The Irish Golf Club Gazette: Love3D

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4/11/2016

Lowry Joins Love III and Louis Oosthuizen

Shane Lowry

Shane Lowry ended a disappointing week on a thrilling note with a hole-in-one in the final round of the Masters at Augusta National on Sunday.

Lowry holed out with an eight iron on the 16th in a final-round 75, his tee shot landing in the perfect spot to the right of the hole and trickling down the slope into the cup.

"It was amazing to have a hole-in-one on 16 around here in the final round," Lowry said. "I just wish I would have been able to come up with more birdies, but it was a perfect shot.

"I just hit it in right of the hole and (the slope) just took it down and in. I feel pretty lucky to have a hole-in-one around this place, in this tournament. It's nice. I'm sure I'll get a picture somewhere and frame it in the house and it will be a nice memento to have."

After picking the ball out of the hole, Lowry motioned as if he was going to throw it into the crowd, but added: "No, I wasn't giving the ball away. My last hole-in-one in competition my parents were there as well in Dubai and I still have the ball from that. So I feel like I'll keep that one."

Lowry was just two shots off the lead after an opening 68, but fell out of contention with a 76 on Friday and struggled to a 79 in Saturday's third round.

"Yesterday it was just a tough day and I just let it get away from me," added the 29-year-old. "Friday didn't go too well obviously either. I feel like my game wasn't there, I didn't hole enough putts. I made a few bad decisions.

"I feel like I could have done a lot better and I'm a bit disappointed with the week as a whole. When I sit back and look at it, this week will definitely help me in the future. So I've got to look at it that way.

"There's a lot of good positives to take out of it. I feel like my iron play was quite good for most of the week, just a few bad breaks here and there the last couple of days and I feel like I could have been a little bit closer to the lead, but that's the way major golf is and that's the way this course is.

"Every week you play a major, especially the Masters, is a learning curve and I learned a lot this week and I'm sure I'll take it with me in the future."

9/30/2015

Clarke in Love at Hazeltine

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Darren Clarke insists there will be no controversial gamesmanship at next year’s competition following the uproar at the women’s Solheim Cup.

Clarke said the incident at the Solheim Cup, when Europe’s Suzann Pettersen insisted on penalising the USA’s Alison Lee for picking up her ball after she believed a putt had been conceded, was against the spirit of golf.

Speaking at a news conference with USA captain Davis Love III to mark a year to go to the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, Minnesota, Clarke said: “This Ryder Cup will be played in the manner in which Davis and I respect each other.

“We’ve been friends for such a long time; I hold Davis in the highest regard. He’s been a good friend but probably one of the best gentlemen in our sport.

“The Solheim Cup was an unfortunate thing. What Suzann did was correct in ‘The Rules of Golf’, but in the spirit of the game, it was wrong. And she admitted that on the Monday with hindsight. Hindsight is always a wonderful thing.

“In the Ryder Cup, we are always briefed by the referees earlier in the week and the rules officials, and we do not touch a golf ball until we hear either from our opposite number or from the referees, just one of those things. I hope and I’m sure it won’t happen under our watch.”

Love agreed that sportsmanship would be key.

He said: “Darren and I will set the tone with our teams, and with our messaging over the next year, what we expect and how we expect the matches to be played.

“Something will come up during the three days that is uncomfortable. But we’ll handle it as gentlemen and a sportsmanlike way. It will be fair and competitive and fun.

“In the end, one of us will win, one of us will lose, but we’ll enjoy a cigar and a tear afterwards on Sunday night.”

Love said he was “reluctantly” facing the fact he would not be a playing captain, and expressed his hope that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson could be back in contention.

He added: “Tiger has had some surgeries and that’s slowing him down a little bit.

“I have a feeling Phil’s going to be strongly motivated to make the next team, and obviously Tiger wants to get healthy and play. They are just two of a lot of players that have stressed to me that they want to play on a winning Ryder Cup team.”

2/26/2015

McIlroy in Love Surprise

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Rory McIlroy concedes he was very surprised by at the appointment of Davis Love III as 2016 United States Ryder Cup captain.

McIlroy is returning to competition at this week's Honda Classic and teeing up for a first time this year on American soil following a three-week break since winning the Dubai Desert Classic.

But the World No 1 believes it will be intriguing to see Love coming up against European captain Darren Clarke at Hazeltine.

"It came as a big shock when they announced yesterday Davis was going to be the next US captain," McIlroy said.

"It will be great to see Davis and Darren go head-to-head at Hazeltine and they will be formidable opponents.

"I feel they're overdoing it with the setting up of a task force and also talking about all the changes they want to bring in."

"It's been said by a few players since we won at Gleneagles that it's not rocket science why Europe have won the last three Ryder Cups and eight of the past 10.

Love captained the US team in 2012 in Medinah when they blew a 10-6 lead going into the final day to lose the trophy.

"Davis is going to be a great captain and it was a freak we won at Medinah in 2012, and it was not supposed to happen given they had a 10-6 lead.

“If the States had of won Davis would have been looked upon as a great captain.

"So I get the sense the States, what with their task force and everything that came out in the announcement yesterday, that they're desperate to win back the Ryder Cup.

"And I will say it again because it's not that complicated why Europe has been winning."

3/24/2014

Harrington in Texas Scramble

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Padraig Harrington carded a round of 80 on the final day of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida at the Ball Hill Lodge and Country Club.

Harrington had just one birdie in a round that included a first-hole double bogey and also seven bogeys to end the event near the tail of the field at five over par.

Harrington managed to find just half the Bay Hill fairways and after averaging 28 putts the first three days, he had 34 putts over his last 18 holes.

Padraig remains positive ahead of the Valero Texas Open.

“There are a lot of positives I can take from the week with me to San Antonio,” he said.

“Of course, there was nothing much I could take from the front nine today but outside of that there is a lot of positives.”

“The Texas Open course is usually a windy course and that should suit me,” said Harrington.

Graeme McDowell played the final round alongside Davis Love III, shooting a 70 compared to the American’s 73, and a day after facing Celtic Manor singles rival Hunter Mahan when McDowell got himself back into the Florida event with a 67.

And after averaging less than eight of 14 fairways over his first two rounds, McDowell missed just one fairway on the weekend — that being the 15th yesterday where he took a bogey ahead of then doubling the par-three 17th where he found water guarding the green.

“I went back home on Friday panicking a little where I pulled about 10 drivers out of the archives and went down to the Lake Nona range and tried to find something,” he said.

“It was one of the new Cleveland Classic drivers I was testing a lot last year but when the new Srixon came out, I archived the Cleveland,” he added.

“This driver is not as long as I have been using this year but it is a hell of a lot more accurate and I will be taking it with me to Malaysia this week.”

McDowell now makes his way to Malaysia for the inaugural EurAsia Cup.

Darren Clarke missed the cut.

11/08/2013

Clarke Trails Leading Duo

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Darren Clarke carded a one under par first round 69 at the McGladrey Classic in Georgia on Thursday, to remain six strokes off the leaders Briny Baird and Brian.

The duo both fired opening-round 63's to sit seven under after fog had delayed play by almost two hours in the morning.

Former US Open champion Webb Simpson was one of three players two shots back alongside fellow American Kevin Kisner and South Korean Seung-yul Noh.

Baird has not recorded a win in his previous 364 appearances on Tour but could break that duck this week after a stunning start at Sea Island.

The 41-year-old recorded a flawless round as he birdied the second, third and fourth holes before hitting another hot streak at the end of his day with further birdies at 14, 15, 16 and 17.

Gay did have a blemish on his card as he dropped a shot on the 12th but he countered that with eight birdies in calm conditions.

Simpson, Noh and Kisner were two behind after firing rounds of 65 and there was a large group behind them on four under including Jonathan Byrd andCamilo Villegas.

Will MacKenzie was the best of the afternoon starters as he sat four under after six holes with former Masters champion Trevor Immelman a further shot back through eight.

Major champions YE Yang, Retief Goosen and Ben Curtis were all on two under having completed their rounds while defending champion Tommy Gainey was level par through four holes.

11/06/2013

Clarke Restarts PGA Tour

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Darren Clarke plays in Georgia this week at the McGladrey Classic in Sea Island with hope of reigniting his career on the lucrative PGA Tour, after an absence of seven years and taking advantage of the five-year exemption earned by winning the 2011 Open Championship.

The 45-year-old Northern Irishman has not won since that Open Championship at Royal St. George's in Sandwich, Kent over two years ago.

Darren is now ranked 283rd in the world but feeling good about his game after ties for 12th and a second place in the Nanshan China Masters last month. A week where Clarke bemoaned his failure with his putting during a final-round 72, having shared the lead at one stage.

"I’ve almost had enough of the long hauls all over Asia and all that sort of stuff,” said Clarke, who is exempt this season because of his 2011 Open Championship win. “Not that it’s bad, but coming over here is certainly a lot easier for me from a scheduling point of view.

“The PGA TOUR is the biggest investor in the world. Europe is my home turf, but it’s a great opportunity to come over here and play.”

“I just want to go out and enjoy myself,” Clarke said. “I’ve travelled all over the world for a long time and I’ve had a great time doing it. It’s almost like starting over.”

The journey will be made easier with a home in the Bahamas and a base in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Though Clarke added that he will maintain his European Tour membership as well.

"It will be difficult," Clarke said of playing both tours.

"But it is something I will try to do. I will see how I get on with it. But my first commitment is to the PGA TOUR, and I have to get my tournaments in on the TOUR since I became a member again."

Clarke will play next week’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico and then plans to take December off before returning for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, followed by the Northern Trust Open and the entire Florida swing.

Clarke has won two other times on the PGA TOUR, in 2003 at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational (then the NEC Invitational) and the 2000 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

Clarke recorded 14 top 10 finishes from 2003 through to 2005, including four third-place finishes and a runner-up. In 2006 he was limited to 11 starts after the passing of his first wife, Heather. That September the Dungannon man was a wild card for Ryder Cup at the K Club thanks to vision of the Team Europe Captain, Ian Woosnam.

2007 was the last year Clarke played the PGA TOUR as he spent the past few years playing mostly in Europe, where he won his first major in July 2011.

11/03/2013

Love McGladrey About Clarke

PGA.com

Darren Clarke decided this year to take up PGA TOUR membership and play a full schedule. So his first stop in America is Sea Island and support a life long friendship with David Love III at the McGladrey Classic.

Although unclear what kind of field to expect as a regular PGA Tour event in November, about a month later than usual, and one week after most of the top players are in Shanghai for the HSBC Champions. But the tournament received a boost from the commitment of 2011 Open Champion, Darren Clarke.

The long friendship between Clarke and Love is best illustrated in match play on two occasions in 2004.

During the semifinals of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, Love rallied to force extra holes. The greens were so bumpy at La Costa that Love, not wanting to see the match end with a missed putt, conceded par putts from 4- to 5-foot range on consecutive holes. Love won in 21 holes.

Later that year, in the Ryder Cup, Love put his tee shot on 18 in the rough. He could have widened his stance for a high cut shot and taken relief because his foot would have been on a sprinkler. He chose to play the ball where it was because such a shot would have been impractical. They halved the match.

"He said I was honest with my drop in the rough," Love recalled last month at Sea Island.

"Darren is just one of those guys like Freddie (Couples). Everywhere he plays, people like watching him."

Love still isn't sure how Clarke decided on Sea Island.

He said Scott Reid, The McGladrey Classic tournament director, heard a rumour Clarke might be playing and asked Love to try to close the deal. Too late. Turns out Clarke already had committed as Love was sending him a text.

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