The Irish Golf Club Gazette: December 2013

12/28/2013

Kevin Phelan Tour Rookie

Kevin Phelan has been taking advice from compatriot Padraig Harrington in the early stages of his rapidly-blossoming career, and The European Tour rookie has already shown the kind of potential which suggests he is ready to follow in the footsteps of his three-time Major winning compatriot.

After an amateur career which included a brief stay at the top end of the leaderboard at the 2013 US Open Championship followed closely by an impressive performance at the Walker Cup, Phelan proved his success in the non-paid ranks was not just a flash in the pan when he earned his European Tour card in spectacular fashion at Qualifying School Final Stage.

The Waterford man was inside the cut line for qualification to the top tier of European golf walking down the 18th hole on the final day, but could not afford the kind of slip-up to which so many have succumbed on the intimidating Stadium Course at PGA Catalunya Resort.

He defied any notion of pressure, however, when he fired one of the shots of the tournament, a three iron from 217 yards to just five feet, before holing the putt for birdie and securing his place in The 2014 Race to Dubai.

At just 23 years of age, Phelan is not fazed by the big occasion as was revealed after his Qualifying School success that Harrington had imparted some advice on how to deal with the pressures of turning professional after attracting so much attention as an amateur.

“I have been told a couple of times not to read anything that has been written about me,” said Phelan. “I haven’t done that in a couple of years now so I don’t really pay any attention to expectations that are put on me, just what I put on myself.

“Padraig said it to me a while ago and my coach Mark McCumber tells me all the time. It definitely helped a lot.

“Padraig is definitely a big inspiration for me. I played a practice round with him at the US Open the first time I played it, and at the Irish Open in Killarney and again at Carton House this year. He’s been very nice and very helpful and I've always looked up to him so it’s nice to get some good feedback from him.”

Phelan began his professional career at the 2013 KLM Open, where he made the cut but struggled at the weekend while his first appearance of the 2014 season resulted in a tied 24thfinish at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa.

After rounding off the Qualifying School with what he described as the best shot of his career, Phelan admitted that he had not yet planned his goals as a professional but was just glad to have reached a target he had been working towards for so long.

“I had been trying not to think about The European Tour all week at Q School, but obviously now I can give it a bit of thought,” he said. “It’s been a goal of mine for a long time, so I’m delighted to have a chance.

“I have no idea what my goals are now. The last few years I have tried to just stay in the process of preparing properly for each tournament instead of having long-term goals, so I will just try and stick to that.

“It feels like it has all come to fruition now because I have played well for most of this year. I made a commitment to be more efficient in my preparation and my practice and spend less time practicing but get more out of it, and I think that definitely helped.”

12/23/2013

Merry Christmas....

12/13/2013

Hoey Finishes Second Round

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Michael Hoey finally finished his second round on Friday at the rain interrupted Nelson Mandela Championship in South Africa signing for a 69 to finish -6 and six strokes off the leaders.

David Higgins, Damien McGrane and Simon Thornton have yet to complete round two in an event now reduced to 54 holes.

Kevin Phelan carded rounds of 74 and 70 to fall well four shorts beyond the projected cut.

Jorge Campillo was one of two players to card a 59 on day three of The Nelson Mandela Championship presented by ISPS Handa, but England’s Daniel Brooks remains the man to catch in Durban.

Campillo and South African Colin Nel both broke the magic 60 barrier within moments of each other – although they will not enter the record books as preferred lies were allowed on Mount Edgecombe’s saturated fairways.

Spain’s Campillo had two eagles and seven birdies in his incredible round to reach 11 under par for the tournament, but first round leader Brooks was 12 under with seven holes of his second round remaining when darkness brought play to a halt.

England’s Matthew Baldwin shot a 62 to share the clubhouse lead with Campillo, with home favourites Branden Grace, Oliver Bekker and Dawie van der Walt on ten under.

Following lengthy delays on both Wednesday and Thursday, waterlogged fairways again held up play for three hours this morning and forced organisers to reduce the tournament to 54 holes.

On completion of the first round nobody had bettered Qualifying School graduate Brooks’ 62 from the opening day, but after a quick turnaround Campillo swiftly moved ahead.

Three birdies and an eagle on the way out saw him turn in 31, and he added another gain at the first.

Bidding for a first European Tour title, the 27 year old then holed from 25 feet at third, pitched in at the fourth for his second eagle, and hit his tee shot to six feet at the short fifth.

A straightforward two-putt at the long eighth completed his scoring, and afterwards he said: “We play other par 70s on Tour, but you still have to shoot 59 and I’m pretty happy with the way I finished.

“I was ten under after 14 holes and had two tough par fours and a tough par three coming in.

“I was never close to 59 before, but in the KLM Open I was eight under with three holes to go on a par 70. Finishing with three birdies would have put me on 59, but I finished par-par-bogey. That helped me a lot today, because finishing well was important and I did it.”

Brooks did not tee off until after Campillo and Baldwin had finished, but chipped in at the 15th for his third birdie in his opening six holes to draw level.

Another gain from 20 feet at the first then put the 26 year old ahead, and he will have the chance to extend his lead over the last seven holes when play resumes at 06:00 on Saturday morning.

Baldwin has never finished better than fifth on The European Tour, but is looking forward to challenging for a maiden title and believes having completed his second round could be an advantage on Saturday.

“I don’t think tiredness comes into it - what does come into it is the fact that you’re playing a lot of holes close together,” he said. “For example, I played 21 holes in a short space of time today and by the time I finished I was quiet tired, so getting some rest in will be important for tomorrow.”

World Number 49 Grace won four times on The Race to Dubai in 2012, but having had several near misses in a trophy-less 2013 is keen to return to wining ways.

“I feel like this week shows what happens when you make those few extras putts,” said the 25 year old.

“I’m right up there again and it’s all about the putting. If I can keep rolling the ball well then hopefully tomorrow will be one more memory of lifting a trophy. It would be great to finish the year off with a win.

Grace can also cement his place in the Official World Golf Ranking’s top 50 who will receive invites to the Masters Tournament at the end of the year, but the Pretoria golfer has another motive.

“Mandela is one of the reasons I am here,” he added. “A lot of people think I’m here for the top 50, but I think I’ve secured that for the year.

“Coming here you’re trying to get the win for Madiba, not that it will make everything better for the country, but hopefully it will put a little smile on some people’s faces. Maybe if you lift the trophy at the end you can say ‘this is for him’.”

12/11/2013

Rory Looking for Happy New Year

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Rory McIlroy's year began the year as the star attraction with music blaring and lasers flashing in a room at Abu Dhabi to celebrate the No. 1 player in golf joining Nike's stable. It ended last Sunday with a bogey on the ninth hole at Sherwood with hardly anyone watching.

An off season never looked more appealing to him.

"It's been a long season, a long stretch," McIlroy said after signing for a 70 to finish 11th in an 18-man field at the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge. "I'm excited to put the clubs down for a little bit, have a few weeks' rest and get after it at the start of the new year."

He won't have to worry about getting used to new equipment as he has spent the better part of nine months doing that.

A year ago, McIlroy was the No. 1 in golf and coming off another record win in a major -- an eight-shot victory in the PGA Championship - and added FedExCup Playoff wins and money titles on both sides of the Atlantic by closing his season with a win in Dubai.

Although it looked as if he would stay there for many years it only lasted three months.

There were equipment issues, a product of changing everything at once instead of slowly working the swoosh into his bag, as Tiger Woods did a decade earlier. He changed management companies, which ordinarily is a seamless transition unless the split is ugly.

As things stand McIlroy is scheduled to be in a courtroom in Ireland not long after the Ryder Cup next year.

So yes, this is ugly.

According to reports in Irish newspapers, he split with girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki at least twice, maybe three times. Which proved confusing as the Danish tennis star was at Sherwood all week, an ever-present smile as she followed him.

McIlroy, for all his brilliance inside the ropes, is refreshingly honest when it comes to his golf and often self-deprecating. He was talking earlier in the week about playing casual rounds with friends, noting that he had more of those days than in previous years.

"Had more weekends (off)," he said.

He has failed to make the cut five times, inlcuing Open Championship. Another was at The Honda Classic, where he walked off the course after 26 holes out of frustration, blaming it on his wisdom tooth.

He didn't win a tournament until his 24th start, two weeks ago at the Australian Open and so ends the year at No. 6 in the world.

"It's been the first year I've had to put up with scrutiny and criticism," McIlroy said. "You just have to believe in what you're doing and not let it get to you too much. I let it get to me a few times."

The toothache was one example of that. McIlroy conceded a week later at Doral that all the hype translated into more pressure he put on himself to perform, and he snapped. An honest answer. He said he would never do it again. So far, so good.

More than the golf was the inspection outside the ropes.

"All the other stuff," he said. "I don't care what people say about my golf. It's when people start digging into my personal life, that's where it starts to annoy you. Whether it's Caroline, the management, all that should that should be no consequence to how I play my golf."

That's a part of celebrity he still hasn't mastered.

Tiger Woods went through his first "slump" -- everything is relative when it comes to Woods -- at age 22 in his second full year as a pro. He won only two tournaments. He lost to Nick Price in a playoff at Sun City. He lost to Mark O'Meara in a 36-hole final at the World Match Play Championship. About the only off-course issue he faced was the GQ article that quoted him telling racial jokes.

"As far as battling a slump, that's just part of playing golf," Woods said. "You play golf long enough, you're going to go through it."

The great ones emerge. And the great ones don't stay in slumps for long.

McIlroy has headed to his Florida home to start his vacation. He'll eventually wind up in Melbourne to watch Wozniacki in the Australian Open, and then go to Dubai to start preparing for a new season that will begin in Abu Dhabi.

It's already shaping up as important season.

12/10/2013

Five Irish Play Mandela Championship

Nelson Mandela’s legacy will live on through the children and young people of the world, and that will start to be shown this week at the Nelson Mandela Championship presented by ISPS Handa.

The event goes ahead but will start a day earlier and finish on Saturday December 14th in a nation mourning the loss of thier former president. The week-long funeral rites will culminate on Sunday with Mandela's burial at a family plot in his rural, boyhood home of Qunu.

Five of the invitations to the tournament at Mount Edgecombe Country Club have gone to two young professionals and three amateurs.

Brandon Stone and Haydn Porteous both turned professional earlier this year, and have been campaigning on the back of invitations on The European Tour. And a week after the passing of Mr Mandela, they will be joined in the Nelson Mandela Championship presented ISPS Handa by South African amateurs Louis Taylor and Thriston Lawrence along with German amateur sensation Dominic Foos.

And while these young men – some of them are, in fact, boys – may not regard themselves as children, they give the tournament which runs from Wednesday December 11 to Saturday December 14 an opportunity to give substance to Mandela’s oft-quoted statement, “History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children.”

Stone, 20, burst on to the professional scene in his first outing as a paid golfer when he finished tied tenth on his debut tournament in June at the BMW International Open in Munich, Germany.

Porteous, aged 19, beginnings were less dramatic, but he has been campaigning on the European Tour since he finished in a share of 44th in the M2M Russian Open in July.

They will be given a chance to show that they have adapted to the rigours of the professional world when they tee it up at Mount Edgecombe.

Taylor is 22, and is one of a pair of twins. He and brother Eddie played for Hilton College’s first team cricket and for the under-19 KwaZulu-Natal hockey team. They only began focusing on golf after completing high school. They both relocated to Johannesburg and have been attending the Gary Player Golf School of Excellence for the last four years.

Louis recently improved 55 spots in the World Amateur Golf Rankings after winning the Freddie Tait Cup – the prize awarded to the leading amateur at South African Open Championship hosted by the City of Ekurhuleni - at Glendower Golf Club three weeks ago.

The Taylor brothers will be going to the Sunshine Tour Qualifying School in January 2014.

Lawrence became youngest winner of the Sanlam SA Amateur Open in the 106-year history of the event at 16 years, two months and 26 days. He started playing age seven after his grandfather bought a junior set of clubs and he practiced on their farm. He vaulted to 170 from 229 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings after debut at the 2013 South African Open Championship.

Foos was born on September 3, 1997 in Karlsruhe, Germany, and first started playing golf just before he was three years old. He has played in the German national team since 2011.

In May 2012 he became the number one under-15 golfer in the world and also topped the European rankings in the under-16 age group. In Germany, he was the number one under-19 player and in August 2013 was the top amateur golfer in Germany.

He played in last year’s Nelson Mandela Championship, and after finishing 39th, became the youngest golfer to finish in the top-40 on The European Tour.

These players all will bring a passion to the tournament, embodying one of Mr Mandela’s deeply held beliefs: “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."

Five Irish players are also in action in Kwazulu-Natal province with David Higgins arriving from the Hong Kong Open, where he was the only Irish player to make the cut.

Kevin Phelan was one od those to miss and no doubt happy to get back into action.

Michael Hoey, Damien McGrane and Simon Thornton complete the Irish group.

12/08/2013

McDowell Goes Well Off Course

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Graeme McDowell's has enjoyed much corporate sucess since joing Horizon Sports Management six years ago and enjoys long-standing relationships with Mastercard, BMW, RBC, Verizon, Ecco, Audermars Piguet, Teneo and Srixon.

"Once they get to know Graeme, every sponsor wants to stick with him," says his agent Conor Ridge, adding: "Put him in front of a corporate audience and he's absolute dynamite, while it's humbling to see how well he relates to people on a one-to-one basis.

"He might meet someone for the first time in months, but will remember where their kids are going to college or ask if they've managed to cure that hook or slice they were struggling with," adds Ridge. "Graeme's very intelligent, smart and quite a good businessman himself."

Among his own business projects, McDowell opened the Nona Blue Bistro this year and says: "We've had a lot of fun. At the minute, it's just a hobby.

"I'd have aspirations to get more involved in the future," he adds.

While McDowell got caught in the crossfire when McIlroy quit Horizon and launched into a legal battle with the Dublin firm, he recently insisted his friendship with the Holywood native remained intact.

"I'm very close to both parties, but it hasn't affected any personal relationships," he explains.

"The fact I'm stuck in the middle of a legal matter is a tough scenario – it's tough for everyone. But as far as I am concerned, Rory and I will always remain competitors, colleagues, peers and friends. I care a lot about what he does; I care a lot about how good he is and that'll never change."

The G-Mac Foundation, run for McDowell by Horizon co-founder Colin Morrissey, has been working closely with Eamon Coghlan, head of the American arm of the 'Children's Medical Research Fund' for Crumlin Children's Hospital, since the two sports stars first met at The Players Championship in Sawgrass in 2011.

McDowell has played a hands-on role in helping Coghlan organise the annual 'Best of Ireland' Gala Dinner at New York Athletic Club, which in two years has raised $1m for the Intensive Care and Recovery Units at the Dublin hospital.

Next year's banquet takes place on January 30 with Paul McGinley, David Feherty, Robbie Keane and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan among the guests of honour. McDowell was especially attracted to Crumlin because it is the children's coronary care unit for the entire island of Ireland.

The G-Mac Foundation also brings, with support from Aer Lingus, eight sick children and their families to Orlando each year for a lifetime trip to the Disney World Resort.

Tiger Chase Over for Two Mac;s

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Rory McIlroy had the low round Saturday of 68 at the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge, and that included a double bogey on the par-3 15th, which was playing 193 yards from an elevated tee. But ahead of the final round McIlroy is only tied for 11th at 218.

Graeme McDowell dropped back to ninth after he signed for a round of 75 with four bogeys and then a triple on the par three 8th hole..

Tiger Woods survived a rough round of swirling swing at Sherwood on Saturday with two birdies on his last three holes. That enabled him to salvage an even-par 72 and maintain his two-shot lead over Zach Johnson going into the final round.

Woods' round featured a tee shot into the water, a three-putt from 6 feet and a long delay on the 18th fairway as he tried to figure out which way the wind was blowing. He took a little off an 8-iron when he felt the wind switch yet again and holed a 12-foot birdie putt.

"I'm pleased at having the lead -- not real pleased with the way I putted today," Woods said. "I left a few out there today."

But he wasn't alone as the average score was just under 73.

Everyone ran into problems somewhere along the way, particularly on the 15th, a par 3 that played to an average score of 4.17. Johnson made two double bogeys on par 3s on the back nine, and didn't feel as though he hit a poor shot on either hole. It was simply a matter of getting the wind to cooperate.

"I didn't take myself out of it," said Johnson, who also birdied two of the last three holes for a 72.

Woods was at 11-under 205, two shots ahead of Johnson, just like he started the day.

There are 18 holes to go, and Woods has a 48-5 lead worldwide when he has the outright lead going into Sunday. He has won all four times with the lead this year, and the last time he gave up a lead on Sunday was at Sherwood in 2010, when Graeme McDowell came from four shots behind and won in a playoff.

It can be done, and two shots can be erased in one hole in conditions like this.

Woods is trying to end his year with a sixth title, which would be the ninth time he's done that in his career. What began as an elite field of 18 players -- all of them from the top 30 in the world ranking -- has effectively been whittled to three barring a late charge from deep in the pack.

Bubba Watson was within one shot of the lead briefly until a three-putt bogey on the 18th, and two late birdies by Woods. Watson had a 69 and was four shots behind. No one else was within six shots of Woods.

"This golf course is very difficult," Watson said. "Right now, there's a pretty good player leading. He's won here before. He knows this golf course pretty well. But I'm just going to come out there and play. I've shot under par my last few rounds. I want to keep doing that. If I can shoot in the 60s, give myself a chance, we'll see what happens."

Rory McIlroy had the low round Saturday of 68, and that included a double bogey on the par-3 15th, which was playing 193 yards from an elevated tee. Keegan Bradley and Steve Stricker each took a 7 on the par 3.

Johnson was one shot out of the lead when his 5-iron went into the creek, and it wasn't particularly close. He made double bogey. Woods hit 6-iron well to the left, and while he three-putted from long range for bogey, that was about par for the day.

"I thought Zach hit it perfect," Woods said. "He hit a little cut 5 and it was right on the flag. I mean, I thought it was the perfect flight to get there. I had a 6, and I knew that if my ball kicked up at all, it wasn't going to get there after seeing his ball get smoked at the end. So I went ahead and flipped it over to the left and bailed out."

Johnson briefly took the lead with a birdie on No. 9, though Woods caught him with a birdie on the 10th. Johnson lost momentum with one bad shot, a fairway metal for his second shot on the par-5 11th that went right into a bed of leaves under a small cluster of trees. He tried to punch under the trees and onto the green, but his shot hit one branch and led to bogey.

Johnson made a double bogey on the par-3 12th and just like that was three shots behind. He got back to within one shot on the next hole when Woods three-putted from 6 feet for bogey and Johnson made bogey.

Ultimately, they ended up where they started the day, putting Woods one round away from his sixth win at Sherwood. The tournament is moving to Florida next year.

12/28/2013

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