than any captain of either side for more than 40 years

His age will raise questions as he plays a very limited schedule and almost exclusively on the Champions Tour so is not in touch with his players week-in, week-out.
It is a reasonable question, it's been 13 seasons since Tom played the PGA Tour regularly. 
However I think it's an inspired choice, certainly over another quiet diminutive choice like David Toms, or Corey Pavin.. Europe has certainly had more flambouyant captains in Seve, Monty and now Darren Clarke.
In four Ryder Cups as a player and one as a captain, Watson has never been on a losing side. Given that losing has become a habit for the US, with seven defeats in the past nine matches, that winning mentality he has always possessed can only be for the good.  As a Scot I cann assure you Tom Watson is a legend in Scotland where he won all 5 of his Opens.     BryanA

Perry/O'Hair win the Shark Shootout..Peter Senior wins Aussie Open

 PGA Tour

Live scoring link click here   http://leaderboard.franklintempletonshootout.com/

Round 3 wrap

pgatour.com  Kenny Perry and Sean O'Hair birdied five of the last six holes to win the Franklin Templeton Shootout

The 52-year-old Perry became the oldest player to win the Shootout, and also won for the third time with a different partner. He won with John Huston in 2005 and Scott Hoch in 2008. Perry joins Steve Elkington, Fred Couples, Brad Faxon and Scott McCarron with three Shootout wins; Elkington and Couples also won with three different partners

Rory Sabbatini and Charles Howell III made a charge on the back nine that included an eagle on a par 4 but finished one stroke back at 30-under 186. They had a 15-under 57 in the scramble format in the final round on the Gold Course at Tiburón Golf Club




Australian Open

Live scoring link click here   http://www.pga.org.au/scores/1134

Round 4 wrap

At 53, Peter Senior has become the oldest winner in Australian Open history after surviving gale-force wins on a brutal final day to beat Brendan Jones by one shot in fading light at The Lakes.

On a dramatic Sunday that saw play suspended for three hours after 80km/h winds made the course unplayable, the ultra-consistent Senior carded an even-par 72 to finish at four under for the championship. Only 6 players broke par.

It was an impressive performance from Jones (71), who pushed Senior to the limit with two back-nine birdies and an eagle to card the only sub-par round of the final 17 pairings on Sunday.

Cameron Percy (73) finished in outright third at minus two, one clear of Kim Felton (72), Kieran Pratt (75) and Rose (76)
.
It was a miserable day for the world No.4 who made six bogeys and failed to post a single birdie in the final pairing





Ladies European Tour
 

Live scoring link click here  http://www.letscoring.com/leaderboard/56834

Final Wrap

World No.6 Shanshan Feng took a commanding five shot lead into the final round of the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, starting the day at 18 under par.

The 23-year-old from Guangzhou was still on course for a record win as she made the turn during the final round. Feng moved to 20 under par after an eagle at the par-5 third hole. She bogeyed the fifth but birdied the eighth and was two under for the front nine to remain at 20 under par.

She has just walked off the 18th green, and has won the Omega Dubai Masters by the same 5 shots she started the day with after a -3 68 -21 total.

Dutch star Dewi Claire Schreefel 69 was 2nd at -16 and Canada's Lorie Kane 71 T5 at -11

Files from the Ladies European Tour were used in this report



ASIAN Tour

Click here for live scoring     http://www.asiantour.com/livescoring.html

Round 4 wrap

An irrepressible Charl Schwartzel of South Africa has just shot his 3rd round of 65, to get to -25 and win the US$1 million Thailand Golf Championship by a whopping 11 shots .For Schwartzel it was his first title in 20 months after winning the 2011 Masters Tournament..

Bubba Watson earned some of his huge appearance fee, closing with 65 to T2 at -14. Ryder Cup star Sergio Garcia was 4th

Bryan Angus
twitter@mummmbles
www.nextsportstar.com
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