European Tour 2016 - Dubai

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Selected RD 1 Tee Times
1 07:40 Felipe AGUILAR Raphaël JACQUELIN
1 07:50 Renato PARATORE Mikko ILONEN
1 08:00 Romain WATTEL Jaco VAN ZYL
1 08:10 Matthew SOUTHGATE Kiradech APHIBARNRAT
1 08:20 Ricardo GOUVEIA Padraig HARRINGTON
1 08:30 George COETZEE Pablo LARRAZÁBAL
1 08:40 Marcus FRASER Brandon STONE
1 08:50 Victor DUBUISSON David LIPSKY
1 09:00 Jorge CAMPILLO Julien QUESNE
1 09:10 Tommy FLEETWOOD Nacho ELVIRA
1 09:25 Joakim LAGERGREN Soomin LEE
1 09:35 Nicolas COLSAERTS Alejandro CAÑIZARES
1 09:45 Richard STERNE Byeong Hun AN
1 09:55 Charl SCHWARTZEL Grégory BOURDY
1 10:05 Rikard KARLBERG Alexander LEVY
1 10:15 Shane LOWRY David HORSEY
1 10:25 Bradley DREDGE Matthew FITZPATRICK
1 10:35 Richard BLAND Scott HEND
1 10:45 Francesco MOLINARI Andrew JOHNSTON
1 10:55 Thomas PIETERS Søren KJELDSEN
1 11:10 Sergio GARCIA Haotong LI
1 11:20 Thongchai JAIDEE Ross FISHER
1 11:30 Joost LUITEN Jeunghun WANG
1 11:40 Martin KAYMER Andy SULLIVAN
1 11:50 Lee WESTWOOD Bernd WIESBERGER
1 12:00 Thorbjørn OLESEN Chris WOOD
1 12:10 Louis OOSTHUIZEN Rafa CABRERA BELLO
1 12:20 Branden GRACE Tyrrell HATTON
1 12:30 Rory MCILROY Alex NOREN
1 12:40 Danny WILLETT Henrik STENSON

Dunno, what about Paul Lawrie @ carnoustie?

Yup, Altho' Lawrie does sterling work with his MatchPlay shindig.

Had also forgot it was "British" and not "English". So there are plenty of potential candidates.

G-mac could host it somewhere in Alabama.

Birmingham would be appropriate.

I wonder if leaving the EU would have any impact on UK golf, for example the European tour events currently held here?

Not to get into the debate, but let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Would surely affect football though.

Can't see how EU exit would impact golf. The European tour is played in Asia and South Africa.

Potential impact on football squads, although UK is likely to come to some sort of labour arrangement if we leave. Imagine going back to the squads of the 80's and earlier when even top teams like Liverpool fielded British teams

Zoomin' Soomin wins "China".

Very happy to see Alex Levy in the shake up again. Does anyone look as if he's having more fun playing golf than Monsieur Levy?

Joost must be very close to sealing a US Open qualification . . . . . . .

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/news/newsid=291083.html

Dundonald to host 2017 Scottish Open.
Good course?
Good choice??

And Rory playing in France instead of the Bridgestone.

Surprised by Rory's decision, not like he needs the Ryder Cup points...I wonder if he has been given an appearance fee

SirB, I think the European Tour substantially increased the FO prize money in an effort to raise the profile of ET events. I doubt he'll be the only one to miss the Bridgestone to play French Open.

I see, cheers Super! I think McDowell has said he will play the French Open (Not sure if he is qualified for the WGC)

Wonder what it would take for the French to be worth more in OWGR points than the Bridgestone? Or is that not possible.

Super

Never mind the money, it guarantees he doesn't get paired with Gerry.

Unless guys like Rose and Stenson and the Saffers turn up, I can't see "France" getting to within 20 points of Bridgestone. Wonder what Danny Willett will do?

SmithersJones wrote:Wonder what it would take for the French to be worth more in OWGR points than the Bridgestone? Or is that not possible.

They are offering enhanced R2D points and counting it as two events for ET members. CLICK HERE

I'm never wrong wrote:

SmithersJones wrote:Wonder what it would take for the French to be worth more in OWGR points than the Bridgestone? Or is that not possible.

They are offering enhanced R2D points and counting it as two events for ET members.  CLICK HERE

Thanks, I'm aware of what the ET are offering, I meant in terms of how many top 10/top 50 players would have to be there rather than at Bridgestone.

What about Shane? Will he defend at Bridgestone?

Smithers the bridgeston was a 74 point event last year, meaning it had a SOF rating of  between 721 and 765.  Also without Rory in the calculation.

Last year the french open was a 36 pointer.  SOF between 151 to 165.  But we already know we an add about 30 points to that as Rory has signed up.

At 195 SOF it would be worth 36 points.  So still need a few more players to defect from the WGC.

Here is the table needed to work out all the permutation if you can be arsed.  I guess the easiest calculation would be to add all the double dippers and euro tour only players to the french field and take away their contribution to the WGC SOF.  Then try and work out who would fill the remaining places in the WGC field.

Or work out what the SOF would be for a hypothetical field with all the Europeans in the top 200 present.

http://dps.endavadigital.net/owgr/doc/content/Rating%20points%20Structure%20Sept%202014.pdf

If you do this please share the results.

Poulter and McIlroy will be at the French Open. McIlroy not being paid to play.

Extraordinary story of Marc Cayeux, nicely told:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/ryan-lavner/cayeux-still-chasing-dream-after-near-death-accident/

Thanks Kwini. Hope he makes it back full time.

What a story, incredible courage and determination. By the time I got to the end of it I'd almost forgotten about the time travelling at the start, crashing a 2011 car in September 2010!

Mary's lad is stringing together some promising results:

http://www.owgr.com/en/Ranking/PlayerProfile.aspx?playerID=9498

He'll be overtaking T.Woods (owgr 499th) at this rate.

PS: 2 inches of snow up here and still falling steadily . . . . . . no golf today.

Kwini

I got caught in a hail storm while wandering around Edinburgh earlier.


Sadly doubt that guy will be back in a WGC or even the European tour. But I am sure he could make a living as a club pro somewhere. Pretty sad story.

Volvo China Open has a 159 player field this week.

156 Player Max is typical.

Felipe Aguilar leading in China - amazing to read that he did an "Ironman" a few months ago.

Strong field for the Irish Open at the K Club, headed by Rory & Danny Willett; pd reckons it could be 48 owgr pts to the winner.
Just a shame no leading Americans are taking the trouble. Bridgestone revenge?

kwinigolfer wrote:http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/news/newsid=291083.html

Dundonald to host 2017 Scottish Open.
Good course?
Good choice??

Kwini it's a fantastic golf course, right up there with any other links course I've played. The stretch of land includes a healthy number of high quality links, so another championship links wasn't really needed in the area, but the loch lomond members wanted a links course and Kyle Phillips obliged.

Think it's gone under the radar a bit so far as it was always the second course to loch lomond and was members only at first. It's now more accessible and it's a cracking layout with some really good risk reward options.

Thanks ray, I'd heard of it but nothing more than that.
Looking forward to watching the action.
Thanks, Hope the field matches your write-up . . . . . .

Heading to the Irish Open for the full week this year, shame the field isn't as good as last year. To be fair last years was incredible though and it's to be expected that it would be weaker this year with the more condensed schedule

Great to see Noren in contention again! Hopefully he can win tomorrow and stay injury free for a spell now!

Still a pretty good field though sirb.
How is the K Club for following the players?

Still not sure which events I'll get to attend this year, the two most obvious ones are back-to-back in August which could be logistically difficult.

Li HaoTong does a lot better in China Tournaments on bigger Tour than he does on the Web-com tour.

He had 1 top 10 in 19 Web-com events last year.

He had 3 out of 3 top 10's in EuroTour events last year, all in China, including the HSBC.

And now he wins the Volvo China Open.

Mcilroy has withdrawn from the BMW PGA Championship!

I'm not surprised. I have mentioned a few times that May would be a busy month for Rory. Quail Hollow, then the Players then his Irish Open. The BMW would make it four on the bounce, and I don't know if he has other commitments after that.

Attractive field for the PGA @ Wentworth, but not great in terms of owgr points - badly missing Rory and Henrik - rewarded with Jamie Lovemark instead. Doesn't seem fair.

Quite a coup for Keith Pelley to get Jamie Lovemark for the BMW!  

Unless the flagship points were officially transferred to the RtD finale, BMW PGA winner will still get 64 pts.

Clement Berardo's caddie is easy on the eyes.

Edit:

Looks like Asia has taken over the EuroTour domination from the South of the Equator crew.  (Aussie and SAFfers)

Three Asian wins in a row...Soomin Lee, Haotong Li and Jeunghun Wang.

Agreed Kwini the Irish Open field is much better than it was two years ago and tbh I was so young when I was last at a tournament at the K-Club (a practice day at the Ryder Cup)

Lovemark? Give me a break.
Did the ET spend all the appearance money appeasing the Wentworth neighbours?

Jeunghun Wang wins again.

Africa (6), Australia, (6), and Asia (5) all have more wins on the EuroTour than Europeans (3) this season.

GPB wrote:Jeunghun Wang wins again.

Africa (6), Australia, (6), and Asia (5) all have more wins on the EuroTour than Europeans (3) this season.

Maybe because all the events so far have been in Africa, Australia and Asia!

The only European tournament so far was won by a European. Expect more European winners in the next few weeks!

Heading to the Irish Open from tomorrow for the rest of the week! Not been to a pro-am yet!

Dead excited!

Have a great time, sirb.
Looking forward to eye-witness reports!

Thanks Kwini, very much looking forward to it!
Weather forecast doesn't look too great (no surprise)....shame as it has been quite sunny the last few days!

Tee Times are out! Bring it on!

DC is still keeping an eye on prospective RC'ers, Broberg & Wood this week.

Jeunghun Wang can become just the third player in EuroT history to win three consecutive tournaments.  Seve and Faldo are the first two.

-According to a Doug Ferguson tweet.

Justin Rose is reporting that he's had to withdraw from the PGA @ Wentworth because of persistent back pain that he experienced at The Players and thereafter at home.

The typical heart of his season is compromised now as he has a fine record at Memorial, US Open and Quicken Loans, not to mention shooting himself in both feet at The Travelers one year when he should've won.

Good health to Justin

Never mind Justin , Danny Willett is going crazy! Don't think he'd've got to 7 under this morning.