Tag Archives: Graeme McDowell

Can McDowell Bag A Hat-trick In California?

Posted on December 5, 2013 by | Comments Off on Can McDowell Bag A Hat-trick In California?

Graeme McDowell heads to California this week to hopefully continue his record in the Northwestern  Mutual World Challenge.

The Northern Irishman has won the event twice and came second on his debut in the tournament back in 2009.

It won’t be all plain sailing though as 10 of the 18 competitors have at least one major to their name including world number one Tiger Woods who is the hosting the event and is favourite to win this week.

The bookies have Woods at 5/2 McIlroy is 11/2 and McDowell is 11/1 with rookie of the year Jordan Spieth at 22/1.

Spieth makes his debut in this event as he replaces injured Brandt Snedeker, Spieth has had a great year and I think he will do very well next year and will be one to watch!

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Who’s Going To Win The Race?

Posted on November 13, 2013 by | Comments Off on Who’s Going To Win The Race?

With the DP World Tour Championship looming Justin Rose hopes he is strong enough to become European number 1 for the second time in his career.

He is 214,000 euros behind leader Henrik Stenson but has to finish in the top 5 to have any chance of overtaking the Swede who has been on top form this year.

Graeme McDowell also has a chance of winning the Race To Dubai if he can muster up a victory regardless of where Stenson finishes. You really get the feeling McDowell will be in the mix come Sunday afternoon, he’s just that type of player.

But is Rose is determined to finish the season off on another high to go with his historic major win at Merion back in June.

Rose last won the Order of Merit back in 2007 and feels like it’s his time to shine again.

There’s a lot of money at stake here for a lot of players, which can sometimes bring out the best in them, let’s hope for a terrific week of golf and an exciting finish!

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All Star Line-Up At The Irish Open This Week

Posted on June 25, 2013 by | Comments Off on All Star Line-Up At The Irish Open This Week

It’s the start of the Irish Open this week to which there will be an illustrious field of Ryder Cup players and Major Champions. The  €2million event has attracted the attention from around the world and they will be coming to the glorious Carton House Golf Club.

There will be no fewer than 79 European Tour Winners teeing it up this week and seven players with 11 major titles between them also trying to get into form before The Open championship in a few weeks time.

The 2012 Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazábal will also be teeing it up having won the event back in 1990, he will have four of that team who won in Medinah – Molinari, McIlroy, McDowell and Paul Lawrie. 

Should be a great week of golf again, let’s just hope the weather is okay, as we all know it can get a bit wet on the Emerald Isle!

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Rose Win To Boost English Players Performance At Majors

Posted on June 18, 2013 by | Comments Off on Rose Win To Boost English Players Performance At Majors

It’s been a 43 year wait but finally England can be proud once again and finally be able to celebrate a US Open win by the great Justin Rose.

In a week that saw many different players top the leaderboard at some point we all knew that the winning score was going to be around the level par mark and that it would be a player who showed the most patience and accepted that sometimes a bogey was a good score on hole if they were going to win.

English players have been knocking on the door for some time now since Nick Faldo was the last Englishman to win a major at the 1996 Masters when he overcame a seven shot deficit to beat Greg Norman in the final round.

We’ve had Colin Montgomerie fall at the last hurdle on a couple of occasions, we’ve seen Luke Donald, Paul Casey and Lee Westwood come so close but not quite able to finish the job off, but hopefully now Rose has won a major it will inspire others to do so and make them believe that they can.

It wasn’t long ago when Padraig Harrington won his first major and a second shortly followed which then we saw the likes of Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy do the same.

Lets just hope that this is start of something big for English golf.

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My Betting Tips For The US Open

Posted on June 11, 2013 by | Comments Off on My Betting Tips For The US Open

Just a couple of days now until the second major of the year gets underway at Merion Golf Club, the first time it’s been held there since 1981 when it was won by Australian David Graham.

So we don’t know a huge amount about the golf course or how players have performed there in the past, so when it comes to betting it’s very difficult to pick a winner here. 

The last 5 years have seen different styles of winner:

2008 – Tiger Woods

2009 – Lucas Glover

2010 – Graeme McDowell

2011 – Rory McIlroy

2012 – Webb Simpson

2013 – ?

But there is someone who has a bit of form around this golf course, Rickie Fowler played exceptionally well when he played there in the Walker Cup in 2009. So my betting tips are as follows…

Rickie Fowler   67/1

Graeme McDowell   23/1

Rory McIlroy 23/1

Good luck if you have a bet, and enjoy watching the golf! 

 

 

 

 

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A Great Year Of Golf

Posted on December 11, 2012 by | Comments Off on A Great Year Of Golf

Well it’s been a gripping season and we’ve seen some amazing moments. The majors have been fantastic, at The Masters we saw Bubba Watson play a miraculous shot from the trees in a play-off against Louis Oosthuizen to win his first major title. Webb Simpson held off Graeme McDowell to win the US Open. The Big Easy clinched victory at Royal Lytham after Adam Scott crumbled under pressure and of course the young unstoppable Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy won the The US PGA by an amazing eight shots!

The Ryder Cup was the highlight of the year for me, it was just an incredible performance in hostile conditions in Chicago. The team all pulled together and produced the greatest comeback in sporting history after an amazing performance from Ian Poulter in the fourballs on the Saturday evening.

Also we’ve had the whole debacle over the long putter which looks like it is going to be outlawed in 2016 and is going to change the game massively in my opinion seeing that a lot of top players in the world use them. Will they carry on using it up until 2016? Or will they try and make the change early to prepare for the change? I’m sure it will all become clear next year!

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Olazábal Looking At Garcia And McDowell To Bring Cup Home

Posted on September 26, 2012 by | Comments Off on Olazábal Looking At Garcia And McDowell To Bring Cup Home

Well with two days to go until the biggest golf event on the planet takes place in Medinah, José María Olazábal was giving very little away when the team were practising yesterday but Sergio Garcia and Graeme McDowell seem to be the two main players that his attention has been focused on.

It all fell on the shoulders of the Northern Irishman two years ago when he famously holed the putt that secured the cup for Europe. Olazábal  is obviously looking for, and expecting, another big performance from him.

Garcia didn’t play in the last Ryder Cup, but still played his part as vice-captain and no doubt made a big difference to the team. He battled hard to make the team this year and it was clearly his main aim in the closing part of the season. Make no mistake, he loves this event more than anyone. The Spaniard  has never lost a foursomes match. Playing nine and winning eight with one tie.

I for one am still not sure what pairings he is going to go with, but one thing I do know is that it’s going to be one hell of a contest and will go all the way to the last few singles games on the Sunday. It’s probably on paper one the hardest to call!

 

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The US PGA Championship Is Underway – Take A Look At My Betting Tips

Posted on August 9, 2012 by | Comments Off on The US PGA Championship Is Underway – Take A Look At My Betting Tips

Well the 94th US PGA Championship is underway  and it was Italy’s Matteo Manassero who started proceedings as he struck the opening tee shot from the tenth tee at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort.

The 19 year old who is the youngest man in the 156-strong field this week took his three wood out the bag, managed to calm his nerves, and hit the left hand side of the fairway on a glorious morning in South Carolina.

With already a touch of humidity in the air there were still forecasts of electrical storms for the afternoon, but with no sign of inclement weather first thing. Let’s hope they manage to get in the full days play today.

A lot of the top players are yet to go off, Luke Donald is currently at one under par after two holes but with still a long way to go. Make sure you catch all the action on Sky Sports tonight!

As you know, I like to have a flutter on the major championships so here are my picks for this week. Just to remind you, I picked the winner of the US Open – Webb Simpson back in June!

Ian Poulter

Steve Stricker

Luke Donald

Bo Van Pelt

Stewart Cink

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

Posted on July 31, 2012 by | Comments Off on 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!

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Simpson Makes It Three Majors In A Row For America

Posted on June 18, 2012 by | Comments Off on Simpson Makes It Three Majors In A Row For America

Congratulations to Webb Simpson who won his first major  in the early hours of this morning. He is the third American in a row to win a major since Keegan Bradley took the USPGA title followed by Bubba Watson at the Masters.

The 26 year old was joint eighth with 18 holes to go, but after shooting a two under par round of 68 for a one over total he had to wait to see if the rest of the field could catch him.

Jim Furyk looked the biggest danger at that point, but it turned out to be McDowell after disappointing rounds from Westwood and Woods left the door open.

Simpson, only playing his fifth Major and trying to become the ninth successive first-time winner in them, had become joint leader when Furyk bogeyed the short 13th hole which should have been a birdie hole.

He then led on his own when Furyk missed the fairway left down the long 16th hole, and carded a bogey six.

McDowell,  who was joint leader at the start of play, was two shots behind at that point, but when the 2010 US Open Champion holed a tough putt on the 17th hole, he and Furyk both needed to birdie the  last to tie Simpson on one over par.

Both found the semi-rough off the tee, but while McDowell hit his second shot to 25 feet, Furyk buried his in the sand to the left.

Furyk made bogey and McDowell failed to convert his birdie attempt. Maybe a bit of an anticlimax but Simpson a deserved winner.

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