Live World Golf News
May 23, 2010BBC – Golf blog
This is BBC Sport’s Golf blog, which pulls together in one place recent posts about golf from our bloggers. Links to the blogs of all the contributors can be found below.
Woods needs consistency to challenge for majors
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
29 Jan 2012 at 8:06pm
Following up a low round with another is one of the hardest tasks in professional golf.
In his pomp it was one of Tiger Woods’s many strengths and it helped set him apart from the rest.
This is no longer the case, as he showed in his comparatively ragged finish to the Abu Dhabi Championship on Sunday, when he surrendered a share of the overnight lead to finish joint third.
Woods’s disappointing closing 72 was nothing new and continued a trend that has been a feature of his game for the last couple of years.
During his near faultless 66 in the third round, commentators and pundits claimed we now had confirmation that the 14-time major champion was back to his best. It was a premature assessment.
Woods faded in the final round at Abu Dhabi to finish joint third overall. Photo: AP
Similar sentiments were expressed at the 2010 US Open at Pebble Beach, when Woods was brilliant in a third-round 66, only to follow it with a 75 that left him with a share of fourth place.
In the Masters the same year he followed a second-round 66 with a 74, then at Bay Hill a fine Friday 68 preceded a dispiriting Saturday 74.
More recently, in finishing third at the Australian Open at the end of last year, opening rounds of 68 and 67 were followed by a 75.
Even when he won his own limited field World Challenge he was six strokes worse the day after his second-round 67 put him in control of the tournament.
These scoring patterns suggest he is as vulnerable as most players to the peaks and troughs of a tournament week.
But the form line remains encouraging because, since finally declaring himself free of injury concerns, he has finished in the top three in his last three strokeplay events.
Even though the control of the first 54 holes was lacking over the final round in Abu Dhabi, it was clear Woods’s swing has become technically sound, and there is little doubt he will be in the mix this year to add to his tally of 14 majors.
“He just hit it a little bit out of position off the tee,” Abu Dhabi champion Robert Rock told BBC Sport after admirably fending off a Woods challenge which was undermined by hitting only five greens in regulation.
“If you are in the rough you don’t have the control you would like, so, whether you are swinging well or not, from the rough it is just a bit of a hack out.”
Rock, a self-confessed golf swing “nerd”, was still impressed with Woods’s action. “He hit some very good three woods off the tee which were very impressive – low fades, which is a shot I think he has been working on,” he said. “They looked brilliant.
“He’s well on the way to playing like he used to – probably better.”
Abu Dhabi champion and Staffordshire-born Robert Rock admires Tiger’s rebuilt swing. Photo: Getty
Woods does look increasingly comfortable under the tutelage of Sean Foley.
“A year ago I didn’t have the knowledge about what Sean was trying to get me to do,” the former world number one told us in Abu Dhabi.
“Right now I’m able to shape the ball both ways and change my trajectory along the way, so I’m headed in the right direction.”
Those comments came after his third-round 66. Sustaining momentum from such scoring is now Woods’s challenge because, as Rock proved, it is possible to stand up to the modern day Tiger even when you are ranked 117 in the world.
The Englishman, meanwhile, can build on this victory and force his way into the world’s top 50.
It is a genuinely heart-warming story that should encourage all aspiring teaching pros because that is exactly what Rock was less than a decade ago.
“It seems a long, long way when you are in that position and if you look at it as one big leap it doesn’t seem possible,” Rock said.
“It’s not the easiest way to do it. Working at golf clubs seems like you would be playing a lot of golf, but you don’t.
“But if you go along the right routes and have a plan for it, then it is do-able.”
Woods never went through the process of teaching hackers and selling them chocolate bars; he just played and learned the art of winning at every level as he rose to the top.
Now he is trying to rescale those heights and, although he won on his last outing before Abu Dhabi, it seems he still has a way to go to rediscover the killer touch of old when it comes to full-field events.
That is no disgrace given the strength in depth of the modern game, and Woods’s bid to return to his dominant ways provides us with one of the most compelling storylines of the 2012 season.
The last time he backed up a genuinely low round with another was when he finished 65-65 to win the WGC Bridgestone Invitational in 2009.
When he does it again we will be able to use the “he’s back” phrase with a great deal more certainty.
Amazing Grace, but Garcia & co set for Abu Dhabi do
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
22 Jan 2012 at 7:27pm
With all due respect to South Africa and its latest golfing sensation Branden Grace there is an overwhelming feeling that the 2012 golf season starts in earnest this week.
Grace deserves plenty of respect after he secured a brilliant double when he won the Champions tournament on the Links at Fancourt on Sunday. The recent Qualifying School graduate beat big-name compatriots Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in a play-off to claim his second title in seven days.
There was a time when those two South African giants were – with Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh – members of the game’s “big five”. But this is no longer the case and the waning Els and Goosen have shifted to the periphery of the big-time stage.
Branden Grace was 258th in the world rankings last week but now moves into the top 100. Photo: Getty
It takes an awful lot more than mere results to remove Woods from the centre of the golfing spotlight and the 14-time major winner is threatening a resurgent year after winning his own limited-field event at the end of 2011.
But to maintain the momentum he now needs to fend off a different generation; the likes of Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy and Martin Kaymer.
And this is why this week’s opening event on the European Tour’s “Desert Swing” in Abu Dhabi is such an eagerly anticipated tournament. Not only is Woods launching his season in the Emirate, he does so against the top four players in the world.
From a parochial point of view it is all the more interesting because the top three places in the world rankings are occupied by UK golfers in Donald, Westwood and McIlroy.
It is a mouth-watering prospect to be played out over a fine course at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, probably for the last time before the event moves to a new venue at the stunning Yas Links course.
The current venue creates quality victors like defending champion Kaymer, who is a three-time winner of the tournament, and this suggests a star-studded leaderboard will be challenging for the title come Sunday afternoon.
Let’s hope so, because a tussle between Woods and players who head the world rankings would offer the perfect start to what promises to be a vintage golfing year.
One player who will surely been keen to join the mix, and might just succeed this week, is Sergio Garcia. Still only 32, he is embarking on the 13th full season of a lucrative yet still unfulfilled career.
The Spaniard has finished tied eighth and in a share of 13th place in his two previous visits to Abu Dhabi and, like Woods, appears firmly on the comeback trail after his golf had appeared to be in a dangerous downward spiral.
With a revamped putting style Sergio Garcia appears firmly on the comeback trail. Photo: Reuters
Garcia is currently 17th in the world rankings, eight places higher than Woods, having won twice in his last four tournaments. Those victories came back to back in Spain in the latter part of the 2011 season.
He won the Castello Masters on his home course by an astonishing 11 strokes in October, finishing at 27 under par, and the following week triumphed in the Andalucia Masters at a far more exacting Valderrama.
Both wins showed a revamped putting style could withstand the pressure of the sharp end of a tournament which should imbue the Spaniard with confidence as he embarks on arguably the most important year of his career to date.
Since finishing second to Padraig Harrington in the 2008 US PGA, a season in which he won more money than any other player by pocketing nearly $7m, there has been little to cheer Garcia.
Unsettled in his personal life and increasingly petulant on the course he tumbled out of the world’s top 50 and failed to make the last Ryder Cup team for the first time.
The first signs that his exceptional talent was being re-harnessed came around seven months ago when he made a play-off at the International Open in Germany and finished seventh at the US Open.
Then, in July, he was ninth at the Open at Sandwich where he cut a composed and contented figure on the course. No longer were we watching him walk onto greens and wondering how badly his putter would behave.
His new “saw-grip” has grown ever more dependable; he ranked 13th in the European Tour putting charts for greens hit in regulation, and his long game remains as strong as any in the upper echelons of the game.
Still the temper can boil over, as was seen in his last outing in Thailand where a five iron was sent whirling into the water after an ugly pushed tee shot, but as Garcia says himself, overall his mental attitude is much improved.
“Compared with a year ago it has changed a lot,” he told reporters while finishing 11th at the season-ending Dubai World Championship.
Garcia says he is less likely to let a poor shot affect him negatively. “You learn as you go and hopefully you keep on going like that,” he said.
Naturally he is determined to regain his place in the European Ryder Cup team, especially with his compatriot, and a partner in 2006, Jose Maria Olazabal captaining the side.
An encouraging start has been made to Garcia’s qualifying campaign for Medinah – he currently lies fifth in the table and would make significant strides with a high finish this week in a tournament rich in world ranking points.
If he can kick off his 2012 season in the resurgent manner of the second half of his last campaign there is no reason why he can’t re-establish himself at the very top of the game.
Witnessing how Garcia fares against Woods and Europe’s current “big four” will be one of the most fascinating aspects for what promises to be an enthralling tournament in Abu Dhabi this week.
Is the use of belly putters unethical?
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
16 Jan 2012 at 3:47pm
Watching Johnson Wagner’s PGA Tour victory in Hawaii served another reminder that putters will continue to be one of the biggest talking points in golf.
Although Wagner wielded a conventional short stick to stab home his winning two footer (he nearly missed) the leaderboard was peppered with players using all manner of implements to negotiate the greens.
Most striking was Matt Every’s BlackHawk putter with its oversized head that resembled the top of a shoe box attached to a conventional length shaft. It proved highly effective for three rounds and downright ugly on all four days.
“It gets my hands in the same spot every time,” said Every, who entered the final round tied for the lead. “I just feel a lot more square over the putt. It’s the first tournament. If I start playing well with it, maybe it will catch on.”
If it does become popular with the pro’s it may improve putting stats but will do nothing for the aesthetics of the game and much the same could be said of the plethora of belly putters and broomhandles that seem to be growing ever more popular.
Keegan Bradley, who finished tied thirteenth in Hawaii, made the breakthrough by becoming the first to win a major using a belly putter. His PGA triumph last August was seen as the breaking of a hoodoo.
Until that point it was felt the golfing gods would allow the odd Tour success (especially if you are a senior) but the use of an anchor point to strike a putt would never be worthy of winning one of the big four championships.
Golfers have been using extended putters for decades now and here is a less romantic and probably more realistic assessment of why it has taken so long for one of these implements to win a major.
Australian Adam Scott has seen his form improve since opting to use a long-handled putter. Photo: Getty
In the past they have been wielded by players keen to try something new after losing their touch or nerve on the greens.
The yippers have sought to use them as a crutch and take advantage of the consistency that can be gained from having a set anchor point either in the belly, chest or chin.
“The belly and the broomstick are definitely superior methods,” says Jonny Miller, who experimented with a 45 inch putter more than thirty years ago.
“When the axis doesn’t move, the shaft angle at impact is always exactly where you started it at address – which is a huge thing in putting,” he says in Golf World magazine.
Miller contends that these clubs add to a player’s longevity. Certainly someone like Adam Scott has benefitted after his career appeared in free-fall until he started sweeping them in with his broomhandle.
Scott is a convert but now there is a generation of players led by Bradley and Webb Simpson who have grown up with these extended clubs. They use them because they suit their games and happen to be very good on the greens as well.
So they are not putting them in their bags because they have become poor putters. By definition they are more likely to be able to withstand the pressures of trying to land a big title.
But should these clubs be an option for either the failing putter or the new young gun who has known no different?
Should you be able to use an anchor point? Isn’t it contrary to the spirit and nature of the game? If you’ve lost your putting touch why should you be allowed a crutch? And if you are a good putter, why should you be allowed to make the task even easier?
These are questions that should have been dealt with properly thirty years ago yet the R and A’s Chief Executive Peter Dawson says: “We’re not getting in a lather about it at this point.”
Dawson’s counterpart at the USGA, Mike Davis, is on record as saying he “can’t stand the look” of the long putter but insists: “There’s no evidence it is a game changer.”
Putting stats still show the conventional putter to be more effective and Luke Donald, the finest putter in the world at the moment, is testament to that with his text book style (all be it with a putter head that looks like it could pick up an analogue TV signal).
But there can be no denying that the percentage of players using longer putters is rising all the time. Will that eventually change the game and put the R and A and USGA into a collective lather?
Or has the horse bolted anyway?
Legislating against long putters and anchor points is fraught with difficulty particularly when it is carried out retrospectively.
A standard putter can be a long one to a smaller person and anchoring the club may be the only option if you are, say, trying to hit from under a bush. Such nuances would have to be catered for if they are to be outlawed.
One answer might be to limit the length and number of grips on a putter. The broom handle generally has two separate pieces of rubber and belly putters extend their grips sometimes more than halfway down the shaft.
This element sets these clubs apart from any other implement in the bag and there appears room for movement for the rules makers as well.
Rule 14-3 states: “The R & A reserves the right at any time to change the rules on artificial devices, unusual equipment and the unusual use of equipment, and to make or change the interpretations in relation to these rules.”
It could be argued that a grip that is longer than that which appears on every other club is “unusual” and so perhaps there is already scope to act.
Having said that, with every week that passes these putters become ever more prevalent and therefore less unusual. Like them or loathe them they seem destined to be with us for a very long time.
European Tour will survive slashed bonuses
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
9 Jan 2012 at 3:31pm
In 2008, the European Tour were shouting from the top of Dubai’s skyscrapers about the news of a massive cash injection from the Emirate that would bring “a new dimension” to their schedule.
This year, that most lavish of launches has been replaced by a low-key email telling of a reduced bonus pool available for this year’s Race to Dubai.
It is a sign of the current economic times that the Tour’s top golfers will not be able to cash in on their ability this year to the extent they have in previous ones.
Three years ago, just as the “Race to Dubai” was being launched, the world economy crashed.
World number one Luke Donald clinched the Race To Dubai trophy in 2011. Photo: Getty
An immediate restructuring of the deal was required to keep the concept alive. Instead of $10m (£6.5m) being split between the top 15 in the Order of Merit, the fund to finance the newly branded Race quickly became $7.5m (£4.86m).
The purse for the new season-ending Dubai World Championship was similarly reduced.
Last month, on the day that Luke Donald became the third world number one to win the Race, the Tour announced a three-year extension to the running of the championship, with its prize money rising to $8m (£5.2m).
It will be known as the “DP World Tour Championship” but the size of the bonus pool has only now been revealed to have suffered a significant drop.
The contract has been extended a further three years with the spoils halved and only the top 10 finishers gaining a piece of the $3.75m (£2.42m) now on offer.
So how big a blow is this? Does it signal a significant downturn in the fortunes of the European Tour at a time when its players are enjoying unprecedented success?
Certainly the figures would suggest as much but that only applies if you consider a bonus pool as vital to the Tour for attracting top talent to play its events. That is patently not the case.
It is hard to imagine leading players changing their schedules because they will only gain an extra $1m (£640,000) rather than $1.5m (£970,000) for already earning more money than their rivals.
Furthermore, the creation of the Race to Dubai did not succeed in dragging players away from the PGA Tour or result in a raft of Americans signing up to play European events.
It would have been naive to have imagined such a scenario and it is hard to see any size of bonus pool making that kind of difference.
Indeed, American golf, bolstered by lucrative new television contracts, is riding purposefully through the economic turbulence. It remains strong despite not having a native among the world’s top four players.
Of that quartet, only Martin Kaymer isn’t committed to the PGA Tour in 2012, but Donald, Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy will also play their share on the European Tour.
The future strength of the European circuit is much more dependent on astute scheduling than the size of an end-of-season cash carve-up.
Last season there were no fewer than nine weeks when the European Tour staged tournaments that offered more world ranking points than were simultaneously available in America.
This is the currency that most interests the best players. The rankings are the key to them being able to pick and choose the events they want to play.
It’s why the upcoming Abu Dhabi Championship will have such a strong field and why tournaments like the Alfred Dunhill Links in the autumn carry such prestige.
The quality of tournaments and venues is also of paramount importance, hence the staging of this year’s Irish Open at Royal Portrush is hugely welcome news.
Adding another links venue to the run up to the Open Championship can only attract a higher quality field. The move is the dividend from the Northern Ireland major wins of McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell.
Rest assured no one will be complaining about the size of the bonus pool as many of the Tour’s finest players tackle one of the greatest courses in the United Kingdom.
Even so, there have been bullish noises from America already this year, with PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem talking of “a solid growth rate” and re-stating his belief that there will be more global integration in the running of the game.
“Nobody’s jumping up and down saying we have to do that [work with the European Tour] tomorrow,” he told reporters at the season opener in Hawaii.
“I just think that eventually the value of that, if you look at sports like soccer and tennis that are globally integrated, you can leverage contracts much better on a global basis.
“We are all out selling television rights globally. That has been a big part of our growth in the last ten years, but to do that together would make sense.”
While not signalling a major shift in the way that world golf will be run in the near future, these remain interesting comments from the man who runs the American tour.
Finchem knows the value of working with circuits like the European Tour is high because it provides further access to the world’s best players. That won’t change just because the size of the bonus money has been halved.
Peering into the Carter crystal golf ball
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
28 Dec 2011 at 3:00pm
Christmas had me clearing through my old junior golf bag. Lying at the bottom of a pocket lay a pristine wrapped Penfold Ace golf ball.
Gripped by nostalgia for the favourite dimpled sphere of my childhood, I couldn’t resist tearing away the paper, only to reveal a ball made of crystal, stamped with the numbers 2-0-1-2.
Gazing at this extraordinary find, this is what I saw…
Given the German’s form and focus, Martin Kaymer should start strongly in 2012. Photo: Reuters
Tiger Woods will once again be dominating the headlines going into the most eagerly anticipated season opener for years when he joins the field at the Abu Dhabi Championship at the end of January.
This will be an unprecedented gathering of golf’s biggest names so early in the year, with the top four players in the world in attendance.
Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy and Martin Kaymer will ensure that a bumper haul of world ranking points will be available and Woods will be especially eager to cash in and send a powerful message that he is truly a major threat once more.
The crystal ball isn’t showing many signs of originality as the face of Kaymer smiles through, although this victory would surely mean more than his previous three in the Abu Dhabi tournament.
In February, Donald attempts to defend his WGC Matchplay title. Head-to-head there is no-one better but the images I see are at best fuzzy, reflecting the unpredictable nature of 18-hole matchplay.
Even so, a familiar uppercut fist pump can be made out. Maybe this is the week Woods stares down the golfing world one by one and adds his first WGC title since August 2009.
Now the crystal ball takes on a familiar green hue as we move into April and the Masters. It is the first major of the year and Donald, Westwood and McIlroy have spent the last three months thinking and talking of little else.
For each man, it is a huge week as the English pair seek a performance commensurate with their elevated status and McIlroy aims to bounce back from last year’s final-round meltdown.
Woods knows he will always be a danger at Augusta and surprises no-one when he tells us he is here for the “W”.
Woods is 23rd in the world rankings and will look to continue his climb back towards the top. Photo: Reuters
This time he might be right, but Donald knows his short game can set him apart provided he makes a solid start and doesn’t leave himself with his traditional game of catch-up at a major.
Emboldened by the way he seized the moment to take the US Money list in 2011 the world number one becomes a permanent fixture on the leaderboard, but so does McIlroy.
Augusta is made for the US Open Champion’s long game as much as the green complexes suit Donald and the Masters becomes an epic shoot-out as Woods’s putter fails him early in the final round.
Three-times champion Phil Mickelson charges into the picture and then fades as he finds the water at the 15th attempting an outrageous shot at the green from behind a pine tree, after his caddie “Bones” threatens to walk off when his boss refuses a simple wedge lay-up.
Donald, meanwhile, is happy to wedge on to the 13th and 15th greens and collect single-putt birdies to keep pace with the big-hitting McIlroy. They come to the last hole three strokes clear of the rest of the field.
While McIlroy manages a routine par four, Donald chips in from the front of the green, remembering the line from a year ago, to claim his first major.
Westwood departs shaking his head after pipping Woods for third place. Another near miss, but his putting stroke was sound and despite frustration at not winning he knows the US Open isn’t far away.
He also knows the United States Golf Association is more likely to produce a fairer course set-up than the one that marred the 1998 US Open staged at the same Olympic Club course when uphill putts at the last were coming to rest and then rolling away from the hole.
The course also suits Westwood. He was the leading European, finishing tied seventh behind champion Lee Janzen 14 years ago. It is Westwood’s smiling face that shines from the crystal ball when we head to San Francisco in June.
As Europe’s 2012 Ryder Cup captain, Jose Maria Olazabal commands a very strong team. Photo: Getty
Now it is the sun I see shining, because it is going to be a scorching summer for Britain’s greatest ever sporting year. Two major wins in golf have helped stoke Olympic fervour and Andy Murray is the new Wimbledon champion.
So it all points to a home winner at Royal Lytham for the Open Championship. McIlroy has arrived full of confidence having just won the Irish Open, the benign conditions suit him perfectly and he is getting on fine with new caddie Jay Townsend.
A quick shake of the crystal ball corrects an obvious error, but McIlroy’s face remains prominent, now with JP Fitzgerald at his side.
The now 23-year-old’s right-to-left ball flight fits Lytham, his high trajectory takes the sting from the fast-running fairways and his bunker play is as reliable as when he holed out to win in Hong Kong.
Just like the US Open trophy did in 2011, the Claret Jug stays in Northern Ireland. It makes the short journey from Darren Clarke’s Portrush palace to McIlroy’s Holywood abode.
Onward to the US PGA – a tournament few in the UK notice because of the glut of gold being mined at the Olympics. Korea claims another major as Woods falters on the back nine to allow the precocious Seung Yul Noh to claim his first major.
The European Ryder Cup team is almost completed while Donald, Westwood, McIlroy and Woods lead the race for the FedEx Cup spoils.
Captain Jose Maria Olazabal has the strongest looking team for… well at least two years, but unlike his predecessor Monty, Olly isn’t as keen to tell everyone because American home advantage could make a huge difference.
Europe’s qualifiers are: Donald, Westwood, McIlroy, Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Sergio Garcia, Alvaro Quiros, Paul Casey, Simon Dyson and the fast emerging Dutchman Joost Luiten. Olazabal selects Ian Poulter and Freddie Jacobson to complete the team.
The match itself is a thriller but the crystal ball steadfastly refuses to identify a winning team. Does that mean 14-14 and Europe retain the Cup?
Maybe, but who knows? The only certainty is that this has the potential to be a truly great golfing year.
And by the way, if you believe I spent Christmas doing any kind of domestic clean-up you are as mistaken as anyone who thinks I ever achieved any accuracy when armed with a Penfold Ace.
British golfers end 2011 on a high
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
19 Dec 2011 at 12:39pm
How appropriate it was that UK golfers could eke out one more weekend of glory before this astonishing golfing year came to a close.
Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood recorded outstanding wins in Australia and Thailand respectively to put even more gloss on 2011, a year of rare vintage for home golfers.
Darren Clarke will settle down this Christmas to watch for the first time the DVD of his Open triumph but so many of our leading players can reflect on the season of their lives.
For some, like Clarke at the Open, it has been for a superb individual week. For world number one Luke Donald, it is the relentless year-long consistency.
UK golfers (left to right) Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke, Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald have all had a fantastic year and will be looking to add more silverware in 2012. Photo: Getty
No-one won more than the four tournaments Donald did – the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart, the WGC Matchplay in February and the season-ender at Disney that gave the Englishman the PGA Tour money list title.
Donald then became the first man to win the earnings titles on both sides of the Atlantic – the toughest of feats because of the onerous task of fulfilling the playing obligations of both circuits.
As with Westwood, all that is missing for Donald is a major. The achievements of these two at every other level in the game should imbue them with confidence, but equally they play majors with increased expectation and pressure because they are the top two players in the world.
It must become harder for both with each major that passes. Ensuring they peak at Augusta for the Masters next April is their top priority heading into 2012.
Donald undoubtedly possesses the short game to win, while Westwood was second to Phil Mickelson in 2010. Last year, he only trailed eventual winner Charl Schwartzel by four strokes despite a woeful week on the greens.
This year’s Masters will be remembered as much for the South African champion birdieing the last four holes as it will for Rory McIlroy’s closing 80 after carrying a four-shot lead into the final round.
How on earth, we wondered, would this youngster from Northern Ireland recover from such a visible meltdown when one of the game’s biggest titles was on the line?
The answer was “just fine”. At the US Open in June, McIlroy compiled his extraordinary eight-stroke victory for his maiden major title. A superstar was born – one who seemed to command as much adulation in the United States as on this side of the Atlantic.
McIlroy, with his tale of Masters redemption and natural charisma, became the man to fill the void left by the absent and fallen Tiger Woods.
Naturally the build-up to the Open at Royal St George’s was all about golf’s newest hero – the boy from Holywood, Northern Ireland, not the seasoned pro located up the road in Portrush.
“After the way Rory destroyed the field at the US Open, he went there with huge expectations,” Clarke recalls in a BBC Radio 5 live programme looking back on both of this year’s Northern Ireland major wins. “It was supposed to be his week but you know golf can throw up some surprises.”
In practice rounds with McIlroy and Westwood, Clarke shed negativity that had built up in a disappointing final round at the previous week’s Scottish Open. By the time the 42-year-old teed off on the Thursday at Sandwich, he had found a rare and unbreakable serenity.
“Whenever I’ve won big tournaments in the past, World Golf Championships, I’ve always been very calm, relaxed and accepting of what was going on.
“The way that I played on the Saturday I couldn’t have played any better,” Clarke told Ulster’s Major Year, which is aired on BBC Radio 5 live on 23 December at 2100.
Clarke produced a masterclass of ball-striking in the most hostile of weather conditions.
But he said: “I moved home back to Portrush a year and half ago and I’ve been playing there with my friends in conditions that would make Royal St George’s look pleasant.
“Because of my fondness for links golf, I know most of the time what is required. You’ve got to be able to figure out how to make a score and most of that week I was able to do it and control my ball flight.”
Ultimately Clarke held a four-stroke lead with two holes to play and that was the first time he was aware he would realise his ultimate golfing ambition.
He added: “The crowds and support I had all week were totally amazing. If I’d been playing in Ireland I couldn’t have got more support.
“I don’t know but maybe people identify with me a bit more because I’m not the highly tuned athlete who is in the gym every morning. I think they were genuinely pleased to see me lift the one trophy that I wanted.”
While Clarke began his long celebrations, McIlroy bemoaned the wind and rain that had blown away his meek challenge. His claim that he will have to wait for a calm Open before he can win was a surprising sign of immaturity.
So was McIlroy’s attempt to hit his ball against a tree root on the third hole of the final major, the PGA in Atlanta. He ran the risk of serious injury and was lucky to complete all four rounds after suffering a mere sprain.
Rookie American Keegan Bradley uses a putter which he wedges into his stomach – and he became the first belly putter to win a major after overcoming Jason Dufner in a play-off.
We would not have to wait long for more home celebrations though. Nigel Edwards’s GB & Ireland amateurs upset the odds to win back the Walker Cup from America at Royal Aberdeen.
Then, at Killeen Castle, Europe’s women claimed victory in the Solheim Cup in one of the greatest golf matches ever played.
Captain Alison Nicholas’s tactics of resting all of her players paid full dividends as the home side edged the singles to win back the trophy for the first time since 2003.
Laura Davies, who has played in every Solheim Cup since its inception in 1990, said: “For me, being in golf for such a long time, that was the pinnacle for excitement. The way it swung in the last 30 minutes was incredible.”
Needing something from each of the last three matches, Europe’s number one Suzann Pettersen birdied the closing three holes to beat Michelle Wie, Caroline Hedwall claimed an unlikely looking half against Ryann O’Toole and Azahara Munoz secured a narrow win against Angela Stanford.
It was a sensational victory and fully deserved for the likes of Catriona Matthew and Sophie Gustafson who had laid the foundations.
The win gives European women’s golf the chance to prosper heading into 2012 but a new star from America, 16-year-old Alexis (Lexi) Thompson, the recent winner in Dubai, is sure to command many headlines.
So too in the men’s game might Tom Lewis. At the age of 20, he has already led the Open and won on the European Tour. The newly crowned European Tour rookie of the year is the latest addition to a group of players destined to compete in golf’s most-exciting era for generations.
The best of the UK constitutes the best in the world – Donald, Westwood and McIlroy head the rankings and there is a host of potential home major winners in 2012.
But there is also a certain Mr Woods also to be factored in. Tiger’s win at his home tournament may have been a limited-field event, but it showed his famed killer instinct is back.
Bring on 2012 – and we haven’t even mentioned next September’s Ryder Cup.
Race To Dubai extended until 2014
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
11 Dec 2011 at 3:25pm
As the dust settles on a vintage European Tour season and Luke Donald celebrates his historic money-list double, Tour officials must feel equally satisfied having secured the future of the Race to Dubai.
Donald dominates the headlines with his achievement but my bosses ban me from reflecting on it in too much detail for fear of unduly influencing the voting for Sports Personality of the Year.
But the fact that the world number one knows he has the chance to defend the Race to Dubai title next year is noteworthy enough in the current difficult economic times.
Last Sunday, Tour chief executive, George O’Grady, announced a three-year extension to the deal that has made Dubai the end-of-season destination for the Tour since 2009.
George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, presents Luke Donald (right) of England with The Race To Dubai trophy. Photo: Getty
The Dubai World Championship will be known from next year as the DP World Tour Championship and will have a prize fund of $8m (£5.13m).
A separate agreement for the bonus pool for the Race is being negotiated.
“Quite frankly I think this is an enormous deal,” O’Grady told BBC Sport. “I’m not talking about the size of the money, I think it shows confidence in our product, which we know is very good, but us knowing it and others knowing it are two different things.”
It is testament to the quality of European golf that the initial deal that transformed the old Order of Merit into the Race to Dubai survived the global economic meltdown that hit the Emirate hard.
The three winners of the newly-branded money title have all been world number ones, with Donald joining fellow Englishman Lee Westwood and Germany’s Martin Kaymer on the roll of honour.
The top four players in the world teed it up in Dubai last week and it felt like a fitting end to the global golf season, never mind just the European sector.
O’Grady acknowledges that the golfing riches at his disposal could only help broker the new deal with the Dubai backers. “It certainly didn’t do any harm,” he said.
“I think they saw the final pairing last Thursday with the world number one and two players teeing off together. But our players are in demand wherever they go, obviously it is attractive to join the PGA Tour and play both tours as Luke Donald does. It is easy to do if you are in the world’s top 50.
“We have so many players in the top 50. And why? Because all the standards over here have got better and better.”
This season, Kaymer, Westwood and Northern Ireland’s world number two Rory McIlroy all rejected American tour membership but next year only Kaymer is not signing on the dotted line with the PGA Tour.
This will not have a massive impact on the European Tour, but Westwood and McIlroy will have to shed a couple of events and the tournaments that will suffer are likely to be in Europe.
Although the latest Dubai investment is clearly welcome, the biggest challenge for the Tour is to bolster events in the continent from where it derives its name.
Economic chaos in the Eurozone doesn’t help (the Tour’s currency is the Euro) and the Scottish and Irish Opens have still to announce title sponsors for next year. Furthermore the BMW PGA Championship is the only regular Tour event in England.
McIlroy has already committed to the Irish Open and his entry is key to securing a new backer.
Donald will be defending champion in Scotland and has said he will play essentially the same schedule in 2012 as he did this year so its reasonable to assume he will play at Castle Stuart.
These are the key players going forward and their participation in events strengthen the hands of the dealmakers.
The golfing compass points East at the moment with Asian countries the more likely to stump up worthwhile purses.
The Tour insists that sponsors only shell out on tournaments because they offer value for money. “It’s not patronage,” O’Grady said.
McIlroy and Donald have become highly significant sporting figures who in golf are driving the marketplace. They may appear to earn obscene sums of money - Donald pocketed £4.57m from the European Tour and £4.29m in winning the PGA Tour in 2011 – but the fact is they are worth it.
2011 keeps on giving
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
6 Dec 2011 at 8:42am
Some could be forgiven for wanting this extraordinary golf season to go on forever rather than end with this week’s Dubai World Championship.
There has been a conveyor belt of excitement relentlessly rolling through the 2011 season – and last week’s tournaments were entirely in keeping.
Rory McIlroy enjoyed a dramatic triumph in Hong Kong; Lee Westwood carded one of the rounds of his life on his way to victory in Sun City, South Africa, while Tiger Woods rediscovered his winning touch for the first time in more than two years.
McIlroy and Westwood play in the Middle East this week, with the former having kept alive his hopes of overhauling Luke Donald in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai – formerly the Order of Merit.
Luke Donald (left) and Rory McIlroy prepare to battle it out with 60 of the top money winners in 2011 for the coveted Race to Dubai trophy. PHOTO: Getty
As for Woods, his season has now ended on a highly encouraging note.
But it was McIlroy’s performance in Hong Kong that was most eye-catching. The US Open champion beat a full field with a timely final-day surge, a closing round of 65 putting him two shots clear of Gregory Havret.
Going forward, this may prove a significant triumph for the Northern Irishman. He has squandered similar winning opportunities in the past – he had been runner-up in Hong Kong twice – so victory can only add confidence for the next time he is in contention.
The quality of his ball striking is such that his name is on leaderboards every time he competes. If he is to win the Race to Dubai he still needs a victory this week and for Donald to finish outside the top nine.
In America, Woods finished brilliantly with back-to-back birdies to beat Zach Johnson and demonstrate that his killer instinct is back.
The lingering concern for his fans is his continued inconsistency on the greens. The former world number one may have been able to beat an 18-man field but would his comparatively shaky putting have prevailed in a full-field tournament?
Westwood topped a field of 12 as he triumphed in the Nedbank Golf Challenge, effectively sealing a successful title defence with a stunning third-round 62 that featured probably his best golf since he romped to victory at the 2009 Dubai World Championship.
How the world number three would love a repeat in the desert this week to end the season on a genuine high and remind the two men above him in the rankings, Donald and McIlroy, of his threat for next year.
Aside from those big names, it is interesting to note which other players have made it to the end-of-season event. Qualifying for the elite 60-man field is an achievement in itself for many of the stalwarts of the Tour.
Perhaps this applies more than most to Englishman Mark Foster, who will be playing the Dubai World Championship for the first time after enjoying the best season of his career.
The 36-year-old did not add to his lone European Tour victory, which dates back to 2003’s Dunhill Championship at Houghton, South Africa, but he secured no fewer than four top-four finishes in his 10th year on the main circuit.
Foster relocated to Singapore two years ago where his then girlfriend – now wife – was working.
Although they spent only 12 months in Asia and have now settled in Balham, south London, Foster believes the move gave his golfing life the kick-start it needed.
He said: “It was like wiping the slate clean. I know everybody does it when it comes to January – they join gyms and stuff – but I was able to get rid of the garbage that might have been holding me back.”
Foster is from Worksop, Westwood’s home town in Nottinghamshire, and readily admits he has lived in the shadow of the man who was top of the world rankings this time last year.
He added: “I’ve done more interviews about him than I have about myself.”
The spotlight has fallen a bit more on Foster in 2011 and he says standards have never been higher on the European Tour – which he feels is as interesting as ever.
He told BBC Sport: “If I was playing the same golf I did 10 years ago, there’s no way I would be out here now.
“People say with modern equipment it must be easier but that’s not the case because standards are so high. That’s why I’m working harder than ever to do as well as I can.
“At this stage, I really feel like I’m getting to know myself.
“You only have to look at the world rankings to see it is a special time. There is a real buzz when people like Rory (McIlroy) turn up at tournaments.
“Hopefully Europe can keep these players because they are brilliant for golf. My opinion is that everybody benefits.”
And what about his own future? He added: “I would love to break into that club at the top of the game. I have shown signs of it and want to go forward from this.”
In the meantime, Foster, a little frustrated by recent results, is concentrating on trying to make the most of his appearance in Dubai.
With just the one week to go, we already know that, for the European game, 2011 will go down as a year of rare vintage.
The World Cup that fails to inspire
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
28 Nov 2011 at 6:57pm
In most other sports a World Cup is the pinnacle but in golf it is merely another lucrative week for those able to shoe-horn playing for their country into their busy schedules.
At the weekend the United States claimed victory in China having sent a team comprising their fifth and 17th ranked players.
Matt Kuchar, at number 11 in the world, was the highest placed American willing to make the trip in the week of Thanksgiving and had managed to persuade Gary Woodland to be his partner for an event that should command far more prestige than it does.
Ireland were a rarity in fielding their top two in Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell. England were represented by Ian Poulter and Justin Rose when they could have had two of the top three in the world in Luke Donald and Lee Westwood.
The United States won the World Cup by two shots from England and Germany in China. PHOTO: Getty
Golf’s World Cup must be the only sporting event bearing such a name that so consistently fails to attract the best players on the planet.
But don’t blame the golfers. It’s the end of the year, lines have to be drawn somewhere and no one is likely to use their success or otherwise in golf’s World Cup to measure their career.
This is a shame because the tournament currently has an excellent format with each country’s representatives pairing up to play in fourballs and foursomes on alternate days.
It has the potential to attract new fans to the game and provide a title of genuine worth, but it is a victim of muddled thinking; a by-product of the way the game is run.
There are far too many governing bodies across the golfing globe for there to be any chance of a sensible calendar, never mind organising a World Cup of true meaning.
The Royal and Ancient and USGA are responsible for the rules and the Open and US Opens respectively.
The Masters is run by the Augusta National Golf Club while the PGA of America, who look after club pros in the US, run the fourth major, the PGA.
Between them they come up with a calendar that has the Masters in April and the other three majors squeezed into an eight or nine-week period across the northern hemisphere summer.
These are the events by which we are supposed to measure golfers and three of the four are staged in America.
Then you have the likes of the PGA and European Tours and circuits in Asia, Africa and Australasia responsible for the rest of the calendar.
Essentially they are rival bodies driven largely by self interest. None would be keen on a “World Tour” that many fans would love to see and a circuit that could easily support a genuine World Cup.
For the individual tours it would be tantamount to turkeys voting for Christmas, or, for that matter, Thanksgiving.
This scenario will never happen, but imagine one all-powerful governing body determining when and where the top golfers play.
They certainly would not come up with such a lop-sided and haphazard calendar.
Interestingly, the outgoing sponsors of the World Cup have spoken out in frustration at the current global set-up.
“The big problem with golf at the moment is a calendar issue,” Stephen Urquhart, the president of watchmakers Omega, told reporters last week.
“We’ve told all the tours that they have to stop being too greedy. There are too many tournaments and they are adding tournaments all the time.”
Urquhart believes the tours have treated the World Cup, which has a 10-year contract to be staged at Mission Hills in China, as a mere “stopgap” event.
“They need to show Asia more respect,” he said. “Why can’t there be a big event like the World Cup here in Asia in June? What’s the difference in taking a flight from London to Beijing or London to Los Angeles?”
Omega has withdrawn its backing for the World Cup and is taking over sponsorship of the Hong Kong Open instead.
The company is a significant figure in golf and supports the Dubai Desert Classic and the European Masters, and will be the official timekeeper at the next Ryder Cup.
“Done properly and packaged properly and staged at a better time of year, no one would go anywhere else in the world that given week but to play in the World Cup,” Urquhart went on to argue.
He is also correct when states that this biennial tournament needs to move to different venues rather than base itself in China.
It has been reported that this may have been the last World Cup, but the signs are it will continue and that new backers are being found.
Depressingly, though, the current format is likely to be binned in 2013.
As if we don’t have enough 72-hole individual strokeplay golf events, it looks as though the competition will follow the structure that is the staple diet of the professional game and mirror the likely set-up that will be used in the 2016 Olympics.
World ranking points will make it more attractive to the players but unless the tournament can find other ways to make sure all the best golfers turn up, the World Cup will never live up to its potential.
But that in many respects is true of the game at large, which at every level is made up of too many co-existing bodies rather than a cohesive, all powerful organisation running the sport.
On the other hand, look at the controversies that invariably seem to dog the likes of Fifa in football and you might consider golf’s numerous bosses – none of whom can get genuinely too big for their blazers – to be the preferable option.
If that is the case then you simply have to accept a World Cup that isn’t exactly what it says on the tin as a price that has to be paid.
Duval goes back to school
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
21 Nov 2011 at 9:56pm
The United States were successfully defending the Presidents Cup in Australia, and at tournaments around the golfing world, plenty of yen, rand and Malaysian ringgit were being won, but there was also a healthy dose of dignity and self-respect being earned in southern California at the weekend.
Attention was inevitably aimed in the direction of Tiger Woods, as the former world number one claimed the winning point for the US at Royal Melbourne. Elsewhere, Garth Mulroy was triumphing at Leopard Creek in South Africa and the highly promising Dutchman Joost Luiten claimed a timely maiden win in Malaysia.
But Woods was not the only former world number one in action at the weekend. Under the radar, at the Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, David Duval was demonstrating humility and talent in equal measure as he began his quest to retain his PGA Tour card.
For a man with career earnings of nearly $19m (£12m), responsibilities to five children and a deep love of family life it would be easy to skip the tortuous process of trying to earn playing privileges.
This is especially true of a player with a glorious history that – however remote it now seems – will still earn him plenty of tournament invitations.
It is easy to tell that Duval knows how to do the right thing. Despite having once stood at the top of the golfing world, reeling off victories with the regularity of Woods in his pomp, the 40-year-old knows that a visit to Q-school is not beneath him.
This is someone who racked up 11 wins in 34 tournaments between 1997 and 1999, including eagling the closing hole for a 59 to win the 1999 Bob Hope event. Twelve years on, with medical and earnings exemptions expired, instead of Bob you can stick the world little in front of Hope.
David Duval’s only victory in a major was the Open Championship in 2001. Photo: Getty
At Bear Creek it was merely the second stage of qualifying school, where players are scrambling for the right to play the second-tier Nationwide calendar next season. There are still another 108 holes to be negotiated at PGA West at the end of this month before Duval can be sure of a place alongside the 2012 elite.
Such career uncertainty is what happens when you finish 152nd on the money list with only one top-10 finish all season. Duval’s share of ninth place at the Northern Trust Open was back in February and there has been very little to cheer since then.
Sadly this has long since been the norm for a player whose crowning moment came at Royal Lytham when he won his only major, the 2001 Open Championship. Little did he know then that he had already embarked on an inexorable slide.
With hindsight, Duval traces his dramatic decline to a back injury suffered the previous year. Since then he has suffered neck and wrist problems, debilitating vertigo and depression. He split from his long-time fiance and soon after met his wife Susie and her three children in Denver where he now lives.
Seen in his pomp as an emotionless golfing machine shielded by trademark dark glasses, Duval is a sensitive, emotional figure who retains a strong love for the game, despite being almost continuously tortured by it for more than a decade.
And that is why he continues to battle away. Having fallen $11,289 (a little over £7,000) short of being able to go straight to final Q-school, Duval nursed his sore back through the chilly California winds to earn the right to make that stage with a second-placed finish at Bear Creek.
“It’s a difficult week, a trying week,” admitted Duval, who finished tied second at the US Open as recently as 2009. “It’s people’s livelihoods, the dreams they are trying to pursue. I know I’m going to be able to play next season regardless and it is still stressful for me.”
This is surely evidence of sheer professionalism and an attitude that is the polar opposite of someone like John Daly, who relies upon sponsor invitations to carry on his career and then abuses them by walking off the course.
Two-time major champion Daly doesn’t get it like Duval does. “I’ve had some awful days where it takes a lot of mental will to go play golf,” Duval admitted in a Men’s Journal magazine interview last year.
“I shot 62 at Pebble Beach once. Six or seven years later, I shot 85. What did I do after that? I teed it up the next day.”
And that’s the attitude that took the man who missed 15 cuts in 24 tournaments this year to this lowly Californian qualifier.
“I feel great, that’s why I came,” he smiled after tying for second place to advance to the Q-school finals.
“I’ll count on the charity [of sponsor invitations] if I have to, but I would prefer to play my way on. I wanted to make the effort – I disagree with not trying.”
Duval’s efforts were duly rewarded and it would take a hard heart not to wish him well for the remaining six rounds of qualifying school. Regardless of whether he makes it through, he will not lack for support when and wherever he plays next season.
Presidents Cup plays second fiddle to Ryder Cup
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
14 Nov 2011 at 12:34pm
On this side of the pond we are a bit sniffy about the Presidents Cup. The biennial clash between the pro golfers of America and an “International” team is regarded a pale imitation of the Ryder Cup.
It lacks the history, passion and drama that so enthrals not just the golfing community but the sporting world when the United States and Europe trade golfing blows every two years.
“Yeah, it’s not the Ryder Cup is it? The Presidents Cup doesn’t mean so much to the players,” I heard a former American Ryder Cup captain comment a couple of weeks ago.
He is correct but, as Fred Couples’ Americans prepare to take on Greg Norman’s Internationals at Royal Melbourne this week, there is a genuine sense of anticipation for what threatens to be a truly memorable contest.
The ninth Presidents Cup, where the US meet a non-European International side in a Ryder Cup-style format, takes place in Melbourne in November. PHOTO: Getty
One of the things that has counted against the Presidents Cup in previous years was that the American players seemed to enjoy it too much.
Some went as far as to say they preferred it to the Ryder Cup because the opposition were not as hell-bent on victory as their European foes.
It is a less intense experience and there is the compensation of a fat cheque to go to charities of the players’ choice as well.
It is much harder for us fans to be as interested in a match given such circumstances. We want legs to be shaking with fear on the first tee – we want it to matter.
Also, it is hard for those opposing the US to unite under the “international” banner.
They are playing for the bit of the world that is not governed by the stars and stripes and not directly affected by the Eurozone crisis – a team without flag or currency, and often with little in common.
America invariably run out winners – the Internationals have won only once and there was a famous tie in 2003 when, after the match finished 17-17, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els couldn’t be separated following three holes of a sudden-death play-off.
In the Ryder Cup a draw is a draw, with the holders keeping the trophy. We don’t mess with artificially concocted sudden-death denouements and prefer the drama to develop in a more organic way.
So why should we be interested by the contest in Melbourne this week?
Shouldn’t Els, Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and Retief Goosen instead be in their native South Africa supporting the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek?
Maybe, but the truth is they are in the place that will command most golfing attention because the Presidents Cup really does threaten to be a seriously compelling occasion.
For once there is a discernible edge between the teams, further enhanced because the match has returned to the scene of the Internationals’ only victory, when defeated the US 20½-11½ in 1998.
Both Couples and Norman had plenty to say about each other’s wildcard picks to give the contest some early needle.
Norman raised eyebrows at the wildcard selections of Woods and Bill Haas over the PGA champion Keegan Bradley, while Couples pointed to the lack of recent wins of International pick, Australian Robert Allenby.
This mini-spat provided a healthy dose of posturing in the build-up – but real spice was added unwittingly by caddie Steve Williams’s infamous racially charged slur against his former boss Woods in Shanghai last week.
Williams caddies for Aussie Adam Scott and, with scope for the captains to pre-determine some matches, there will be a huge temptation to capitalise on the controversy and engineer a Woods versus Scott showdown.
“It’s not going to be premeditated,” claimed International skipper Greg Norman. “I talked to Adam about it and asked him if it worked out that way, did he have a problem with it?
“He said, ‘Not at all, I’ll play him and win a point for you’. It can fall that way. He might end up playing with him every day. Who knows? I would expect them to meet some time.”
More significant to generating the feel of a genuine contest is the Australian setting. The home crowds will offer boisterous support and an atmosphere rarely felt in a predominantly individual sport.
The crowds will help unite the International team, which is drawn from Australia, South Africa, Korea and Japan and turn them into a motivated unit.
America needs to win as well. The Ryder, Walker and Solheim Cups all reside elsewhere and the US can ill-afford to let another piece of silverware slip from its grasp.
The match is being staged on a classic course in Royal Melbourne but, as countless Ryder Cups have proven, the quality of the layout doesn’t overly matter.
If you bring together two decent teams desperate to beat each other, you could stage it on a local municipal course and it would still be worth watching.
Funnily enough the last Presidents Cup was played on a rather good public course at Harding Park in San Francisco. But it was a pretty dull affair won convincingly by the United States with Woods enjoying a clean sweep of victories.
As we know, soon after, an awful lot changed in the life of the former world number one who has just climbed back up to 50th in the rankings.
Yes, it is not the Ryder Cup and will never achieve the acclaim of those historic US-Euro jousts – but the Internationals versus America will be well worth watching.
The contest starts with a series of foursomes on Thursday.
With a deeply felt desire for victory and fear of failure, the Presidents Cup may just come of age this week.
Kaymer’s lacklustre performances deny him top spot
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
7 Nov 2011 at 3:47pm
As we toasted the first occasion that the European Tour Golfer of the Year award was shared by two people, the continent’s outgoing Ryder Cup captain posed the question of who would be the world’s top player by the end of 2011.
Colin Montgomerie was speaking almost 12 months ago as Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer celebrated becoming the first joint winners of the Tour’s most prestigious accolade.
Both men had played a massive role in a landmark year for European golf – McDowell with his inspired US Open win and Ryder Cup heroics, Kaymer with no fewer than four tournament victories including his first major, the US PGA.
Monty challenged those golf journalists and broadcasters sitting around the table at that celebratory lunch to name the man who would be world number one 12 months hence. There was unanimous agreement that it would be Kaymer.
Kaymer’s three-shot victory at the Shanghai Open moved him into fourth place in the World golf rankings: Photo: Getty
This was the player who seemingly had it all – a stellar long game with a touch on and around the greens to match.
He was about to turn 26 and, within a month, the German won for the ninth time in his young career with a successful title defence in Abu Dhabi.
Before the first buds of spring could be found he was blossoming further by reaching the final of the WGC Matchplay, which was enough to take Kaymer to his appointed position at the top of the world rankings.
Everything suggested he would be a commanding figure at the head of the game and that he would remain number one for a considerable period.
He seemed so at ease with all that comes with being at the top of the rankings.
The only question was over how soon he would win again and whether that victory might come at the first major of the year, the Masters.
And this was the point at which Kaymer hit the buffers. To win at Augusta, the man from Dusseldorf believed he would need to learn how to alter his preferred ball flight from that of a left-to-right fade to a draw in the opposite direction.
It was a mistake and one that had him going backwards for the first time in his career.
As Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy were making big progress towards the top of the golfing tree, Kaymer was regressing fast from the moment he shot 78 in the first round of the Masters.
Throughout the meat of the season he did not genuinely threaten to win a strokeplay title, struggling to make the top 40 at the US Open, finishing 12th at the Open and missing the cut in his US PGA defence.
Kaymer’s results were not calamitously bad but they were far from what he had expected at the start of this year, and it is only now he has won again that he is able to rationalise the frustration of much of this season.
“This year a lot has happened,” Kaymer said on Sunday after claiming the WGC Champions title in Shanghai. “Many people don’t realise what it takes to be number one in the world and you are just 26 years old.
“For me, my manager and my family, we were not used to that. A lot of people around me didn’t know how to react and handle those things and then there was my little swing adjustment that I did.
“It was just a combination from a lot of things that maybe was the reason for not such a great season. But with this win here, I think it has now become a good season,” said the man who rose back two places to number four in the world with what was his first World Golf Championships win.
“It was a little overwhelming all of a sudden being number one. I became so huge in Germany and more famous in America and everywhere you go more people recognise you.
“You have to understand I have not been on tour my entire life. It is only five or six years and being number one had only ever happened once to a German guy and that was Bernhard Langer, about 25 years ago.
“So it was a completely different situation that I had to get used to.”
Now he has the air of a man who knows what to expect should he go back to the top of the golfing world and there must be every chance of that happening given that he has now rediscovered the art of winning.
Kaymer and McIlroy are the future of world golf and there is the potential for both to share one of the game’s great rivalries. At 22, McIlroy is four years younger and he has three victories at tour level compared with the German’s 10.
Kaymer has proved himself a brilliant finisher while McIlroy is still discovering the way of making the most of winning opportunities.
We were wrong with our prediction to Monty that Kaymer would top the year-end rankings in 2011 but there is every chance of that being the case next year.
Of course, McIlroy and the present incumbent Luke Donald will have other ideas but both know that their biggest threat lies with the man who has just won in China.
Why golf should have responded quicker to Williams slur
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
6 Nov 2011 at 10:27am
WARNING: This blog contains language some may find offensive.
It was American Presidents’ Cup captain Freddie Couples who broke a silence that was damning golf in the wake of the Steve Williams race row.
Until a statement issued at the completion of the HSBC WGC Champions tournament in Shanghai, there had been no official comment from the golfing authorities in the wake of the caddie’s racial slur against Tiger Woods on Friday evening.
The International Federation of PGA Tours had to address the issue because the absence of condemnation from the top of the game would only reinforce a perception that golf has a race problem.
Steve Williams, one time caddie for American golfer Tiger Woods, has stunned the world of golf with an extraordinary racist insult against his former employer.PHOTO: Getty
The statement issued through PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and European Tour Chief Executive George O’Grady read: “We consider the remarks of Steve Williams, as reported, entirely unacceptable in whatever context.
“We are aware he has apologised fully and we trust we will not hear such remarks ever again. Based on this, we consider the matter closed and we will have no further comment.”
Why it took until after the tournament was completed for official condemnation to arrive is hard to fathom. An immediate response was required on Saturday morning to show that Williams’s remarks were not acceptable.
This would also have helped shut down the story and would have allowed a superb tournament with fine sponsors to reclaim the headlines.
At least Couples offered a timely and strong opinion. The United States’ skipper said: “If that was Joe LaCava he wouldn’t be caddying for me today.”
LaCava is Couples’ former caddie who now works for Woods. Couples added: “If a caddie has that kind of anger for a pretty good guy, I don’t want him around me.”
On Friday it was a boisterous, funny and supposedly off-the-record evening when the caddies hand out their end-of-year awards.
When Williams was called up to collect a prize for the way he celebrated winning at Akron with Adam Scott in the wake of being sacked by Woods, he was asked about the manner of his celebrations last August. Williams replied by saying: “It was my aim to shove it right up that black arsehole.”
By referring to the colour of Woods’s skin, the comments of his former caddie became the talk of the evening and inevitably found their way into the newspapers.
Yes it was supposed to be a fun evening but a comment of this nature was never going to stay within the four walls of a room occupied by some of the biggest names in world golf.
Williams’s current employer Scott expressed disappointment that it was made public – but he should have been more concerned with the damaging nature of his caddie’s words.
At least the Australian was the man who instructed Williams to apologise. After his final round in Shanghai, Scott said: “I don’t think anyone condones racism in sport. I had Steve issue an apology. What more should I do?”
There is no room for racist behaviour but some context is important. The offending words were said at a boisterous evening with ripe locker room banter flying left, right and centre.
It would have been entirely in keeping for Williams to seek a laugh at Woods’s expense – indeed it was probably expected.
But he did it in an unsophisticated manner and, as he acknowledged in the apology, in a way that could be construed as racist.
That was unacceptable and the Tours and Scott should have said so more quickly than they did.
Some commentators have called for Williams to be drummed out of the game but that could be seen as draconian because some people on the circuit feel he is a victim of his own shortcomings as a public speaker.
He is undoubtedly lacking social grace and, given the nature of the evening, I find it hard to believe the phrase was laced with the malice one usually associates with such comments.
Maybe that is an overly generous assessment but what is certain is that his actions should not go without censure.
It remains a hugely damaging thing for Williams to have said and highly detrimental to the game that pays his wages.
Regrettably, it also means it won’t be just golf that will dominate the news agenda for this week’s Australian Open where Scott and Woods are both playing and the following week’s Presidents’ Cup in Melbourne where the two players are on opposing sides.
McIlroy becomes cream of the crop
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
1 Nov 2011 at 8:25am
For years Colin Montgomerie would satisfy the headline writers either with success on the golf course or his talkative ways off it.
“What will we do without him?” was an often recited question among golf journalists reflecting on another day saved by the most quotable figure in the game. Time after time Monty, either by deed or word, would create the most newsworthy event of a tournament day.
Now there can be little doubt the veteran Scot has been superseded by US Open champion Rory McIlroy as the most productive headline-making machine in golf.
Indeed, from the moment television cameras captured the boyhood McIlroy chipping into his mum’s washing machine, he seems to have had an instinctive knack for creating news stories.
When he made his Open Championship debut as an amateur in 2008 at Carnoustie he was being given “unofficial” advice by his now former manager Andrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler.
International Sports Management’s (ISM) founder was planning to offer media training to the teenager he was about to sign. Once McIlroy became the only player to go bogey-free on the first day at the fearsome Scottish links, Chandler was reconsidering the move.
He saw how easily McIlroy dealt with the television, radio and newspaper interviews. The lad from Holywood, Northern Ireland had a natural ease in the spotlight that no media trainer could possibly enhance.
“You cannot teach charisma,” Chandler noted and the planned lessons were abruptly cancelled.
Fast forward to today and a period likely to be regarded as the post-Tiger Woods era and we can safely say the 22-year-old has become the biggest draw in world golf.
The US Open victory was Rory McIlroy’s first in a major tournament. Photo: Reuters
With his stunning eight-shot victory in the US Open at Congressional in June, he produced by miles the outstanding performance of 2011. But that, as they say, is barely the half of it.
Already this year McIlroy had spectacularly blown a four-shot lead heading into the final round of the Masters – but he handled the disappointment with a dignity that earned the sympathy of the golfing world.
Three months later he bounced back with that first Major in Washington to delight Europe and satisfy America’s extraordinary love of a tale of redemption.
No longer did he solely belong on the back pages. He was briefly reunited with his childhood sweetheart and long-term girlfriend Holly Sweeney – only for them to break up in the wake of that first Major victory.
Then, in the wake of a lacklustre four days at Royal St George’s where he finished 25th with a seven-over-par, McIlroy stunned us by saying that he could only win the Open if the wind didn’t blow.
Next he embroiled himself in a Twitter row with pundit Jay Townsend at the Irish Open. Townsend criticised McIlroy’s course management, while McIlroy responded by telling Townsend to “shut up” and calling him a “failed golfer”.
At the US PGA he took on a ludicrous second shot at the third hole of his first round which involved hitting against a tree root – a contest he was never likely to win. As a result he injured his wrist and it was some achievement, though probably foolhardy, for McIlroy to complete all four rounds.
But, if he needed comfort to salve the injury, it came in the shape of the world’s top tennis player and his new girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki. You would struggle to make up the number of ways he could find to make headlines.
Nevertheless, the constants in his life remained – father Gerry, mother Rosie and manager Chubby.
That was until a couple of weeks ago when the most unexpected story of the lot transpired and he dispensed with the agent who had nurtured his career since his amateur days.
It is a decision that remains the talk of the range and beyond, especially as there has been no shortage of blue-chip deals since that landmark US Open victory. Rumour has it McIlroy was unhappy with the way his public image was being managed but any adverse publicity he has suffered has been largely self-inflicted, beyond the bounds of any manager to prevent.
Even so it was the player’s prerogative, particularly as his deal with Chandler was done on a handshake. Who knows what guarantees he has secured with Horizon Sports, his new Dublin-based management company?
What is beyond debate is that McIlroy had continued to keep his name in the headlines at a time when he wasn’t doing much out of the ordinary on the golf course.
A string of high finishes showed his form was decent but he could not find a way to add to what was a poor reflection of his talents – just three career wins.
That was until he competed for the richest individual prize in golf at the Shanghai Masters. Totally in keeping, he ensured the stories would be all about him throughout the tournament.
McIlroy led for the first three rounds, wobbled on the final day and then won a play-off against Anthony Kim to bank the £1.25m first prize.
So now, as we head into the final WGC of the year – the HSBC Champions event in the same Chinese city – he is once again the main story in town. Still to elaborate on his split with ISM, McIlroy will prefer to reflect on this lucrative victory when facing inevitable questions this week.
Regardless, his pre-tournament news conference on Wednesday will command the biggest attendance, just as used to be the case for Monty in his pomp and, for that matter, Woods.
Neither has qualified for this tournament but with McIlroy taking part they will be hardly missed.
Real deal Donald silences critics
by Iain Carter (BBC Sport)
24 Oct 2011 at 3:59pm
It was tempting to think of it as a mere Mickey Mouse end-of-season tournament, but the Disney course in Lake Buena Vista staged the most important and impressive win of Luke Donald’s career to date.
By storming through the field to claim the PGA Tour season-ending Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic, Donald emphatically answered the critics who regard him as a walking cash machine rather than an out and out winner.
There were no second chances with this event. The 33-year-old Englishman knew that nothing less than a top-two finish would allow him to become the first European to win America’s money list.
Luke Donald is presented with his winner’s trophy after clinching Disney’s Children’s Miracle Network Classic title which helped him capture the US money title too. PHOTO: Getty
If he failed, the most successful season of his career would still have a frustrating asterisk to indicate another near miss. The mutterers would be off again: “Typical Donald, just fails to get the job done. Again.” And one suspects the loudest of those voices would belong to the man himself.
Furthermore, with Webb Simpson – the player he had to overtake on the money list – playing alongside him and prominent on the leaderboard, Donald knew by the final round that in all likelihood only a win would do.
Yes, Donald has played against and beaten stronger competition this year, but this was as motivated a field as there is at a PGA Tour event because many were scrapping for their careers and the right to continue to play the most lucrative circuit in the game.
It wasn’t so much the five shots Donald made up over the closing 10 holes at Disney as the fact that he produced nigh-on perfect golf to surge from a share of 10th place to claim his fourth win of the year.
“It was kind of do or die,” the world number one commented afterwards. Producing that calibre of golf with six birdies in a row from the 10th, holing 84 feet worth of putts in the process, shows what the WGC Matchplay, PGA and Scottish Open champion can do when under the cosh.
“Having this much on the line, coming up and shooting 30 on the back nine on Sunday, finding shots when I needed to, really will mean a lot to me and the people I work with,” Donald added.
In the process he blew away Simpson’s bid to hang on to his lead on the money list. The American’s game visibly buckled under the relentless pressure applied by Donald’s brilliance.
Currently leading the European Tour’s Race to Dubai by more than 1.3m euros from his closest rival Rory McIllroy (who has played four more counting events), Donald is now destined to become the first to top the earnings lists on both sides of the Atlantic.
This is an astonishing feat. Tiger Woods regularly achieved the same thing but without being a member of the European Tour. As a result he was not bound by the potentially debilitating rigours of satisfying the playing requirements of both circuits.
Since going to the top of the world rankings by winning a play-off against the then world number one Lee Westwood to claim the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in May, Donald has remorselessly increased his lead in the standings.
This year he has accumulated just more than 500 ranking points, US Open champion McIlroy is the next most impressive with just more than 300.
In basic terms, the rankings are determined by the average of points gained over two years divided by the number of tournaments played. The more events played, the higher the divisor and no one in the top 50 has played more than Donald’s 54 counting tournaments.
Yet his points average of 10.75 is now 3.27 ahead of Westwood in second place. Putting the gap between first and second into context, Donald’s advantage roughly equates to the lead Westwood has over the world number 17, Justin Rose.
Here we have statistical proof of just how dominant the Briton has become at beating more golfers more regularly than anyone else.
Donald’s critics say he does not win often enough, but no player has won as many tournaments on the main tours in 2011. Many believe his peers in America will vote him Player of the Year and that if they don’t it will be an injustice.
Respected American golf writer Steve Elling, of CBS Sports, put it this way: “If the American players don’t vote for Donald when the ballots are mailed, the process is a complete sham and future honours should be decided by a panel of experts who are actually paying attention.”
When the end of season gongs are handed out on this side of the Atlantic the choices will be somewhat harder given the major successes of European Tour players Charl Schwartzel (Masters), McIlroy (US Open) and Darren Clarke (Open).
Donald’s sustained excellence bears comparison with those victories even though all were earned in great style but it is, of course, in the majors where the Englishman has yet to fulfill his potential.
Sir Nick Faldo tweeted his congratulations and stated that he believes Donald will break through at next year’s Masters, where traditionally the tournament is won by the best putter.
There is no one better in that department at the moment and former Masters champion Zach Johnson was moved to apologise to former putting wizard Brad Faxon and tell his Twitter followers: “Ok. I think Luke Donald is the best putter I’ve ever seen. Sorry Fax. Love ya, but Luke is a #machine.”
Undoubtedly the majors provide the world number one with his greatest ambition, they always have done. But from now on he will surely be better equipped than ever to handle the attendant pressures.
Surely at the Disney, we saw compelling evidence that in the majors, Donald’s duck is soon to be broken.
