European Tour - End of the Road... to Dubai (as we knew it?)

It's the end of another year on the European Tour, and who knows it may well be the end of an era, with quite a few significant changes likely to take place in the new season. To that extent, perhaps it would've deserved some closer attention and a better write-up. My write-ups are very basic at the best of times, but this week I'm also gone away chassing some fun in the sun, and likely to get only sporadically on the internet. So it's just a thread starter from me this time and hopefully people will add up to it as it goes along...

The only thing I would say is that I noticed browsing once through the tee times that there are three guys missing from the top 60: Bjorn, Fisher and Goosen. Goosen's reasons should be clear enough as he's been out of action for a while, but not sure what's happening with the other two (PGAT Q-school related in Fisher's case...?). Anyhow, with these three out, the tournament should be worth 'only' 58 points to the winner...

Hopefully will be a great finale to the season!

"fun in the sun"?
What's that all about?
Did you tell Doug?
Got to celebrate Thanksgiving somewhere I suppose.
Should be a great week in the desert - hope one of the "European" guys wins it, rather than a Foreign Legionaire.
Bon voayge .

Cheers, kwini. Not that much sun here so far, but I'm still hopeful...
Plenty of sun in Dubai by the looks of things. For some reason, NI guys seem to feel a particular attraction to that place. Rory has a place there, Michael Hoey said he plans to get one and now McDowell choosing to pop the question to his girlfriend Kristin Stape on top of the Burj Al Arab hotel. Not the most romantic of places in my book, but if that does it for them, who cares... Congratulations and best of luck, they look like a nice couple...

Enjoy your fun in the sun. Hope it doesn't lead to bursting into flames as it would in the case of your namesake.

Wonder how this tournament will turn out - top player is a bit burnt out and has little motivation, a whole bunch of others might be distracted by a shiny object in the corner of their eye (i.e. PGA Tour qualification). Perhaps a good opportunity for someone like Lawrie, who came close to winning last year. Or maybe those guys in the wrong half of the OWGR top 100 to make the "fortune and glory" end-of-year quasi-cut (yes Robert Rock, I'm talking about you - sort yourself out and best of luck, mate).

Cheers Sky, you mean something like this...?

Spoiler:

Lawrie doing pretty well this morning (leading at the moment on 5-under after 11 holes), but maybe not the one you had in mind. Lots of Scots starting well though...

Not such good news for Shane Lowry who had to WD after ending up in hospital and on a drip on Wednesday from what I read (picked a virus apparently)... His dreams of Masters and other goodies for next year put on hold for the time being. Just goes to show how dangerous it is to make your long term (big) plans depending on a last minure result...

princedracula wrote:Cheers Sky, you mean something like this...?

Spoiler:

Lawrie doing pretty well this morning (leading at the moment on 5-under after 11 holes), but maybe not the one you had in mind. Lots of Scots starting well though...

Not such good news for Shane Lowry who had to WD after ending up in hospital and on a drip on Wednesday from what I read (picked a virus apparently)... His dreams of Masters and other goodies for next year put on hold for the time being. Just goes to show how dangerous it is to make your long term (big) plans depending on a last minure result...

He just wants the hospital food and it's too hot there for the fat Bar Steward to get round anyway.
Greedy unfit (did I mention ugly) git.

Is that why he finished in the top 10 last year and ahead of a host of other world class players?

Very disappointing and unfortunate for him. Had a decent chance of finishing the year in the top 50 of the owgr and getting a Masters invite. Not many Europeans achieve that at such a young age.

Still time to do it next year.

Three Saltires at the top of the leader board just now.

Who whould have thought that would happen a couple of years ago.

His age matches his weight in stones.

Gutted about Lowry, mystery virus apparently. Get well soon Shane.

He should have waited for the chicken to cook and not eaten it raw. Glutton.

Manassero and Siem playing together this morning in Dubai, but apparently not the same course...

Spoiler:

Nice 67 start for Paddy, sun is coming out, life is good... time to go to the beach...

Too much kebab for Lowry. Imagine if he came here during ramadan.

Wow... numero dos & numero uno, are numero uno & numero dos!

Nice leaderboard there, you know that you're dealing with the creme de la creme, when you had only 6 double bogeys all day...

Very big week for lots of players of course, but Ramsay, Olesen and Donaldson are close to The Masters bubble and they're off to a good start.
Harrington too really.
Might get up at 3.00 a.m. the next three mornings, looks too good to miss!

incontinentia wrote:Gutted about Lowry, mystery virus apparently. Get well soon Shane.

Slightly unfortunate terminology there maybe! No, I don't have a pathological need to condemn him but I couldn't resist. Unfortunate end to his season.

Goodness me, some guys are on fire out there today. Even Matteo is 5-under par over 15 holes on such a long course. But his playing partner Marcel Siem has just gone birdie-eagle-birdie, 8-under for the day, to tie Luke for the lead. Sergio en fuego as well. Lee's 64 course record looks under serious threat...

I wonder what the big boys will have to say about it later on...

EDIT: Ooops! Just jinxed Matteo there...

That was a MAD back nine for Sergio! To equal that course's record with two bogeys and a triple bogey on the card, can only be described as mad...

Covered almost 1250 yards in just 6 shots and then limped through 486 yards in 7 ...!

If Branden Grace goes on to win this week his 5th (and biggest) event of the season, what about a joint European Tour POTY award to Rory and Grace? Don't think anybody would complain too much about that...

South African flavour to this leaderboard right now; Ernie must be wondering why he give Dubai a miss.

I see Sergio had laser surgery to help correct his eyesight after he found difficulty tolerating contact lenses.
It worked today, apparently.

Contact lens story is a ruse. It's actually the next stage in TaylorMade's fitting process.

Wow... I see that numero uno and numero dos are numero uno and.. numero uno.

kwinigolfer wrote:I see Sergio had laser surgery to help correct his eyesight after he found difficulty tolerating contact lenses. It worked today, apparently.

I remember reading and mentionoing about this after the Ryder Cup...

https://www.606v2.com/t36441-european-tour-bmw-shanghai-masters

Some comeback after all that...

Reports from Dubai suggest Sergio will be getting a rework job on his eyes again before Sunday's round . . . . . .

Luke Donald at 110 holes and counting since his last Dubai bogey. Apparently the last player to win on the ET without making a bogey was Jesper Parnevik, in 1995.
Sunday's menu:
Britain's best just ahead of South Africa's best.
(Sorry Ernie.)

What time (Dubai) do they tee off in round 4, as I would quite like to watch this one unfold?

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2012/tournamentid=2012092/teetimes/index.html

Rosey didn't read the script with numero uno and numero dos...
Sergio concluded his yo-yo week with another 64.
Lee could suddenly find himself dropping to 7th in the ranking if things
continue this way, he hasn't been lower than 4th for more than 3 years now...

This looks like fun, but I have to go now...

I hope some of you are watching this as it seems like an amazing end to the European tour season. I sadly dont have enough bandwidth on the internet I am using to use a stream.

Yeah... I'm watching McL... quite a display today. Seem's Sergio got his eyes fixed again last night...

What's that old saying... I wuz watching the dog when the fireplug whizzed on me... Guess Rose fancies himself the fireplug

This is excellent, if Sergio hadnt had his doubles yesterday and the 7 on Friday he would be near top of leaderboard. What a weird week for him.

If Rose can get to 21 under, would be a stiff target for Rors i think.

Looking more like Rose to be the Champ with every stroke . . . . .

Our coverage is on tape delay which is just a little infuriating.
Brilliant putt by Rose on 18, but think of the tiddlers he missed yesterday.
Has he left the door open for Rory?

Super putt by Rose, Rory should still win this though.

What a finish for Rory, birdies last 5!!

This is his last week with Titleist, great way to sign off, hope he doesn't miss them next year.

Really wish I could have watched that. Has anyone ever won a tournament in more style?

The gap between him and baldy nine chins will be almost unbridgeable next year.

super_realist wrote:The gap between him and baldy nine chins will be almost unbridgeable next year.

I agree... I don't think Boo Weekly has a chance of catching Rors next year...

McLaren wrote:Really wish I could have watched that. Has anyone ever won a tournament in more style?

Sure they have, but this kid definitely has that extra gear that we haven't really seen by anybody since TW in his prime. AWESOME win by Rory... and speaking of TW... now Rory's showing the ability to get into that kind of territory. For TW's first 16 years, he averaged 5 quality worldwide wins including just under one major per year... now Rory has a 5 win, 1 major season of his own and is creating a big time gap in the OWGR. If Rory keeps this up... and Tiger can't answer, Rory could conceivably lap the field (double up in the average) in the OWGR by next Masters or so.

Great win by Rory but I stand by my earlier assertion that Tiger will be leading the OWGR by at least 5 points this time next year. Rumour has it he will kick off 2013 at Torrey Pines. That will surely be win no.1 for big T, and kick start a season for the ages. This year was just a trial run for the dominance we'll see next year.

Inco,I know I dislike Nine Chin Baldy Woods, but your silly level of adoration is getting too much even for such a Woods lover. Even the obsessed Mac wouldn't be quite so stupidly confident.

Inco,
Think Woods visits Abu Dhabi first (surely Robert Rock will take care of him there), then Torrey Pines.

incontinentia wrote:Great win by Rory but I stand by my earlier assertion that Tiger will be leading the OWGR by at least 5 points this time next year. Rumour has it he will kick off 2013 at Torrey Pines. That will surely be win no.1 for big T, and kick start a season for the ages. This year was just a trial run for the dominance we'll see next year.

You are surely having a laugh right?? Unlike SR I don't dislike Woods although I'm not particularly a fan either. I wouldn't be surprised if Woods improves next season over this season (he'll have to spend the winter on a practice putting green tho) but even is he does get back closer to where he could be there is now a rival who will NOT bow down. To suggest a 5 point owgr lead is just ludicrous and delusional. The best Woods can hope for is comfortably number 2 and even then, Rose and Donald will have plenty to say.

McLaren wrote:Really wish I could have watched that. Has anyone ever won a tournament in more style?

Most recent example that would come close would be Donald at Disney last year with 6 birdies on the back 9 to secure the US money list.

Very impressive performance though considering he wasn't feeling 100%

Strangely it was only a few months ago that he missed a couple of cuts and everyone was on his case, pathetic comments like "he's not really got it" or he's "burnt out".....yeah right, short term thinkers really do my nut in sometimes. Another footnote on Woods...if he does win a major next year, he'll still be younger than Jack was when he won his 15th

incontinentia wrote:Great win by Rory but I stand by my earlier assertion that Tiger will be leading the OWGR by at least 5 points this time next year. Rumour has it he will kick off 2013 at Torrey Pines. That will surely be win no.1 for big T, and kick start a season for the ages. This year was just a trial run for the dominance we'll see next year.

You're now suggesting a 9.723 point swing between Tiger and Rory in one season? Really? If you truly believe that, get down to the bookies because I'd imagine you'd get great odds on that.

incontinentia wrote:Great win by Rory but I stand by my earlier assertion that Tiger will be leading the OWGR by at least 5 points this time next year. Rumour has it he will kick off 2013 at Torrey Pines. That will surely be win no.1 for big T, and kick start a season for the ages. This year was just a trial run for the dominance we'll see next year.

Really? No chance in hell IMO. No way that Rory will not win at least 2 or 3 times next year, so Tiger would have to have a phenomenal year. I dont think he will either.

I think Rose could have a big year next year, and its not like 2012 wasnt very good. A lot of people compare hios game to Donald but I dont think he is as steady a player and is more prone to a hot streak or going really low.
Then again the funny thing is Rose has often backed up years that looked like breakthrough years with very average ones so who knows.
For me though now there isnt really a weak point to his game, he should be coming into his golfing prime and hopefully that should mean he is there or thereabouts in the majors.

Looks like Poulter could break top 10 next year Diggers.

There are 5 players with 300+ points picked up at the 'end' of this season, Oosty, Rose, Donald, Woods and then c240 clear of the lot of them is McIlroy within a whisker of 600 points picked up in 2012. That's not just leading the way, that's dominance.

The way he finished yesterday showed just how he has progressed this year. He knew what he needed to do and he went and did it. Although he didn't need it, that putt on the last must have looked like a tap in to him.

Yes, he won his first major last year but this year, even with 5 MCs, has been the year Rory McIlroy announced his arrival at the top of world golf. He's not the next Tiger Woods, he's Rory McIlroy, a brilliant golfer in his own right, with his own game and his own personality.

So how do they compare at the end of the year?

McIlroy - 5 firsts; 4 seconds; 2 thirds; 2 fifths; 3 other T10s. 16 tournaments in serious contention, resulting in 11 Top 3 finishes

Woods - 3 firsts; 1 second; 3 thirds; 2 fourths; 4 other T10s: 13 tournaments in serious contention, resulting in 6 Top 3 finishes.

Woods is still a great golfer, those stats and his points accumulated show that, but I think he will require something pretty special just to keep within 5 points of McIlroy next year. An almost 10 point swing? Please, talk sense.

Very well researched and presented TD3P.

So Incon, what's your insight into how you think things will dramatically swing back in Woods favour?? Rory could probably take half the year off and still be WN1 this time next year.

I do wonder if he'll have any teething problems with the new bats bit if he does I'm sure they will be just that...teething problems that may cost him a shot or 2 in his first few tournaments.