Turkey Action for Darren Clarke

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Darren Clarke, a five-time Ryder Cup winner as a player and two-time victor as vice captain, tees off in the Turkish Airlines Open by the Ministry of Youth and Sport.

Shane Lowry also plays this week in the searsh for a place the world top 50.

In all nine members of Europe’s triumphant team from Gleneagles in the star-studded field, there will be a distinct Ryder Cup feel to the US$7 million event.

Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Martin Kaymer, defending champion Victor Dubuisson, Jamie Donaldson, Thomas Bjørn, Stephen Gallacher, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter will all lock horns at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal in Belek, Antalya, from November 13-16.

The links to golf’s greatest team event do not end there, however, with Miguel Angel Jiménez, who served as a vice captain to Paul McGinley at Gleneagles, also teeing it up along with the 2010 captain and course designer Colin Montgomerie. 

Also confirmed for the tournament is England’s Luke Donald, a four-time winner of The Ryder Cup.

Ahmet Ali Ağaoğlu, president of the Turkish Golf Federation, said: “We are so proud that such a strong field will be playing at the Turkish Airlines Open.

“The Ryder Cup caught the imagination of the golfing world and beyond, so it is a big honour to have so many of the players that showed such quality and passion for the sport together again in Turkey.

“We believe that the depth of quality in the field reflects the growing importance of this tournament in the golfing calendar.”

Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open Champion, and two-time Major winner John Daly will also feature in the penultimate event of The 2014 European Tour campaign.

The 78 players participating will be battling it out for a prize fund of US $7million.

The top 60 players in The Race to Dubai rankings after the Turkish Airlines Open will then move on to the United Arab Emirates for the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, the final tournament on The 2014 European Tour International Schedule.

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Padraig Chases Turkish Delight

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Padraig Harrington and Shane Lowry tee off this week at the Turkish Open and join  Justin Rose, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel to compete in the inaugural $7million tournament presented by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal in Belek, Antalya next week.

The two Irish entries for this week return to action two weeks after the BMW Masters at Lake Malaren where Lowry finished 24th  and Harrington 27th. Both returned to Ireland as they were not eligible for the WGC-HSBC Champions at Sheshan International this past weekend. Harrington having slipped out of the world stop 100. 

Harrington needs a quick start to the season in order to have a chance to make the Ryder Cup next year in Gleneagles. So this is an important  week for the three time major winner.

The runner up on Sunday at the HSBC Champions, Ian Poulter, joins them for the penultimate tournament of The European Tour’s new lucrative Final Series, which takes place from November 7-10.

The four players form an integral part of the 78-man line-up alongside the already-announced 14-time Major Champion Tiger Woods, FedEx Cup winner Henrik Stenson and former World and European Number One Lee Westwood.

Rose, the reigning US Open Champion, is targeting victory in Turkey for the second time in just over a year, having triumphed at the eight-man Turkish Airlines World Golf Final - a pre-cursor to this event - in October 2012. 

The Englishman, who is third in The Race to Dubai, said: “I’m very much looking forward to returning to Antalya as I have fond memories after winning last year’s match play event. I am feeling very confident about my game and am ready to make the final push for The Race to Dubai.”

Schwartzel has won once on The European Tour this campaign, at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in December. However, the 2011 Masters Champion returned to winner’s circle at the OneAsia Nanshan China Masters earlier this month and is looking to boost his position in the overall standings.

Schwartzel, who also played in the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final last year and is 20th in The Race to Dubai, said: “I very much enjoyed the experience of playing in Turkey last year and am looking forward to going back. I have been pleased with my form this year and definitely feel I should have won more times than I have done. It would be great to put that right.” 

Oosthuizen, third on the money list in 2012, is looking for a strong finish after enduring an injury-hit campaign since winning the Volvo Golf Champions in January.

The 2010 Open Champion said: “It has been a frustrating season but there is nothing I can do about that now. The main thing is to focus on the future and try and make up for lost time. I am determined to finish the season strongly and would love to do so with victory in Turkey.”

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Rory Out of Woods - Tiger

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Tiger Woods believes Rory McIlroy is slowly getting his game back on track and predicted that the former world No1 would claim his first victory of the year by the end of December.

McIlroy was on top of the world at the end of 2012, having won the orders of merit on both sides of the Atlantic, but he has had a turbulent season this year on and off the course.

The Northern Irishman changed his clubs to Nike in January, a switch that was criticised by several pundits. He is also in the middle of a bitter court dispute with his former management team and, according to media reports, has split from his girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki.

"He is playing better and swinging a lot better," Woods said. "You can see that some of the stuff he and his coach are working on is starting to come together.

"He's starting to put together a few good rounds, now he just has to make a few more putts. I can definitely see him winning sometime this year because his game has come around."

Woods, winner of 14 major titles and currently world No1, had a close-up view of McIlroy when he lost to the twice major winner in a lucrative head-to-head exhibition match on China's Hainan Island on Monday.

The two golfers are both based in Florida and the 37-year-old American said he and McIlroy, now world No 6, had formed an excellent relationship.

"Rory has become a good friend of mine over probably the past year, year and a half," Woods said. "It seems like every tournament we're paired together, we're also playing practice rounds together and we have really hit it off.

"He plays on both tours, US and European, so we see each other at big events and, when we do, we try and play practice rounds whenever we can."

The American is to miss the final World Golf Championship event of the season in Shanghai this week but will compete in next week's Turkish Open.

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