European Tour - Open de Espana

The ET show is back in Europe this week with the Open de Espana in Seville, one of the oldest golf tournaments in the world, and according to the ET website, there are a lot of reasons for celebrations: 100 years of existance for the tournament, 40th anniversary of the European Tour (which incidentally started with the Spanish Open) and the 20th anniversary of this Seville course (Olazabal design). The only problem looks to be the weather, with rain and/or wind being forcasted for most part of the tournament. Thomas Aiken is here to defend his title, although in all honesty, I'm not sure what to make of his chances this week as his carreer took a bit of a dip, if anything, after that nice win a year ago... He says that he's gonna try to pull a 'Dufner' this week, as in getting a win before he's getting married next week in the Bahamas (another one bites the dust ). Talking of which, looks like a nice start from the Molinari brothers, somewhat surprising as they came here straight from that wedding in Turin last weekend. Glad to see Larrazabal with a good start this morning as I have him as one of my picks (coming here after a small but nice win in Barcelona on the Alps Tour last week)... I see quite a few others who showed good form lately gathering at the top of the early leederboard, so hopefully it should set things up for a good tournament...

P.S. Aiken is quoted on the ET site saying that the Spanish Open is the 3rd oldest tournament in the world. I'm a bit surprised by that statement, can anybody confirm if that is true...? I thought at least the Open, US Open and Canadian Open would be older than 100 years, but I may be wrong...

Edit: ...and maybe the French Open as well...?

It may be wet but fishes don't seem to enjoy it very much... Oliver Fisher at +5 after 6 holes....and (talking of signs of good form lately) Ross Fisher's +7 after 5 holes (including a snowman)...

a bit surprised Sergio isnt playing. usually very supportive of this type of event. and he has a great record in them too!

I guess Sergio's thinking was to focus on the Players, although after he made that strange statement at the Masters, not sure where his mind is right now, left everybody wondering...

It's tough out there, only 5 guys from the early starters are under par, and they're under par only just. Paul Lawrie wasn't in the original field in Spain (1-2 weeks ago when I looked first time), but now he may come to wonder if it was the right decision to come here. Hope Francesco will go on to win this, he's been playing again some excellent golf recently...

Wonder if Paul Lawrie will play TPC next week - couldn't find anything on his website about his upcoming schedule.

Promising start for Matteo.

No idea what Paul Lawrie's intentions are, but I think in some ways he's not that different then others like him... the older these guys get, the harder is becoming to predict what they are going to do...

Mattttttteoooooooo!!!
Rocky with a promissing good start as well after his break....

Thought Rock had retired!
May be in for a good week,plays well in rough weather generally and would have been working on his game.

...just like that! Great eagle for RRock at the 13th, now leading on his own...

Still windy out there, but the late starters certainly with an advantage over the early birds...

Do you think Paddy power will have spotted that.

RR just handed his eagle straight back!

Paul Lawrie to skip US Open, citing poor performance in the US Open.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/paul-lawrie-skip-us-open-231803898--golf.html

''My record in the U.S. Open is not good and I understand that it is a major, but I feel I have more chance of playing well at the BMW International Open the week after,'' Lawrie said Wednesday at the Spanish Open. ''I know people are going to be surprised ... but I stand more chance of earning Ryder Cup points at the BMW in Cologne then in the U.S. Open in California.''

Serious question, why would Ollie want him on the Ryder Cup team? Medinah is a stereo typical US Open course.

A lot more prize money and a lot more ranking points at the US Open than the BMW in Cologne. And even he misses the cut at US Open, he can be back in Europe by Sunday morning, plenty of time.

IMO, pretty bad decision by Paul Lawrie.

Lairdy wrote:RR just handed his eagle straight back!

...and he gets it back again at the 16th! Danny Willett is again coming into the frame, will he stay there?

Great play from Shaun Micheel and a chance for an eagle for him as well...

RE Sergio....

He stopped playing the Open de Espana in 2003 when he added the Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) Championship, to the Colonial and Nelson he was already playing on the Texas swing. Most years the Wachovia was in direct conflict with the Open de Espana. With exception of a rare Euro event here or there... Sergio's normally makes his way to the U.S after the Middle East swing and stays through the U.S. Open.

But over the last few years at least, he has played either 2 or 3 of the Madrid, Castello and Andalucia Valderrama Masters.

Seems that David Horsey has lost the plot completely these days. Solid start by those at the top, particularly good from Colsaerts and Dyson and Storm...
I remember coming across some very positive remarks a while ago about this English amateur, Jack Hiluta, and that seems to be confirmed here in Seville. I understand that he qualified for this event after he won the Spanish Amateur Champs, or something like that...

robopz wrote:RE Sergio....

He stopped playing the Open de Espana in 2003 when he added the Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) Championship, to the Colonial and Nelson he was already playing on the Texas swing. Most years the Wachovia was in direct conflict with the Open de Espana. With exception of a rare Euro event here or there... Sergio's normally makes his way to the U.S after the Middle East swing and stays through the U.S. Open.

But over the last few years at least, he has played either 2 or 3 of the Madrid, Castello and Andalucia Valderrama Masters.

Yeah thats spot on. I see hes in the field for the world matchplay in Spain the week after the players.

Yep, Sergio's confirmed (at the moment) for Volvo Match Play, and so is Charl Schwartzel (maybe he doesn't fancy the trip SAf-Florida-Spain).
Among other 'internationals' confirmed for Volvo are Sneddeker, Villegas and Senden. I wonder if any of them will stay for Wentworth PGA the week after...

Great eagle finish (with a belly putter!) for Dyson puts him right in it for the weekend...

Pretty good field for the Volvo MatchPlay event I'd've thought; not sure they could realistically expect much better.

But a dismal turnout for Madeira next week; would think the E.T. needs to rethink one or two of their secondary events, St.Omer also. Perhaps to have prizemoney earned count on the Challenge Tour moneylist as well might help?

Gonzo's lucky day as the cut goes to +4 - it looked as if he had self-destructed . . . .

Anyone know what's up (besides his golf scores) with Alvaro Quiros? His 2012 year has been TERRIBLE with a T29 finish in Malaysia as best tournament. Struggling to make the cut this week.

He is hardly being talked about for a Ryder Cup pick now, and he was making the team after his win in Dubai late last year.

kwinigolfer wrote:Pretty good field for the Volvo MatchPlay event I'd've thought; not sure they could realistically expect much better.

But a dismal turnout for Madeira next week; would think the E.T. needs to rethink one or two of their secondary events, St.Omer also. Perhaps to have prizemoney earned count on the Challenge Tour moneylist as well might help?

i was at el finca cortesan last year and the crowds were embarassing. i was one of about 400 people at the event. there was more stewards than fans.

Agree about Alvaro, apart from his score today, he should feel extra embarassed for finishing the worst of the three Quiros's in the field (the other two are certainly making the cut)! What's happening with him? Who knows... apart from having already at his young age a bit of an injury history, I wonder if he didn't become a victim of his own celebrity (especially with the ladies) after he won a couple of events last year, etc... You can see him these days quite often in all sorts of ads and promotion events, etc. Only a week ago I saw a picture of him hitting some 'demo' balls across the pitch during the break of the Betis - Atletico football match, promoting in fact this particular event...

Didn't check the situation very closely, but I wonder if there is any chance still for the cut to move to +5...?

Alvaro, Luiten, Rhys Davies, Ross Fisher and Boyd all miss the cut by one.
All their seasons going inexorably in the wrong direction.

The rain in Spain is causing them a lot of pain today...
Just restarted after a 2-hour suspension and Peter Lawrie has just remembered that he won the first Open de Espana held on this particular course...

All the golfers with most to gain (the owgr top 50) are playing the worst, not too dissimilar from the Premier League in that respect.
Colsaerts and Dyson gaining ground by treading water. Unlike Cabrera-Bello, for instance, who's sinking fast.

Storm is making its/his presence felt in more ways than one in Seville.

Where's jp, he may need to iron out again those Danish flags...

Horrendous triple from Matteo...

What a stinker from Simon at the last!! Good thing is that he brought a lot of fellas back into the frame for tomorrow...

Great early revenge for Dyson for that duffed bunker shot at the 18th yesterday. He just holed a bunker shot at 2nd! Nice birdie-birdie start for him....

Heady times, these, for Austrian golf, Wiesberger last week, Brier making a belated charge this.

Great final six holes (5 birds) from Maybin, but who's going to win? Still no birdies today from Larrazabal - that can't last, can it?

Looks like Francesco has taken control of the tournament. And if can hold on to his 3 shot lead, he should go on Ollie's short list for a Captain's pick. (along with Poulter, Bjorn, and Jimenez)

He will pass Poulter in the World Point list into the 11th spot and I think into 10th spot on the Euro list.


Edit: OMG: A Jarmo Sandelin sighting on the leaderboard.

Apparently the day is going quite well so far for at least a couple of Italians.

Well done to Frannie. Great win and look forward to him playing well at the TPC next week also following his good showing there a year or two back.
Seems to be putting much better than a couple of years ago, more complete game if the putter can work for him.
Wonder if Quiros and Dyson will bother travelling after those disappointments this week?

kwinigolfer wrote:Wonder if Quiros and Dyson will bother travelling after those disappointments this week?

I would hope not, if I were a pro I would not miss an event as big as the players for anything. Dyson is not always going to be in a position to play these big events so should take every chance he gets, a little like the argument I would make to Lawrie.

Great job Francesco, very happy to see him winning again!
It's been a very good test of golf this one, with rain and wind combined with a tough course design, so coming through as a winner here says a lot about his game and potential... Dissapointing to see Simon's relative collapse today, if anything I thought he suferred of being a bit overly confident in the latter part of the tournament... In his interview after yesterday's round he was very dissapointed after he duffed that bunker shot at the last and lost two shots and siad something like "I should be running away with this the way I'm playing", which was a bit of an unusual thing to say... Pitty for the Spanish armada, they would've loved to win this one. Good week for the Danes and good to see Matteo finishing with another top 10... The only thing is that it's not sufficient to give him any safety cushion for the US Open and he'll need to follow this with a good result at Wentworth...

kwinigolfer wrote:Well done to Frannie. Great win and look forward to him playing well at the TPC next week also following his good showing there a year or two back.

...Frannie twitted this at 8-9AM this morning:
Fancy life of pro tour, last night 2.30 hrs drive to malaga, flight to Gatwick, drive home, in bed at 4 AM, now on way to heathrow!
Sounds like he may be a bit tired after all that...