Tag Archives: European Tour

Lyoness Open Agrees A New Five Year Deal With European Tour

The European Tour have agreed a new five year deal for The Lyoness Open to feature in the Race To Dubai until 2019 .

The tournament held in Austria will see it’s tenth consecutive staging next year but also held the event between 1990 and 1996 in the past and has had famous winners with the likes of Bernhard Langer and Paul McGinley.

The prize money has increased a bit since those days, and as part of the new agreement the 2015 tournament will see the prize money increase by 50% from €1,000,000 to €1,500,000. Diamond Country Club will be the host again next year as it has been since 2010.

This years event was won by Mikael Lundberg after holing a 40ft putt in a play-off against home favourite Bernd Wiesberger who was the winner of the event back in 2012.

This is a really excellent tournament and to have it as part of the Race To Dubai until 2019 is a great thing for the tour and for the players.

Coetzee One Shot Clear After Strong Finish In Doha

A strong finish from George Coetzee saw him take the lead after day one of the Qatar Masters in Doha.

The South African finished the day with three straight birdies to get himself to an eight-under-par round of 64 to go one shot clear of Dawie van der Walt and Steve Webster.

Steve Webster got he’s round off to the best possible start when he started at the 10th and managed to hole his second shot for an albatross on the shortish par 5.

Webster made history as it was the first time anybody had ever a started a European Tour event with an albatross., it’s not Webster’s first albatross though he managed it back in 2011 at The Italian Open.

There are some very good players just a shot further back which include major winners Ernie Els, Paul Lawrie, and John Daly.

With so many good players in contention the weekend really could be an exciting one!

 

Dawie van der Walt Wins Nelson Mandela Championship in Durban

Dawie van der Walt shot a superb final round 66 to win by two shots in the Nelson Mandela Championship in Durban.

It was a mixed round at the Mount Edgecombe golf club as he carded three birdies and three bogeys in the first 11 holes. But an eagle at the 12th and two more birdies coming home were enough to seal the win.

It was the second European Tour title for the 30 year old South African who also won earlier this year at the Tshwane Open. The tournament was reduced to 54 holes due to bad weather.

It was fitting to see a South African win the Nelson Mandela Championship the day before the funeral of the former president who passed away last week aged 95.

“It’s obviously really special, making you a part of history,” said van der Walt.

Shiv Kapur Earns European Tour Card For Next Season

Shiv Kapur has earned the right to play in next season’s European Tour after winning the Challenge Tour Grand Final.

He held his nerve on the final day to win the event by four shots to claim one of the fifteen Tour cards available. He shot a closing round of 70 to claim the top prize of 56,650 euros.

The win jumped him up 17 places from 20th to 3rd. It was a very steady final round performance which saw him card 16 pars and 2 birdies following rounds of 69-66 and a 67.

Scotland’s Jamie McLeary who got tied for second also made a big move by going up 18 places from 33rd to 15th which saw him claim the final card on offer.

Rumford Returning Home After Busy Schedule

Brett Rumford is one of the most travelled golfers around this year and is happy to be back in his home country for the ISPS HANDA Perth International.

Rumford has had back-to-back victories on the European Tour earlier this year winning in Korea and China. He will playing in his 21st event of the season having taken advantage  of the tour’s International schedule.

He’s been flying all over the planet recently which makes coming back to his home country even more special as he looks to claim his third win of the season against a field which includes Paul Casey and Dustin Johnson.

As well as clocking up thousands of air miles he’s also clocked up thousands of pounds and will be one to watch this week.

Larrazábal Seeks His Third European Tour Title

Pablo Larrazábal is heading into this weeks Lyoness Open in great form and will be looking to get back to winning ways after a two year gap since his last win on tour.

The Spaniard has been in decent form this season notching up four top tens already and thinks that his third European Tour title is just around the corner.

He performed well at this course last year opening with a 64 and eventually taking a share of tenth place, so he will be hoping for much of the same this time round and  maybe go one better.

 

Decision Finally Made On The Anchoring Of Putters

Today the R&A and USGA have finally announced that anchored putters will be banned as of 2016. 

It has been an ongoing debate which nearly saw a split between the European Tour and PGA Tour, but hopefully this should be the end of all that debacle now.

This rule is going to effect a lot of players on both tours, especially the ones that have grown up using the long putters from day one, but they will have to adapt. The rule should have come into effect along time ago in my opinion, but at least they have finally seen the light and come to right decision and everyone can now move on and get on with playing golf rather than talking about the rules of golf.

Golf is about nerve and playing well under pressure and come 2016 I think we will see a lot of players that are in the top 20 in the world drop down the rankings quite quickly.

It’s Time For A European To Win The Masters

The long wait is nearly over until the first major of the season gets underway next week at Augusta, and it’s felt like a long time coming through these cold winter days that seem to be never ending. But you can almost smell the sun and the Azaleas now!

The Masters has always been an event in which European players have done well in past. We’ve had many winners in the last few decades including, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle, Jose Maria Olazabal and of course the great Seve and I think we could add to that list this year.

With 38 European Tour players getting their places and heading to Augusta National next week we really do have a great chance of seeing one of them coming back with the Green Jacket.

Don’t forget that you can view My Betting Tips for the Masters HERE

Roll on next Thursday.

 

Chinnarat Phadungsil Plays Best Round Of His Life

Something happened today that we don’t see that often. No not a round of 58 but a back nine of 28 from Thailand’s Chinnarat Phadungsil who produced some scintillating golf in the opening round the Avantha Masters.

The 25 year old who won his maiden event at the age of 17 ended up carding a round of 61 and leads the tournament by five shots and said that it was the best round of golf he has ever played.

He managed seven successive birdies in a round of eleven birdies in total and with no dropped shots.

There are five players tied for second at the end of today’s play who will be hoping Phadungsil won’t have such a good day tomorrow!

 

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.