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

Yeah I'm surprised fowler isn't defending (although it is a different course), especially as the Open is in Scotland.

Maybe he'd seen the weather forecast? Wherever he was yesterday he was wearing t-shirt and shorts.

I'm also surprised there hasn't been more late American entries with the Greenbrier being cancelled this week.
Has Castle Stuart been toughened up at all since the SO was last there in 2013?. I remember a few grumblings from some pros in 2012, 2013 that it was a bit of an "easy" test and not proper links.

Mickelson probably thought it was perfect.

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:Mickelson probably thought it was perfect.  

Certainly turned out that way for him in 2013

Do we know how close the Open field is to being finalized? Is it just a couple of spots to high placed finishers at the Scottish Open? Cheers, Grumps

Correct; Luke Donald has replaced Jaco Van Zyl, then four spots for the highest four finishers at the Scottish Open not currently qualified, so long as those four have a Top 12 result.
Summerhays first alternate, CHIII next.

JAS wrote:I'm also surprised there hasn't been more late American entries with the Greenbrier being cancelled this week.

I think entries closed on June 24th, which was the day before the Greenbrier was officially canceled.

Looks a bit windy at Castle Stuart. 25 mph winds

Someone just played a driver and a utility club for a 386 yard par 4. Still missed the green.

I'm never wrong wrote:Someone just played a driver and a utility club for a 386 yard par 4. Still missed the green.

That's what I regularly do

JB Holmes was complaining he'd lost his clubs. Perhaps he's playing with a rental set - +8 over his first ten holes.

Good test for those in the field next week!

kwinigolfer wrote:JB Holmes was complaining he'd lost his clubs. Perhaps he's playing with a rental set - +8 over his first ten holes.

https://twitter.com/JBHolmesgolf/status/750780666694995970

Here you go Kwini! Not that it helped him at all!

Chris Wood has withdrawn before his tee time!

Neck injury

Has anyone seen the cringeworthy video bites on the European Tour website where each player turns to the camera with their arms folded.

It was embarrassing and contrived during the 6 Nations and Rugby World Cup. Who at the ET decided what the tour needed to make it look better was an embarrassing, forced and uncomfortable piece to camera?

I like it. It's got that David Brent feel to it. And if it makes those pompous, know-it-all types feel uncomfortable then so much the better.

I just don't understand why "folded arms" is seen as some sort of pre-requisite. People fold their arms when they're bored or disinterested. Kind of sums up the ET.
It just looks so un-natural.

It's to make use of video. They used to use a still of people then they turned to video. But you need them to do something. I would have thought a gurn would be more appropriate, but arm folding will have to do...

Strange what some people find offensive.

I don't find it offensive Mac, it just looks terrible, and what's worse is they've stolen off another sport where it also looked ridiculous. It's like some intro to the knobheaded male on "Take Me Out" or something. Shiversome.

Why not just have wallpaper/video of the guy in action, doing what we know them for, you know, playing golf. Wonder how many told the ET to get lost or just didn't turn up to the studio.

Great round from Paddy today!!

Makes sense that Padraig would play out of his skin on a day like that. About 9+ strokes ahead of the average afternoon scores!
Next time it's perfect conditions he'll be over par.

MontysMerkin wrote:I would have thought a gurn would be more appropriate, but arm folding will have to do...

Castle Stuart golfers shooting lights out today - European Tour over-compensating for Thursday afternoon?

Not sure there's a better story this year, so far anyway, than Manassero's return to form.
What's the difference these past few weeks, anyone got a handle on it?

Great to see Matteo Manessero back playing well. Strange how he fell away so much in recent times. Feels like he's been around forever and he's still only 23 years old. They just said on Sky that he was ranked 25 after he won the BMW at Wentworth!!

Great news from the PGA Tour that next year's Irish Open, at Portstewart, will be in July, preceding the Scottish Open, and not May. No explanation of how that affects the "French" - perhaps there's an extra week available due to calendar quirks?
EDIT! The "calendar quirk" was this year    

But who is going to fill the hole in May??

Looking at the entries for the Kings Cup, its hard to believe that the EuroTour is actually co-sanctioning this event.  

I counted 32 Europeans in the field, including one from Estonia and one from Albania.


Edit: Kwini: Guess that French Open of two weeks prior to the Open Championship was not as sacrosanct as Keith Pelley made it out to be.

You may say that, but it may just be that the dates of the "Opens" permit the change.
Hopefully both Tours will learn from their respective stupidities.

kwinigolfer wrote:You may say that, but it may just be that the dates of the "Opens" permit the change.
Hopefully both Tours will learn from their respective stupidities.

Back in 2014 there were 4 tournaments between the USOpen and Open Champ the French Open was conducted two weeks prior to the Open Championship.

So, Looks like they've switched the Irish & the French. Not knowing what the final schedule looks like for 2017, I imagine there's un bon raison for the French to change, possibly almost the same date but in different sequence.

Not happy with the choice of Torrance as a RC VC, big step backwards instead of looking forward by embracing a qualified French or Swedish candidate. Not good.

The GB&I Good ole Boy Network is alive and well.

Some good Challenge Tour fields this week (Michael Hoey etc in Ulster) and next, Robbie Karlsson's gig in Sweden - great to see them well supported.

Interesting to see that losers of RD 1 matches today get absolutely no money!

The TV guys were saying that's the longest wait between wins in the history of the European Tour, for Anthony Wall. Was hoping Noren would win, but a good result nonetheless.
Good tournament; Well Done to Paul Lawrie!

Coincidence that Pieters & Peterson are tied for the lead. While Lee Westwood goes backwards.

Looks like anyone's tournament, with golden oldies Howell & Karlsson chasing the leaders.

No wonder Daly went to play the Czech Open, with hole prizes like this one

https://twitter.com/EuropeanTour/status/767330078489403394

Difficult to believe that Matty Fitz won the brewskis . . . . .

Paul Peterson proving that there's more than two ways to succeed as an American golfer. A result like this will be has been a long time coming for him.

Difficult to believe that Matty Fitz is old enough to drink.

Wow... life changing win for Paul Peterson. I'd be lying if I said I saw THAT coming... but good on him... the guy seriously manned up at every key point it looked as if the moment was getting to him.

robo,
Peterson's been quietly plodding along under the radar in Asia and Europe for a couple of years now; guys like Koepka, Lipsky and now PP are ample evidence of college golfers being good enough to succeed in the sport if given the time to develop properly. Reckon that's healthy for golf on every Tour.
T20 at the MID last year, so could be one to watch next week too.

Kwini... I get what you are saying... the quality of golf on all these tours is pretty amazing these days. And I get what the progression thing as well.... Normally I can go back to a surprise winner and look at his line and see the trend towards the win. I just didn't see much in this guys resume to suggest he was ready for this kind of performance. His first rop-10 finish in a year at the Queen's Cup looked more like an outlier than a trend.

But hey... doesn't matter now. He's got two years of getting to set his own schedule to see what he's got. Good for him, hope he can make something out of it.

robopz wrote:He's got two years of getting to set his own schedule to see what he's got.

So did Richard Boxall get it wrong then when he said he was exempt through 2017? Surely he means the rest of the season, 2017 and 18?

Inw,
Boxall might well be right - the exemption, whether one year or two, depends upon the strength of field. This one might just be a one-year job, not sure.

Good question. I know winners of tournaments with a purse less than €1,500,000 are in a slightly lower exemption category (Czech Open is €1mil)... but I still thought they got the same two year exemption. But I could be wrong. Can someone here clarify?

PS... here's the Euro Tour exemption categories... but it doesn't specify years for wins... http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/players/examptioncat/index.html

Circumstantially, the European Tour Entry Lists shows two-year exemptions for purses 1.5M Euros, one year for below.
And Peterson is on the one-year list now for the MID.

Hmmm... must be the money breakdown does make a difference.  Checking the 2014 Euro Tour winners... Madsen, Van der Walt, Aiken, Crespi, Brooks & Lundberg all won events with purses less than €1,500,000... and none of them are currently exempt via the winners of events with purses less than €1,500,000 category.  So it seems they only got 1 year exemptions.

(There were others smaller purse winners that won larger events or won another smaller purse in 2015 that are still exempt via winners categories. Coetzee for example won another small purse event in 2015)

Does anybody have a Euro Tour policy manual where all this stuff is spelled out?

FWIW, the Euro RC Team Qualifiers are set. No one can crash the Top Nine next week in Denmark.

Veterans: Rory, Rose, Stenson, Sergio
Rookies: Willett, RCB, Sullivan, Fitzpatrick, and Wood

Didn't mean to create confusion, just wondered why Boxy said it. If there are one year exemptions I guess that's it. Ta everyone.