Tag Archives: Golf Lessons West London

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 MedinahMolinari, 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!

It’s Thursday, Which Only Means One Thing – More Golf!

It’s Thursday, which normally means it’s the start of the golfing week on tour in Europe and America. The two tournaments happening this week are the Travelers Championship in the USA and the BMW International Open in Germany.

A lot of players who played in the US Open are playing in one of these two tournaments, accept Tiger Woods who was advised to pull out after injuring his elbow in Merion’s deep rough last week.

As I write this Ernie Els is leading the BMW with an impressive round of nine under par and Hunter Mahan is leading the Travelers Championship at six under par through twelve holes, but England’s Lee Westwood has also started well and is two under par through twelve.

Let’s hope we’re treated to another great week of golf and another exciting finish!

Come back tomorrow where I will be talking about The Open which isn’t far away now!

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.

Poulter Off To Flyer As Play Is Suspended At US Open

Well play didn’t last long at the 113th US Open at Merion, it was suspended at  1.36pm BST after thunder storms were edging closer.

It’s a shame that storms hit when they did as the European starters were fairing well over the first 7 holes. Ian Pouter came out of the blocks birdieing the first three  holes and is currently leading at three under par, Nicholas Colsaerts is at two under after 7 holes as are South African’s Tim Clark and Charl Schwartzel.

The storms aren’t expected to last too long, so let’s hope that play gets underway again soon and the European charge continues! 

Get all the latest news here

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! 

 

 

 

 

Donald Up To Sixth In The World

As we head into this weeks US Open which is to be held at Merion Golf Club, Luke Donald finds himself moving up to sixth place in the world rankings.

The top five remain unchanged as Brandt  Snedeker drops to seventh and the winner of the PGA Championship Matteo Mannassero moves up to 25th place.  Also moves upwards for Thomas Bjorn and Harris English. 

I wonder who is going to do the business this week? Will it be a walk in the park for Tiger, will McIlroy find some form and tear the field apart like he did back in 2011 or will we see a new major winner come from the pack? Who knows?

I can’t wait to find out!

 

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.

 

Gallacher Aiming For Ryder Cup Spot On Home Turf

Although the Ryder Cup is well over a year away, it’s in the thoughts of many people already and will continue to be for the next 12 months as the European players battle it out in the Ryder Cup Standings.

Stephen Gallacher is one of the players keen to make the team this time round and admits he would relish the chance of playing the prestigious event in his home country Scotland.

Gallacher’s family have a history in the Ryder Cup as his uncle Bernard has captained the side three times but unfortunately only winning once. That victory came at Oak Hill in America which saw the memorable scenes of Seve and Nick Faldo hugging and crying on the 18th green after Phillip Walton saw off Jay Hass in the penultimate group.

Gallacher is going to have to play extremely well if he is to make the team at Gleneagles as there are some players who will equally want to play their part. I think at best he will have to rely on a captains pick from Paul McGinley. 

Tiger and Sergio Row Needs To Move On

Last week at Wentworth saw a lot of controversy when Sergio Garcia said some comments about Tiger Woods that were taken the wrong way ahead of the BMW PGA Championship.

When Garcia was asked if he would invite Tiger around for dinner he replied “He can come around every night for some fried chicken if he wants”

Although Garcia hasn’t apologised to Woods face-to -face yet Tiger is keen to move on now even though he is still upset about what was said.

Garcia obviously isn’t a racist, but when you’re under the spotlight you have to be careful about what you say as the press are very quick to jump on any error you make. He just said the first thing that came into his head. If he had said’ Hot dog and chips’ then the press would have still found a way to make it into a story.

For the good of the game this needs to be resolved so we can all MOVE ON!!!

 

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!