European Tour - Volvo Match Play & Madeira Open

First topic message reminder :

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...

Weird all right... Maybe Paddy needs a longer break, don't know...
Who can understand him anymore at this stage...?

Dissappointing however not to have him, Stenson, Charl and Louis next week at Wentworth...

Possibly he just isn't happy with how he is playing and just need to work on the range. Or just maybe the fact he has never been a fan of the course. Anyway it is all about the majors for him now but it would be nice if he could get some form before them

If Padraig doesn't find some form soon it won't be all about the Majors next year, The Masters and US Open anyway.

Apart from a couple of aberrations he's played quite well this week, so perhaps he can post a couple of decent rounds in the wind.

Bizarre to drop this and play in the Byron Nelson instead.....more rankings points for the Wentworth event.....and barring a miracle he won't be winning this week.

incontinentia wrote:Poulter should be condemned for trivialising suicide. unacceptable comment imo.

Agreed. Disgusting comments...................

This course reminds me a bit of Kapalua, with those wide expansive fairways, big funky greens and penal hazards to punish the especially wayward.
Plus the views.
Plus the crowds.

Sounds highly unlikely they'll be back there next year . . . . . .

Couldn't have asked for better advertising for the European Tour...!

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golftalkcentral/colsaerts-drive-results-in-drop-inside-bathroom/

Obviously they misconstrued the meaning of nearest point of relief.

Watched 3 days of this matchplay now. Remember when this used to be played at Wentworth with huge crowds of golf fans and a proper golf course!
Course is not good enough. Obviously paid lots to get the comp as advertising and ET should hang their heads in shame.

Don't know, but looks to me unlikely that as long as Volvo stays as the main sponsor of this event it will be moved back to Wentworth or anywhere similar... Their primary interest/model as a sponsor doesn't seems to be attracting big local crowds to watch the matches directly but more interested in looking for new worldwide markets/locations and maximise their TV exposure, etc. in these places...

Anyways, we'll see where they end up next year... Meanwhile, it's McDowell vs Jaidee in the final. Now Jaidee can certainly be asured of his place in the US Open, quite likely he will move inside the top 50 after this even if he doesn't win the final...

Another crash from Matsuiama in Japan after building a big lead. Will keep an eye on this in future to see if it's becoming a 'trend' for him, still finished T2 though...

they were going through the past champions (volvo matchplay) on sky there and it seemed a great number of them won a major the same year they won this. an omen for today's winner perhaps?

Simon Dyson with a nice round going; is this a sign of things to come?

Hopefully, he had some other half-decent tournaments lately. I'd be also encouraged a bit seeing Rhys Davis T11 over there. That would be his best result since that T5 in Perth last year, although that in itself was more of an 'accident'...

GMac referred to Jaidee in an interview before the final as "a great little player"...He may want to reconsider that 'little' remark right now, Thongchai proving a real toughy around those beautiful Thracian Cliffs..

Titleist moment in Madeira - it'll be interesting to see how he moves his career forward from here:
Take his European Tour card or still try for PGA Tour via web.com - if he qualifies of course.

Well, both Uihlein and McDowell looked to be in the zone from earlier on...

GMac's game in great shape, looking good for the big events coming up the following weeks...

Snakes or no snakes, I liked the look of that course and the place and hope to be able to pay a visit sometimes in the future...

incontinentia wrote:they were going through the past champions (volvo matchplay) on sky there and it seemed a great number of them won a major the same year they won this. an omen for today's winner perhaps?

I think that is because in the old days at Wentworth is that there weren't many players invited and those that were invited were the major champions earlier that year.

ah, ok GPB.

I hadn't realised that Peter Uihlein's manager was Chubby Chandler . . . . .

There's some suggestion that, having secured his 2014 European Tour card, Uihlein will map out a plan to obtain sponsors' invitations to PGA Tour events in the hope of making sufficient money to earn status for 2013/2014, or at least the Final Four web.com/Tour events opposite the Play-Offs from which 2013/2014 cards will be won.

kwini ... I'm sure that was the plan all along. Smart play.

gael,
It's a good plan! And one that other US newly minted pros with outstanding amateur credentials (to attract US sponsor invites) might want to follow - perhaps the flipside of the new PGA Tour qualifying process.
It'll be interesting to follow Brooks Koepka might follow also as soon as he's arithmetically assured of a 2014 European Tour card via his Challenge Tour success.

Wouldn't be the daftest thing that O'Grady has ever done if he committed to ratchetting up the prize-money on the Challenge Tour - make an investment closer to grass-roots and build a base instead of selected artificially high prizes on the ET only being available to the galacticos, usually with limited fields.

Hadn't realised Peter Hanson wasn't playing this week - has he withdrawn injured?
Season slowly disintegrating.

kwinigolfer wrote:...Wouldn't be the daftest thing that O'Grady has ever done if he committed to ratchetting up the prize-money on the Challenge Tour - make an investment closer to grass-roots and build a base instead of selected artificially high prizes on the ET only being available to the galacticos, usually with limited fields.

.Agreed, hope O'Grady's listening...

Hell kwini, why not just go the full hog and make the european tour the new pga tour qualifier? (lol)

gael,
It seems the base has been torpedoed right now, either thru bad economies, mis-placed ambition, or European Tour members just being such good golfers they displace Americans on the PGA Tour.
Some of those who have flown west will never return but others will not take to the Tour grind or just not be successful. There needs to be an attractive European alternative to attract them back - not sure anyone is assured of that right now.
No reason why some of those coming east shouldn't be Americans (North and South), Aussies or Asians, but there need to be places for them to play and make a decent living.
Still think the E.T. can be a strong alternative to the PGA Tour, but doubt the present prescription is the right one.

Yep, you've just about summed it up kwini. Can't see things changing anytime soon over here.

Thank goodness for The Open! At least we've still got that.

This is a strange one after all the oohs and aahs at Thracian Cliffs (is that the Bulgarian name or the English translation?).
Gary Player was asked by USA Today to nominate ten golf courses for his "favourite" ten destinations. He included some that he designed, but most of the list were American, plus a couple in Canada, one in Mexico, but none in South Africa. Or Bulgaria.

Hanson tweeted that he was at Walton Heath today.....another odd pull out of the tournament. Can only think he was unhappy with how he was playing....wise to take some rest before the three remaning majors

R&A will make they're anchoring ban announcement at 1pm at Wentworth... That may explain why Paddy didn't want to show up there this week...