Whose Career, Westwood or Clarke ?

First topic message reminder :

There is always a lot of chat on here about what a major means or a high ranking means in terms of legacy. We often get players like Westwood compared to say Ben Curtis. Well how about Westwood and Clarke as an interesting one.
On the assumption neither wins a major going forward whose career whould you rather have had. Clarke peaked at number 8 in the rankings but has a couple of WGC's (including memorably beating a peak Tiger down the stretch) and not to forget the Open. Westwood more wins and of course has made it to the pinnacle of the rankings. Both have excellent Ryder Cup records. Both have had not so great times as well.
Whose career would you rather have had ?

Oliver's also got better friends - they are all so cool, driving around on their scooters and listening to Badly Drawn Boy. I wish I was one of his friends...

Hey Ive got a scooter, I take offence at that comment.

Diggers wrote:Come on guys, 3 michelin stars and the Fat Duck has been voted best restaurant in the world before a couple of times.
Thats the equivalent of Paddys majors and Lees's ranking rolled into one.
But Ill pass on the smail ice cream thanks all the same.

And if he stayed in the kitchen of The Fat Duck (or at the Mandarin) then I'd probably like him. At the moment he's more like Tiger Woods in being ranked highly without playing...

Diggers wrote:Hey Ive got a scooter, I take offence at that comment.

Do you have a Momo helmet, listen to Badly Drawn Boy and have lots of friends that name their children after fruits or flowers?

Have we met before ?

Diggers wrote:Have we met before ?

Round at Jamie Oliver's house apparently...

To be fair, America and schools aside, Jamie Oliver's really good. He did a great sketch on comic relief a couple talking about teaching fat chavs how to eat in schools - great that he keep things in perspective. His shows are also good in that you can actually cook what he is cooking from your cupboard - Ramsey and Heston ask you for a pinch of this and a touch of that. By the time that you've bought all the ingredients it would have been cheaper to eat at their restaurants!

JPX wrote:

Diggers wrote:Guys probably time for us to call this a day. JPX I do take your points about Poulter and Im sure he's a decent bloke, he just gets under my skin, the other golfer who does is McDowell. Its silly but it happens, Im not going to go out and kill them nor do I hate them, they just have faces that bug me. It happens
Im sure there are plenty of other subjects we might all agree on, Im sure Ive had a tear up with JD before but we agree at least on one thing on here.
Cant we just call a truce ?

OK let's draw a line under it. I'm not actually a fan of Poulter at all, just don't like his achievements being trampled on as though they're worthless. I'm going to give the forum a break for a while anyway, I have a big week next week so better start practising, and you never know, might see him at Woburn, if I do I'll give him your best wishes!

Good luck at Woburn JPX, do come back and tell us how you get on.

sharrison01 wrote:

Diggers wrote:Have we met before ?

Round at Jamie Oliver's house apparently...

I was round there the other day with my wife and our little girl, Aubergine.

Hey, I quite like Blumental!
Wouldn't it be boring if every tv cooking show was showing you how to make smoked haddock timbales and quails egg?!
What he does is interesting i think. Yeah i can't do it at home but then i can't hit a low drawing 4 iron into the wind but i still watched darren Clarke at the weekend.......

MustPuttBetter wrote:Hey, I quite like Blumental!
Wouldn't it be boring if every tv cooking show was showing you how to make smoked haddock timbales and quails egg?!
What he does is interesting i think. Yeah i can't do it at home but then i can't hit a low drawing 4 iron into the wind but i still watched darren Clarke at the weekend.......

Dont worry MPB, Rory cant hit one either....

I wouldn't mind Blumenthals work if it wasn't for him. He's just an intolerably smug git.

Can't see the point in a boiled egg using a magnifying glass to heat it though, but then I'm not really interested in food or cooking. I'd find him just as annoying if he was talking about anything. He is a C word.

Digs but can he cook quails egg with a magnifyng glass??

Super, - cook??

super_realist wrote:I wouldn't mind Blumenthals work if it wasn't for him. He's just an intolerably smug git.

Can't see the point in a boiled egg using a magnifying glass to heat it though, but then I'm not really interested in food or cooking. I'd find him just as annoying if he was talking about anything. He is a C word.

What, you mean a chef ?

It's a really close one - almost too close to call for me [noshankingpickingsplintersoutofhisarse]. It's funny as you look through golfing history there are a number of these comparisons. I'll bet through the last 70 years, long before tinterweb, there was many a long discussion either in the bar, clubhouse or sitting room on who was the 'better' or 'more accomplished' player. For me it's not just about what they won, but also their impact on the game as a whole. But you could quite easily look at.......

Gene Sarazon versus Walter Hagen versus Byron Nelson
Arnold Palmer versus Ben Hogan versus Bobby Jones
Tom Watson versus Gary Player
Bobby Locke versus Peter Thompson
Jack Nicklaus versus Tiger Woods
Seve versus Faldo
Payne Stewart versus Greg Norman versus Bernhard Langer
Ben Crenshaw versus Tony Jacklin versus Sandy Lyle

And you would argue and long into the night, because when it boils down to it, we all have our favourites out there...

I find it amazing how quickly things can change. If this question had been asked last Wednesday, how many people would have picked Clarke then? 4 days of good golf have overshadowed several years of good golf.

Not really D4S, 4 days of golf have added a great gloss to a career that already had a lot of highlights. As Dracula said on another thread Clarke was a top 30 golfer 9 years in a row, no mean feat.

Lets be honest, both winning a major and becoming World number 1 are fantastic achievements. For me personally though i would rather have my name on the Claret Jug, the U.S. Open trophy or have a green jacket than be world number one. So to date I would have Clarke's career...however I think it would be a rather wild assumption to assume that both are now at the end of their careers, of course they aren't. Looking forward I would opt for Westwoods as I can still see him winning at least one major...nothing against Darren and I would love it if he proved me wrong but he has probably now had his day in the sun, with the best will in the world I don't see him winning another major or challenging for World number 1. Lee on the other hand I would expect to contend in the next 12-16 majors (converting at least 1) and flit in and out of the world number 1 slot.

Cheers Smithers I will. Had a decent practise round on the Marquess today, a 69 with two 3 putts. Dutchess tomorrow.