European Tour: Johnnie Walker Championship @ Gleneagles

First topic message reminder :

After two great European wins in US we're back this week (without the two winners, unfortunately) on the Europeant Tour with the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles. And as we've heard many times already over the past week or so, it's all about Ryder Cup (well, almost all...). The tournament was moved only recently (since 2007) to the end of August and has been indirectly linked eversince with the Ryder Cup as being the last ET event counting for the European RC team selection. And surprise, surprise, to the organisers' delight, no doubt, this had an immediate effect on the tournament's field strength...

Spoiler:

Can you guess which are the Ryder Cup years...?

Talking about the Ryder Cup, there is, of course, also a direct connection with Gleneagles, as this is the venue for the next edition organised in Europe in 2014. I'm not sure if the Johnnie Walker tournament will still be organised on the same course just before the Ryder Cup that year, but if it will, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turns out to be one of the best fields in its history.

But going back to this week's event, Captain Olly is in the field, of course, and apart from his game he'll be keeping a close eye on how guys like N. Colsaerts, R. Cabrera-Bello and D. Lynn will perform. As we've been discussing already, the field strength this year is probably even more relevant than in other years, and some of the late withdrawals from the initial field are already having an impact on what will or could have happened. As it stands now, it looks that the winner will receive 30 owgr points and at this level Colsaerts needs a 3-way tie for 2nd or better (solo 3rd is not enough) to move ahead of Kaymer (just in case there is some last minute WD and the field strength drops to 28 points then he'll need a 2-way tie for 2nd or better). Unfortunately, if the field strength would've stayed at 32 points (as it was just a few days ago, before P. Hanson WD), both Cabrerra-Bello and Lynn would still have the chance to overcome Kaymer in the World Points Standings with a win, but as it is now they've no chance, and in fact Lynn will end up only ~0.7 points short, should he win... I just came across this piece that confirms the regrets that David Lynn feels now after choosing not to stay one week longer in US (as smart Colsaerts did) and play Greensboro, despite being pressed on that by Harrington, who ended up giving him a lift to NY in his private jet...

http://www.espnstar.com/golf/news/detail/item841473/Lynn-regrets-not-staying-on-in-US/

Anyway, whatever happened, happened and this is the situation we're in now... Apart from those mentioned, the next three in line in the RC qualification standings are also in the field (Bjorn, Siem and Dyson) and although no one gives them any realistic chance, a win here could bring any of them right behind Colsaerts and... you never know...

It should be an interesting and intriguig weekend, no doubt...

Broberg wins . . . . . .

...and he's off to the European Tour proper from next week!
From the ET website...

Kristoffer Broberg became the fastest player in Challenge Tour history to earn three victories and instant promotion to The European Tour after winning the Rolex Trophy by one shot with a sensational 40 foot birdie putt on the last hole.

Since the three victories rule was introduced, Dutchman Taco Remkes (2008), Rankings winner Edoardo Molinari of Italy (2009), Frenchman Benjamin Hebert and England’s Sam Little (both 2011) have all achieved the feat, but none with as much speed as Broberg, who has played just five Challenge Tour events this season.

Just thinking about tomorrows WC's and am assuming that Kaymer stays in..............rather than looking at personalities and past RC records (which i don't think tell you much about how this RC will go), i was looking at the World Ranking Top 50 and picking out the Euros who are NOT in the Team:

23 Poulter
32 Pettersson
33 Colsaerts
39 Lynn
40 Laird
41 Bijorn
43 Freddie Jac
44 Gonzo
45 R. Cabrera Bello
46 Dyson
50 Quiros

All these players (except the ineligable Pettersson) should be given serious consideration with the exception of Quiros(effectively ruled himself out). Dont understand why World no 41 bijorn was ruled by Ollie, especially given that ollie had given World no 73 Jiminez a chance to playing well this week to be considered for a WC.............quite an odd stance to take surely????

Makes you think there may be a bias toward Spanish players in Ollies thinking which leads me to believe that Ollie is hoping that RCB finishes a little bit ahead of Colsaerts today.....................and that tommorow he will name poulter & RCB..............

I think Bjorn and JMO must have talked about it beforehand, and that Bjorn is just as happy being a VC. Remember the spat btw him and Woosie?
Maybe TB is preparing for captaincy next time around?

Nice win for Lawrie.

Can't see how Gleneagles changed anything Ryder Cup wise... I'm guessing Poiulter and Colsaerts.

Scots fill six of the top fourteen places - Lawrie almost certainly up to at least #30.

In the circumstances, surely Olazabal will feel Poulter and Colsaerts pick themselves?

kwinigolfer wrote:Scots fill six of the top fourteen places - Lawrie almost certainly up to at least #30.

In the circumstances, surely Olazabal will feel Poulter and Colsaerts pick themselves?

Any other decision would be odd....................especially with Colsaerts showing he can play well in the US last week...............

Missed all the action today... Well done to Paul Lawrie and the Scottish contingent!

Agree with Poults & Colts picks... Still a bit intrigued with Kaymer's position in all this... He obviously is not ruling himself out and plans to play the Dutch and Italian Opens before the RC...

'There was a point where I thought I might not be able to help the team, but I have all the motivation now and I will be ready.

Let's hope so...

I didn't realise Monty's form had been so bad as to not have had a single top 6 finish in the past 4 years,

Gleneagles is at least a couple of hours form Aberdeen, it is surprising to see lawrie can play that well so far from home.

And how far is Qatar Mac where he won earlier on in the year?

McLaren wrote:Gleneagles is at least a couple of hours form Aberdeen, it is surprising to see lawrie can play that well so far from home.

does it come natural to you to be such a pr1ck or do you have to practise?

slowride

I dunno, you decide. How many posts did it take me to perfect the art?

Here's the link to Olly's live RC announcement. Should happen in the next few minutes...

http://www.rydercup.com/2012/usa/multimedia/video/live/presser/presser1.html

No surprises! Poults and Colsaerts (with Kaymer in first top 10).
Best choices as far as I'm concerned...

Go Europe!!!

princedracula wrote:No surprises! Poults and Colsaerts (with Kaymer in first top 10).
Best choices as far as I'm concerned...

Go Europe!!!

Who is next on the list if Kaymer decides to withdraw?

Best choices as far as I'm concerned; not sure about Jose Maria's black barnet though, darker now than when I first saw him 25 yrs ago.

Kaymer won't withdraw. Why would he? He's in the side on merit having gained enough points.

EmmDee57 wrote:Kaymer won't withdraw. Why would he? He's in the side on merit having gained enough points.

Exactly.... The interview on European Tour website shows how delighted hes on the team and rightly so. He will find his form for the Ryder Cup im sure hes too good...

Redrage, I don't think that's any clearer than it was until now...

But, yeah, I thought Olly left a little door open there on Kaymer, with a final assessment to be made after his showings at the KLM and the Italian Open...

Congrats to the two picks, will be weird watching the Ryder Cup without my favourite player playing.....

Is it time the system was slightly altered seen as though Kaymer has qualified due to a win at the end of last year and considering he hasn't had a top 10 since April (I think)

No chance of any re-assessment for Kaymer - he's in and he'll be fully committed. I'm sure there's a designated standby tho' in event of injury - probably Bjorn.
Pairing choices will be intriguing:

Poulter/Rose, 2 x Mc's are naturals, perhaps for all four Friday and Saturday matches.

Donald, Garcia and Westwood have all enjoyed success in each other's company.

Colsaerts should make lots of birdies for fourballs, Lawrie, Hanson, Molinari and Kaymer all very steady.

Eight days until we find out who DLIII selects.

Well, that's true, I meant an unofficial re-assessment...

I just get the impression that Kaymer was happy to miss out such is his lack of form. If I was clinging onto the last spot and wanted to be there... I'd have been at Gleneagles at the weekend. As for his media quips, he is hardly going to come out and say 'damn, what a burden this is'. Another missed cut and he might reconsider his plans.

Cue people who love Harrington saying he should have been picked despite him not being anywhere near the requisite form.

super_realist wrote:Cue people who love Harrington saying he should have been picked despite him not being anywhere near the requisite form.

Cue people pointing out that Harrington's actually in pretty good form

One swallow doesn't make a summer, sadly for him, but happily for his potato harvest his form isn't as good as at least ten in front of him.

NedB-H wrote:

super_realist wrote:Cue people who love Harrington saying he should have been picked despite him not being anywhere near the requisite form.

Cue people pointing out that Harrington's actually in pretty good form

Where? When? Whats he won in 4 years?
19th in the qualifying table?

Turning point, I think, in Harrington's career;
Either he fades away with just the occasional appearance on the world's leaderboards.

Or he takes note of his frequently-stated (albeit somewhat disingenuous) comments about him playing pretty "nicely" and was thwarted from making the RC Team due to his absence from WGC's. Fact is, despite his excellent Major Championship efforts, it's almost a year since his last top three finish and that all adds up to a consistent season just slightly below that of the top players.
Achieving, and retaining, an owgr top fifty position is key to him moving forward, back in to the elite he feels he still is.

Reaching the PGA Tour Championship would be a very good start, and that will necessitate good finishes in Boston and Indianapolis.

Exactly he needs to get into the top 50 and playing all the big events and stop producing just flashes of brilliance only to fold...anyway like you say will he fade away or will he back in the big time, I am starting to doubt it now....Will he play another Ryder Cup....it will be a tricky ask but you never know.

Padraig's 2012 is very similar to Sergio's 2011 at this point of the year. Both players showed improved form without quite getting the job done in any given week. Exactly 12 months ago, Sergio was still on the fringes of the Top 50 despite playing quite well most of the year. He then won twice in October to turn a decent year into a very good one.

Padraig needs exactly the same. His year has been promising but it will be disappointing if he doesn't get that win. He has played better than a lot of players above him in the rankings as his position on the PGA Tour stroke averages shows. However, one win and 9 missed cuts will get more ranking points than ten 15th place finishes.

He would have finished T2 in the US Open if he had played conservatively with his 2nd shot on the 72nd hole. I think it was to be admired that he was only interested in trying to win. That bogey cost him about €400k and quite a lot of ranking points. I think he would be nearly 20 places higher in the rankings if he had played for a safe par on that hole to protect 2nd place.

Pairings i would like to see Friday Morning Fourballs.............

Westwood & Donald (brilliant last time.......right they should go first)
Garcia & Rose (Birdies galore)
McIlroy & Poulter (speaks for itself)
McDowell & Hanson (why not!)

Any critiques??

Colsaerts is surely going to play fourball instead of Hanson right?

Just had a look it is alternate shot in the morning maybe that is what you meant.

Have they changed the format AGAIN??

In Celtic Manor, it started with Friday 4 balls........as did the previous few i believe

John Cregan wrote:Have they changed the format AGAIN??

In Celtic Manor, it started with Friday 4 balls........as did the previous few i believe

OK it is starting with 4somes, so here goes again............

Westwood & Donald
Molinari & P.Lawrie
Poulter & McIlroy
McDowell & Hanson

Home captain get's to choose I think.

Poulter only got in because he played well in previous Ryder cups, in general he is an inferior golfer to Padraig.

Too true, it shows how strong European Golf is when they can leave out the most successful European Golfer in the last 15 years.

Garcia & Rose looke like a beauty of a 4 ball pairing to me..............

incontinentia wrote:Poulter only got in because he played well in previous Ryder cups, in general he is an inferior golfer to Padraig.

What a load of crap, he's played better in the majors than Harrington this year, finished higher in both the European and World qualifying lists, has a better world ranking, not missed a single cut in 2012, , had more top 10's in 2012 and won more tournaments in the last year than Harrington AND has a far superior Ryder Cup record than Harrington.

Picking Poulter over a has-been is a no brainer (much like Harrington)

incontinentia wrote:Poulter only got in because he played well in previous Ryder cups, in general he is an inferior golfer to Padraig.

It isn't just his RC record though, he won the WGC matchplay last year too, and has shown an aptitude for team formats in winning the World Cup for instance that Pod has not... despite his 3 majors. No only that Pod has just not played well enough and is further down the list than Poulter. Had Poulter turned up at Gleneagles he need only have finished 34th to qualify for the team outright despite missing quite a bit of the season. There quite simply is no arguing a case for Pod over Poulter at the current time.

SR,

Agree we should move on.........Poulter's pick was fully deserved.............not sure why you keep insulting Harri though? Is it an Irish thing or just a Harri thing??

super- you make a good case, however I believe Poulter is due a bad Ryder cup and this will probably be it.

Incontinent, it's not a good case, it's irrefutable fact, whereas your belief that Poulter will have a bad Ryder cup is sheer conjecture and wishful thinking.
You sound like Diggers, however, I reckon even he would concede that Poulter is more deserved of a place than Harrington, Poulter is probably having the most consistent year of his life golf wise.

Harrington might have got in had there been 10 wild card picks and a 20 man team, but he wasn't even close to getting (or deserving) to be in, so can you drop it please.

I'm not disputing Poulter's place in the team. He deserves to be in due to his performances in the last two Ryder Cups.

However, I'm interested in the view that he is having the most consistent year of his golfing career. This may be so and it's true that he hasn't missed a cut all year. But does it say something about his shortcomings that despite this, he still failed to qualify automatically? I would expect someone having such a great year to have easily qualified and certainly not finished behind a player without a Top 10 finish in nearly 5 months.

This is also the second time that Poulter has made no effort in the last couple of weeks of qualifying to help out his captain. If he had qualified automatically, it would have broadened Olazabal's options. Simply by playing 72 holes at the Wyndham Championship, he would have overtaken Kaymer but he chose not to do so. I might even go so far as to say that he would be happier to perform really well in a losing team than to play poorly in a winning team.

Tinmar he was ill during the season so missed some tournaments...
Take your point about playing Wyndham... Although surely that same question goes to POD? Why didnt he play or play at Gleneagles this week to show how much he wanted in the team?

The team is arguably stronger for the presence of Poulter and absence of Harrington.

He wasn't even close to being considered so why is it even being raised. There were 8-10 players in better form than him.

Disagree that a player needs to change his schedule to suit RC last minute qualification.

A player should always prioritise their own individual career ahead of changing it for the purposes of RC qualification.

It is an interesting point that even though Poulter has made every cut all year, he was still unable to catch Kaymer whose points ground to a halt the last few months.................

Anyone who gets a WC pick is lucky really, and this is Poulter's second one. It's just this time, he was the outstanding candidate..........

i completely agree with the two picks. but to say Harrington wasnt even close to getting one is stupid.