European Tour: Avantha Masters

Probably not a lot of interest in this, but at least I see that Daly is providing some early 'entertainment'...
A triple bogey 8 at the 14th followed by a bogey at the 15th and he's 6-over. The odds of him walking off the course before the end of the day must have shoot up in the last 20 minutes or so...

Canizares and Peter Whiteford having a great start with the early lead (-6) and a good start by Peter Uihlein as well.
Marcel Siem continues his good form this year and he is in the best position from this field to take advantage of that WGC Doral qualifying rule of 'top 10 RtD this year' if he wins...

I wonder if this is a higher calibre field than in past years?

Regardless, two others whose careers have gone sideways recently but climbing the leaderboard today are Jeev Milkha Singh (looked like a fish out of water during his attempts to play thru injury on the PGA Tour two years ago) and Thongchai Jaidee - just on the wrong side of Presidents Cup selection in 2009.

And good to see Sterne playing again - up to 670 in the owgr's!

It's a good field, kwini, but not really stronger than last year, expect around 18-20 points, but no more than that (20 last year). Jaidee and JMSingh also with good starts this season and looking good today, specially Jaidee (especially when you consider he had to put up with Daly's antics all day).

Actually looking again at the RtD table, anyone who wins this week will have a good chance to play the Cadillac WGC, not sure but I think Chowrasia played at the Doral last year after winning this...

princedracula wrote:Probably not a lot of interest in this, but at least I see that Daly is providing some early 'entertainment'...
A triple bogey 8 at the 14th followed by a bogey at the 15th and he's 6-over. The odds of him walking off the course before the end of the day must have shoot up in the last 20 minutes or so...

Well he at least saw out the round pd... but he's just tweeted that he hit a tree root on 9 and has possible torn elbow ligaments, heading home for more investigations. Oh well.

Interesting to read Stenson's oppinion on the ET website... After his great week in Dubai, he thinks his game is back and that he's striking it just as good as he did when he won Sawgrass in '09. Problem is that he'll be finding it hard to show us all that, as he'll be struggling to get too many starts anywhere these weeks... Luckilly he's getting a pass at Honda in two weeks time, which is not so far from Sawgrass after all. Would be great to see him back, but we shall wait and see....

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2012/tournamentid=2012006/news/newsid=154879.html#stenson+senses+return+time

pd,
Stenson and Fanny have full status on the PGA Tour, so he's eligible to play in all regular Tour, non-WGC events, plus The Masters.

Aha, thanks kwini, forgot that, then he should be ok I guess...

Ned, I see he uploaded a picture with his elbow wrapped up... Noticed him rubbing his elbow as he was walking down on the last hole but didn't realise what happened...

SSP Chowrasia played WGC Cadillac last year. Finishing T49.

What is the deal with Henrik Stenson? I heard he lost a lot of money in the Madoff Ponzi scandal. and Yes, he is on his third year of what I think is now 3 year Players Championship exemption

I have wondered why Fannie doesn't dump Henrik and go with Kaymer as his full time mental coach/caddie.

Believe that's correct about Stenson losing money in the made-off nonsense. Think Ray Floyd lost a bunch too.

The Players' winner earns a 5-year exemption. HS has had trouble getting his schedule sorted out these past two years - only just managed to meet the 15-tournament minimum each time.

OK, Yes, it is a five year exemption or the Players.

Stenson has had trouble getting his schedule sorted out because he figured he would play well enough to play 3 Playoff events. He has played so badly last two year, he didn't even get into Barclays, and had to play Fall Series events to fill out the schedule. Last year he played Puerto Rico instead of Cadillac.

Playing both tours is not that difficult, as long as you are playing WGCs and Majors and FE Events.

Casey and Oosthuizen also had to play Fall series events to get their 15 events.



It is when the game goes south is when it gets difficult.

Peter Whiteford is having a great tournament in New Delhi, leading by 2 with a few still out there to finish their rounds. There's little doubt about Olesen's talent and potential and we're getting used to see every now and then 1-2 brilliant rounds, but hopefully he'll be able soon to put 4 of them together and try to win a tournament, that should give him a lot of confidence. This week can be ideal for that and so far he's doing very well to get in contention...

Jaidee still moving along nicely... but talking of him and seeing how fit he is usually, it strikes me once again how many of his conationals (very good players, lots of talent and all that) really seem to have a 'pie eating' problem. You hjust have to look at the other three Thai players currently ahead of Jaidee, and there are a few others as well... Meesavat (haven't heard of him before) is also very tall and really looks like a giant out there, but then today he finished with a 64, best round of the week easily...

Pleasantly surprised to see McGinley playing really well for two days in a row...

maybe JD did hurt his elbow but it happens all too often to players who shoot a poor first round and WD. i think they need to introduce a rule to try and stop it.what do you think?
maybe if you WD this week you cant play next week? too harsh maybe!

hend085 wrote:maybe JD did hurt his elbow but it happens all too often to players who shoot a poor first round and WD. i think they need to introduce a rule to try and stop it.what do you think?
maybe if you WD this week you cant play next week? too harsh maybe!

Some players do get genuine injuries, which are often the reason for poor rounds, and it would be harsh to penalise them for that. Maybe a doctor could rule on whether a player has a genuine injury? That's not perfect though, as many times the only way you can ascertain pain or discomfort is by asking them, so players would learn what they'd need to say to get the doctor's note as it were.

Poor Thorbjorn, spooked this one as well...

Oleson (and Jameson) rather ran out of gas last year after a fine spring and summer.
Surprise package to me this early season has been Soren Hansen - thought he looked well and truly cooked last year, but in good nick now.

Must be something with the Danes, I wonder... If you think of Bjorn, he's gone from an extreme to the other and back again. Kjeldsen is another one who seems to have great periods and then he virtually disappears (like now) for a while, etc...

he had a good showing last week i think. first time id seen him near a leaderboard in a long time though!

Soren Hansen had last year a bad season, which may result from a trial with the Danish tax authorities. He lost and had to pay 10 million Dkr. in fines when he was not, as alleged, living in Monaco.

Soren Kjeldsen, who lives in London also lost around 10 million Dkr. as his agent ran off with his money. Now they both got over their loss, and is ready for new victories.

Thomas Bjorn has 3 victories last season, and Thorbjørn have 3 runner up.

Hi jp, that's quite some details you have there about these guys, thanks for sharing it!

If you don't mind me asking, are you in Denmark? Would be great to have someone around here with that kind of local insight...

Whatever happens, all these guys can really play great golf when they're in top form...

Yes i'm in Denmark, and cheering on Thorbjorn and Søren hansen this weekend.

Wonderful! They both seem to be in a great place at the moment, so hopefully they can make it count with some great results.

You'll have to tell us sometime when you have some time how come a rather small country like Denmark, produces so many great golfers in the last decade or so? You must be doing something right! Is there something like a TBjorn/AHansen effect at work there, I wonder...?

Geat stuff jp, knew about Hansen's troubles but had no idea about Kjeldsen, except his golfing form had declined so sharply.
Good luck to both of them.
(Hope Huldahl's recent poor form has not been due to such sinister reasons.)

Thomas Bjorn is the large model in Denmark. He has unfortunately also his Tiger history, with a child with a Australian air hostess. It has cost on his popularity account. Thomas is still a good ambassador for golf in Denmark.

Anders Hansen is the quiet, which provide priority his family high, it cost a cancellation of a Major last year when he would rather be on vacation with the kids.

Jeppe Huldahl became a father last year, but coach daily beside me on our home turf.

Golf got its big break in Denmark for maybe 15 years ago and now we have 180 courses. The last of the series is Scandinavian with 36 holes designed by Trent Jones jr. and with a clubhouse on Dkr. 100 million, total price Dkr. 400 million, just outside of Copenhagen in a small town Farum.

The finasielle crisis has also put a damper on the Golf in Denmark, but still no courses have been plowed up for lack of payment.

Click on the Scandinavian logo in left side in the link, then there's pictures from the Course.

http://thescandinavian.dk/

Great stuff, jp!

180 courses sounds quite impressive. High time I'd say for Denmark to organise some big tournament on the main ET?!
Any chances of that happening you think?

I love the design of that clubhouse!!! Just what you'd expect to see in Denmark...

We had an ET event, Nordic Open in 2003, with Ian Poulther as winner at Simons Golf Club. It went bankrupt with a bang, but there are again people who are working on an ET in 2013. The date should be in the first week in August, But nothing is clear.
Denmark has the big companies that could be the title sponsors, but the past scares them. To mention some interesting companies it could be Novo Nordisk, Carlsberg, Tuborg, Maersk and LEGO.

Sounds like a good plan. 2013 is not too far away, let's hope it will work out.
Who knows, by then young Olesen could well be a top 50 guy...

Well, some say Olesen is the biggest talent on the ET since Garcia and MiniMac came out. But we need some more consistency please. But as said before, he came close to winning last year.

Is it just me or does the course look really shabby . Pretty sparse crowds as well. I know that the intention is to spread the game tonew markets but it such a shame that England gets one ET event a year when there are millions of golf fans and hundreds of fantastic courses

jpedersen,

Here's a link to an article about Thomas Bjorn written by John Huggan for this week's GolfWorld:

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/2012-02/gwar_thomas_bjorn


raycastle,
The sad truth is that tournaments in England (and Wales), apart from the PGA and The Open, are poorly attended and apparently not attractive to sponsors. Crying shame and, as you say, particularly so given the wonderful courses.
I attended the Friday at Celtic Manor a couple of years ago and attendance was dismal, perhaps a tenth the size at Hartford for their Friday a few weeks later.

I think the Tax situation doesn't help either for tournaments in the UK.

Thank you Kwini, Good article.
Although the bear now lives in sweden, he is still a frequent guest at various junior events in Denmark.

He is also a good mentor for his neighbor Joel Sjöholm, known as El Toro on ET.

Bjørn in Danish is a bear.

jp,
Love the way "the bear" (didn't know that! ) seems to give back to Golf, especially in Denmark, good to see.
The PGA Tour could use a bit more of that, though much improved in that respect over the past few years.


lorus,
"The tax situation" with regards to sponsors and attendees, or just players?
(Never really understand why the most successful among us seem to be the most resentful of paying tax, but that's another story . . . . )

Thomas is also host at the Danish Challenge Tour event ECCO Tour Championship, which he has been the past several years.

Thorbjørn has already followed up as a good example, and is host to a third level event.

Both players show up at their tournaments, as good ambassadors.

I think the Danish players are good to get around in Denmark.
A few years ago, when Soren Kjeldsen meet up at an event organized by a golf forum, He was very surprised about how much the nerds knew about ET, PGA and specifically about equipment.

That's great from Kjeldsen to come around and meet with people from a golf forum! Not sure if something like that would happen around here ... There's an idea for the v2 Admins!

Bjorn=bear, you learn something everyday...
I wonder then, does Thorbjorn mean also something?

Talking of which...he's still up there with a chance for tomorrow, but he'll probably need one of his brilliant rounds, as it's getting crowded at the top.
Kruger is another South African getting close to a winning breakthrough...
But as Lara and Goya showed again today, there are very low scores possible on that course, so many more will be still very much in it.
Still looks a bit strange seeing McGinley just 2 off the lead going into Sunday...

I have seen Jbe Kruger show up on leaderboards, but I think today was the first time I have seen on TV.

He is a little guy! He might be one of the smallest players ranked in the top 200.

Wiki has him listed a 1.66 m (5'5" to us Yanks) and 61 kg (130 lbs). Woosy was not much shorter than Kruger.

For some reason, I thought he was a big husky guy like Ernie.

I remember when Westwood was on the old 606, and your all chose what color polo shirt he had on the next day. There was also something with some push ups - it was great.

Thorbjørn does not mean anything special, but we call him Little Bear.
Something which is also speciel are the times when Thomas has played against Tiger, and of course a bear rip a tiger.

Golf is the second biggest sport in Denmark, with nearly 200,000 active, surpassed only by soccer. When a Danish players wins an event, we have a tradition that all clubs hoist the flag the Monday after.

lw1, ZaneScotty and minimac,

Those were the days, jp!

You'll have enjoyed last year's MatchPlay first round then??!!

Those were the days! But was Rory's nickname not midgetmac?
And especially Dubai 2001 was great. 4 days head to head with Tiger, and Bjørn drew the longest straw, with Tiger and Padraig as runner up.

Yes I enjoyed the MatchPlay with Tiger last year, and I think it was clear that Bjørn had something important to tell Tiger, when the match was over, and Tiger was listening.

I would like to see a repeat next week. But that is another discussion.

midgetmac, that's right. Amnesia here.

As it stands before counting in what's happening at the Riviera, Bjorn would get to play Paul Lawrie and AHansen would play BVP, but sure things will change...

Oh dear.

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2012/tournamentid=2012007/news/newsid=155004.html#statement+regarding+peter+whitefords+disqualification

A bit like Harrington in Abu Dhabi last year......inexplicable that the player handed in his card without checking with the Rules Officials..................

Always ask the ref!

Ok, I know we've discussed it before, and rules are rules, but still a bit harsh to be dq'ed for something when you don't have a personal gain out of it.

The thing that's so ridiculous about this is you can see in the tv footage he is looking at the flag when the ball moves so he wouldn't have actually known unless the ball had fully oscilated.

I just think these idiots at home doing this should get a life and the tour doing so whilst he's playing in the final round is a joke.

Where was the Rules Official? Surely Whiteford was in the final group with Meesawat and Gonnet - wasn't there an official with them?

Very unfortunate. For all the talk of slow play and players not knowing the rules properly, you'd think that the other players in the group would also want to have had an official rule on this? Seems more people than just Whiteford are at fault here.

Tragic for Whiteford - he doesn't have tournaments like this come round very often.

Kwini,

He asked one of his playing partners and a camera man who gave him the ok..................but i think, a bit like Harrington last year, he knew something might have been a problem and chose to play on and hope it would go away...............

Not saying either of them cheated, but, both of them admitted they thought there might have been an issue YET went ahead, signed their cards, and didn't ask the rules officials.................

John,
Whiteford certainly has only himself to blame, but the playing partner is at fault also, not doing his job to protect the field.
And when there are more cameramen available than Rules Officials something's not quite right!
What a mess.

Meanwhile, Kruger has most likely earned himself a trip to Miami, Marcel Siem left to sweat bullets.

I love watching Siem. Such an antidote from some the emotionless glut of players out there................

Missed all the 'fun' this morning. Really tough on Whiteford...

Also takes away from Kruger's great little win.
I was looking, not only that he is such a 'petit' player,
but if you check his stats he is among the longest hitters on tour!!

Kruger @ 166cm/61kg ....driving average 301.16 yds
Meesawat @ 191cm/95kg ... driving average 280.88 yds

So size doesn't matter...

A little tournament but the cash is pretty good and it may well turn out as you say, that Avantha provided Doral tickets for two new ET players: Kruger (#4 RtD) and Siem (#7). Although Siem will be very lucky if he makes it after Tucson...

And there are now no less than 9 South Africans in the top 22 in the RtD... !!