The Irish Golf Club Gazette: Henrik Stenson

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9/01/2016

Rookies Will Shape Clarke Wildcards

Europe’s team to defend the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine in September will contain at least five rookies after the nine automatic qualifiers were decided with a week to spare.

Thomas Pieters needed to defend his Czech Masters title and Shane Lowry required a top-four finish in the Wyndham Championship to keep their hopes alive heading into the final qualifying event in Denmark.

However, Pieters lost out by a single shot to the American Paul Peterson on Sunday and Lowry was certain to finish down the field in North Carolina after a closing 67.

And that means Rory McIlroy, Danny Willett, Henrik Stenson, Chris Wood, Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose, Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Andy Sullivan and Matt Fitzpatrick are guaranteed to be on the plane to Minnesota in search of an unprecedented fourth successive win in the biennial event.

Willett, Wood, Cabrera-Bello, Sullivan and Fitzpatrick are the rookies, although Willett won the Masters in April and Wood claimed the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in May.

Europe’s captain, Darren Clarke, will name his three wild cards on 30 August, with Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer strong favourites to be selected as Clarke has stressed he would favour experience for a contest on US soil.

Scotland’s Russell Knox and Pieters are understood to be the leading contenders for the final place.

Fitzpatrick has been in the qualifying places ever since winning his maiden European Tour title in the British Masters last October, the 21-year-old then claiming the Nordea Masters in June before a worrying dip in form. “It’s very exciting now,” he said after finishing fifth in Prague. “We can look forward to it and get my game in shape.

“I’ve probably been in the team for the longest period of time. It [the qualifying period] started a few weeks before I won at the British Masters and jumped into the team and I’ve managed to stay there since then. It’s been absolutely phenomenal and I’m just delighted to be in the team. It’s a great opportunity, I’ve got my first one coming up and hopefully I can just keep pushing on my game and getting better.”

8/19/2016

Rory Watched Olympic Golf - Rose

Justin Rose has revealed that golf’s successful return to the Olympics even prompted Rory McIlroy to change his mind and watch the thrilling climax.

McIlroy was one of more than 20 top players to withdraw from the Games, the 27-year-old initially citing concerns over the Zika virus but later admitting that major championships remained the “pinnacle” of the sport and he would only watch “the stuff that matters” in the Olympics.

But after securing golf’s first Olympic gold medal in 112 years by beating the Open champion, Henrik Stenson, in a thrilling duel at the Marapendi reserve, one of the many congratulatory messages Rose received was from his Ryder Cup team-mate McIlroy.

“I did get one from Rory. Absolutely,” Rose said. “He said he was very, very proud and he said he was pulling for me. He said he could see how much it meant to me and congratulated me.

“He was very complimentary and obviously he watched. He made the point that he really wants golf to succeed as an Olympic sport. He has some of his own opinions that are very personal to him and that’s fine, but as a whole he’s very, very much behind golf succeeding in the Olympics.

“All the guys that missed out probably made their decision for good reasons and they probably persuaded themselves it was a good decision, but I think they’re going to have sat back and realised what a successful event this was.

“They’re all great competitors and to be sitting at home watching other guys getting the glory is not going to sit well with them. They want experiences like this and they’re going to have to wait four years. That’s what makes this special. It just doesn’t come around next week and I’ll have another go.

“It’s an opportunity that comes around so rarely and I’m certainly happy it’s fallen on my plate. I certainly targeted it and went after it and therefore feel really proud of it, but it’s an opportunity that hopefully they’re going to take in 2020.”

Rose was close to tears as he described how much his victory meant to his seven-year-old son, Leo, whom he was supposed to take to see Chelsea play West Ham United at Stamford Bridge .

“Obviously I’m going to miss that but I’ll make it up to him,” the 36-year-old added. “He was so excited. I’ve never seen my little boy in tears, and I might start crying myself.

“I’ve never seen it resonate so much with him. He’s just beginning to understand what sport is all about. He went to a little football camp this last week and he got a medal, and he said to me: ‘Right, Dad, I’ve got my medal it’s time for you to get yours.’ He was actually crying when I phoned him and I’ve never seen that in him before, and that was very, very special.”

Rose had fully embraced the Olympic experience by watching numerous other sports and walking in the opening ceremony, after which he shared a bus journey back to the athletes’ village with Andy Murray. Nine days later, both he and the Wimbledon champion were Olympic gold medallists after Murray battled past Juan Martín Del Potro in the men’s tennis final, later on Sunday.

“Nigel Tilley, who is the GB physio, bumped into Andy at the village last night and he said that Andy had watched my last hole before going on to the court, so it was cool that I was able to watch his last two games,” Rose added.

“If you look at Team GB’s tally of medals, it’s amazing for a relatively small country to be doing so well on the medal count. Every time I see a medal go up on my app I feel proud of the wider team and that’s what makes it different and special.”

4/18/2016

Dunne Finishes 16th at Valderrama

Paul Dunne - Getty Images

Paul Dunne fired four birdies in the final round of the Real Club Valderrama Open de España, Hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation only to end the day just one under par after a double bogey 6 on the final hole.

A top twenty finish though is the Greystones man’s best result since a ninth place at the JoBurg Open last January and a good build up for the China swing over the coming two weeks.

Dunne plays the Shenzen International next week and looks certain to secure a spot at the Volvo China Open in Beijing the following week given his current reserve position.

Peter Lawrie was close to also signing for under par round on Sunday until a few stray putts undid some of his good work at the San Roque course. A great recovery after a wayward drive on the 17th hit out of bounds showed a return of confidence that bodes well for the season. Any loss of momentum could be only due to Lawrie’s lack of events following his loss of European Toru playing rights and leaves him with an unwanted three week break until the Trophée Hassan II in Morocco next month.

However, in the first full four rounds of the year - having missed the cut at the Tshwane Open in February and withdrawn from the Alfred Dunhill Links before Christmas – Peter Lawrie should be satisfied with his weekends’ work. The Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at the K Club the next biggest event on the horizon.

As a former winner of the Open de Espana Lawrie was automatically exempt this weekend and his hard work during the close season was rewarded in the toughest and most demanding of conditions at Valderrama.

The weekend though belonged to Andrew Johnston who won his first European Tour title as he held off the challenge of Joost Luiten to claim the Real Club Valderrama Open de España, Hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation.

The Englishman came into the final day alongside Luiten at two over and signed for a one under par 70 to take the title by one shot and become the first man to win a European Tour event with an over par score since Justin Rose won the US Open at Merion in 2013.

It had been 20 years since a regular event had been won over par, Ian Woosnam shooting the same score to win the Scottish Open at Carnoustie in 1996, showing just how difficult a test Valderrama had been over the four days.

"I drove the ball well all week, chipped and putted well all week, I struggled a bit with my irons the first three days but I just kept going and kept digging in and then on the fourth I found something," he said.

"I came off the course and I just started crying with the emotion of it. It's just very surreal and I don't think it will hit me for a few days.

"You see them winning these tournaments, and the history of it and all these names, so to put mine on there feels pretty ridiculous, really. It really does.

"Hopefully I can be one of those guys who has an incredible career like that and people are sitting here in the future going, 'oh, Beef's on there'. It's pretty incredible."

Tournament host Sergio Garcia made six birdies in his round of 67 to finish at three over, a shot ahead of defending champion James Morrison and Søren Kjeldsen.

The win completes a long journey for 27-year-old Johnston, who first made it onto The European Tour via the Challenge Tour in 2012 before a loss of form and fitness saw him lose his card.

Two wins on the Challenge Tour in 2014 saw him win the Road to Oman and now, after finishing 70th on The Race to Dubai last season, he has his breakthrough.

For Dutchman Luiten, the result is the continuation of a brilliant start to the season and hands him his fifth top ten in eight events so far this term.

Johnston bogeyed the first as those around him jostled for position, with Martin Kaymer opening up a two-shot lead over the field with a birdie on the third.

Luiten and Kaymer continued to battle it out but when Johnston hit a sensational approach to the seventh for birdie and made another gain on the next, a dropped shot from the German on the seventh meant Johnston and Luiten shared the lead at the turn.

Morrison had also turned in 34 and bogeys on the 11th from Luiten and 14th from Johnston meant there was a three-way tie for the lead. That became a four-way tie when Garcia birdied the 16th and 17th to surge into contention.

A bogey on the last saw Garcia set the clubhouse target at three over but Johnston holed a 20-footer on the 16th to move ahead and Luiten could not reel him in as he finished with seven straight pars.

Kjeldsen's 68 handed the Dane a second straight top ten after his excellent performance at the Masters Tournament last week, while Morrison finished with a 72.

Ross Fisher, Kaymer, Mike Lorenzo-Vera and Alex Noren were then at five over, a shot clear of Craig Lee.

2/18/2016

Rory Excited About Riviera Debut

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Rory McIlroy says he is excited about his Northern Trust Open debut this week at Riviera Country Club as he starts his tournament build-up in the United States for the Masters in April.

While the opening Major championship of the year will be firmly in his mind over the next two months, McIlroy has long desired to compete at Riviera, which is consistently ranked by the players as one of the top courses on the PGA Tour.

“I wanted to come here because of what I had seen on TV, and the great things that people say about Riviera,” world number three McIlroy, 26, told reporters on Wednesday after playing in the pre-tournament pro-am competition.

“And this was the perfect timing. I had a week off after all the stuff I did in the Middle East (on the European Tour), and that gave me time to sort of regroup and get myself over to the West Coast. It just fitted into the schedule.”

The iconic par-71 layout at Riviera is a ball-striker’s paradise where long, medium and short hitters can all thrive.

“It’s a real treat when you come to a golf course like this where it’s not overly long, you don’t have to really bomb it off the tee, but it’s real strategic,” said McIlroy, a four-times Major winner.

“It’s a real thinker’s golf course and it’s a real treat to play something like this because we don’t get to play them that often anymore.”

McIlroy will be making his first PGA Tour appearance of the year this week after recording top-six finishes in his last three events on the European Tour dating back to November – all three of them in the United Arab Emirates.

“A couple of things in Dubai I wasn’t quite happy with, so I worked on those in Florida last week,” he said, referring to his tie for sixth at the Dubai Desert Classic earlier this month.

“I tweaked my driver a little bit. I felt like I was struggling to turn it over from right-to-left, so I put the loft up. I felt like the rest of my game was in pretty good shape.”

McIlroy has plenty of top-quality tournament golf on his schedule between now and the April 7th-10th Masters, including next week’s Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens and the first two World Golf Championships events of the year.

“These tournaments that we’ve got coming up, we’ve got some of the strongest fields of the year,” added McIlroy.

“This is the start of the road to the Masters and for everyone, if not thinking about it directly, it’s definitely in the back of their minds. Obviously I’d love my game to be in peak shape for Augusta in April.”

Meanwhile, world number one Jordan Spieth will look to make amends for one of the few mistakes he made in 2015 by winning this week.

Spieth was in contention for what would have been just his second PGA Tour title at Riviera Country Club 12 months ago and thought he needed to birdie the last to keep pace with the leaders.

However, in attempting to hole a chip from just off the green, the 22-year-old ran the ball eight feet past the hole and missed the par putt, which would have been good enough for a play-off after Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia both bogeyed the 17th.

“Last year it was a crazy finish and it kind of taught me a little something about this golf course,” Spieth told a pre-tournament press conference. “You just never know exactly what’s going to happen at Riviera coming down the stretch.

“I was thinking I needed to birdie 18 for a play-off. Turns out, with I think Dustin and Sergio bogeying the 17th, I ended up one out of the three-way play-off (won by James Hahn).

“So (it was) a little bizarre, but that just kind of teaches you how it works sometimes. Sometimes it’s not birdies to win. Sometimes on harder golf courses, even on a tour event and it’s a non-Major championship, sometimes par is a really good score.

“Unfortunately it’s rare, but fortunately it happens here. So it would mean a lot to win this tournament.

“For me to win on a golf course that I consider one of the top few in the world, that’s always a goal. It would be amazing.”

Spieth did not have to wait long to taste victory of course, winning the Valspar Championship just three weeks later. That was one of five victories in 2015 including the Masters, US Open and Tour Championship, the latter securing the overall FedEx Cup title and $10 million bonus.

And having already won the Tournament of Champions by eight shots in Hawaii in January, Spieth believes he can learn from all those wins in order to avoid making the kind of mistake which cost him at Riviera 12 months ago.

“When pressure comes on, I can now really relate and look back to a lot of key moments where I’ve hit shots in the past when the pressure has been on where I felt like I did what I wanted to do,” Spieth added.

“I mean, that on its own is the kind of priceless experience that I can then get up and do it again.

“I think I’ve gotten a lot better putting under pressure, but to be able to stand up and really focus in on a specific target, and work either ball flight on to that target, whether it’s driving it or striking an iron shot, that’s definitely improved when the pressure is on.”

10/30/2015

McIlroy Links Recipe for Irish Open

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Rory McIlroy insists he will not be begging big name US stars to tee it up in the Irish Open at The K Club next May.

The Holywood golfer promised to return the favour for the likes of Rickie Fowler, Ernie Els, and Sergio Garcia after they turned up at Royal Co Down in May to help the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, hosted by the Rory Foundation.

The Down man has committed to doing things for Fowler, Els, and Garcia’s charitable events in return but it appears that he is not prepared to continue doing favours going forward.

While there were high hopes that the likes of Tiger Woods or Dustin Johnson would be persuaded by McIlroy to turn up in Kildare from May 19-22 next year, Woods is already out of the equation having undergone back surgery last month.

Instead, four-time major winner McIlroy hopes the massive prize fund — up from €2.5m to €4m next year — will be enough to attract a stellar field.

Asked which US stars he was targeting, McIlroy said: “Really I’m not. I think the prize fund, that speaks for itself. I’m not going to do any IOU’s this year like I did last year.

“It’s a fantastic tournament in its own right. I mean, it’s a bit of an awkward date on the calendar and obviously Royal Co Down attracted a lot of guys because of the golf course that is.

“That’s the sort of thing that I would hope for in the future; that the golf courses and the increased prize fund obviously attract a few more players.”

McIlroy’s dream is to host the Irish Open in a links every year as part of a three-week links swing before the Scottish Open and the Open Championship.

But he admits that the lack of links courses — Portmarnock and Royal Dublin are currently no-go venues for the government backers or the tour’s sponsors because they are men only — makes that dream a challenge.

“I would love to always see it on a links course,” McIlroy said. “We’re working on it. I’d love to see the Irish Open change date to closer to the Open to have a little bit more of a links swing going into the Open, where maybe it would be the Irish Open, Scottish Open, and the Open, or something like that.

“That’s a long way down the road but I’d like to see it go to that.

“But the European Tour have been fantastic. They, along with myself, have made a huge commitment to the Irish Open for the next three years and hopefully they go well and we can go on from there.”

The European Tour is believed to be struggling to take the Irish Open to Lough Erne in 2017, as announced by Acting NI first minister Arlene Foster last year, with Portstewart recently emerging as an alternative venue.

Asked about the Lough Erne problem, McIlroy dodged the question, replying: “Right now we are just concentrating on this year and trying to make The K Club as good as it can be and we’ll go from there.”

8/30/2015

Spieth Shows Human Frailty

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Jordan Spieth has missed the cut at The Barclays and is set to lose his status as world number one to Rory McIlroy.

Spieth, who shot his worst score (74) for three months at Plainfield Country Club on Thursday, could only do marginally better with a second round 73 after hitting five bogies, a double bogey and four birdies.

His surprise struggles mean that McIlroy, currently recovering from an ankle injury, will return to the top of the tree despite not lifting a club this weekend as a precaution.

There were no such problems for Bubba Watson, who now has a one-shot lead over the rest of the field after sharing a four-way tie at the top of the leaderboard following day one.

The American hit a sublime five-under 65 in the first round and backed it up with a solid 68 on Friday to nudge in front on seven under overall.

Colombia's Camilo Villegas and Americans Spencer Levin and Tony Finau had a share of the lead going into day two, but they all struggled to maintain that pace.

Finau is the highest-placed out of that trio, but a bogey on the 16th scuppered his hopes of staying toe-to-toe with Watson and he sits one shot back in a four-strong cluster on six under.

There he is joined by Sweden's Henrik Stenson, who shot five birdies on the first 12 holes to push up the leaderboard, Zach Johnson and Jason Dufner.

Villegas is just behind on five under - where he is joined by Jason Bohn after the American hit six birdies in a blemish-free round to card the lowest score of the day (64).

Levin, meanwhile, is one of seven men on four under after hitting one-over par on Friday.

Spieth admitted he would need some time to work out where his week had gone wrong.

"Yeah, tough week," he said on the PGA Tour website. "I'm definitely searching for answers. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do from here as far as how I get prepared for next week but I have some time to figure it out. We don't start till Friday."

Despite the disappointment, Spieth, who remains top of the FedExCup rankings, swiftly turned his attention to the Deutsche Bank Championship as he downplayed the importance of the ranking.

"I've reached that peak already and I know it's going to be close enough to where if I just get the job done next week, I'll be back in that ranking," he said. "But again, that ranking, it's great once you reach it but it's not something that I'm going to live or die on each week. It doesn't really make much of a difference. If you go on a three- or four-year cycle, Rory is No. 1 in the world. If you go just base off of this year, I am. They just use two years.

"In my mind, it's just about trying to win the FedExCup at this point."

6/21/2015

Lowry Positive in Chambers

Shane Lowry is Europe's best chance of a fifth US Open victory in the last six years after benefiting from a positive attitude at Chambers Bay.

The course and conditions have come in for a large amount of criticism, with Masters champion Jordan Spieth calling the 18th "dumb" and "unbelievably stupid" when played as a par four and Henrik Stenson comparing the greens to "putting on broccoli."

USGA executive director Mike Davis said players would need 10 practice rounds to get to grips with the course, which only opened in 2007 - but 36 holes of practice were enough for Lowry to finish his third round on one under par, three off the lead shared by Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day and Branden Grace.

"I said to my caddie coming up the last, it's probably one of the most enjoyable days I've had at a golf course in a while," Lowry said after a second consecutive 70 which featured three birdies and three bogeys.

"Being in contention in a tournament like this, what more do you want? It's great. I'm excited about tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it. It's tough. It's very tough. But I think it's playable. I think it's been getting a lot of stick.

"The greens are not the best surfaces, but if you hit a good putt nine times out of 10 it goes in. Sometimes you hit a good putt and it misses. That's the thing a lot of players are focusing on.

"It's tough to hit greens but at the end of the day it's a US Open. If you missed the green at Pinehurst last year you couldn't chip. I think that was a little more unfair than this is."

Asked if such an attitude was vital, the 28-year-old added: "Yeah, I said it about three or four months ago. A couple of guys came up and played here and then I saw a few comments on Twitter from a few people. Talking about the golf course before you get here is not necessarily the right thing to do.

"You want to get here and see it and see how it plays. When I got here on Monday I thought, yeah, it's a bit funky, like the first (hole) if you miss it left.

"But the more you play it, the more it grows on you and that's what I felt. And that was one of the reasons I think I'm in the position I'm in today. It would obviously mean everything (to win). I'm going to go out there and give it a hundred per cent tomorrow and what happens will happen.

"I think if I played the way I played today I should have a chance coming down the last few holes."

McIlroy No Rub of Green

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Rory McIlroy admitted he had doubts over his putting after squandering a number of chances to get back into contention for the US Open in the third round.

The world No 1 was again impressive from tee to green at Chambers Bay, but he needed 31 putts in a frustrating level-par 70 that left him on four over par for the tournament.

McIlroy, who has now had 96 putts over 54 holes, started confidently with the short stick as he holed a great putt for par from 15 feet at the first and nailed another from similar distance for birdie at the second.

He converted another sublime approach at the seventh, but he missed "seven good chances" on the back nine and dropped shots at the 11th and 15th before holing from 12 feet to salvage a par-five at the last.

"I missed seven good chances on the back nine, or seven makeable putts, anyway," said McIlroy, who dropped shots on the 11th and 15th. "It was just nice to see one drop at the last there. I feel like I turned a 65 into a 70 today.

"Whenever you start to miss a couple you start to get a little tentative. You start to doubt yourself. You start to doubt the greens a little bit. And then it just sort of snowballs from there. I holed a few nice ones early on, but once I missed a couple it got into my head and couldn't really get out of it."

Henrik Stenson had likened the greens to putting on broccoli after the second round, but McIlroy joked: "I don't think they're as green as broccoli. I think they're more like cauliflower.

"They are what they are, everyone has to putt on them. It's all mental. Some guys embrace it more than others, and that's really the way it is. It is disappointing that they're not in a bit better shape. But the newer greens like seven and 13, they're perfect.

"I played last Sunday and I felt like they (the USGA) brought it a little too much towards the brink then. And it's always a struggle from then to sort of rein it back little bit. I would have liked to see them keep it a little greener for the practice rounds and then gradually as the tournament progresses get a little firmer.

"That might have kept the greens in a bit better shape, but you never know. I've never been here before, but I hear that the weather isn't always like this. If there had been a little bit of moisture and had it been overcast the greens might not have gotten baked out and as bumpy as they are."

McIlroy admitted he was frustrated to four-putt the 17th and drop another shot on the 18th in his second round, but was happy to have ground out a score after missing the cut in his previous two events.

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