Tag Archives: British Open

Harrington Has To Be Part Of Ryder Cup Team

European Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal has said publicly that Republic Of Ireland star and three-time major winner Padraig Harrington will have to produce an amazing performance at Kiawah Island this week if he is to keep his Ryder Cup spot, unless he wins of course which will take him into the automatic qualifying positions.

The Irishman currently lies 19th in the European qualifying list.

“He will have to do extraordinarily well here,” Olazabal said.

Harrington, with two British Open titles to his name has slipped to 63 in the world and needed a wildcard pick to be a part of the  winning team at Celtic Manor back in 2010.

He would certainly be one of my picks, he’s gutsy, he’s been there and done it before under pressure and has won 3 major titles, and he’s in pretty good form. There isn’t anybody else in the waiting list with those credentials. Has to be a dead cert to picked if he doesn’t qualify Jose.

Rose Has One Eye On Race To Dubai Heading Into US PGA Championship

Well as we head into this week and the final Major of the season at Kiawah Island Justin Rose will be looking to extend his lead in The Race to Dubai after targeting The European Tour’s ultimate prize at the start of the season which seems like a long time but we are at the business end of the season now.

The Englishman from Hampshire has led The Race to Dubai since finishing second place at the BMW PGA Championship at the sun soaked Wentworth Club back in May and Rose would love to be crowned The European Tour’s Number One player for the second time in his career.

Rose extended his lead last week over Ernie Els after finishing tied fifth alongside Rory McIlroy at last week’s WGC – Bridgestone Invitational and he is confident the good form he is showing can continue on the Ocean Course this week.

Ryder Cup Points Could Produce A European Winner For PGA Championship

As many as 34 Europeans still have the dream of playing in The Ryder Cup alive as they head into the  final major of the year the US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island as the qualification is coming to the end.

The top ten players who will qualify automatically have remained the same after last week’s WGC  Bridgestone Invitational, but they are just in a slightly different order.

Rory McIlroy extended his lead at the top of the European Points List – which will supply the first five players of the European Team and Captain José María Olazábal. The other five will come from the World Points List.

So this really is a decisive week especially with so many points up for grabs, and could maybe could produce a European winner as I’m sure all the players are desperate to make the team and also impress the captain to maybe scrape in through a pick.

 

Harrington Wins Shot Of The Month

Padraig Harrington has won Shot Of The Month with his superb chip during the Irish Open at Royal Portrush which was voted by fans from My European Tour.

Personally I thought there were a couple of crackers in the British Open, but hey what do I know?

The perfect pitch  from Harrington came on the 8th hole of the Dunluce Links, receiving  rapturous applause from the huge sell-out Northern Irish crowd who were hosting the event for the first in 60 year

The shot came from the right hand side of the fairway where he had found deep rough around 40 yards from the green, but the Irishman managed to conjure up a quite brilliant chip that landed on the front edge of the green before rolling into the centre of the cup for a birdie three.

What would your Shot Of The Month Been?

The Major Winners So Far, But Who’s Next?

We’re coming to the end of the major season already and I for one can’t believe where the time has gone. The PGA Championship starts on the 9th August at the Ocean Course in Kiawah Island.

Still can’t believe it was nearly four months ago we saw Bubba Watson hit that amazing miracle shot from out of the trees in a play-off with Louis Oosthuizen at Augusta National to claim the Green Jacket and The Masters title.

We then saw Webb Simpson claim the US Open and his first major title at the Olympic Club in San Francisco pipping Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell by one shot around a very tough golf course.

Of course fresh in our memory still is the Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes which brought us great drama in the final stages and saw Adam Scott crumble under pressure to let Big Ernie win. All eyes were on Tiger Woods that week, and he did show signs of form and was in contention before a triple bogey in the final round left him with too much to do.

With so many of the top ranked players in the world not performing in the majors this year, will they see this as a chance to end the major season on high? The likes of Luke Donald and Lee Westwood will be hoping so, maybe just maybe they will get that monkey off their back!

Adam Scott To Bounce Back After Open

Ernie Els and Adam Scott will be reunited for the first time since their Open Championship battle at this week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Adam Scott will be defending his title and will also want to bounce back after the disappointment at Royal Lytham & St Annes a fortnight ago.

The big easy won his fourth Major Championship at Scott’s expense, but the Australian  from Adelaide will be looking to get revenge upon his return to Akron, having beaten a world-class field to seal his maiden World Golf Championship title there 12 months ago.

Els who has twice won the WGC-Cadillac Championship – boasts a relatively modest record at Firestone Country Club, with a fifth place finish on his first appearance back in 1999 his best performance in 12 visits to Ohio. Plus I think Els will still be on high from The Open and his mind won’t quite be on the job and he will struggle this week.

I’m going to be bold and go for a Adam Scott win, I think he will desperate to prove he can bounce back from what happened two weeks ago, not only to himself but to his peers.

Larrazábal In Lead At Rain Hit Austrian Open

Well it was back to normal on the European Tour this week after a great week at Royal Lytham & St Annes and a quite a few players who appeared at The Open headed off to the mountains and to the Diamond Country Club for the Austrian Open.

It was Spain’s Pablo Larrazábal who held an early three shot lead when play was suspended for heavy rain and not one player having completed 18 holes during the first round of the Lyoness Open.

The Spaniard who is a two-time European Tour winner got himself to six under par through 12 holes to be three clear of local hero Hamza Amin.

Larrazábal birdied the long tenth hole and then eagled the par five 13th, he then picked up more shots at the 14th, 16th and 18th holes to turn in 30.

The man from Barcelona parred the first three holes after the turn, before the heavy rain came down and play was suspended at 11.40am local time.

Larrazábal had spoken about his desire to hit form after finishing 45th in The Open Championship.

“I’m playing here and then having a week off before Kiawah [for the US PGA  Championship], which I am really looking forward to. I played in a Junior tournament there in 2003 and finished second, so it will be great to go back there.

Keep up to date with the live leaderboard here  – play resumes at 3.20pm

My Picks For The Open Championship

The 141st Open Championship got under way at 6.19am this morning with Barry Lane hitting the first tee-shot at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

The weather was calm but the scoring was still tough with bogeys being made everywhere, and poor American James Driscoll reaching the turn at  ten over par and England’s Robert Rock double bogeyed the first and third holes to reach four over after six.

But there have been good starts from Scot Paul Lawrie who is currently leading at three under par and Lee Westwood second at two under par after birdies at the first two holes.. There is lots of golf still to come today as play will still be going at 7pm tonight. I for one will be watching most of it!

If you’re thinking of having a flutter this week and want some advice on picking a winner then here are my picks for this week.

Tiger Woods

Stewart Cink

Matteo Manassero 

Ian Poulter

Matt Kucher

Good luck and enjoy the golf! Click here for the live leaderboard

 

Do Players Care About Winning Major Championships?

One player who believes he is ready to win more Major Championships is Martin Kaymer and feels that The Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes could be the perfect stage for him to claim his second major.

Kaymer admits that early success in his career probably came sooner than expected for him when he was victorious at the 2010 US PGA Championship, before going on to claim the World Number One spot last year.

But Kaymer is only 28 and has a decent record at the British Open finishing tied seventh and tied 12th in the last two and feels his experience over the past two seasons means he would be fully prepared should further Major glory come his way over the next week.

I find it surprising that he said this…..

“It’s difficult to get more motivation if you achieve something so huge, so quickly in your career,” said the Ryder Cup player.

You don’t see the likes of Tiger Woods lacking motivation even after winning 14 majors, 74 PGA Tour titles and staying number one in the world for years.

Is life to easy in tour? Do the players have the hunger that they used to? Does it mean as much to win a major?

 

Lawrie In Confident Mood Heading Into The Open

Paul Lawrie thinks that the start of the Scottish Open marks the start of the biggest two weeks of the year.

He goes into his national Open having been in some great form recently, before travelling to Royal Lytham and St. Annes to compete in The Open Championship  which he won in 1999 in a play-off.

The Scotsman has had ten top-25 finishes in 14 events, including victory at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters which has propelled him to eighth in The Race to Dubai and third in The Ryder Cup standings, but the 43 year old is determined to build on that form and make it count in these bigger tournaments.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “Obviously it’s always the biggest two weeks of the year for a Scottish player if you’re in The Open”

Well Lawrie has proved he can cut it with the big boys and has already got a major under his belt, so he’s got nothing to prove. Could major number two be around the corner? What do you think?