Tag Archives: golf

A Great Week Of Golf Ahead

This week’s AT&T National tournament on the PGA Tour visits Congressional Golf Club in Maryland. The golf club where Rory McIlroy won the US Open by eight shots last year.

The Ulsterman won’t be teeing it up this week though as he is back on home soil for the Irish Open in Portrush.

Congrssional is Situated in Bethesda, just north of Washington DC, and the Blue Course is one of the best known venues on the PGA Tour.

Opened 88 years ago back in 1924, and re-designed 65 years later by Rees Jones, the course has staged the US Open three times  as well as one PGA Championship.

What a great week of golf ahead, I’m going for McIlroy in the Irish Open and Tiger at Congressional, what do you think?

Irish Open Back In Portrush After Sixty Five Years

The 2012 Irish Open takes a trip north of the border for this week’s event at one of the most famous courses in the world, Royal Portrush, which is situated eight miles north of Coleraine.

The well known golf course is located on the County Antrim coast, and last staged the tournament back in 1947, four years before it hosted The Open Championship.

In the 1990s it was also used to host the British Senior Open – on five occasions – and over the years has been a stopping off point for Americans players wishing to hone their links golf skills before continuing continuing on to compete in The Open.

And this week’s tournament also offers the players the opportunity to begin their preparations for The 2012 Open Championship which takes place at Royal Lytham and St Anne’s in mid-July.

Get ready to watch it on Sky Sports this Thursday

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.

Top 3 in the world score 19 over par collectively

 I’m sure you saw as I did that the three best players in the world struggled like hell around a very difficult golf course. Is it unfair? I don’t think so, you just have to be at the top of your game and more importantly play the course with your head like Tiger did. At the end of the day it’s a major and it’s not meant to be easy!

Lee Westwood called the Olympic Club “indescribably” difficult after a first round that saw only six players break par.

Westwood carded a respectable three-over-par 73,  but he’s not out of it yet. He’s seven behind the lead but six shots better than fellow countryman and world number one Luke Donald. It was always going to be difficult for Luke, especially as he missed a lot of fairways and just didn’t have the power to recover.

Northern Ireland’s defending champion Rory McIlroy carded a  77.

Westwood said: “It’s set up hard, the greens are very firm, there’s a breeze. It’s a very difficult golf course.”

The 39-year-old, chasing his first win in a major tournament, said “You hit a lot of good drives that don’t end up on the fairways.”

Westwood, McIlroy and Donald, the world numbers three, two and one respectively, were expected to comprise one of the low-scoring threesomes on the opening day. Instead they were collectively 19 over par!

Good luck tonight boys!

 

McIlroy To Be Aggressive In San Francisco

Defending US Open champion Rory McIlroy intends to be aggressive around the Olympic Club in San Francisco tomorrow.

The Northern Irishman, who took the title last year by an amazing eight shots, is bidding to become the first player since Curtis Strange back in 1989 to retain the championship.

McIlroy’s form  has not been  great by any means going into the tournament and had missed three straight cuts but the 23-year-old was joint leader with one hole to play at the FedEx St Jude Classic last week but double bogeyed the 18th, eventually finishing in seventh place.

He has been practising with Lee Westwood and  former US Open champion Graeme McDowell at the Olympic Club, and said: “I reckon I’m going to use my driver eight or nine times.

“The rough is not as bad as maybe in previous years where you can get away with some tee shots, so really you just need to know your way around the golf course and know where you can miss it.”

Coverage starts tomorrow afternoon on Sky Sports

 

Will America ever dominate golf again?

Congratulations to Great Britain and Ireland ended a 16-year wait for Curtis Cup glory by beating the United States in Nairn yesterday.

The USA had taken a one-point lead  going into the final day at with the scores at 6.5-5.5.

But an heroic final day performance from the home players won the final day’s play by 5-3, with Northern Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow winning the crucial point as she beat Amy Anderson.

It means Europe or Great Britain and Ireland hold all the major trophies they compete for against the USA.

The Curtis Cup joins the Ryder, Solheim and Walker Cups on this side of the Atlantic for the first time ever in the history of golf.

Who would have thought that? It wasn’t that long ago that the USA dominated the world of golf and now it has completely swung the other way.

Will the USA ever dominate golf again?

Richard Bland Leads In Sweden

Richard Bland shot an impressive round of 5 under par 67 to take a one shot clubhouse on the first morning of the Nordea Masters.

The Englishman, who retained his European Tour playing rights for this season after qualifying at Tour School, recovered well from a bogey at his first hole, the tenth, and a double bogey seven at the 13th with eight birdies at Bro Hof Slott.

Four birdies in a row from the 16th and further gains at the third and sixth helped Bland establish a one stroke lead over Michael Jonzon and Carlos Del Moral.

Jonzon, 40, whose two European Tour victory’s came 12 years apart, has not had a top-40 season all season.

But the Swede who’s playing on home soil rattled off three birdies in four holes from the 12th, and after bogeying the 18th carded further birdies at the second and fourth.

An interesting day in store for tomorrow, make sure you’re tuned in!

Donald and McIlroy Partnered Up In Memorial Tournament

Luke Donald has been partnered with Rory McIlroy for the forthcoming Memorial Tournament in Ohio.

McIlroy lost his World number one ranking to Donald on Sunday after missing the cut at the BMW PGA Championship.

They both feature as part of a top-quality line-up, which includes seven of the current world top 10.

They could swap places again if US Open champion McIlroy wins and Donald finishes outside the top 13.

Noren Hopes To Defend Title In Wales

Alex Noren is hoping to re-create the form that he showed last year as he looks to defend his ISPS Handa Wales Open title tomorrow.

The 29 year old Swede romped to a fantastic victory at The Celtic Manor Resort 12 months ago after also coming through US Open Qualifying on the Monday.

Noren is three-time winner on the European Tour,  he took 14th spot in The Race to Dubai last season, and finished joint top of this year’s US Open qualifier at Walton Heath  to book his place in San Francisco.

“It was pretty much exactly the same how it happened last year,” said Noren. “I was so pleased to get into the US Open, so I took this week as I was on a high, and then winning here was fantastic and it just went on from there.

For tickets and the tournament schedule please click here

My Day Out At The BMW PGA Championship Practice Day

I went to watch the practice day of the BMW PGA Championship today at Wentworth, Virginia Water and what a lovely day to choose to go.

The sun was out for the first time in about 6 weeks and some of the top players in the world were in touching distance as it’s normally pretty quiet on practice days.

Watching these guys on the range and chipping green is a real treat and makes you appreciate how good these players really are.

If you are new to the game then going to watch tournament golf on a practice day is a great experience as you are generally allowed to walk a lot nearer  to the action than you would normally be allowed to, and you can learn a lot by listening to what the player’s and caddies are talking about and what they are thinking.

They’ve got course looking great this year and the new greens are looking much better this time around after a few complaints over the last couple of years. They’ve also dropped the 18th green by about 18 inches to make the long approach a little easier.

Tomorrow is the pro-am, so why don’t you get yourself down there and enjoy watching the golf without the big crowd!

Here are some of the pictures that I took today!

Golf Lessons West London
Golf Lessons West London

Golf Lessons West London

Golf Lessons West London