European Tour - Portugal Masters

First topic message reminder :

As it happens, this week we will see the last stop of the European Tour show in 2012 on the old continent. The bad news is that we won't be seeing it back on these shores for the next six months!? Fortunately, there are some good news as well this time... As you may have seen it, today ET announced (together with Turkish Airlines and Chubby Chandler!) a new official 'mega' tournament (€7M) to be played in Turkey (called the Turkish Open) from next year, in the first half of November. Following the steady stream of bad news of late, this is very good news indeed for the European Tour and without me repeating what they said, you can find all the other details that are known at this point in here:

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/news/newsid=175202.html#turkish+open+starring+role+the+2013+european+tour

One bit which I don't quite understand is the fact that they say it will be the penultimate event of the season... Assuming that Dubai will be the last event of the season, this raises the question what will happen with the Singapore, HK and SA Open which have been traditionally held after that date. But I'm sure all this will be clarified in the near future. One thing is certain, the European Tour should have a pretty different look next year...

But back to Portugal... this is a relatively young event, which started in 2007 and one that attracted a reasonable field every year, although it has experienced a slide in field strength from the 2009 peak over the last couple of years as the prize fund dropped from €3M to ~2.25M this year...

Spoiler:

The sensational win by young Tom Lewis last year made him an instant superstar, but unfortunatelly his form took a nose dive after that and it's been quite upsetting to see him near the bottom of leaderboards on a regular basis. Let's hope that coming back here after a year, it will somewhat rekindle his spirit, his passion and his form. Oddly enough, three other former winners of this event will be searching pretty much for the same thing this week (i.e. their lost form): S. Webster, A. Quiros and M. Kaymer, so we'll keep an eye on their progress over the next days...

Apart from all that, not sure why, but I feel there will be a French or Italian winner here this week...

EmmDee57 wrote:S_R won't be happy if Lowry takes the title. Would be nice if Michael Campbell won though although that would mean 2 years exemption and another 2 years of him finishing plum last week in week out.

Campbell, as a Major winner has a lifetime exemption.........................

Advantage Lowry.............

Hurray!! Been out for a while, this is a really nice surprise!

Go on Shane!!!!!!!!!!

If he can scramble a par at last it should be enough!

John Cregan wrote:

EmmDee57 wrote:S_R won't be happy if Lowry takes the title. Would be nice if Michael Campbell won though although that would mean 2 years exemption and another 2 years of him finishing plum last week in week out.

Campbell, as a Major winner has a lifetime exemption.........................

Advantage Lowry.............

I thought it was just a 10 year exemption you got for winning a major. There was a thing I read few years back highlighting Paul Lawrie's poor form at the time and how he might lose his card as it was approaching 10 years since his Open win.

Feel sorry for Fisher to lose it like that, but...

Even 10 year exemption from the 2005 US Open would guarantee Campbell a longer exemption than a two year exemption from a hypothetical win this week.

Get in Shaneo!!!!

YEESSSS!!! Go on Shane! LEGEND

Where does this take Lowry in the rankings?

benson,
I'd think he'd be somewhere between 75 and 80 subject to events in California.

So: Normally, that would exempt him from Stage 1 PGA Tour Q-School instead of having to compete in Stage 1. Perhaps he'll cash in a bit now and defer "America" until later in his career?

Apologies if this has already been posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_qVyxZ9dUY

How come Shane Lowry wasn't on that boat?

Shane is currently #74 with Frys still to be accounted...
CHIII or Blixt (or Overton?) could push him down one spot if any of them win tonight...

Great effort from the 606 anti hero.

Well pleased for him.

kwinigolfer wrote:Apologies if this has already been posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_qVyxZ9dUY

How come Shane Lowry wasn't on that boat?

Kwini, behave!!!

Now Shane's sights must be on qualification for some 2013 Majors.......................when it mattered the short game of Lowry really stood and Fisher's wilted..............strange reaction over the closing holes from Campbell as if he was disappointed to finish 3rd his best finish in about 6/7 years - perhaps there's a phsycologist doing some great work there!!

Oh surely the goal of getting a Masters spot is possible!!

A phat win for Lowry.

princedracula wrote:Shane is currently #74 with Frys still to be accounted...
CHIII or Blixt (or Overton?) could push him down one spot if any of them win tonight...

Actually Blixt can't overtake Lowry with a win, he'd stop just short of passing him...

Great win for Jonas Blixt... now more importantly... anybody got his sisters digits? :-)

The BBC and ET have now reported that Lowry has abandoned plans for PGA Tour Q-School, presumably having read our opinions on the matter.

He has now entered "next week's BMW Masters in Shanghai instead".

Good move. Would think that's going to be richly endowed with owgr points and he can presumably move on from there to Singapore and Hongkers, plus Dubai. If he's good enough, he'll take this form and convert it into points and the Top 50.