European Tour - Volvo China Open

It hasn't been easy to find the motivation to write something about the European Tour events the last few weeks, and this week's Volvo China Open is no exception really... So, what can the marketing department of the ET do in these hard times to keep people interested in their show and still generate headlines? As they say, if you can't beat them (i.e. the PGA Tour) why don't you join them...? In other words, get yourself an even younger Chinese lad to play in your show and you'll be fine! Certainly seems to work a treat so far, with the 12-year old Ye Wo-Chang, figuring in most headlines and pictures coming out of China this week...

For one more week (thank god it's the last one for a while!), the European Tour gets into bed with one of its mistresses, and this time is the turn of the OneAsia Tour. Last year this event reached something of a peak in terms of field strength, but that's not going to be repeated this year. Branden Grace was a pretty hot player last year and he didn't disappoint, managing to get yet another win after his great South African successes, but this year, after the early desert swing, he seem to have cooled off quite a bit, and I'm not so sure how much of a factor he'll be this time around. But I certainly wouldn't write him off just yet... Pitty that Colsaerts is not here, this event and course suited him very well in the past. So, are we going to see another Aussie winner? Probability is pretty high as there are quite a few of them in there from the OneAsia tour who could surprise us, although I'm still going to keep my faith in Fraser for another week. Two other guys that I stuck with in my FT these last few weeks were Noren and Dubuisson and I decided to give them another chance as they both played well here last year. Otherwise, the Scottish golfers have been featuring constantly near the top of the leaderboards this season and this is likely to continue, although I can't quite make up my mind, which one of them I should back this week...

One way or the other, I'm hoping for a decent tournament, although I'm not too sure if we'll still be cheering Ye-Ye-Ye anymore by Sunday afternoon... But one thing's for sure, as far as I'm concerned, I'll be looking forward to seeing the back of this long Afro-Asian periplum for a while, as the European Tour will return after this to good old Europe for about 5 months!

Cheers pd. Thanks for the write up. For sure I enjoy reading your write-up's more than following these seat-filler tourneys.

The Desert Swing is a nice asset to the ET, but the huge number of Asian and Saffer tourneys is becoming more and more farcial. It's like inviting all the cool people you know for a party, but only having their weirdo friends showing up.

Brilliant analogy, pedro!

Thanks pd,
On the bright side there are one or two groups I'd fancy following:
Jacquelin, Bjorn and Noren
McGinley, Alvaro and Eddie M
Larrazabal and Lawrie
but apart from getting the chance to see Tommy Fleetwood and one or two other young 'uns, it's a pretty uninspiring field.
Team Scotland needs to step up.

And then there are DC, Ernie and doubtless one or two other freeloaders in Indonesia, ensuring that the European field is diluted, not just by the PGA Tour, but by the lure of the (Scott Verplank's) Jakarta Fourball.

From the European Tour Twitter account

Our best wishes go to Alejandro Canizares, who was taken to a Beijing hospital with suspected meningitis yesterday #getwellsoonsenor

https://twitter.com/European_Tour/status/329784205078831105

Cheers pedro, kwini.

Where's jp to tell us about JB?! That's a very 'colorful' start on his card...
Nice to see Rapha continuing his good form, same for Pablito.

Otherwise, it's more about the 16-year old Ze than about the 12-year old Ye...

That's pretty scarry news about Canizares, hope everything will be all right,,,

See the Volvo china open course fits beautifully with the sponsors make of cars- Bland!!, this has to be the most dullest, featureless course I have ever seen and it looks like its in the Chinese equivalent of The Fens. It's also the most dullest comp I have ever tried to watch.
European tour looks like its dying on its legs. No crowds equals no atmosphere, I hate the 'get in the hole' American way but at least it's nice to see some crowds, good crowds at that, lineing the ropes each week.
George O 'Grady should be called George o'deary what are you doing!!

No doubt done to death already but - Given the question marks (ahem) raised over the ET globetrotting on this (and surely other) forums and I presume by extension in the golfing community as well. What would you do instead?

As one poster (apologies can't remember) pointed out - Spain's likely the only place suitable in mainland Europe for early tournaments and Spain is having a bit of a financial twitch (second ahem). Do we just ditch tournament golf and have a shorter season?

To me - the globe trotting is in theory a good idea to fill gaps before Europe is available, but surely it's a case of dilution of spectacle with so many stops so far away.

Do we have to have so many events? There seemingly isn't the market. Why not combine the multiple SA, Middle East and Far East tourneys into fewer decent ones. Or ditch the "european" tour and just have done with it and have Globo Tour (cringe name but you get the principle).

Admit defeat and become a formal second division to the PGA with promotion and relegation?

I have no idea as to the answers and it's easy to fall into simply slagging off what is in place (especially if it is the seemingly dull dirge we are experiencing). It simply seems the European tour is reflecting the decline in golf participation and is in danger of fading away. Following the money will mean that less european events are left with more and more globetrotting otherwise.

Arg.

It's good to see Derksen return to form. Long time no see. Does a good job on bland courses (he won Dubai and Madeira).

RollerC- as you say, we went through the subject a few times and I don't think we could come up with any radically better, realistic ideas... If you look at the European Tour from a pure business/financial point of view, O'Grady is probably doing a very good job considering the circumstances. But the main problem I'm worried about is the effect all this is going to have on the quality of future generations of European players if there will be less and less strong events played close to home, while in those played away from home the competition from 'overseas' players keeps getting tougher... It's interesting to see that the geographical divide is already pretty clear this year: from 12 events played on ET (apart from the majors and WGCs), only 5 winners were from Europe and they came only in the Middle East and European events (if we consider Marocco as almost in Europe). The other 7 events held in South Africa and Asia were won by Saffers, Aussies and Asian golfers.

As for the tone of some of the posts here, I guess it's just due to accummulated frustration, but I expect we will become more optimistic now that the tour is going to be back in Europe for a good while, and then we'll have those new 4 very big events at the end of the season, even though they're all going to be in Asia...

Maybe Santa Claus will hand Europe a nice gift this week from Lapland, i.e. a winner in the shape of Mikko Ilonen. Tremendous round 63 today from him. But two of the 'other' winners this year, Rumford and Kiradech, look in great form. Made a big error picking Fraser against Rumford in my FT, while Noren and Dubuisson have been also dissappointing so far. Good to see Casey sitting inside top 10 midway through...

Otherwise, the Aussie & Thai revolution seems to continue, with Jaidee leading by two shots in Jakarta, followed by no less than 4 Aussies... There's an Aussie lingering also in the 3rd spot in Japan, but the more interesting news there is that the new Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama is in the lead once again!! Really impressive start of his pro carreer, regardless of the weaknesses of the Japanese Tour...

What are the odds of having TWO repeat winners this week in Rumford and Matsuyama? Not sure if that happened before, but it would be a pretty rare thing, for sure...

Horribilis finish for Casey after a brilliant start, which brought him at some stage tied for 2nd place...
You can never know with the French... Dubuisson carding the best score of the day today.

All between Ilonen and Rumford at the moment. BTW, the Finn looks a bit on the slow side to be honest... as for Rumford, good player and good to watch, pitty about that broomstick though...

EDIT: I see Howler has been DQed... not sure what happened there. Hmmm, he's been very vocal towards the rules officials when Woods had that infamous drop at the Masters saying that he should've been DQed...

Found this about Howler's DQ...

http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/sport/10400508.Howell_disqualified_in_China/

Otherwise, total change at the top in Indonesia, Thongchai and the Aussies are nowhere to be seen near the top today, but Ernie and Wiesberger are right up there...

As for Matsuyama in Japan, well, when I woke up this morning he was 6 shots ahead (!) at the top after 4-under on the front 9, but then... disaster! Carded a 7-over par on the back nine and droped now 3 shots behind the lead... ooops!

Surely the only real thing of interest in the China Open is Dubuisson's girlfriend.

princedracula wrote:Found this about Howler's DQ...

http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/sport/10400508.Howell_disqualified_in_China/

Otherwise, total change at the top in Indonesia, Thongchai and the Aussies are nowhere to be seen near the top today, but Ernie and Wiesberger are right up there...

As for Matsuyama in Japan, well, when I woke up this morning he was 6 shots ahead (!) at the top after 4-under on the front 9, but then... disaster! Carded a 7-over par on the back nine and droped now 3 shots behind the lead... ooops!

Still trying to find more detail on Howeller's DQ, Wasn't there any footage of it on camera? ...What I don't understand is that it happened in round 1 and he played the whole of round 2 before DQing (he called it on himself apparently). Had it come to light at the end of day 1 he might actually have made it back to Swindon to present the prizes at the event he sponsors at his old club every year. Still sent plenty of good prizes though.

So yet another week to forget on the European Tour, when is it going to get in the slightest bit interesting, oh yes when it reaches the good old UK at Wentworth in a few weeks.

Not unexpectedly, Volvo has filled the blanks in next week's Match Play in Bulgaria with a couple of Sweeds (Petersson and Stenson), but no complaints as far as I'm concerned... So, the 24-strong field is set (bar any last minute WDs):

1 Felipe AGUILAR
2 Thomas AIKEN
3 Kiradech APHIBARNRAT
4 George COETZEE
5 Nicolas COLSAERTS
6 Jamie DONALDSON
7 Gonzalo FDEZ-CASTAÑO
8 Stephen GALLACHER
9 Branden GRACE
10 Peter HANSON
11 Thongchai JAIDEE
12 Scott JAMIESON
13 Shane LOWRY
14 Graeme MCDOWELL
15 Francesco MOLINARI
16 Geoff OGILVY
17 Thorbjørn OLESEN
18 Carl PETTERSSON
19 Ian POULTER
20 Brett RUMFORD
21 Henrik STENSON
22 Richard STERNE
23 Bo VAN PELT
24 Chris WOOD

Pretty good field, pitty about the size though... Ah, and something that jumps in the eye straight away (although it's not surprising, it's called Worls MP at the end of the day), only half of them are Europeans. Should be worth ~34 points, same as last year, but this week's Players could change that slightly...

Looking forward to seeing how that Thracian Cliffs course looks and plays in reality, read lots of praise about it...

"Thracian Cliffs"? Are you referring to Shane Lowry and Carl Pettersson?