GMAC Rising to Olympic Challenge

Graeme McDowell was rising to the challenge of the US Open Championship once again in San Francisco.

The 2010 champion - he was the first European winner of the title since Tony Jacklin in 1970 - moved into second place on his own with back-to-back birdies at The Olympic Club.

McDowell found the target from nearly 30 feet at the short 15th, his seventh hole of the second round, and when a 12 footer went in on the next - reduced from 670 yards to 609 - he was up to two under par.

That put the 32 year old only two strokes behind overnight leader Michael Thompson, who was among the day's later starters.

Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts was also making a big move.

Four over par after three holes of his opening round, The European Tour’s longest hitter battled back to level par with birdies at the ninth, 16th and 18th, the latter from 12 feet.

Justin Rose and Ian Poulter, who teed off again one under and level par, both dropped a stroke at the 428 yard second and when Rose also bogeyed the fifth - his first three shots all finished in deep rough - they were both one over and joint 12th.

Lee Westwood, playing with Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy in a clash of the world's top three, was only one behind them - and one under for the day - until he bogeyed the 18th.

In the left-hand rough for the second day running, Westwood came up short of the green in sand, sent his recovery nine feet past the flag and missed the slippery downhill putt to slide to three over.

McDowell, whose victory two years ago came down the Californian course at Pebble Beach, had said after his opening 69: "I've always enjoyed the US Open, even before I won.

"It really rewards placement off the tee, just hanging tough, staying patient, placing your iron shots, chipping, putting. Really it's golf's toughest test.

"You want to get a little bit of momentum early this week if you can, because if you let this golf course beat you up early in the week it will just continue to do that.

"I've just got to keep grinding." 

He did more than that, but the hardest holes were still to come.

Tiger Woods, who matched the first day 69s of McDowell and Rose, was another afternoon starter along with copmpatriot David Toms and was doubtless hoping the wind did not pick up too much.

McDowell did well to escape with a bogey on the 520 yard par four first. He had to chop out of the rough, left himself a really testing par putt and made a ten footer coming back.

That putt kept his spirits up and when an 18 foot birdie putt went in on the short third he was back to two under.

McDowell knew there was every chance of him leading at the end of the day if he could keep things going, but instead he bogeyed the fifth and then dropped another by failing to get up and down from sand at the next.

At level par he was tied for fourth with playing partner Jim Furyk, but none of the three ahead of them - Thompson, Woods and Toms - had teed off again yet.

Westwood, Rose and Poulter all stood four over, but at ten over and 11 over it looked all over for Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald.

Thornton Cards 69 in Saint-Omer

Simon Thornton put himself into contention in the Saint-Omer Open with a two under par 69, second round. The 35 year old said his score, which leaves him four shots off the lead held by Korean Sihwan Kim after a wet and blustery second day, was testament to his touch around the greens.

“I’m hitting it pretty poorly but my short game is saving me,” said Thornton. “I got up and down from everywhere today – probably six or seven times. I’m putting really well so once I’m on the green I’m fine; it’s just getting on the green that’s the problem.

“I haven’t hit the ball out the middle of the club for two days, but I’m in a good position and I’m excited for the weekend. I’ll be hitting the range try to fix my ball-striking, and if I can do that it should be a good weekend.”

Thornton’s compatriot Colm Moriarty impressed in the first round with a three under par 68, but found it tougher going in round two and signed for a 77 which leaves him in a tie for 45th place on four over heading into the weekend.

But it was Englishman Adam Gee who put the frustration of a lengthy injury lay-off firmly behind him to take a share of the first round lead in the Saint-Omer Open presented by Neuflize OBC.

The 31 year old Qualifying School graduate carded a four under par 67 in the morning session, which was later matched by his compatriot Simon Wakefield and Korea’s Sihwan Kim, who is playing his first season in Europe.

The trio are one shot clear of Spaniard Raul Quiros, South African Darren Fichardt and Scotsman Raymond Russell in the €500,000 tournament, which is dual-ranked between The European Tour and the Challenge Tour.

Gee was sidelined for most of last season after hip surgery, but he is slowly working his way back to form this year and was encouraged by his opening round at Aa Saint Omer Golf Club.

“It’s a good start,” said the 31 year old, who finished with back-to-back birdies. “I had some good fortune today – I hit the flag on the 17th and it went in, and on the 18th I hit a good shot from a bad lie and it ran up nicely to the hole.

“It’s a quirky golf course and you get good breaks and bad breaks. Sometimes good shots go badly and bad shots turn out well. I managed to get the most out of the good stuff today.

“Last year was very frustrating. I was either playing badly or I was injured. The cartilage between two bones in my hip was torn, so I had surgery to repair it. But everyone gets injured, that’s just the way it goes. Luckily I had some great advice and good help from the right people and it’s fine now.”

Kim, a Challenge Tour player, was also thankful for some good fortune in his round, which included five birdies against one bogey.

“I missed in the right places,” said the 23 year old, who was born in Korea and moved to the USA when he was 12. “I wouldn’t say I was hitting the ball terribly, but I certainly wasn’t striping it. I got some lucky bounces here and there.

“I’ve been working hard on my putting. My speed has been a little off and my short putting has been horrendous in my last two or three events.

With the large prize fund which counts in both The Race to Dubai and the Challenge Tour Rankings, and a European Tour card until the end of 2013 for the winner, the Saint-Omer Open represents a Major Championship for players on the second tier.

“I know how important it is to do well in these big events,” Kim added. “Fortunately I played well in Madeira (Madeira Islands Open – Portugal) as well and finished 11th. But you have to take golf on a daily basis and I’ll try not to get ahead of myself. Hopefully I can have another good day tomorrow and be well placed for the weekend.”

Wakefield narrowly missed out on keeping his card on The European Tour last season, having won the Qualifying School Final Stage in 2010, but is delighted with his recent form.

“I made a great start with a four-footer at the first, a 25-footer at the second and then hit my approach into four feet at the third – although I missed that putt,” he said. “It levelled out and I made a couple of silly bogeys which pegged me back a bit, but I then made some good putts for par on the back nine and finished with two birdies in the last three holes.

“I’ve been playing well the last few weeks. I was second in Tenerife (Fred Olsen Challenge de España) and tenth in Belgium (Telenet Trophy) so the hard work is paying off. I moved to Ping at the start of the year and it is really working well for me. I’m just very happy with how everything is at the moment.

“I’ve decided I’m going to focus on the Challenge Tour this season and try to get my card back that way. The only exception might be the Austrian Open, as I lost in a play-off there last year.”

McDowell Learns from Woods

Several hours before his tee time in the first round of the U.S. Open, Graeme McDowell told his friends on Twitter that he was watching the TV broadcast to get a feel for the competition and the course.

"Looks tough but good golf gets rewarded," he tweeted.

McDowell was particularly interested in the way Tiger Woods was making his way around The Olympic Club on the way to a 69. The Northern Irishman was similarly steady on Thursday afternoon, making birdie on his last two holes to join Woods in a tie for second, three strokes off the lead.

"I saw the way Tiger kind of played this golf course, and he played it very I think workman-like would be the way I would describe his round,’ McDowell said. "He just did what this golf course asks you to do. … You just got play very disciplined golf and I did that well today."

McDowell knows U.S. Open golf, too. He won the 2010 national championship when it was played at Pebble Beach, about two hours south of San Francisco. He likes courses like The Olympic Club that demand a player use his head as well as his clubs.

"There’s not often you play a golf course like this and there aren’t really many options, you just got to stand there and hit certain shots at the right times and some pins out there today you could go at and some pins that you couldn’t go at," McDowell said. "The greens are just rock hard. You really got to respect the first bounce on these greens. And there’s just places on these greens you just can’t miss the ball."

McDowell, who hit 10 fairways and 12 greens, actually had four good looks at birdie in his final holes. He missed birdie putts of 8 and 12 feet at Nos. 15 and 16, then got up and down from a greenside bunker at the par-5 17th and make his 29th putt of the day count at the last as the 15-footer dropped into the hole.

"I felt like I squeezed as much as I could out of that round," McDowell said. "… It’s a tough test out there. But, yeah, just I hung in well with the putter. It’s funny, I left a few birdie chances out there, on 15, 16, but a couple of key par saves. So no, I’ll take my 1 under and run.

McDowell played well early in the year, finishing second to Woods at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, and just last month he was runner-up at the Volvo World Match Play. But McDowell, who missed his last two cuts on the PGA TOUR, hasn’t won on either side of the Atlantic since 2010 so he hopes to build on Friday’s solid play.

"I’ve been hitting the ball pretty quell well and not scoring well and today it was today was a lot more disciplined golf and a lot more focused golf and probably the best tee to green I’ve hit it in a few months," McDowell said. "… My caddie said if you can’t draw some confidence out of this round today, there’s something wrong with you. So I think I know what he was getting at — take the positives and try to feed that back into the game again."

"So that was good today."

Source: PGA Tour

Ghostbuster Murray in Portrush Pro-Am

A host of stars from Hollywood screen, entertainment, and sport are now on course to take part in the Irish Open Pro-Am at Royal Portrush Golf Club on Wednesday June 27.

Principle sponsor of the Irish Open, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB), has revealed that Moonrise Kingdom, Lost in Translation and Ghostbusters! star Bill Murray will be joined by his brother Joel, star of the newly released God Bless America and well-known for his roles in The Artist and hit TV series Mad Men.

Irish-American actor Aidan Quinn, whose credits include Desperately Seeking Susan, The Mission, Legends of the Fall and Michael Collins, has also accepted an invitation to play.

Recording artist and Australian X Factor judge Ronan Keating and Northern Irish football legends Martin O’Neill and Pat Jennings are also expected to compete alongside rugby stars Andrew Trimble and David Humphreys, while former jockey and National Hunt trainer Tom Taaffe is also chomping at the bit to play the famous Portrush course.

NITB Chief Executive Alan Clarke is looking forward to showing these high profile visitors the many sights Northern Ireland has to offer during their visit to what promises to be one of the largest events on the 2012 tourism calendar.

He said: “The Irish Open is a fantastic opportunity for those involved in local tourism and sport to showcase our fantastic facilities here in Northern Ireland and the quality of the event is reflected in the attendance of such high profile guests from sport and screen.

“Their attendance will further raise the profile of Northern Ireland golf as an exciting and fast developing destination. We have a full programme of activity planned for these guests to make sure that their trip is a memorable one and many will be staying on to enjoy the tournament, see other parts of Northern Ireland and sample a wide variety of other golf courses.

“This is one of the most eagerly anticipated Irish Open tournaments in the history of this prestigious event as the competition makes its long awaited return to Northern Ireland for the first time in almost 60 years. With our three home grown major golf champions, a world class course and a fantastic line-up competing for the prize, it’s really no surprise that this event has captured the imaginations of celebrities and public alike.”

With the Irish Open now only two weeks away, The European Tour is expecting the event to be a sell-out with a crowd of 100,000 expected over the four days from Thursday June 28 to Sunday July 1.

NITB’s Alan Clarke said that it’s still not too late though to catch Rory McIlroy and company in action.

“Tickets have been selling like hot cakes since going on sale,” said Clarke, “but although Saturday and Sunday are pretty much sold out, there is still some availability for Thursday and Friday’s play with a variety of accommodation and package options still up for grabs. I would urge however that people book in advance and don’t risk turning up on the day and expecting to get in”.

www.discovernorthernireland.com or www.ni2012.com.

Attack Best Form of Defense - McIlroy

Rory McIlroy has decided that the best way to try to keep his US Open title - something only Curtis Strange has done in the past 61 years - is to attack.

Despite the Olympic Club in San Francisco being a far harder test than Congressional was a year ago, the 23-year-old Northern Irishman plans to take it on.

"I didn't expect to be saying that before I got here - I thought there would be a lot more irons off tees," said McIlroy after practising with Lee Westwood and Graeme McDowell. "I reckon I'm going to use my driver eight or nine times. I'm coming in with the mindset that I'm going to attack the golf course and play aggressively when I can."

He added: "Obviously you have to be smart, but you've got to take your chances around here. It gives you a few opportunities where you can make birdies.

"The rough is not as bad as maybe in previous years. You can get away with some tee shots. Really you just need to know your way around and know where you can miss it.

"People say it's fiddly, but I'm going to try to take the course on. If you make some bogeys you can hide them with a few red numbers (birdies)."

If not quite back to feeling supremely confident then McIlroy is certainly sounding more upbeat than he was after missing three successive cuts.

He added last week's event in Memphis to his schedule and was tied for the lead until going in the water and double-bogeying the final hole.

"It was a really good idea that I went there. I definitely feel more comfortable about my game than if I hadn't played," he said. "I'm feeling ready to go. The missed cuts were maybe what I needed - you've still got to work hard, put the time and effort in."

He plays the opening two rounds on Thursday and Friday with Westwood and Luke Donald - his fellow members of the world top three in other words.