Luke Donald and Jordan Speith are your leaders going into today's final round of what we used to call "silly season"...except now it's not so silly..
In Sun City on the magnificent Gary Player GC, 30 invited players from the European Tour, bring their wives, girlfriends and family to this stunning resort in the northwest part of South Africa in the Pilanesburg mountain range, carved out of the jungle, surrounded by game reserves and they stay at the " Palace" hotel, a 5 star beauty perched on top of a hill that caters to all their needs.
This year 30 players vie for full Race to Dubai points and a first place cheque of $1.25 in the first event od the 2015 season.
Luke Donald, displaying the form that made him the first player to win the Fed Ex Cup and the Race to Dubai in 2011 is the leader 71,63,69 -13 over Danny Willett 71 68 65 and another Englishman Ross Fisher 66 70 70 - 10 and they are 5 shots clear.
Donald hasn't won since 2012, proving once again how hard it is to maintain the form that gets players to world #1. Like so many others he tinkered with his swing to get more length and accuracy off the tee, and his form suffered. A baboon scared the hell out of Luke as it emerged from the bush and ran up the fairway right towards him before ambling fearlessly up towards the green.
Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer are recent examples of #1's who have tumbled down the rankings in search of something they could trust under pressure..
In my opinion events like this "invitational" should revert to what they were before 2006, a nice golfing holiday in a remarkable part of the world all paid for by a sponsor, for a great purse, but carrying no official relevance to the year's points system or
other benefits that come with a normal full field tour event.
Live scoring click http://espn.go.com/golf/leaderboard?tour=euro
The other invitational, or "challenge" as they are dubbed, is for Tiger Woods Foundation, the Hero World Challenge for 17 of Tiger's invitees played on Isleworth GC in Florida where Tiger and so many others live. The prize money is $3.5m and again it all counts just lke the official events of the 2015 season.
Jordan Speith is going to win it as he brought the form he displayed winning the Australian Open in Sydney last week to lead the field by 7 shots !! 66 67 63 -20. Keegan Bradley and Henrik Stenson are playing nicely at -13, but they aren't close to Speith who is in amazing form.
Tiger who opened with a 77, recoverd with 70 69 E is last in the field and shouldn't even be playing he is so sick, yesterday he was throwing up on the course. He has lost weight since we last saw him, looks a lot leaner.
Live scoring click http://espn.go.com/golf/leaderboard?tour=pga
Bryan Angus..
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