European Tour - BMW Shanghai Masters

With almost everything Made in China these days, we probably shouldn't be surprised that a good chunk of the European Tour falls now into tha category as well. We have now 4 tournaments on the ET that are hosted by China in 2012, with a total prize fund of almost €15mil and that represents around 11-12% of the cummulated prize funds of all ET events this year!

This is obvously the first official year of the BMW Shanghai Masters following last year's 30-man exhibition experiment. Rory McIlroy won that one (together with the $2mil star prize!) after a play off with Antony Kim. Here's the final table just to remind you who was there and how they finished (crossed those who are not here this year)...

1 Rory McIlroy
2 Anthony Kim
3 Hunter Mahan
3 Noh Seung-yul
5 Lee Westwood
6 Ian Poulter
7 K.J. Choi
7 Retief Goosen
9 John Daly
9 Padraig Harrington
9 Y.E. Yang
12 Keegan Bradley
12 Geoff Ogilvy
14 Paul Casey
14 Robert Karlsson
16 Jim Furyk
16 Hu Mu
16 Charl Schwartzel
19 Wu A-shun
19 Louis Oosthuizen
...etc.

Obviously, almost all the creme de la creme of European golf is present with only a couple of notable absentees: Padraig Harrington who just went for the easy option this week, playing and winning that Bermuda rectangle that we've been talking about, and the other one is Sergio Garcia... Something of a surprise to see him missing these big events in China, considering that he is one of the past winners of the HSBC event. But there seems to be a good reason for his absence as I read a report which said that he had an eye surgery just after the Ryder Cup to correct some astigmatism problem. Hopefully all that went well and we can see him back playing very soon...

Apart from the mega prizes on offer this week, a lot of attention will be focusing from here on on the Race to Dubai, where Rory is in a great position to win it for the first time and with that he will have a great opportunity to top the money lists on both sides of the Atlantic. But with so much money still on offer in these last 5 events, the RtD is far from being decided and the race is still very much on for all those 60 spots that will qualify for the final event at the end of November....

Money, money, money.

Always funny.

Speaking of which, I hear that Paddy had a good first day over in Bermuda. At least Shanghai is now an official event, obscene amounts of dosh or otherwise!

Skydriver wrote: I hear that Paddy had a good first day over in Bermuda. ...

He did indeed. All four players were mic'd up and it was interesting to hear some of the exchanges..

At one stage, Harrington hit a great tee shot, and held the pose for a very long time - probably until the ball came totally to rest. Bubba said "Nice pose" and Harrington replied with "Thank you. You'll be seeing more of it."

I do like them mic'd up - obviously the Grand Slam of Players without Obligations (or whatever it's called) event is less pressure and more of a jolly, but it is still interesting to hear them round the course.

I presume it's all on a time delay to edit out the "f***********k"s or is that just me!

Pretty embarrassing stuff to go to the ET website BMW Masters leaderboard and sort by WR position: Beem, Hamilton, Micheel... Need I say more.

Bob_the_Job wrote:

Skydriver wrote: I hear that Paddy had a good first day over in Bermuda. ...

He did indeed. All four players were mic'd up and it was interesting to hear some of the exchanges..

At one stage, Harrington hit a great tee shot, and held the pose for a very long time - probably until the ball came totally to rest. Bubba said "Nice pose" and Harrington replied with "Thank you. You'll be seeing more of it."

I saw/heard that. Quite pointed, I thought. Don't know if Paddy was feeling outnumbered with the other 3 being the best of the 'young americans' or what, but there definitely seemed to be an edge to the exchange.

Yep - I thought there was a wee bit of needle in it too, but it's hard to tell.

Did anyone else not realise mcilroy was on course to top the US and european money lists? This was news to me.

Re Rory. With a bit more stability in his game (had a bit of a slump in the spring) I can't see why he shouldn't be able to repeat that feat next year as well.
Great to see Rory following up on Donalds feat last year. I can't see Rory not winning the R2D.

It's going to be an interesting finale to the R2D this year, personally I'm hoping Rose can pip Rory, and a victory here would be a good start!

Some heavy rain earlier this morning made the course pretty soft and with no wind the conditions have been pretty good for some low scores out there. But no one had capitalised on all that as well as Jamie Donaldson, who just finished with an incredible 10-under par (new course record!) and 4 shots clear of Peter Hanson. Great start for Ollie as well as for Michael Hoey, the Molinari brothers and a few others. Rory, Luke and Lee all going strong at 3-under...

how many OWGR points are on offer do you know PD?

sorry- i see it on the other thread

He's gooooood! (see video)

http://www.marca.com/2012/10/21/golf/1350842753.html

But as usual he took a lot of shots to get the ball in the cup.

thats all looks very fake!

This looks quite real though..
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/celebrity/sports/jose-maria-olazabal

Looking at the 78 man field, there are some odd "invites":

37 qualified from Worlds Top 100.................fair enough

6 past Major winners.............DC (fair enough), Campbell (World Ranking 355 ?), Weir(zero World ranking pts)/Beem(622)/Hamilton(638)/Micheel(777).............pathetic

Khan/Casey/R.Fisher/Kjelsen as Wentorth/Volvo winners since 2007 - ok

Levet/Ed Molinari as recent Scottish/Frence winners - ok

A further 20 players made up of tournament winnersin last 2 years which is fair enough

there are a fer regional invitees.......fair enough............

Then we have "Invitations":

Daly............WHY??.......McGinley.............WHY??.................Olazabal............WHY???
Stenson.....WHY??

Completely agree John, an O'Grady slap in the face to European Tour stalwarts - I'd exclude 2010 winners also, like Richard Johnson . . . . .

Unfair to the guys who make the wheels go round on the E.T. including Team France, Jacquelin, Bourdy, Havret, plus Foster, Andersson Hed, even Rhys Davies. Not surprising guys get disaffected and travel west for fortune, if not fame.

It is absolutely sickening to see Daly there in particular............being rewarded for being a certified ar##hole presumabely..............

Wouldn't have too much of a problem with the invites, if they had a normal full size field. Maybe they've been given time to 'grow' step by step...? (last year 30, this year 78, next year more... who knows?)

With guys like Daly or Ollie, not that I agree, but I could understand that maybe some local sponsors want to see some of the 'famous' faces there, but McGinley and Stenson... not sure why. I looked for a while at the entry list and I think McGinley was squeezed in basically after Padraig WD'ed. Feel particularly sorry for Jacquelin who actually won the old BMW event in China in the past...

You put up the money, you determine (for the most part) the rules. Freak shows like Daly MUCH more marketable than many a European Tour journeyman. His clothes alone beg for camera time.

ET tour obviously not growing like it wants to (or even against the overall opportunity, IMO), so I wonder if they really care about offending some of the guys who make the wheels go around? Reminds me of Branch Rickey, baseball owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who told one of his players he was in a contract dispute: "We finished last place with you, we can finish last place without you."

Shotrock wrote:You put up the money, you determine (for the most part) the rules. Freak shows like Daly MUCH more marketable than many a European Tour journeyman. His clothes alone beg for camera time.

That's true, it's the world we live in... And just looked a bit further at the main sponsors for McGinley and Stenson...

McGinley: BMW, Adidas, TaylorMade,...
Stenson: BMW, Schuko, TaylorMade,...

So, not only BMW, but very German-heavy portfolios for those two...

Shotrock,
The only reason Daly is playing increasingly in "Europe" is because US sponsors have got sick and tired of his act and tournament directors have tired of him stiffing them. His ugly American act will get old in Europe, too, eventually.
On top of that he hasn't attended Q-School since 1990 although every other player losing exemption has at least tried. Or retired.

Too bad because Daly has been playing much better recently.

But by your rationale, you'd give an exemption to Michael Skakel as the TV cameras would surely follow him around - especially given the prowess with which he evidently wielded a golf club.

Kwin - It's why Jerry Rice played on a Web.Com event last year. X Company takes the risk, they want virtually every possible means to build event publicity and viewership.

At what point this cheapens the product (or event in this case) "too much" (ratings dive) is anyone's guess.

"My" rationale ... nah, just an observation.

I guess I'll leave leaf removal until weekend after!

Ah, good analogy.

Except: Jerry Rice was one of (something like) 156 players in an event where he would have known he wouldn't get Nationwide pay.

Daly is playing in an event with a field of 78, no cut and a guaranteed payday of about $8K, Euros which a European Tour pro striving for his card would love to have.

The problem I have is inviting golfing non-entities to a limited field, no-cut event that excludes the better part of the rank and file. There's a good reason why Finchem doesn't stage events like that and it's just about time Dufus O'Grady was given the message.

Great day for the Swedes, Irish and many of the English, not so good for the Italians and Spaniards. Looks the kind of golf course where Rory can win even when he doesn't appear to be at his very best sometimes. Having said that many others are showing that they can shoot low scores here so it should be a good battle at the weekend.
Shane obviously knew what he was talking about when he said that he fancies this course, brilliant 64 today, same as Hanson and Karlsson (nice to see him back in contention)...

Yes, great job by Shane in round 2 after a disappointing level par yesterday. You'd have to say Rory looks ominous, should be a good weekend unless he and Hanson run away from the field.

Im most sports yoe earn the right to play in the big events, not always in Golf..................

O'Grady is obviously happy to choose Beem, Hamilton, Daly & Micheel, players who have not earned the right to play on the PGA Tour, and whose appeal is dubious.

Running a sport has responsibilities, and the responsibility of running it fairly & transparently is of upmost importance...................

What surprises me is that players aren't speaking out.........the last time i remember a player speaking out was about 10 years ago about this tournament i believe in Germany with a limited field again...........Andrew Coltart was at the time struggling to hold his card and there were players invited who were behind him in the Money list invited guaranteed a pay day while he was forced to wait for the following week to play a fuul field event for about 1/4 of the prize fund.............he described it as like allowing Man Utd/Arsenal etc add their Champions league points to their Premier League points eack year...........i remember Paul McGinley coming out criticising Coltart for his comments at the time.....................

Well put by Coltart. But I guess that's why everybody so desperately wants to qualify for the Champions League. It's hard to get there first time, but once you've made it a lot of doors open.

Cream risen to the top in Shanghai, most of the ceremonial starters at the bottom with the sediment.
Haven't seen any of the Asian golf this week yet, but lots to play for in both events, however many misgivings we may have about the structure of the tournaments and so many free passes into the fields.

Another top Euro who's not in Shanghai and didn't mention him in that intro is Thomas Bjorn. Not sure why he's not there, but I see that he's below the cut-off line in the entry list for HSBC... and if he doesn't play that one either, he'll be out of the top 50 for sure (may be squeezed out this week if he's unlucky). Not sure also how he's fixed for all the goodies next year, majors, wgcs, etc... He may well join Padraig later on regretting that they didn't do more, earlier, to boost their owgr standings...

As for the Asians, at least the two best Chinese, Liang and Wu have separated themselves and are in decent positions.

And talking about people who shouldn't really be there this week, what about Romero... Not sure those €5500 he'll get for nothing, would even cover his costs of making all that trip over...

Missed the action this morning completely. Surprised scoring wasn't a bit better

If I am not mistaken, the Challenge Tour finished the year earlier today.

The top 20 earn EuroT cards.

Seve Benson is the lucky bubble boy at #20 on the money list. I see some journeyman players among the top 20 like Wakefield, Lockerbie, and Carlsson.

Not sure if there is a can't miss prospect among the top 20, but if there is one, my guess it would be Kristoffer Broberg from Sweden.

I am little surprised that Uihlein did not work himself into the top 20. He didn't play as many tournaments as most of the others, however. He did play enough to show me that he is not ready for prime time.

And if I am not mistaken, Uihlein skipped PGAT Qualifying, completely. Which really surprises me.

Great season (or should I say half-season) for Broberg. Only pitty that Kofstad snatched the 1st spot from him today, although there's no comparison really... Kofstad needed 22 events to gather all that money, whereas Broberg did it in only 7 events... 4 wins, a T3, a T7 and a T9! The other thing is that Broberg had a chance to break into the top 100 with a solo 2nd or win today, but not to be, just yet...

Mind you, the very few main tour events that he played in the last couple of months showed that the transition to the premier league is not going to be easy, even if you had such an outstanding performance in the second league...

http://info.alpstourgolf.com/tic/tmoom.cgi?oom=AT~imp=n~lspos=Y~dc=Y~bdlink=Y~season=2012~style=00~groupties=Y~pr=N~textout=N~bordersize=1~fontsize=*~winfocus=Y~

Could you guys sort something out for me? This is from the 3rd level Alps tour - I know the leader's cousin, so have kept an eye out for him. I think the top 5 get cards for next years Challenge your - but is he guaranteed to finish top? (think there is one event left!)

Thanks!

Dave,

You are right that the top 5 get Challenge Tour cards. By the looks of things, the tour operates a points system and a top 5 finish will net you a couple of thousand points. With things looking pretty tight at the top, I'd say your guy is far from certain of claiming the OoM... he's probably safe for the CT next year, but only just!

Looks like an interesting crop of players graduating from the CT grand final today. Hard to look past Broberg obviously, but for some reason I'm not convinced he's the real deal, something about the way he's come from nowhere with very little previous hype which doesn't add up. The Danish crop looks the most promising for me, Harto should fair much better in his second year on the full tour, with a better card, and Hansen and Madsen are good prospects too. Pleased to see Carlsson take a high card as well, long thought that he belongs on the main tour, but has had no luck with exemption categories, injuries and untimely slumps in form. Could be one to watch if he has a good start to 2013.

5 of the top6 on the final CT OOM are Scandinavians. Not bad.

Ahh good, long as he gets in the top 5, it's all good - and the final event carries a higher purse than the other events. Thanks Ned!

Dave. wrote:Ahh good, long as he gets in the top 5, it's all good - and the final event carries a higher purse than the other events. Thanks Ned!

Looking at the OOM, I would think the stars would have to align almost perfectly in the final tourney for the leader to fall to #6.