European Tour - Portugal Masters

As it happens, this week we will see the last stop of the European Tour show in 2012 on the old continent. The bad news is that we won't be seeing it back on these shores for the next six months!? Fortunately, there are some good news as well this time... As you may have seen it, today ET announced (together with Turkish Airlines and Chubby Chandler!) a new official 'mega' tournament (€7M) to be played in Turkey (called the Turkish Open) from next year, in the first half of November. Following the steady stream of bad news of late, this is very good news indeed for the European Tour and without me repeating what they said, you can find all the other details that are known at this point in here:

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/news/newsid=175202.html#turkish+open+starring+role+the+2013+european+tour

One bit which I don't quite understand is the fact that they say it will be the penultimate event of the season... Assuming that Dubai will be the last event of the season, this raises the question what will happen with the Singapore, HK and SA Open which have been traditionally held after that date. But I'm sure all this will be clarified in the near future. One thing is certain, the European Tour should have a pretty different look next year...

But back to Portugal... this is a relatively young event, which started in 2007 and one that attracted a reasonable field every year, although it has experienced a slide in field strength from the 2009 peak over the last couple of years as the prize fund dropped from €3M to ~2.25M this year...

Spoiler:

The sensational win by young Tom Lewis last year made him an instant superstar, but unfortunatelly his form took a nose dive after that and it's been quite upsetting to see him near the bottom of leaderboards on a regular basis. Let's hope that coming back here after a year, it will somewhat rekindle his spirit, his passion and his form. Oddly enough, three other former winners of this event will be searching pretty much for the same thing this week (i.e. their lost form): S. Webster, A. Quiros and M. Kaymer, so we'll keep an eye on their progress over the next days...

Apart from all that, not sure why, but I feel there will be a French or Italian winner here this week...

Cheers, dynamark. Just got carried away a bit this afternoon seeing the news about that new event in Turkey....

Interesting news about the Turkish Open, as we finally have a new tourney that almost can be considered held in Euope... Hope the Turkish golf union boss can behave though. Read that he head butted an annoying photographer in front og Tiger...

Talking about 2013: does anybody else think that 6 tournaments in South Africa are a few too many?

pedro, there are 6 in plan only until February, but remember that on top of that, towards the end of the year we should have the SA Open, the rather mysterious $8.5M "Tournament of Hope" which is supposed to make its debut in 2013 and not to mention the NedBank thingy...

A day is a long time in golf... With all the criticism for squeezing the European Tour out of Europe, you have to hand it to O'Grady! In only a few hours today he managed to cause a lot of head scratching and almost a sense of 'panic' especially among the golfing media and policy makers across the ocean... The announcement of the 3rd mega-bucks tournament on the ET calendar to precede the Dubai season finale, made people to suddenly realise that this is begining to look very similar (to say the least) with the Playoffs and FedEx cup on the PGA Tour.

On top of that, the news came through that the ET will start to count the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup and Seve Trophy against the yearly ET quota of 13 events, making Tiger, of all people, to declare (jokingly or not) that he will certainly now have to think seriously and consider taking up ET membership... Ooops!

As I was half guessing a while ago, there seem to be some interesting times ahead this end of year and next...

Great synopsis pd, but message to GO'G and the European Tour;
Be careful for what you wish for!

In the short term, looking forward to this week's action from Portugal - another half dozen tournaments like this week's and the European Tour would look healthier overnight.

How come a small country like South Africa (small in economy - big in golf)can raise the money for so many golf events? I guess we'll have more ET tournaments in SAf than in the UK?

Plenty of golfers of whom much has been expected (in the past for Fish and Gallacher) swarming the top of the leaderboard, and good form from Lowry and Gonzo ahead of their presumed travels to PGA Tour Q-School.

A bit of early rust in Harrington's game? +2 after 6 holes.

pedro:
Re South Africa: Not sure what the purses are for the SAF events but they have typically not been much above Challenge Tour levels and barely half that of the Wales Open which top Europeans avoid in their droves.

All 3 around 1 million euro so yes about half usual.
But -weathers nice get well looked after and the fields are weaker so not a bad way to avoid the snow and dark nights all considered.

Harri getting back in shape on the back nine. Would love to see Fisher win again and get back to the top 50...

Regarding the SA tournaments, the projected prize fund for the 7 regular events planned in 2013 is close to €10mil (~$13mil), which is not so bad. Then the Hope will be another $8.5mil, plus ~$5mil thrown in at Nedbank (not ET event obviously). So we're talking in excess of $26million over a year...

Meanwhile, let's not forget our friend Paul Casey who seems to enjoy the Gangnam Style, currently T3 in Korea, together with kwini's friend NaNaNa... I bet Casey needs a win there even more than he needed it last year. Not that his win last year really helped him too much after that...

Promissing start for Padraig today, T4 at the moment...

Casey in 2nd place in Korea after 2 rounds...

Harri is on fire this morning... leading on his own with 7-under par.
Could move as high as #43 with a win here...

-10 for his las 20 holes from Harri............maybe this is the breahthrough after 4 years...................will be interesting to see how Tom Lewis does today. Friday's can be hard if you are looking behind you at the cut rather than ahead to the leaders..........good luck to him..............

Edit: double now posted by Harri..................................

Harro must be one of the most frustrating players to follow...

Shane Lowry going well so far too John, T7 at the moment

Michael Jonzon just got an 11. It astounds me when a pro golfer gets more than an 8 at a hole. How do they allow it to happen??

He missed the putt for a 10...

incontinentia wrote:He missed the putt for a 10...

How do you know it wasn't a single putt for the 11??

incontinentia wrote:Harro must be one of the most frustrating players to follow...

Yeah, we've been saying that for a few good years now, some things never change...
Birdie at 17th, followed by a drive in the trees at the 18th...

All of us here know you have mystical abilities of foresight, but perhaps you don't realise your own power or that you put the hex on him, princedrac.

I had an "intake of breath" moment when I read your post this morning about what a win would do for his OWGR...

Front nine in 73, back nine in 63: Perhaps Padraig can arrange to play 10 - 18 twice instead of the indignity of bogeys on 1 thru 9?

Nice recovery from his poor start Thursday whichever way you look at it.

See someone's been shmoozing Iain Carter: "Rose winner of 'fine' event"; speaking about the turkey trot.

Wouldn't the BBC's golf man be better off waxing lyrical about affairs in Portugal? Idiot.

Good start Paddy, two three putts in the last five is costly....especially when he is 10 feet away with a birdie putt to come....Anyway big weekend to qualify for the HSBC and giving himself the chance to play his way into the nedbank or tiger's tournament....and the WGC's early next year......most importantly it is to end his drought on one of the two main tours.

kwinigolfer wrote:See someone's been shmoozing Iain Carter: "Rose winner of 'fine' event"; speaking about the turkey trot.

Wouldn't the BBC's golf man be better off waxing lyrical about affairs in Portugal? Idiot.

It ain't just him. It's been noticeable how the sports news over here has covered the wheelbarrow event (even before the all-English final). Personally, I could care less but it would be a bit of an effort.

So McIlroy bagged 300,000 $ and an afternoon at the pool side with Caroline for losing all his matches. Not bad. Almost like being government employee.

pedro wrote:So McIlroy bagged 300,000 $ and an afternoon at the pool side with Caroline for losing all his matches. Not bad. Almost like being government employee.

I want to work for your government please!!!

Bad news first... From those former winners in Portugal that I've mentioned at the start, Quiros has obviously lost it at the moment (mostly around the greens apparently, with 35 putts yesterday), while Kaymer, what can we say, let's just hope it's not going all back to the pre-RC struggles... Young Lewis made it to the weekend, but only just, while Steve Webster looks the best of that lot, probably in good stead and relaxed after those €64k he earned last week in Scotland , which more or less secured his card for next year. Not looking great for Eddie Molinari either after collapsing to an 80 yesterday, hope he's all right...

And it was almost very bad news for the leader, Ross Fisher, as he apparently had a nasty injury scare just as he walked off the 1st tee, but somehow he managed to pull himself together and finished in force with a great eagle at the 17th to give himself a very healthy 3-stroke lead. Harrington wobbles over the last few holes yesterday left him raher dejected at the end, worried that he'll end up low down the board by the end of the day, but he should get some comfort seening that he's still T4 and just 4-shots adrift, so not out of it by any means...

But there's some good news coming out from Korea this morning, where Paul Casey is now leading by two shots after Rd3, after a great eagle at the last hole. Not done just yet though, as he is closely followed going into the final round by the other big stars in that field, KTK (T2), Wi&Na (T4)...

Superb start by Franny Molinari today, making my Italian/French win prediction look slightly less out of place...

Is the place on the money-list on the European Tour required to keep one's card set in stone? 115th??

Not sure I understand all the details of this, but I think it just depends if there are any Affiliate Members among those top 115. Last year I remember they went down to 118, as Jbe Kruger, Freddy Jac and Ryan Moore were Affiliate Members and inside that range...

Cheers pd,
Must be a very difficult time of year for ET players on the fine line of keeping their card, what with the limited field (i.e. guaranteed money) events in the Far East which may exclude them but accomodate golfers of less ET commitment who may thus overtake them.

Not sure the ET has got this quite right. (Understatement.)

Shane Lowry climbing the leaderboard steadily, should be well placed for a charge tomorrow.

While St.Padraig is beating a hasty retreat.

Shane Lowry can book his place for the first time at the Dubai World championship.

Michael Campbell - 1 bogey all week - remarkable...............

Oleeeeee! El Mecanico... what a finish!

If Fisher and Wiesberger remain 4 shots ahead, could be hard for the others to catch up with them tomorrow, but you never know...

Good come back for Padraig in the end, but in the greater scheme of things, it's been a bit of a wasted day at the office for him...

Harri -12 on back 9 and +6 on the front................

Michael Campbell could be the story of the week here....................a top 5 would be amazing considering how bad it got for him..........

Touch of class at the end from Harrington, nice to see - imagine he needs a top two to be absolutely sure of a return to the Top 50.

Would love to see Fisher win however; his form of three and four years ago was no fluke and it would be good to see him bouncing back. France and Italy look to be a stroke or two too far back . . . . . . . .

Agree about Campbell, John, he looked really solid today. Always thought his Pinehurst win was more reflective of his talent than the past six years have been.

By his extremely low standards set over the past 5-6 years, Campbell's last 3 months or so have been almost outstanding Currently he's #607 in the rankings...
Technically he needs a top 7-8 here to equal (both owgr and money) his T11 at the French Open 3 months ago, a much bigger event obviously. He also finished T14 at Crans-sur-Sierre and then inside top 50 last week in Scotland. So, the signs are there that perhaps some change for the better is happening to him... hopefully it'll last.

France and Italy don't really deserve to win at this point, on average they've been below par this week... I still wonder when are we going to see the next French top 50 player?

Harrington was really poor at the start.....missing the first seven greens and four wedges as well were included in that.....nice comeback. Too far back now more than likely. Would be great to see Cambo win again.

Great starts for Willett, Jacquelin, Slattery, Olesen and a few others, just a bit too late to have any impact at the very top...

Not so great news for Paul Casey though, two double bogeys on the front nine today killed his momentum and his chances of a repeat win, finishing T5 in the end. Title went to a 'local' Kim after a playoff with Nanananana....

Glad to see that the ET is reading these threads and are begining to try and use their imagination and some of the unique things that Europe has to offer, as I was saying only a week ago... They seem to have put those wise thoughts into practice already at this week's CT Czech Open (relegated from ET's 'Premier League' this year as we know):

Spoiler:

With such brilliant innitiatives, expect the return of the big sponsors and a quick promotion back into the Premier League next year... A WGC in Prague in the next few years anyone...?

Looks like a casting call for Jim'll Fix It . . . . . . .


Low scores out there already, late bid by Rafa for France, can Franny top that?
Should be exciting few hours ahead of us.

Talk about France's next top 50, for the time being for me Rapha's still up there, probably the best of the lot... but time is runing out for him unfortunately...

As for the Italians, even Matteo could catch Jacq if he birdies the last two holes, good to see that he woke up in the end...

Lots of very low scores out there today, but for some reason the Irish decided to start backwards...

Fish the first one to wobble from the leading group...

On the other hand, the stream of birdies and smiles from Michael Campbell continue, great to see! And suddenly he's tied for 2nd...

Go on Lowry my son!!

Swish, nothing but net!

I wonder if a win here would eliminate one of the "Stages" at Q-School for Lowry - not sure if the categorization of owgr's is retroactive - you'd think it should be.

S_R won't be happy if Lowry takes the title. Would be nice if Michael Campbell won though although that would mean 2 years exemption and another 2 years of him finishing plum last week in week out.

I switch my TV from 4:3 to 16:9 to watch Lowry.

Come on Shaneo!

pedro wrote:I switch my TV from 4:3 to 16:9 to watch Lowry.

I genuinely laughed out loud there!!!