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Ryder Cup Wild Cards To Be Announced A Day Later Than Scheduled

The wild card picks for next years Ryder Cup will be announced a day later than scheduled Paul McGinley has decided.

The European captain was due to announce his selections on 2nd September after the Italian Open which is the final qualifying event had finished, but the Irishman has put this back 24hrs to avoid clashing with the Deutsche Bank Championship which will finish on the Monday.

The thought of doing this is to avoid what happened in 2010 when Paul Casey and Justin Rose were playing in Boston only to find out when they finished that they had been overlooked by Monty for Celtic Manor.

It’s unlikely to make any difference to the selection but is just a matter of respect for the players involved.

Laird Wins By Two Over In-Form McIlroy

A superb win for Scotland’s Martin Laird late last night in the Texas Open has ensured that he will be travelling to Augusta this week to compete in the Masters which starts on Thursday.

Laird started the day five shots behind leader Billy Horschel, but was soon to catch up with four birdies early on on in his round.

It was Northern Irishman and No.2 in the world Rory McIlroy who ended up being Lairds nearest rival. McIlroy will be going into the Masters feeling a lot better after a good competitive week of golf and being in the last couple of groups once again.

Well Thursday is all set to be a great day in the golfing calender as we see the start of one of my favourite tournaments in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fichardt Wobbles To Victory In Africa

Well it wasn’t all plane sailing for South African’s Darren Fichardt, after looking like he was on his way to a comfortable win he managed to make hard work of it by bogeying three of the last four holes, but finally came away with a two shot victory over Jaco Van Zyl and  Grégory Bourdy to keep the African Open trophy firmly in South African hands for another year.

Fichardt started the day tied at the top of the leaderboard with Van Zyl but found himself four shots clear midway through the round but Van Zyl couldn’t capitalise on Fichardt’s late bogey run and it was a comfortable victory in the end.

This week it’s the WGC-Accenture Matchplay in Arizona where a 64-man field will battle it out at the Ritz-Carlton golf club where Rory McIlroy is bidding to win his first World Golf Championship title and look to put the bad start to his season behind him.

Kingsbarns Golf Links Awarded Golf Course of the Year at Golf at Scotland Gold Standard Awards

One of my favourite golf courses Kingsbarns Golf Links was voted the Golf Course of the Year at last night’s Golf Tourism Scotland (GTS) Gold Standard Awards held at the Fairmont.  The Awards are recognised as the industry Oscars and celebrate the greatest achievements throughout the industry from courses to hotels and resorts, tour operators, golf secretariats, caddie masters and transport companies. It is a great showcase for the who’s who in golf.

It was named Course of the Year for the 4 time ahead of some of the leading courses in Scotland including Balcomie Links (Crail), the Carnoustie Championship Course, Castle Stuart Golf Links, Gullane No 2, Machrihanish Dunes, the New Course, St Andrews, North Berwick West Links, Pitlochry, the Old Course St Andrews, the Torrance Course (Fairmont St Andrews), the Ailsa Course at Turnberry and Western Gailes.

Good News For Armchair Golfers!

As a golf professional, for me there is nothing like striking a ball with a golf club – preferably out of a golf course, practising on the range – even knocking a ball through a windmill on a crazy golf course, I’m in my element.

However, in terms of video games, golf has come along way. The advent of technology  such as the Nintendo Wii, Sony Move and the amazing Xbox 360 Kinect has created a new dimension in golf gaming.

It’s no longer about clicking a mouse button or using a D-Pad to line up a putt. Now you can perform lifelike swings from the comfort of your own living room, and pit yourselves against players from all over the world while you are at it!

Although of course it’s not the same as real golf, it’s not the worst way of practising by any means, and on this basis I favour the Wii golf games more as you can actually ‘grip’ the controller like a club, and perform accurate swings.

Check out the latest ‘Tiger Woods’ offering from EA Sports – it looks incredible. Please let me know if you’ve played it and what you think of it!

http://www.ea.com/uk/tiger-woods

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