My Ryder Cup Picks

Before Monty announces his captains picks on Sunday, here are mine:

Paul Casey – great all round player, good ryder cup record, renowned solid matchplay record. Can’t believe he isn’t in the team outright?!

Padraig Harrington – Triple major winner can handle the highest level of pressure, a real fighter out on the course, not a great cup record though especially in 2008 where he was poor.

Eduardo Molinari – exciting potential partnership with his brother Francesco with whom he won the World Cup. Has had a great season combining wins with consistent high finishes and only eligible for gaining ryder cup points 4 months less than the rest.

Justin Rose will narrowly miss out despite some great wins in the US. Hasn’t shown great loyalty to the european tour and certain events in particular and Monty may hold that against him. Would love to have seen Rhys Davies make the team being Welsh and after an excellent season. He’s been slightly off the boil recently which will have cost him an automatic place. Luke Donald will be another who will have just fallen short.

-2, Tied 21st

Ok so us and 50 other pairs wont be heading to Turkey but we had a great time and played pretty well in the sun at Royal Ascot. -6 was the winning score which wouldn’t have been completely out of our reach had a few more putts dropped!

PGA Pro-Captain Challenge – Royal Ascot

Currently sat in the car with Cams Mens Captain Peter Ward heading to Royal Ascot GC for our assault on the South Region qualifier of the PGA National Pro-Captain challenge. Winners head to the grand final in Turkey in December…game on!!

Keeping it Simple

To everyone who’s game gets bogged down with too many technical swing thoughts on occasions (myself included!) here is a great quote from the winner of last weeks Players Championship on the USPGA Tour – Tim Clark of South Africa.

“When I get to a tournament and head out to the range, I’m concentrating on one thing: hitting the ball in the middle of the clubface. If I struggle with my swing, I don’t hit more balls. I stop, go back to my room and just do something else. I come back the next day, make sure my setup is square, and try again. That’s as technical as I get.”

Try taking that mentality into your next game/practice session. A repeating golf swing is worth a lot. $1.7m in Tim’s case!

Memories of R.C.G. Sevilla

Just been watching this weeks European Tour event, the Spanish Open played at the beautiful and awesome Real Club de Golf de Sevilla. I remember I played there in June 2008 and took this photo when we finished and got back in the car. And I carried in that heat!

Masters Madness

Its only 2 days to go before the start of the first Major of the year, the US Masters. Obviously there is added interest this year as its Tigers first tournament back from his…well, we all know what. But the majority of the furore that followed that is over now, the much awaited first press conference is over, unsuprisingly there are no no new revelations and its time to concentrate on the event. 

I’m predicting a Tiger victory, even after a near 5 month lay-off. If he’s playing well which apparantly he is, i dont think he will suffer any issues getting back in the frame of mind for a tournament.

A couple of other players who I think will feature are Retief Goosen, who is in form and has a good record round Augusta. His new putting technique this season (belly putter, cross handed grip) seems to be working for him so he should enjoy a good week. Geoff Ogilvy – great short game, great putter I think will break his suprisingly average record at Augusta, even though he isn’t in the greatest form. For a home interest i’ll go with Paul Casey, long hitter, great iron player and a solid putter. An injury which forced him out of last weeks tour event could be a slight worry though.

Here’s to 12 hours in front of the TV coming up! Thank god the BBC have rested Gary Lineker this year. Enjoy!

Perfect Putting Planning (from) Poulter!

Anyone who has noticed Ian Poulter’s rise up the world rankings recently will agree with me that this is partly due to a noticeable improvement in his putting. I was interested to learn Poulter uses a “greens” book in each event he plays in. This appears to be an incredibly detailed map of each green on the course. Below is an example of a green from a recent event. No wonder he’s putting so well!

I’m looking for someone to map out the Cams greens in a similar way for me to give me half a chance of winning some of my Captain+Pro challenge matches!

Tourney Time!

I love this time of year when tournament entry info starts coming through in the post. Through the national PGA and the Hampshire PGA there are a good number of events to play in.  I hope to play a little more this year, especially in the pro ams. Click on the following link for a list of Pro Am dates and venues, and get in touch if you would like to partner me in any of them. Teams are generally 1 Pro, 3 amateurs Hampshire PGA and PGA South Region Pro Am Calender 2010[1]

I’ve got this entry form for a little event played in Scotland this summer (below) that you might have heard of (?!). To get through to St Andrews you need to pass local qualifying (18 holes) then regional qualifying (36 holes). So on one hand you are potentially 54 holes away from teeing it up alongside the worlds best golfers on the worlds most famous course. On the other hand it is £130 (entry fee) for one round of golf. I’m still considering which point of view i’ll take!

Golf at Goodwood.

I was kindly invited to play in a fourball at Goodwood yesterday with two Cams members and had a great time. We played the Downs course which was in great condition and is a long, tough, test – over 7100 yards from the silver tees! We teed off at 9am when the sun was shining but man it was cold! I can easily say that they have the coolest golf buggies that i’ve seen at Goodwood. In fact they call them Woodies - retro style complete with detachable roof!

    

Me behind the wheel of Woody 6!

Ever played Worseball?

I played 9 holes the other day in a brutal format called Worseball. Basically you play 2 balls from the tee and select the worst ball, then play 2 balls again from that position and choose the worst one again. You keep doing that until you hole out. I shot +6 for those 9 holes and every par felt like a birdie! There is just no room for any bad shots – unfortunately I hit a few. A good example is from the 4th tee par 3 I hit my first ball to about 3 feet, then the second ball into the greenside bunker so had to choose that one! A great practice game which puts pressure on every shot you hit – give it a try!

Managed to green both my tee shots on the par 4 9th (above). Nice when you’re worst ball is good too!