European Tour - Alfred Dunhill Championship

After a more than shaky start of the new 2013 season in Durban, the European Tour seems to be a bit luckier this week with the weather at Leopard Creek, although some rain is not out of the equation over the weekend. It's a much stronger field as well, with top draws Oosthuizen and Schwartzel present along Grace, Coetzee, Larrazabal, Willett, Rock, etc... Oosthuizen has been in top form lately, finishing T6 or better in his last 6 events, but he would like to finish the year as he started it, with a win in his home country. But a solo 2nd should be good enough to give Oosty at least the satisfaction of finishing the year as the #4 in the world. Broberg has had a particularly good start so far this morning...

The Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia and the Australian PGA in Quinsland complete the last real week of golf of 2012. Els, Garcia, Fraser and Na are the main foreign superstars in Malaysia, while the Australians, the best they could do in that respect is...Rory Sabbatini. Great start for the american David Lipsky in Malaysia and for Daniel Popovici in Queensland, with Ogilvy not so far behind...

There are 6 players currently outside the top 50 in the world who would still have a last chance this week to make it in the top echelon: Fraser, Ogilvy, Na, Chalmers, Thaworn W. and Larrazabal. But in case none of these will make a sufficient stride forward this week to move past Shane Lowry, the Offaly man will be facing the agonising prospect of finishing the 2012 season at #51 in the rankings... Ouch!

I think the Aussies thought their trump card was Greg Norman, but he travelled all the way from his Shark Shoot Out only to withdraw after two (bogey) holes with a severe case of the doozies - how many thousand miles is that to go for a bout of food poisoning?

Sabbatini in with a terrible round.

Aussie golf in a very sad state - and I don't necessarily mean Queensland.

I was wondering why Greg was figuring with a score of +999 in the Aussie leaderboard... Ah, and I forgot to mention Darren Clarke, who seems to be experiencing a bit of a revival these last couple of weeks, finishing with a solid 2-under today.

Round 1 suspended in Malaysia due to heavy rain...

Nice to see Geoff Ogilvy waking up just in time for Christmas.
Perhpas he's been following Schwartzel's recent post-hibernation form, which seems to be continuing.
Looks like they're getting way behind in Malaysia, but Sergio doing nicely between the raindrops.

Webster ,Rock and Andy Sullivan all top ten in the Dunhill its like a Midlands proam.Rock complaining about how the sun got to him over last few holes -surely could have found a hat from somewhere!

Hard to believe that King Charl went through such a long drought of form after watching him play over the last couple of weeks, looks in imperious form right now (last two tee-shots at #6 and #7 were just out of this world). Feeling a bit sorry for Bourdy who had quite a few short spells of brilliance this season, unfortunately none of those lasted more than 2 consecutive rounds...

Chopra is once again leading after two rounds in Asia, but as we said so many times, can he stay there till the end? Sergio doing well, but stumbled at the last hurdle with a double bogey in Rd2. Just the opposite for Marcus Fraser though, who finished with 3 birdies in the last 4 holes to move uo to T13 and looking determined to spoil the Christmas and maybe the New Year as well for Olesen or Coetzee...

Popovici looks well able and pretty determined to win the Aussie PGA, but the rejuvenated Peter Senior is now only 3 shots back. Big deal to win at 53, but two wins in a row would be quite incredible... And he continues to attract attention with his comments as well as his play. Asked what he thinks of Jeff, the bizarre 20x8 meter dinosaur 'minding' the golf course he said: "It doesn't worry me as long as it doesn't crap everywhere"...

Otherwise, Chinese Xin Jun Zhang had a pretty good week so far down under. I gather his English is not great, but that should come in quite handy tomorrow as he will have the pleasure of playing in the same group with... Ogilvy & Allenby. You just can't keep these two apart...

EDIT: Johor Open shortened to 54 holes...

At this rate the largely overlooked Royal Trophy could well overcome the President's Cup in popularity and significance in future... Brilliant fight back by Asia to draw 8-8 and force a playoff to determine the winner.

Playoff will be contested between:

KT Kim/YE Yang vs Colsaerts/F. Molinari

Interesting choice there by Olly to go for Franny's experience, even though he didn't play particularly well...

Have to say, an Asian team as this one (Kim, Bae, Yang, Ishikawa, JM Singh, Fujimoto, Wu, Liang, Aphibarnrat) looked much more 'together' and purposeful than anything I've seen in the International teams in PC... All full of smiles and support of eachother, good to see. Ozaki-san did a great job there...

Pretty strong Euro (continental) team as well: Colsaerts, Molinari F&E, Gonzo, Mechanic, Stenson, Siem, Olly...

...superb winning putt from KT Kim, as Colsaerts missed his, and the Gangnam style dancing begins. Well done, Asia!

Nice win for Daniel Popovici in Australia, after a spectacular crash from Rod Pampling over the last 3 holes. He was 1-up with 3 holes to go and finished 4-shots behind Popovici after a bogey-bogey-double collapse...

Ogilvy only did enough to move past Shane Lowry in the end, but not enough to move inside the top 50...

This is not a bad morning of golf... Sergio 11-under over 16 holes today, needs to birdie the last two for a 59!