European Tour - Volvo Match Play & Madeira Open

It's a pretty spectacular return to the old continent by the European Tour, for the first time visiting Bulgaria as a main tour destination, for this week's Volvo Match Play Championship.

Spoiler:

Fair play to Volvo in all this, who has a great record of introducing new parts of the world into the top level professional golf circuit. The photos and videos seen from the Thracian Cliffs (a Gary Player designed course) near Cape Kaliakra, are indeed breathtaking and we should be in for a real treat watching it all on television. Heard lots of comparisons made with Pebble Beach, but at least from those pictures you find on the internet, this one looks way better than Pebble. We shall see how it measures up as a golf course though... Probably the only drawback I could think of looking at the pictures is that for the most part, the course/layout looks pretty inhospitable and even dangerous in places, for the local crowds to walk about and follow the players, but I may be wrong in that, we'll see...

The course is 7291 yards long (par 72) and includes among others some stunning par 3s, a short par 4 (9th) with a tee on a small island built out in the sea about 180 yards from the fairway, plus an almost 700 yard par 5 (4th)...

Graeme McDowell, who is the only top 10 OWGR in the field, was given the opportunity to check the course from a helicopter and he posted this clip:
http://www.mobypicture.com/user/Graeme_McDowell/view/15282270

Poulter posted this picture with the view from his villa:
https://twitter.com/IanJamesPoulter/status/333993727112650754/photo/1
and probably feeling a bit guilty, posted afterwards: I'm not sure but I think I've got the best job in the world. Fans it's time to turn up the screw & work harder than ever & pay back my fans

Gonzo on the other hand, had a bit of a go at the notoriously complicated Volvo Match Play bracket:
Here is the Match Play bracket. Good luck to understand it!
https://twitter.com/gfcgolf/status/334232143280611328/photo/1

The draw to decide the final places in each group took place earlier today and the 8 (x3) groups are as follows:

McDowell, Wood, Gallacher
Gonzo, Donaldson, Rumford
Olesen, Pettersson, Jamieson
Poulter, Jaidee, Aiken
Van Pelt, Sterne, Ogilvy
Grace, Colsaerts, Aphibarnrat
Stenson, Molinari, Aguilar
Hanson, Coetzee, Lowry

Colsaerts is the defending champion and the Brussels bomber had quite an adventure to get his clubs after he arrived in Bulgaria...
http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2013/tournamentid=2013036/news/newsid=191556.html

But who will be the new ?
Hard to say, it's going to be a new experience for all of them, that's for sure, and any one of them is capable of winning it, but I'll probably go with Graeme, just because of his previous Pebble Beach success...
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Moving on now from the south-east of Europe, right at the very extreme south-west of Europe we will find the beautiful Portugese island of Madeira, where the usual Madeira Open will take place (co-sanctioned with the Challenge Tour). I'm not sure why the European Tour has these two events in the same week when last week there was nothing going on in Europe...? But anyways, Robert Rock and Symon Dyson are two of the most familiar names in that field and they both would be desperate to take advantage of the weaker field and show some good form after a pretty dismal year so far. It will be hard to ignore though the defending champion Ricardo Santos who has been in excellent form this season and I can see him being well capable of retaining that title this week on a course that he knows very well...

I know these are two events that are far from being very significant when compared to many others, but I hope we will get to watch some decent golf apart from all those promissed stunning views...

Very interested to see Thracian Cliffs on TV.

Which is the Group of Death then?!

Think I'd go for McDowell's threesome, with Poults getting a bit of a free ride.

Another note for Poulter is that europeantour.com is reporting that the European Tour visits Denmark next year. The only other time it did that Poults was the winner.

Totally daft not playing Madeira last week - a small subsidy to the prize fund might have attracted a much better field. O'Grady with the barrel pointed directly at his foot.

Disappointing to see only 3 Top 50 players among the early commitments for Nordea . . . . .
Especially disappointing to see that last year's champ Westwood is avoiding making a defence. Misplaced loyalties and it's ironic that he's missing Nordea, playing Memorial, then missing (so far anyway), Memphis where he won three years ago.
O'Grady getting dissed at every turn.
His fault or the players?

kwinigolfer wrote:
O'Grady getting dissed at every turn.
His fault or the players?

Or maybe a lot of the fault rests with the current state of the European economy?

And by the way... I too look forward to seeing this course on the tele... Still photos l've seen look incredible.

robo,
If such a large part of "the fault rests with the current state of the European economy", I don't understand why tennis is not affected in the same way with even Spain supporting several top level events, both for women and for men. No big tournaments seem to have departed recently.

Perhaps tennis is more sponsor-friendly, though you certainly wouldn't think that as North America seems to have trouble sustaining its schedule?

Probably a combination of a lot of factors, including player loyalty and misguided ambition, but things don't seem to be improving which is troubling on many levels.

kwinigolfer wrote:Disappointing to see only 3 Top 50 players among the early commitments for Nordea . . . . .
Especially disappointing to see that last year's champ Westwood is avoiding making a defence. Misplaced loyalties and it's ironic that he's missing Nordea, playing Memorial, then missing (so far anyway), Memphis where he won three years ago.
O'Grady getting dissed at every turn.
His fault or the players?

I'm surprised that given the players that have come from Denmark and Sweden there isn't more tournaments over there. There are some great courses and the weather is outstanding in the summer there.

It's a bit strange that sponsors like Volvo seem to spend a lot of money on golf in other parts of the world, but haven't been able to build over the years anything out of ordinary at home in Sweden. Good to see a new event in Denmark for next year, although the date (mid August) is likely to keep many of the local and other star names away if it will coincide with Bridgestone or USPGA...

Some pretournament gossip from Bulgaria...

Spot the difference... (between C.Wood and his girlfriend)

Spoiler:

And organisers are expecting some special guests on that course this week...

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

"Spot the difference... (between C.Wood and his girlfriend)"

She is one third of conjoined triplets, and he isn't?

Three hole-in-one prizes on offer from Volvo this week in Bulgaria:

Hole 7 - Volvo Backhoe Loader BL61B - Value €55,000

Spoiler:

Hole 8 - Volvo V40 Cross Country - Value €30,000

Spoiler:

Hole 17 - Volvo FH Truck - Value €115,000

Spoiler:

King Louis will be devastated when he sees what he's missing...

whoever wins the digger can take it around the euro tour with them and shape some of the awful courses they play into something interesting. Just dont let ernine on it, we have seen what he can do to a course. (wentworth!!)

Good starts so far for Gonzo, Franny, Pettersson and BVP in Bulgaria. I wouldn't be surprised to see the American (BVP) winning this, he seems to be travelling well... Good to see that Pettersson has taken up ET membership aiming to qualify for the RC next year, any extra top 50's enriching the fields on the ET events will be welcome these days...

Super start for the 'good' Saltman in Madeira... as Oliver Wilson, Nick Dougherty and Kenneth Ferrie continue to prop up the leaderboards wherever they go...

Yep... and as the first live pictures are coming through, the place looks bloody amazing alright... Pebble Beach on steroids, as one of the commentators called it...

Poults 2-up already after 3, but getting into trouble at that huge ~700-yard par 5...

OK... OK... OK... I thought I was a reasonably intelligent human being... but maybe not... I'm totally confused by these brackets.

Is there a good readable full 5 round bracket posted online somewhere? (I can't clearly read the pic Gonzo posted) Otherwise... could someone "splain" it to me?

I think I'm right in saying the first round is a round robin, and the top 2 from the group go through. Last year's winner Colsearts didn't win either of his first round ties, losing one and halving one. That meant a playoff to decide the second place.

Yes, SJ is right... you have 8 groups of 3 players each so "Round 1" comprises in fact of 3 matches in each group, plus eventual play-offs to determine the top 2 in each group (today and tomorrow). What you see now is the first set of 8 matches in Rd1. After that you end up with 16 players left for Round 2 and from there it continues like a 'normal' match play event...

I would really hope Volvo would try to push this in future to a 32 player field. It'll simplify all that bracket business, and would significantly boost the owgr purse as home points would count then as well... Of course, the prizes will have to get a cut if the fund cannot be boosted, and that may be a problem. As it is, the winner this year will go away with €800,000, which is huge for an ET event, especially of this size... and all for spending a week playing golf in a place like that!!

princedracula wrote:Yes, SJ is right... you have 8 groups of 3 players each so "Round 1" comprises in fact of 3 matches in each group, plus eventual play-offs to determine the top 2 in each group (today and tomorrow). What you see now is the first set of 8 matches in Rd1. After that you end up with 16 players left for Round 2 and from there it continues like a 'normal' match play event...

Thanks PD and SmithersJones... that's what I "thought" was the format, but the "explanation" they gave at the start of the GC telecast got me a little sideways on my thinking.

EDIT: I had lots of comments on OWGR related things in this spot... this might not be the right spot for those... so I MOVED them to the OWGR weekly thread... PD... Kwini... please check...

robopz wrote:...end of rant... :-)

...pretty much agree with your 'rant', robo, as we've been discussing about this the last couple of years. I was talking about whatcan be improved within the current state of affairs, of course... just figured out, btw, that if they would expand the format to 32 players, then ironically you will end up with one set of matches less than in this format...

princedracula wrote:

robopz wrote:...end of rant... :-)

...pretty much agree with your 'rant', robo, as we've been discussing about this the last couple of years. I was talking about whatcan be improved within the current state of affairs, of course... just figured out, btw, that if they would expand the format to 32 players, then ironically you will end up with one set of matches less than in this format...

I moved my rant to your OWGR topic... And yes, I considered the "loss of match" by bringing this event up to 32. But maybe double elimination is a potential answer. I've often wondered if there wasn't a way to work double elimination into the WGC-MP. I mean lets face it... sponsors are paying a BIG ticket for that event yet the very players that can give them a reasonable weekend value for their sponsorship dollar are often gone early. IMO double elimination has a better chance of identifying a more "worthy" champion anyway. Tradition says no to a double elimination... but seems to me TV, sponsors, players and fans might all benefit.

Good luck this week Lowry time to have a good few weeks and play your way into the US Open!

Course looks spectacular - but anyone agree its a bit Mickey Mouse? There is no way a sensible medal round could be played round it. I'm left thinking its style over substance!
Having said that I had similar misgivings about Finca Cortesin until I played it!

puligny wrote:Course looks spectacular - but anyone agree its a bit Mickey Mouse? There is no way a sensible medal round could be played round it. I'm left thinking its style over substance!
Having said that I had similar misgivings about Finca Cortesin until I played it!

I dunno... aren't most new courses "tricked up" a bit compared to the old classics? Seems like plenty of both birdies and bogey's abound. From the limited amount we've seen so far... it appears the course rewards good shots, and to varying degrees penalizes poor ones, so that's a good thing. But maybe in stroke play they'd play it more conservatively and the hazards wouldn't be as much in play.

For sure they can score any number. Just seen Coetzee miss from 6 feet for a triple. 240 yard severely downhill par 3 - why? Run offs into scrub look too severe to me
Looks a bit of a statement course, probably ideally suited to matchplay.

To be honest I was expecting worse considering how constraint you are by the landscape in a place like that. It's a great thing how they managed to squeeze an 18-hole course on such a piece of land and in the circumstances I think they did a pretty good job. Franny had the best round of the day as far as I can tell (-6 ?), but one thing is certain, today there has been very little wind, and if you get some decent wind blowing there, things will get much tougher, no doubt... Logistically it's hard to see an event with a full 156-player field being staged there, but you never know... So, I agree, looks perfect for a match play event like this....

Well played Thongchai, Poults needs to work even harder now tomorrow to 'repay the fans' as he put it...

princedracula wrote:Well played Thongchai, Poults needs to work even harder now tomorrow to 'repay the fans' as he put it...

What fans?

Looks like Marshalls and walking officials outnumber the fans.

GPB, you obviously missed the vipers and the frogs earlier on (poor frog may have ended up in the viper's belly after that chase)...

Spoiler:

Anyway, Poults was referring to his fans in general when he said that... As for golf fans around the course, according to the commentators, there are officially ~500 registered golfers in Bulgaria...

Ricardo Santos making a complete mockery of my prediction (and partially of my FT) for the Madeira Open. Shocking round from the defending champ, hope he has a good excuse for that... RRock and Dyson pretty poor as well...

The three overweights (Aphibarnrat, Pettersson and Lowry) not enjoying the walk around those steep cliffs this morning...

Chicco Molinari growing in form and growing more and more as a decent and pretty gutsy match player. Nice comebacks from Wood, Coetzee and Colsaerts today...

Madeira lost in fog this morning...

Franny, Thongchai and Sterne through, Donaldson off to Wentworth.

All to play for for the rest.
How many owgr pts do they get for reaching the last 16? About 2 or 3 I'd imagine??

Gonzo and Rumford obviously through as well... Top 16 are guarranteed 3.74 points, those going home after Rd1 will get just under 2.2, which is not bad, on top of the guarranteed loser's cheque of somewhere around 55-60k€, I'm guessing...

Good point!

Not bad then for top 16? One more win should assure Jaidee and Sterne a place at Merion and Muirfield respectively.

Sterne is currently trending at #47, so he really should be ok, but Jaidee 'only' at #58 and another win won't push him much higher unfortunately, so he'll need to sweat a little more to be certain...

Lowry playing some good golf this afternoon!

Plenty of play-offs in prospect . . . . .

Or maybe not.
Borderline shocking capitulations by Ogilvy and Poulter.

Poulter's form is shocking tbh.....one solution....play more.

Good job Shane!

Some tasty knock out matches tomorrow (#1, #7, #8, etc):

1 Branden GRACE vs Brett RUMFORD
2 Richard STERNE vs Chris WOOD
3 Francesco MOLINARI vs Carl PETTERSSON
4 Shane LOWRY vs Thomas AIKEN
5 Scott JAMIESON vs Felipe AGUILAR
6 Thongchai JAIDEE vs Peter HANSON
7 Gonzalo FDEZ-CASTAÑO vs Nicolas COLSAERTS
8 Graeme MCDOWELL vs Bo VAN PELT

Is it really surprising that Poulter got beat two times.

In the Ryder Cup, he really did not play outstanding, he just played better than his opponents, and his opponents did not play that well.

IMO, Match Play is POOR tournament format. Great for Ryder Cup and Walker Cup, but terrible tournament format.

YES!
Not many have a better match-play record over the past decade than Poults . . . . .
Not just Ryder Cup, but a good WGC Match Play record incl his win,
And a decent Volvo Match Play record incl his win.

Apparently he's been sick and doubt his efforts today helped his recovery.

You never know where a 59 is gonna come from... all eyes on BN after Keegan's 60, but worth keeping an eye also on Peter Uihlein who just had an eagle at the 11th hole in Madeira and is now 9-under after 11 holes!! The remaining holes are pretty tough though...

Another birdie... 10-under after 12 holes!!!

Birdie at 12 for Uihlein too, he's tearing it apart...

Wouldn't it be a shame if the first 59 on the European Tour was non-televised!?

McDowell on the Thracian Cliffs course after his wins yesterday and today:

“It's very fiery, very linksy. It's stunning to look at it; it's tricky; it's funky in places, but you've got to get on with it and if you hit good shots and place the ball well, you get rewarded.”

“There are a few tight tee shots but it really suits my ball shape; it suits the fade,”

“It suits my ball flight I have to say, it's my kind of golf course. Hopefully I can keep doing what I'm doing and give myself a chance this weekend.”

I think he likes it...

Loving Poulters form right now.

Poults comments after his two losses (in contrast to McDowell):

"There's no excuse for that display of golf over the last two days. It's disgusting, disgraceful and there is no explanation..."

"My concentration was simply not there and therefore you make mental errors when you haven't used your brain."

(Wheat's next for you now?) "The tallest tree and the shortest rope! I'm p1ssed off and I will stay p1ssed off for a couple of hours and then get to England and win at Wentworth..."

He's not happy...

Not really sure why he is so surprised. His form this week is pretty much what he's been producing all year.

Poulter should be condemned for trivialising suicide. unacceptable comment imo.

Tough luck for Lowry and Hanson in particular this morning, although BVP put up a good fight as well against GMac. Despite McDowell's liking of the course suiting his fade, etc., Franny was way ahead of the rest in terms of scoring before the QF with 17-under in 46 holes (Grace was next with -12/48 and Gmac -11/49). But as we see now, that stat doesn't seem to help Molinari too much in match play. Jaidee and Aiken are proving tough cookies this week...

In Madeira, Santos, Rock and Dyson made it to the weekend, but only just. Scotland's Lee Craig leading there... he's having a pretty good season so far...

Meanwhile, young Hideki Matsuyama is once again leading by 4 shots before last round in Japan, amazing start of his pro career as we've been saying...

Brilliant from Gmac!


It seems like Paddy has withdrawn from the BMW next week, weird decision.