European Tour - Volvo Golf Champions

Apologies, just travelling at the moment and didn't have time to write anything about this, so here's just a thread starter...

Surprised a little bit to see Jaidee on top and by a fair margin, but no surprise to see Louis and Ernie following him closely.
Disappointed though with the youngsters' starts: Matteo, Olesen and especially the defending champ, His Amazing Grace...

But at least we're up and rolling with the 2013 ET show!

Wet an windy conditions also in Saf. Maybe they should've just stayed here in Eur.

They've been very unlucky down there in Durban with the weather...
But fair play to that town, organising two official ET tournaments in a season! Same as Spain and Germany combined!!

I read that Ernie today called his playing partner Colsaerts, "Animal"!! Quite right after hitting a 419 yards drive!

Same as England and Ireland combined.

How did Clarke get into this "tourament of champions"?!

Same as Monty I'd expect.

ET lifetime membership? Don't know.

EDIT: here it is from the ET website -

Players with 10 or more official Race to Dubai/European Tour OOM wins under 50 years of age on the first day of the tournament
Colin MONTGOMERIE The Elizabeth Montgomerie Foundation 41
Padraig HARRINGTON 42
Retief GOOSEN 43
Darren CLARKE 44
Thomas BJÖRN Golf in Dubai 45
José María OLAZÁBAL 47

Not bad by Paul Casey in Round 2, but a lot of ground to make up.

How good a golfer is Scott Jamieson? Don't really know much about him, but his performances these past two seasons seem to suggest a golfer just about to burst on to the Big Time, as Peter Gabriel might say:
"Hi there! I'm on my way, I'm making it!"

I see Tiger was thinking about playing in Qatar but wanted $3m off an appearance fee...

Really?

Sand wrote:I see Tiger was thinking about playing in Qatar but wanted $3m off an appearance fee...

Really?

What a pr1ck.

As good as Jamieson may be, king Louis is begining to look ominous... With a 7-shot gap to the 4th place, he's almost certain now to move to #4 in the world...

Shane Lowry going well, if he keeps this up then to the Masters he shall go!

Louis putted fantastically well.


Seriously, Tiger you don't need 3 million to play an event you already have enough money to last you a lifetime.

princedracula wrote:As good as Jamieson may be, king Louis is begining to look ominous... With a 7-shot gap to the 4th place, he's almost certain now to move to #4 in the world...

Evening pd,

Probably a little early still to call this a three horse race... but you'd still get pretty short odds at the bookies on some combination of Louis/Jaidee/Jamieson taking the podium spots on Sunday night? Any idea where Jaidee and Jamieson are likely to climb to in the rankings if they do finish 1st/2nd/3rd?

Lots of chat coming from S.A. that DC is considering a statement that he will not put himself forward for RC gaffer.
Very wise in my opinion, it would effectively be the death-knell of a career that might still have some life left in it.
A certainty for 2016 though.

Evening Ned, mentioned it briefly on the owgr thread that Jamieson could squeeze inside the top 50 (max. at #48). Would be quite some ascendency in such a short period of time... As for Jaidee, he could move as high as #45 with a win...

I saw those noises coming from DC, kwini, looks pretty certain that he'll announce that. That would give a pretty big boost to the Monty camp. I also saw today statements made by Stenson, who is in the player's committee and the one that famously shifted the ballance in Monty's favour when he was selected for Celtic Manor. He seems to be pretty clear that Monty is the best choice. The Americans must be looking at all this with a great deal of satisfaction, they certainly managed to create a lot of turbulences in the Euro camp with their decision.

And to cap it all up, earlier today I saw Dennis Pugh's tweet...
Ryder Cup Captaincy for 2014 is high politics indeed! Ditch the BS and ask Bernhard Langer. #makessensewonthappen

I hope they go with the original plan and choose McGinley - it would be a betrayal of all that's been successful with the European's RC effort to go back to Montgomerie - I'd rather have Sir Tony.

This is quite unusual but here are some coherent thoughts from Harrington, on Rory's Olympic dilemma.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/20966272

McLaren wrote:This is quite unusual but here are some coherent thoughts from Harrington, on Rory's Olympic dilemma.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/20966272

What about Paddy for team GB then?

Jeepers, 2 hours is a long time in golf! What's happening to king Louis today? All of a sudden his #4 aspirations look very shaky, hope he recovers...

But it's bellissimo to see Maatteeoo surging up the LB after that poor start. I'm really having great hopes for him this year...

As I asked yesterday, "How good is Scott Jamieson?".

Rocky start today, but he's put all that behind him and is separating himself, if not from everyone, almost all the field - almost assured of a podium finish at the very least.

Casey still throwing away shots, but Harrington having a nice spell.

C'mon Paddy! That's better, it's been a while since I've seen an eagle at a par 5 from you...

As for Jamieson and how good he is... don't really know to be honest, we'll have to wait and see.
As impressive as his last few weeks have been, there's no getting away from the fact that, if he goes on to win this, 2 out of 2 wins on his CV have been in a rainy Durban (albeit on diferent courses). So I guess people will wait for further confirmation in other places/conditions as well in the near future...

Ironic that one of Durban's very best golfers is playing well in Hawaii!
Come on Timmy Clark.

Who can blame him. much nicer weather over there than back home (at least this week)... Great way to come back from a nasty injury break... unlike Casey or others, looks like he took his time, and didn't really push it, until he felt he was ready...

Great to see Padraig finally changing his putting routine.

sirbenson wrote:Great to see Padraig finally changing his putting routine.

Haven't seen it..............please tell me it's quicker??

IF PD is there, what is needed from Harri & Lowry to move into Top 50??

kwinigolfer wrote:As I asked yesterday, "How good is Scott Jamieson?".

Rocky start today, but he's put all that behind him and is separating himself, if not from everyone, almost all the field - almost assured of a podium finish at the very least.

Casey still throwing away shots, but Harrington having a nice spell.

Hi Kwinni.
I have been watching him for a while, thinking 'he could be the one'.
His early career was carding loads of eagles/birdies splatterd with double/treble bogies.

I always like to see guys making loads of eagles/birdies as it shows they have the makings.
He seems to have steadied down now and I hope that he or his former team mate Ritchie Ramsay makes the breakthrough this year.

Great for Scottish Golf though, we have been in the doldrums since Monty got older. Paul Lawrie, Steven Gallacher, Ramsay and now Jamieson are starting to give us some hope.

Doon,

I think he has got what it takes............dare i say it a Scots man is as likely to be the next British Major winner (excl NI) than an English man................

Thanks Doon, John,
That's certainly the way it looks from 3,000 miles away - agree with admiring the guys who prove they can go low, but there's such a fine line there.
We have a guy that shot a 56 at a Nationwide pro-am, won his Stage 1 Q-School going away, yet couldn't get past Stage 2 - the story of his career, so far anyway. You know he hsas the "stuff", but is it the Right Stuff??!!
Good luck to Jamieson anyway.

Now, a brilliant back nine would do St.Padraig a lot of good these next two hours.

Job done by Oosthuizen.
And job done by Harrington as well. An excellent 4th place, close to assuring himself a spot in the MatchPlay and edging towards the top 50.

Hope Harrington will be at Pebble Beach in a couple of weeks, often seems to play very well there.

Dissapointing for Jamieson but as he said he will take 3,1,2 in the first three tour events.

Paddy, RCB, Ramsay, and Lowry, all vulnerable of falling out of the top 64 before the matchplay, all finished in the top 10 this week. reducing the vulnerability. Good for them. Matteo finishing T9 clinched his spot in the match play and probably the Cadillac.

But for every player that got closer to the match play, other golfers spots got more tenuous.

Like #50 Oleson, #51 Ogilvy, #53 Stenson, and #55 Fraser.

Depending on what happens in Hawaii, I think Jaidee (by finishing solo 3rd) is going to be 63rd or 64th. Bubble boy!

Haven't watched anything today... Great comeback from Oosthuizen and very good indeed from Harri... He's averaged 27 putts per round this week which is excellent, better than Louis (~28)...

Top 7 after this week are clear now:

1 Rory McIlroy
2 Tiger Woods
3 Luke Donald
4 Louis Oosthuizen
5 Justin Rose
6 Adam Scott
7 Lee Westwood
...

Paddy is currently at #48 (Sony not accounted for) and he is very unlikely to be kicked out of the top 50...

Here's the provisional situation for top 50/64 before counting Sony results:

...
41 Matteo Manassero
42 Ryan Moore
43 Hiroyuki Fujita
44 David Toms
45 Thomas Bjorn
46 David Lynn
47 Jamie Donaldson
48 Padraig Harrington
49 George Coetzee
50 K.J. Choi
--------------------------------
51 Thorbjorn Olesen
52 Richie Ramsay
53 Shane Lowry
54 Henrik Stenson
55 Rafael Cabrerra-Bello
56 Geoff Ogilvy
57 Miguel A. Jimenez
58 Marcus Fraser
59 Marcel Siem
60 Alexander Noren
61 Thongchai Jaidee
62 Bernd Wiesberger
63 Anders Hansen
64 Greg Chalmers
-------------------------------
65 Thaworn Wiratchant
66 Fredrik Jacobson
67 Bud Cauley
68 John Huh
69 Simon Dyson
70 Scott Jamieson
...

PS. Currently on a skiing break, so I may be struggling to keep up with everything on time for the next week or so...

Not sure that going skiing when golf is on is not a dereliction of duty . . . . . but hope you're at Sugarbush or Jay Peak - I'll come up and buy you a cocktail.

Yup, thought Harrington might have slalomed close to the Top 50, but wasn't sure; if you haven't included the missed cuts from Hawaii, then KJ Choi may continue his downhill run out of the Top 50 - as Vijay has found, you need several chair lifts to get back to the summit, though I suppose Stenson took a metaphorical gondola to get back into contention.

Nice work from Thongchai.

Jay Peak? My old stomping grounds. If you go via St Albans, you pass three houses that I used to occupy. One in Enosburg, one in Montgomery and another in Montgomery Ctr.

Ogilvy slides at least 5 spots!

GPB,
You'd likely never recognize Jay now, they're pumping millions in to the place, including a Graham Cooke golfcourse which is said to be quite good, an indoor waterpark, lodge and high-end entertainment, etc, etc.

http://www.jaypeakresort.com/

Haven't been myself, but people rave about it - a friend has been doing ski patrol there forever (he's late 70's) but has stopped going due to the hordes on the mountain!

Yup, Ogilvy is golf's equivalent to a baserunner stealing an unattended base: not "fielder's indifference", but golfing indifference. Hopefully he'll get over it and he's in next week's Humana field and, one trusts, San Diego which I believe is where he now lives.