Tag Archives: Justin Rose

Westwood Desperate For Automatic Ryder Cup Spot

Next months US Open is going to an important tournament for Lee Westwood as he aims to get an automatic place in the Ryder Cup team to face the USA in September.

The big Englishman from Worksop is currently 14th in the points list and know that a really good week at Pinehurst could see him guarantee a place in the side for the showdown at Gleneagles.

You would like to think that even if he didn’t make the side automatically, he would get a captain’s pick from Paul McGinley as Westwood’s experience and record in the Ryder Cup is one of the best ever.

Westwood will fancy his chances in the second major of the year after his seventh place finish at Augusta back in April, and since leaving his coach Sean Foley, he seems to have a better grasp on his swing and feels more comfortable with what he’s trying to do.

The US Open starts two weeks tomorrow and will be live on Sky Sports. Make sure you tune in. I think we could see another European winner! 

What’s Up Next?

Hope you all had a nice Easter break and are fully refreshed!

Now the holidays are over and the Easter camps have finished, I’m back to my normal teaching hours again. My lesson diary is busy this time of year, so if you do want to book a lesson then please get in contact with me to arrange a time and day.

The Masters has been and gone and although the final round was a bit of an anti climax it was a great tournament to watch as always in beautiful surroundings.

The next major will be the US Open which starts on 12th June and will be held this year at Pinehurst No.2. Just in Rose will be trying to defend his title around a very difficult golf course. The same golf course will also be used for the Women’s US Open this year.

Well that’s it from me for now, I hope to see you all down at the driving range over the next few days practising hard and getting your game in shape for the rest of the season.

James

 

Arnie Says ‘Hasta La Vista’ To Tiger Woods

The PGA Tour heads to Bay Hill today for the Arnold Palmer Invitational in the last leg of the Florida swing.

Unfortunately there will be no Tiger Woods in the filed due to his persistent back problems to the disappointment of Arnold Palmer, but it will still be a strong field nonetheless.

This event is one of the most prestigious on tour and for many players it is the last one before they hit the first major of the year at Augusta on April 10.

This would normally be the case for Woods, but he now has a race against time to get himself ready for The Masters and if fit enough may have to try and squeeze an extra event into his schedule to get himself prepared.

Woods, despite being hampered with injury was still the favourite going into this week but the door is wide open now for the likes of Justin Rose and the seven other Englishmen teeing it up in sunny Florida.

Should be another exciting week of golf. Next week a slightly lesser quality of filed will be heading to Texas for the Valero Texas Open whilst most of the top players will be trying to hone their game for the big one!

Live coverage is on Sky Sports 4 at 7pm tonight.

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!

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.

Lewis Inspired By Rose

Tom Lewis’ self doubt has been helped by what he has seen Justin Rose do over the last 6 months.

Lewis found himself in the limelight back in 2011 when he shot an opening round of 65 in the British Open giving him a share of the lead. He ended up finishing 30th and won the silver medal as leading amateur.

Since then he has lost form and found himself 117th on the Race to Dubai in 2012 and was 155th a few weeks ago. But a strong finish at the Alfred Dunhill Links has moved him up the ranks and he can now focus on trying to win for a second time at the Oceanico Victoria Golf Course and get himself into the top 110 to keep his card next year.

He is a strong talent and will no doubt make his card for next year.

Els Happy With Preparation For Title Defence

Ernie Els is preparing for The Open this week by competing in the Scottish Open and he thinks playing at Castle Stuart will stand him in good stead for the defence of his title.

Not only will he be defending his title next week, but he was the last player to win The Open at Muirfield when it was last played there back in 2002, so that alone should give him a confidence boost when it comes teeing it up next Thursday.

So who will win The Open this year? It feels like British sportsmen in general are playing exceptionally well all over the world at the moment and seem to be feeding off each other. So will Andy Murray’s Wimbledon victory and Justin Rose’s US Open victory inspire another Brit to do great things?

Let’s hope so! Find out who I’m going to be backing to win The Open …next week!

See my past betting tips here

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.

Zone Golf Charity Shoot Out A Success

The eagerly awaited Zone Golf Charity Shoot Out at Dukes Meadows Golf  in West London yesterday lived up to its expectations as crowds flocked in to see some of the best golfers in the world compete for a £250,000 prize.

Justin Rose, Paul Lawrie,  Ian Poulter and Paul McGinley joined by four celebrities/sportsman competed in a new style of golf called ‘Zone Golf’.

This is a new format of golf which sees players pick a zone of the green to try and hit and are then rewarded with points if they hit the ZONE they elected from the tee. There are three ZONES – Red=9pts Amber=6pts Green=3pts plus another 1 point for a bogey, 2 for par and 3 for a birdie.

There were two semi-final matches to start with, then a final and then a third and fourth play-off.

It was a tight finish in the final match which went down to a putting competition on the last hole between Ian Poulter and Paul McGinley. Poulter had to hole a long 25 foot putt which he failed to make, which allowed McGinley an easy two-putt to win him and Jamie Redknapp the money.

The winning team received a total of £100,000 to give to a charity of their choice and the three other teams  received a total of £50,000 each.

If you want to see how the day unfolded then Sky Sports are showing all the action:

June 4th Sky Sports 2 8pm.

June 5th Sky Sports 3 9pm.

A great day was had by all and I’m looking forward to next year already!

 

 

Senden Leads By Two Over Rose In Australia

The Australian Open got under way today and it was the home favourite John Senden who is flying high at the top of the leaderboard after he shot a superb opening 66 to finish two shots clear of the chasing pack.

Senden from Queensland was out early and made the most of easy conditions and the six under target proved to be unassailable as nobody could catch him in the afternoon.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for Senden though, he started with a birdie but then  had back-to-back bogeys at the second and third holes, but he recovered in fine style carding seven birdies in eleven holes from the 7th to the 17th which left him sitting on top of the pack.

Justin Rose is flying the British flag shooting a 68 finishing two back of Senden. He is level with Gareth Paddison, Richard Green, Kim Felton and Australian Brendan Jones.

Come on Justin finish the season in style!