European Tour 2015 - DP World Tour Championship

First topic message reminder :

I thought with no place to discuss European Tour events, and with important upcoming event. I felt it would be a good idea to set up a thread to I am going to try and keep this updated every week with selected tee times.

For those of us choosing tennis over golf, any explanation for Rose's dismal day?

kwinigolfer wrote:For those of us choosing tennis over golf, any explanation for Rose's dismal day?

Shocking weekend by Rose.  He won't be on my radar for any fantasy games, which probably means he will be contention late on Sunday.

GPB is in a bigtime Fantasy Slump!!!

Shame about the Federer result today! Djokovic was too good.


Come on Rickie!!!

Serena Williams's continues to win Grand Slams!!!!!!!! Incredible athlete!

She will win the Calendar Grand Slam for sure and will tie Steffi Graf in the process. Leaving no doubt in my mind that she is the Greatest of all time

Great stuff from Rickie Fowler!

Well done Rickie! Fast becoming the best player without a major.

Wonderful course.

Now, if Johnson Wagner can maintain he'll be heading overseas. Fingers crossed.

Rickie and Kuchar excellent when it really mattered. Course looked superb. What's not to like about a tournament like that.

I was loving the 16th hole yesterday,  par 5 playing basically as a par 4, easiest hole on the course, bookies slow to identify this offering 6/4 for the birdie.......lump on!!  Doubled up Luiten and Fowler to both birdie it too
I hope Boyd can carry on my successful bet run this week.

P.S bet of the week at SA is the bogey or worse on 17, especially if there's a breeze.

Hi sirb,
Was wondering to what extent you guys reckon the new date for Crans has hurt are helped the field.
Looks disappointing to me, especially coming so hard on the heels of a terrific run of E.T. tournaments. The winner will receive 32 owgr points, but the field won't be the same with guys like Jimenez and Bjorn giving it a miss.
EDIT: Oops - I see Jimenez is at Sunningdale.
And that's another tournament that should be interesting, course too.


The Europeans need to help themselves a bit but happy to see lw1, Donaldson and Sergio teeing it up in Switzerland.

Wasn't Crans opposite a big tournament in the US last year? (Play offs?)
So anything would be better than that.
Don't live too far from Sunningdale so might pop down to see how the old fogeys are getting along.

Inw,
Lipsky won last year at Crans and earned 30 x owgr points.
This year's winner will take home 32 points.

Negligible difference - I don't accept the fact that the European Tour can't hold its own against the PGA Tour; this year especially there'll be at least ten European Tour members who won't qualify for the Play-Offs and could surely be attracted to the beauties of Crans.

kwinigolfer wrote:Hi sirb,
Was wondering to what extent you guys reckon the new date for Crans has hurt are helped the field.
Looks disappointing to me, especially coming so hard on the heels of a terrific run of E.T. tournaments. The winner will receive 32 owgr points, but the field won't be the same with guys like Jimenez and Bjorn giving it a miss.
EDIT: Oops - I see Jimenez is at Sunningdale.
And that's another tournament that should be interesting, course too.


The Europeans need to help themselves a bit but happy to see lw1, Donaldson and Sergio teeing it up in Switzerland.

I would argue that it has helped the field a tad!? Like you said the three above are in the event plus Patrick Reed quite a decent quartet of players for a European Tour event for the week after a major?

Not sure if the online scoring is going mental, but currently showing Barry Lane with an albatross on the first hole at the Seniors Open!

Davie wrote:Not sure if the online scoring is going mental, but currently showing Barry Lane with an albatross on the first hole at the Seniors Open!

I've just checked and it seems he did.

Yes fairly unspectactular after that with a handful of bogeys and birdies .. but nice start to be -3 after 1!

Davie wrote:Not sure if the online scoring is going mental, but currently showing Barry Lane with an albatross on the first hole at the Seniors Open!

It's eminently possible. Old course starts with a very short par 5 downhill under 500 yards. Even for the oldies like Lane it's probably no more than a drive and a mid iron.

Yes ray .. I've since heard he hold a 4 iron from about 210

Danny Willett carrying on where he left off.
Sergio too (double-bogeyed the first).

I see Top 5 has opened with a descent round. I spent some time following his group on Friday and I was surprised how good his swing was in the flesh. His swings seems to be under total control compared to how it looks on TV.

The swings I thought looked the best in person were;

Scott
Rose
Top 5

Play suspended in the Seniors Open for flooding .. it's horrid here in Berkshire!

It's pretty sh1t here in central London too - I presume your flooding is coming our way

Go Fitzy!

The freedom Willet and Fitzgerald play with is great, I really like Fitzgerald attitude, plays with a smile on his face. Willett starting to show he's a real major contender, and probably England's new hope.....move over Westy, Donald, Poults et al.

Fair play to Willett, he has upped his game this year.

gw wrote:The freedom Willet and Fitzgerald play with is great, I really like Fitzgerald attitude, plays with a smile on his face. Willett starting to show he's a real major contender, and probably England's new hope.....move over Westy, Donald, Poults et al.

Fitzgerald? You thinking about the two Irish homosexuals again? Patrick Fitzgerald and Gerald Fitzpatrick?

Matt Fitzpatrick I think you mean?

Haha woops, yes of course Fitzpatrick, I have a colleague called Fitzgerald (but he's very camp come to think of it!!)

Willett in my opinion is nowhere near as good as Rose, Westwood, Poulter, Casey, Donald etc

sirbenson wrote:Willett in my opinion is nowhere near as good as Rose, Westwood, Poulter, Casey, Donald etc

Nowhere near as good as they are now or when they were playing at their best? If it is the former, I'd certainly dispute that with Westwood!

I'd say he's better than Westwood and Poulter currently sirb, whether his career matches up to theirs is another matter but he's definitely going in the right direction.

Agreed. Better than the 2015 Luke Donald as well.

I meant I don't see his career being as good as the others....Not referring to 2015 solely cause he has obviously had a better year than Westwood, Poulter, Donald. And you could say he is just slightly behind Casey and Rose this year

From the ET website re Matchplay. The draw for the first round will be made live on Sky Sports News at 3.30pm on Tuesday afternoon
64 player straight knockout. Two rounds Saturday and Sunday.

I didn't realise that was this week. I know he's got quite a few of his "Foundation" players in there, so expect a pretty poor first round with some easy wins/massive thumpings

Strange venue too. Can't decide whether they'll find it hard or very easy.

Very weak field. Almost a waste of time. But hey, that's the ET in a nutshell.

pedro wrote:Very weak field. Almost a waste of time. But hey, that's the ET in a nutshell.

Totally agree!! Too many weak fields has become the norm sadly for the European Tour in over half of the events tbh!

super_realist wrote:I didn't realise that was this week. I know he's got quite a few of his "Foundation" players in there, so expect a pretty poor first round with some easy wins/massive thumpings

Strange venue too. Can't decide whether they'll find it hard or very easy.

Where do you see any of his foundation players?

Also think its a half decent field, was never going to get any of the top guys with the two tournaments coming up.

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015058/news/newsid=265920.html#ovTEFpkOSgbPQz2m.97

Some really good match-ups.
Most of the European Tour rank and file are supporting this event. Good to see.

sirbenson wrote:Willett in my opinion is nowhere near as good as Rose, Westwood, Poulter, Casey, Donald etc

Interesting. Westwood, Poulter and Donald have been nothing more than also rans possibly for the past couple of years, I'd put Willett second behind Rose right now. There's also the likes of Sullivan, Fleetwood and Fitzwhatsit I'd give as much chance to winning a major as them.

Pains me to say it, but they just don't seem to have what it takes to get over the line, after years of believing they did have.

P.S I had the pleasure of partnering Sullivan in a Midlands event about 6 years ago, I think he was about +2 or 3 then. Genuine nice guy, he knew he had what it takes but wasn't big headed or arrogant at all. Good to see his talent is being fulfilled, one of the first scores I look for now.

Tee times and matches.

08.00am: Julien Quesne vs Tom Lewis
08.10am: Scott Hend vs Jeev Milkha Singh
08.20am: Maximilian Kieffer vs Michael Hoey
08.30am: Kristoffe Broberg vs Richard Finch
08.40am: Richie Ramsay vs Shiv Kapur
08.50am: Magnus Carlsson vs Edoardo Molinari
09.00am: Matthew Fitzpatrick vs Bradley Dredge
09.10am: Peter Uihlein vs Oliver Wilson
09.25am: Chris Wood vs JBE Kruger
09.35am: Jorge Campillo vs John Daly
09.45am: Raphael Jacquelin vs Seve Benson
09.55am: Gregory Havret vs David Horsey
10.05am: Alexander Levy vs Mark Foster
10.15am: Morton Orum Madsen vs Alvaro Quiros
10.25am: Tyrrell Hatton vs Darren Fichardt
10.35am: Robert Rock vs Michael Lundberg

12.30pm: Anthony Wall vs Chris Doak
12.40pm: Romain Wattel vs Paul Lawrie
12.50pm: Thomas Aiken vs Scott Jamieson
13.00pm: Andrew Dodt vs Oliver Fisher
13.10pm: Alejandro Canizares vs Lucas Bjerregaard
13.20pm: Marcus Fraser vs Robert Karlsson
13.30pm: Gregory Bourdy vs Nicolas Colsaerts
13.40pm: Trevor Fisher Jnr vs Thorbjorn Olesen
13.55pm: David Howell vs Daniel Brooks
14.05pm: Thomas Pieters vs David Drysdale
14.15pm: Kiradech Aphibarnrat vs Wade Ormsby
14.25pm: Andrew Johnston vs Graeme Storm
14.35pm: James Morrison vs Pelle Edberg
14.45pm: Johan Carlsson vs Marco Crespi
14.55pm: Marc Warren vs Richard Bland
15.05pm: Felipe Aguilar v Fabrizio Zanotti

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015058/news/newsid=265920.html#YCxugDyxvgyDOfQZ.99

gw,
Good story about Andy Sullivan. Big week for him this week with a decent (drac reckons top 21, but I reckon he'll need a 15th place at least) finish required to get him into the Bridgestone.

Sullivan has taken big steps forward in the past year, yet in my thread this week I suggest that promising Europeans like Fleetwood, Lowry and Luiten have regressed in the past seven months.

gw wrote:

sirbenson wrote:Willett in my opinion is nowhere near as good as Rose, Westwood, Poulter, Casey, Donald etc

Interesting. Westwood, Poulter and Donald have been nothing more than also rans possibly for the past couple of years, I'd put Willett second behind Rose right now. There's also the likes of Sullivan, Fleetwood and Fitzwhatsit I'd give as much chance to winning a major as them.

Pains me to say it, but they just don't seem to have what it takes to get over the line, after years of believing they did have.

I didn't meant currently....I just meant I cannot seem having a career as successful as those mentioned above! Currently he is perhaps just behind Rose and Casey!

4 up on the front nine, loses the 17th, and that is the end of the enigma that is Scott Hend.

Already some interesting results; good for Paul Lawrie in attracting a decent (as good as he could have hoped for) field and supporting Match Play. Hope the experiment is successful.

Watching the Match Play, when Golf Channel shows the completed matches, it has White Print on top of a bright yellow background which makes it hard to read.  In progress matches are shown with white print on a green background

Is that the same graphics that are being shown on your side of the pond?

It's not like that on the ET website - very clear. Can you access it?

LadyPutt wrote:It's not like that on the ET website - very clear. Can you access it?

Not talking about the website, talking about the telecast.

When a player hosts a tournament, such as this one, what does that actually involve?

Any idea what work Lawrie, Tiger etc put into to making these events happen? Is Arnold Palmer securing sponsorship, catering, a good field etc for his invitational, or is the involvement equivalent to Katie Price's input into her novels or perfume?

raycastleunited wrote:When a player hosts a tournament, such as this one, what does that actually involve?

Any idea what work Lawrie, Tiger etc put into to making these events happen? Is Arnold Palmer securing sponsorship, catering, a good field etc for his invitational, or is the involvement equivalent to Katie Price's input into her novels or perfume?

Lawrie makes the clubhouse haggis.

GPB wrote:

LadyPutt wrote:It's not like that on the ET website - very clear. Can you access it?

Not talking about the website, talking about the telecast.

Sorry - at work and trying to follow the Test match as well! Not seen the Sky coverage yet