The Irish Golf Club Gazette: 10/15/13

10/15/2013

Irish Adrift at EuroPro Final

Michael McGeady carded an opening round 69 at the 888Poker.com PGA Europo Tour Championship on Tuesday and showed no signs of fatigue from Roganstown on Sunday, where he emerged as Irish PGA Championship, in what was a close contest.

A three under par round at the Prince's Club in Kent came without loss - after three birdies before the turn - on holes, 2, 4 and nine. His seven way share of 7th reflects a tight leaderboard after round one, with four strokes separating the group from the leader.

At the end of each season the top five players on the Order of Merit progress to the Challenge Tour, meaning there is more than just the £15,000 winner’s cheque to play for this week.

Paul Grannell shot his best round of the season to lead by two strokes on seven under at the end of the first round. The 28 year old carded a 65 on the opening day of the final event of the 2013 season, and is trailed by four golfers who share second on five under.

Simon Lilly (Wellingborough), Zack Saltman (Archerfield Links Golf Club), William Harrold (Sheringham Golf Club) and Shaun McAllister (Craigielaw Golf Club) all shot 67 and Paul Shields (Kirkhill Golf Club) is one behind in sixth on -4.

Grannell (Vale Royal Abbey) hit eight birdies on Tuesday, with his only blemish a six on the par-five seventh.

“I like links golf, I have always had good success on links courses, as an amateur you play a lot of links golf,” he said.

“It equals my lowest ever tournament round of golf, and it is my lowest round of the year which is always nice to do, especially in the last tournament.

“I have had top 20s in my last three tournaments and two of those going down the closing holes I have been in contention. If I can carry on the form I have been showing then I would like to think I will have a chance.”

Grannell is currently 22nd on the 888poker.com PGA EuroPro Tour Order of Merit and only a win at Prince’s will push him into the all-important top five.

“I am not thinking of any kind of result,” he said. “I am thinking purely of what I have been working on with my coaches. I didn’t know that other guys were at five under until I finished.

“I will do my best to avoid leaderboards for the rest of the week but it is difficult when you walk past them.”

At the end of each season the top five players on the Order of Merit progress to the Challenge Tour, meaning there is more than just the £15,000 winner’s cheque to play for this week.

George Woolgar (level, T31) leads the Tour rankings, with Daniel Gavins (-2, T14), Oliver Farr (-1, T22), Dave Coupland (level, T31) and Paul McKechnie (-3, T7) completing the current top five. Only Woolgar and Gavins have already secured their playing rights for next season’s Challenge Tour.

Time Rice signed for 70 and holds a share of fourteenth place overnight.

Ruaidhri McGee was three strokes further adrift after a mixed first day.

Colm Moriarty carded a 73, despite an eagle three on the par 6 fifteenth hole, to lie 40th along with Paul Cutler - who ended level par after giving back all four birdies to bogeys either side of the turn.

Horizon Good for GMAC

Getty Images

Graeme McDowell's career continues to flourish under the direction of the Dublin sports agency as new accounts for Boyport Services Ltd shows the firm enjoyed its most successful year to date in 2012. with profits of £2.643m (€3.1m).

The figures show accumulated profits increased from £3.539m to £6.182m in the 12 months to the end of December last. The cash balance at G-Mac's firm has more than doubled to £3.79m.

McDowell's career is steered by Conor Ridge's Horizon Sports Management agency.

The world No.11 will now head to Asia wher he is due to play at the BMW Masters presented by SRE and the WGC HSBC Champions, both in Shanghai. This will lead up to the World Cup in Melbourne where he will represent Ireland.

McDowell, who professed his love for Victoria's Sandbelt courses last year after playing the Australian Masters at Kingston Heath, will likely team with Shane Lowry for the $8 million purse at Royal Melbourne from November 21st - 24th.

Rory McIlroy's contract to play the Australian Open in Sydney the following week precludes him from playing outside New South Wales this year, so he was unavailable.

The decision effectively confirms McDowell will play for Ireland and not Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Olympics when golf makes its first appearance at the Games since 1904.

Emerging golf power Thailand has also confirmed its top pair will be in Melbourne with the popular Thongchai Jaidee joined by Kiradech Aphibarnrat.

Italian prodigy Matteo Manassero has already confirmed his return to Melbourne to play alongside Francesco Molinari

Jason Day and Adam Scott will lead Australia's charge in the tournament's first time back at Royal Melbourne since 1972.

Bill Haas the 2011 FedEx Cup champion, will partner world No.8 Matt Kuchar as the prime rival to Australia’s dream pairing of Adam Scott and Jason Day.

Haas, ranked 29, was a key member in the recent last week’s Presidents Cup victory for the Americans, as he was at Royal Melbourne two years ago where he found the hard, bouncy style to his liking.

Another player with history on the Sandbelt, Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn 46) will pair with the in-form Thorbjorn Olesen as another threat.

Other key rivals on paper include Sweden’s Jonas Blixt and Peter Hanson.

England’s top tier will not travel, but David Lynn and Chris Wood will still make a formidable combination, while Presidents Cup pair Branden Grace and Richard Sterne will fly the South African flag.

Scotland’s Martin Laird and Stephen Gallacher will fancy their chances.

The 60-man field will compete for $7 million, the richest individual prize in Australia golf history.

Nicolas Colsaerts, Fijian Vijay Singh and Zimbabwe’s Presidents Cup revelation Brendan de Jonge have also all confirmed.

Other featured world top 100 players who will have lesser-ranked team-mates include Dutchman Joost Luiten, Spanish favourite Miguel Angel Jimenez, Welshman Jamie Donaldson and German Marcel Siem.

Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa and Korean pair K.J.Choi and Sang-Moon Bae, while are also entered.

The teams event, first played in 1953 as the Canada Cup, carries an additional $1million in prize money.

The field represents 34 countries, 74 US PGA Tour victories, 31 European Tour champions, 11 players who have played in the Presidents Cup and seven players with Ryder Cup experience.

Lawrie Hoping for a G'Day

Getty Images

It always comes to down this and there are always an unlucky few who have to go through it. It’s that time of year when there is just one event remaining in the quest to retain playing privileges on The European Tour.

The beautiful Lake Karrinyup Country Club will provide the stage for the US$2million Perth International, where those players in and around the magic number of 110 in The 2013 Race to Dubai will either have one of the greatest or one of the worst weeks of their careers.

With the man in 110th position in the Race to Dubai, Gaganjeet Bhullar, not in Perth to defend his position, those in and around that position are focusing only on that magic number.

Alex Levy (108th in the Race to Dubai) and Richard Bland (109th) are desperate to hold onto their current positions, along with James Kingston (111th).

Peter Lawrie (114th) and David Higgins (115th) are looking for that big finish which will see them guarantee a place on The European Tour next season. For Lawrie it has been a hazard avoided for ten years.

Lawrie claimed his maiden European Tour victory at the Open de España in 2008, when he defeated home favourite Ignacio Garrido in a play-off. He also enjoyed a fine performance as defending champion in 2009, finishing tied third.

He made history at the end of the 2003 season when he became the first Irish golfer to win the prestigious Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award. Educated at the University College Dublin where he undertook a golf scholarship, Lawrie graduated to The European Tour through the Challenge Tour, finishing fourth in the Rankings at the end of 2002. A breakthrough helped by a superb victory in the Challenge Tour Grand Final.

Lawrie also one year on the Asian Tour and three seasons on the Challenge Tour before achieving his goal on the European Tour. Lawrie was capped at boys, youths and national level for Ireland as an amateur and in his early days as a professional, he played in Asia and Florida, gaining a ‘Mini Tour’ victory in America’s Sunshine State.

In Perth he said “I have flown all the way here because I have one opportunity left to save my season so I need to embrace it and go with it and see what happens. I have never been in this position before – the last time I would have been feeling like this would have been 2002 when I was trying to get onto the Tour, so it has been a while.

“My form has been terrible to be honest so there is not a lot to go on in terms of form. I have missed six out of the last seven cuts so I just have to get ready for that first tee as well as I can on Thursday morning and take it from there.

“I am in this position for one reason – it is my own fault and it is up to me to get myself out of it. I am here to do a job and to save my card. It is up to me to do it and there is really nothing more I can say or do after that.”

For David Higgins the battle with Q School has been a more familiar and frequent occurrence, having first come through all three stages in 2012, taking the 18th card at the Final Stage at PGA Catalunya Resort with a seven under par total. Earlier that year finished tied tenth in the BMW PGA Championship, having gained entry as the leading PGA professional in the Irish PGA region.

Prior to losing his card Higgins won three times on the Challenge Tour in 2000 to finish second in the Rankings and graduate the first time to The European Tour. However Higgins could not keep his card, taking 124th spot in the Order of Merit.

Came through the Challenge Tour in 2005, again narrowly failing to retain his playing privileges at the highest level in 2006.

The Kerryman was Ireland’s leading amateur by the age of 21 and enjoyed match play victories over Padraig Harrington in the finals of the South of Ireland in Lahinch and the Irish Amateur Close Championship.

His Father Liam is a former European and Senior Tour winner.

Private McIlroy in Korea

Rory McIlroy arrived in Korea on Tuesday and explained his win-less 2013 was nothing to do with his switch to Nike. He also refused to discuss media reports of a split with Caroline Wozniacki.

McIlroy was speaking ahead of this week's Korea Open, deflected questions about his relationship with the Danish tennis player amid reports the high-profile pair had broken up.

"My private life is private and I would like to keep it that way," the Northern Irishman said.

Wozniacki, meanwhile, dismissed the reports as speculation. "I'm so tired of the rumours. They occur every time Rory and I are apart a few days or do not write on Twitter," she told the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet.

"There is nothing in it, and from now on I just think that I will keep my private life private.

"It is so annoying that the media and the so-called sources constantly spread the rumours. They write just what they want."

Wozniacki, who has slipped to ninth in the world rankings, said: "All is well" with the relationship.

"I just want to be allowed to live my life off the court without all the speculation," she added.

McIlroy, who claimed the order of merit on both sides of the Atlantic last year, has endured a difficult year. After switching his club brand at the start of the season to Nike he has slipped from world No1 to sixth in the rankings.

Asked if his problems on the course were caused by mechanical or mental issues, McIlroy said: "I think it was a little bit of both.

"Mechanically my golf swing ... I fell into a couple of bad habits and I was trying to work myself out of it. It affects mental issues as well.

"Golf is a game of confidence and if you are confident it allows you to play better and freer ... with a free mind. Definitely nothing to do with equipment."

McIlroy said there was plenty of golf left in the year and ample opportunities for him to get that first win.

"I learned a lot this year," he added. "I was undergolfed for the first three to four months. It's the first year I struggled and I didn't live up to the expectation.

"This year is a little bit of a disappointment, But I have six tournaments left and will finish the season strongly."

McIlroy will hope to make it third time lucky when he tees off, as the 24-year-old was joint third in his first appearance in 2009 and returned in 2011 to finish runner-up behind American Rickie Fowler with a final-round 64.

The course at the Woo Jeong Hills Country Club on the outskirts of Seoul has not proved too daunting for the former world number one on his previous visits. But McIlroy was quick to highlight the dangers posed by the shorter holes.

"The last couple of times I've enjoyed myself and came close both times to winning," he said at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, near Cheonan, south of Seoul.

"I remember the course pretty well, so I'm looking forward to getting back on it. I'm looking forward just to getting back playing. I've had four weeks off so it's nice to get back into competitive golf again."

"I've been working pretty hard, working with my coach Michael Bannon, working on a few technical things," he said, "It'll be good to try and put those in play this week and see how that goes."

"I'm just happy to be back on the golf course and doing what I do best. It's a nice place for a little bit of solace."

Described by the 100 Top Courses of the World website as "close as you can find in Asia to a big, brutish U.S. tournament course", the 6,591-metre (7,208-yard) layout meanders through the rolling Woo Jeong Hills, and the natural landscaping is augmented by several large art installations.

The Korea Open boasts a roll-call of former champions as impressive as any tournament in Asia, including Major winners Y.E. Yang, John Daly and Vijay Singh, as well as established stars such as Sergio Garcia and Thongchai Jaidee.

This year is as good a chance as any for a newcomer to put their name on the trophy and claim the first prize of around U.S. $280,000.

McGeady's Poker Challenge

PGA Europro Tour

Irish PGA Champion Michael McGeady tees of on Tuesday at the fianl event of the 2013 888poker.com PGA EuroPro Tour season, which draws to a close at Prince’s Golf Club iN Kent. The Order of Merit’s top 60 players will take part in the £60,000 888poker.com Tour Championship.

At the end of the week the top five on the Order of Merit will receive Challenge Tour cards for the 2014 season, putting them just one step away from the European Tour.

Colm Moriarty, Ruairdhr mcgtee, Stage 1 European Q School winner, Tim Rice and Paul Cutler are the other irish entries.

George Woolgar and Daniel Gavins have already secured their places on the second-tier tour but remain locked in a battle to end the season as the tour’s number one, while Oliver Farr, Dave Coupland and Paul McKechnie will need a solid final tournament in order to maintain their places in the top five.

Any one of the 57 entrants at Prince’s could leave the Kent coast in the Order of Merit top five come Thursday evening, ensuring a dramatic end to a fantastic season on the 888poker.com PGA EuroPro Tour.

Tour Director of Operations Daniel Godding said: “We’ve upped the prize fund by 50% compared to the regular-season events and I know that means there will be one more big twist to end a dramatic season on the tour.

“Prince’s is a really good test of golf, and whoever wins the £15,000 first prize really will have earned it. I was there last week and the course is looking great. The players are in for a treat but so too is everybody who comes down to watch.”

Padraig Plans for Slam

Getty Images

Padraig Harrington came close twice to winning the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, in 2007 and 2008, when he lost in playoffs to Angel Cabrera and Jim Furyk. Then last year Harrington won last year having been invited to play when Open Champion Ernie Els pulled out through injury.

This time the Irishman is replacing Phil Mickelson, the 2013 Open Champion and, while he ranks 99th in the world, his opponents – Masters winner Adam Scott (2), U.S. Open champion Justin Rose (5) and PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner (10) – are all in the top 10.

And where last time there was a sense of urgency to perform, this time the stress is gone. And with it, maybe, a key ingredient to being a winner.

"I should have won my first two ones here [in 2007 and 2008], and I think I had a point to prove last year," said Harrington. "So, there was a certain amount of urgency in it last year.

"This year, I'm pretty relaxed about it. I've enjoyed my first couple of days here, and then I'm certainly not as stressed about it as I would have been in previous years," he explained. "That mightn't be for the best – sometimes you need a little bit of intensity to play your best golf, but it is the way it is. So I'm looking forward to playing tomorrow and enjoying it more than anything else."

That lack of intensity is a problem that Harrington admits to having had all year, and he isn't sure what the answer is to getting it back.

Partly technical, partly mental, the 99th ranked player in the world points to a 'loss of innocence' as the key to his troubles on the course.

"I think that I've matured as a player now that I've seen most of it before, and there's not as much innocence in me," said Harrington. "So, as much as I love playing golf, certainly I'm not – I don't get up every morning and expect to see something that I haven't seen before, which is – so there is a little bit of that [loss of intensity], for sure."

Finding the answer will meaning figuring out who he is as a person, and as a golfer.

"I'm a different person and I have a different attitude to the game at this stage, so I have to work with that," he said. "There's no point in trying to go back and be the guy I was five years ago before I won majors. So I have to figure out what's the best way of getting the best game out of me now."

Harrington does have one thing in his favour. as this is his fourth visit to Bermuda, and his second to Port Royal, the rest of the field is coming to the Island for the first time.

Experience, then, might be the telling factor, that, and mastering the wind that whips in from the Atlantic Ocean, from all points of the compass.

"The wind is what makes this course a real challenge," said Scott. "The rough is long, so hitting the fairways is going to be premium whether the wind is up or not.

"But, this course has such elevation change, and that always makes it tough, and that's why I think playing a couple extra rounds is helpful, because you just get a better feel for how much downhill a tee shot is or a par 3 shot into a green," he added. "That's the stuff that you can only get with experience of playing a course."

Of the three "rookies," Scott has played three times at Port Royal, more than Rose and Dufner. The other two have seen enough to know that there could be some surprises in store.

"I haven't played in a heavy breeze like this for quite a while," said Rose. "It's an adjustment, just getting back into seeing – judging the wind. I think that was the biggest challenge today, but I'm glad I got that under my belt and the surprise wasn't tomorrow."

Dufner, meanwhile, expects the event to turn on the closing holes, with the PGA Champion pointing to Nos. 16, 17, and 18 as the place where he expects the Grand Slam to be won, and lost.

"Obviously 16, is a very difficult hole," he said. "Especially late in the tournament come Wednesday, you could see a two-shot or even a three-shot swing on that hole. Pretty easy to make a bogey or a double on that hole, and if you hit a good shot, you can pick up a couple shots.

"Then 18 is kind of a birdie hole playing downwind, so you can see a lot of change in the leaderboard," Dufner explained. "Hopefully we'll have guys that are kind of bunched up there and give some excitement to the event.

"You could see a big swing there where a guy could go through there playing 2 or 3 under, and another guy could play 2 or 3 over," he said. "I think that finish to the golf course is pretty strong."

10/15/2013

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles