BMW PGA Championship

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Firstly great to see the return of Kwini to the scene with his US tour coverage this, lets hope this can live up to the standard he has set with another fanscinating read and informative article he always gives us.

Couple of quick opening points to set the scene for the European Tours flagship event.

- Monday saw many top name players, participate in a special charity day held in Seve's honour raising what is reported to be £618828 for his foundation.

-Last night (24th May) Heralded the ET's annual gala dinner event which all players that attended seemed to have enjoyed

- This year has also seen more changes to the 18th Green by a resident of Wentworth Ernie Els design team. Apparently it makes it more playable and a better chance of going for it in 2, according to both McIlroy and Westwood.

- Harrington has pulled out of the event citing Knee pain (heard that from someone else haven't we) but also struggling with a hamstring issue according to statement released by Padraig.

- This years event see's the first time the PGA has ever had all 4 current major champions in it field something never before seen.

Couple of good early groups to follow if your lucky enough to be going, with McDowell, Khan and Donald off at 8am, followed by Westwood, Goosen, Quiros who are immediately followed by Manassero, McIlroy and D Clarke.

A real 3 way shoot out this week for top spot in the OGWR too, which has many if's and buts to be looked and and on many cases for some a when! If Kaymer wins he goes to number 1, if Donald wins he goes top, but if neither win Lee stays top and for many they are just waiting for the day when Luke is No1. I think its coming his form always consistent and his class always apparent. He finished runner up last year with only his poor accuracy costing him down the stretch at 17, something he has worked on in the off season and come back far more accurate and it show.

So who's your pick to win this fantastic event at a club that has become home to the ET and this tournament since 1984, will westwood, Kaymer, Donald McDowell the current european big 4 be able to emulate the feats of the European greats of Old Monty, Olli, Seve, Sir Nick, Bernhard and Woosie in capturing the flagship event, or will some outsider do a Khan and pick up the check and a good exemption to the tour.

My money this week goeson Anders Hansen he is 45/1 to win and 10/1 for a top 5 finish. When you cosnider his form in this event in the last few years 2wins, a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th I'm thinking my money looks safe

Think they have the trainee 'nice but dims' running the computers at Wentworth today.

At the moment some English unknown is currently in 3rd place with a 63

Luuuuuuuke!!

What is wrong with Nick Dougherty???? +10 through 12 holes now.

Jeez, there's a lot of us who wouldn't do any worse than that. Always thought he'd be a top player, but in football parlance he has never really "trained on".

Shame.

EmmDee57 wrote:What is wrong with Nick Dougherty???? +10 through 12 holes now.

He's a whiner and whiners don't get it done.
dougherty

Anyone think that Luke might not like the 18th at Wentworth? I think that's an easier birdie than the 17th

LondonJonnyO wrote:Anyone think that Luke might not like the 18th at Wentworth? I think that's an easier birdie than the 17th

I reckon he was happy at -7 so didn't want to spoil a good round by risking going in the water. Sensible play yes but then this is maybe why he doesn't win as many events as he should and always finishes top 10??

Possibly. But then I wouldn't have made the 17th in range in two for Luke. And that's a much harder pitch to the green than 18

His lie didn't look all that great for the second shot, so it would have been very risky and for no good reason - he's 3 clear of Manassero.

Lairdy wrote:

EmmDee57 wrote:What is wrong with Nick Dougherty???? +10 through 12 holes now.

He's a whiner and whiners don't get it done.
dougherty

I have to agree with everything allis said in that article.

EmmDee57 wrote:What is wrong with Nick Dougherty???? +10 through 12 holes now.

The same thing that's been wrong with him all season. Hasn't made a cut since Singapore last November. He'll be off the tour next year unless he does something pretty drastic....

Three bogeys in a row for Monty. Hands up who didn't see that coming?

That link to the Dougherty article doesn't work for me - but then when I try to search for it I can't because I'm not prepared to pay the Times Online subscription

Go Luuuuke love to see him win here, especially after being so close last year, and a runner up again last week, really is the current deserved No1 in the world, many will give the old he hasn't won a major guff, but we all know thats irrelevant its form that counts not past victories (more than 2 years ago) and he has a WGC this year and I like him for the US Open and PGA this year.

Monty back in the hunt good to see too. How is 18 playing not had chance to watch any yet, is it playing better than last year

As for Dougherty, showed good early promise when he came on tour, but never seemed to put the work into it that was required to maintain a good career, lliving off past glory now he needs time away to re-address all aspects of his game. in order to help him focus on this I put myself forward to look after DiDo on a temporary basis for him

Hopefully Manassero will go backwards faster than the new Lamborghini Battersela

The world number one and major championship argument is not based on reality. Other than Phil, tiger, furyk, Kaymer look at the players who have won majors in the last decade who were not or are not players with the skills necessary to be the pinnacle of the game.

Charl Schwartzel, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen, Ángel Cabrera, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink, Yang Yong-eun, Trevor Immelman, Pádraig Harrington, Zach Johnson, Ángel Cabrera, Geoff Ogilvy, Michael Campbell Retief Goosen, Todd Hamilton, Mike Weir, Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel and Rich beem.

For a while now the majors have been won more often by lower ranked players than you would expect.

So it can be no surprise to see that the players currently fighting every week are beaten by lesser players on a very hot week. Number one is about consistency not that one off period of glory.

A bit contentious there, Mac. Poor old Cabrera is dissed not once, but twice!

Not completely sure how placing Furyk in Cat 1 and Goosen and Harrington in Cat 2 can possibly be justified.

Would fully expect Schwartzel and Ogilvy to be among those adding to their Major total, maybe one or two others.

Wonder which list you'll put Mahan on when he wins the US Open?

eh? Schwartzel, Goosen, Harrington? You sure about those Mac?

Ok

Was a little kind to Furyk, but it has not been the case over the last ten years, other than Tiger, that the majors have been competed over by the players in the top ten.

Not sure how you are being kind to Furyk putting him at the top of the game. Consistent performer. Seems to pick up at least one win per season. And has won the fedex.

It seems that in order to hit your top flight of players you need to be Tiger or Phil. Very shortsighted that

Davie wrote:That link to the Dougherty article doesn't work for me - but then when I try to search for it I can't because I'm not prepared to pay the Times Online subscription

Just google 'Dougherty and Peter Alliss'

McLaren wrote:Ok

Was a little kind to Furyk, but it has not been the case over the last ten years, other than Tiger, that the majors have been competed over by the players in the top ten.

Goosen, Furyk and Harrington have all won Majors while in the top 10. And so have Mickelson, Els and Vijay in the past ten years...

LondonJonnyO wrote:Hopefully Manassero will go backwards faster than the new Lamborghini Battersela

What have you got against Manassero LJ?

Mac my point was Luke should be No1 and Woods should as many seem to argue..

Not sure where your coming from with the Schartzel argument.. He has just had his maiden Major win and has the game and consistency to win more, as for Ogilvy his win was not a fluke and has the game to bag another. Then the Goosen argument he was at the top echelon on the OGWR for years and rightly so because he is not now is sill because he stil lhas the game to win more and will still always be an outside bet to take one.

From your comments Mac only Big Phil or Tiger are worthy, phil never made no1 because he isn't consistent enough and Tiger is not either anymore and Furyk has won many big prizes in the game i'm another persin not seeing your point

I really wish someone would do some sort of analysis that might reveal the truth, but it seems majors are increasingly won by players from lower down the rankings compared to 30 years or so ago.

NedB-H wrote:

LondonJonnyO wrote:Hopefully Manassero will go backwards faster than the new Lamborghini Battersela

What have you got against Manassero LJ?

He's continental

Lairdy wrote:

Davie wrote:That link to the Dougherty article doesn't work for me - but then when I try to search for it I can't because I'm not prepared to pay the Times Online subscription

Just google 'Dougherty and Peter Alliss'

Oh the three year old stuff? I thought something new had happened

Nice opening round from my slightly-more-of-a-long-shot-than-lee-or-luke pick, Quiros

6 birds and four bogeys for an opening 69. Currently tied 5th

Conditions here just up the road frmo Wentworth seem to be deteriorating, yet Poults, Casey and Els all -1 early on in their rounds. Can't see anyone challenging Luke (or even MM) the way the conditions are at the moment though

LondonJonnyO wrote:Anyone think that Luke might not like the 18th at Wentworth? I think that's an easier birdie than the 17th

LJ,
Looks like approach to 17 is playing downwind, whereas approach to 18 is into the wind.

raycastleunited wrote:

LondonJonnyO wrote:Anyone think that Luke might not like the 18th at Wentworth? I think that's an easier birdie than the 17th

LJ,
Looks like approach to 17 is playing downwind, whereas approach to 18 is into the wind.

with a pitch over water that should make it easier. There is no need to play short but aggressively at the flag with something that will stop upon landing on what should be a fairly firm surface.

I always prefer pitching into the wind rather than downwind.

Same here LJ pitching into the wind gives you chance to fly right at it and takes chance out of the equation. Unlike pi ss ing into the wind

Schwartzel +8 after 9 holes, Jimenez, Eddie and Rose all +3 early.

Sign of form from Casey? -2 . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:Schwartzel +8 after 9 holes,

Whats happened there!

See my outside bet I had late last night on Edfors is ok for the time being -3 through 16 see if that holds out, even picked in the fantasy league

Ok, just had a look at the field and 80 out of the 145 field are outside the OWGR top 200, with a good few of them outside the top 500.

That means this so called strong field as over 55% of the field made up of players not in the top 200 OWGR's.

Mac.

I beg to differ.

If 55 of the players are outside the top 200 then you divide that 55 by the total field of 145 and multiply by 100 to get a % of 37.93 outside the top 200.

LJ

80/145 = 55%

McLaren wrote:LJ

80/145 = 55%

I see you have revised your original quote.

Mac, so what is your point exactly?

I'm sure you would find something similar in American competitions, the only difference being the way in which American coverage ONLY concentrates on the big names and those in contention, so it appears that the field is star studded and with no journeymen when in fact if you look down the leaderboard you'll find yourself saying "WHO?" frequently.

Does anybody kn ow what caused the slow play this afternoon?

Followed Kaymer/Rose/Schwartzel in the afternoon. They got to the 4th tee and there were already two groups waiting on the tee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! About ten minutes later and Wall/Jaidee/Jamieson tee's off.........................and two of them had to hit provisionals!!!!

I got to the 14 following several lesser well known groups of players and walked back to the club house. From 14 through to the 18th i saw just four groups!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any ideas?

plugster wrote:Does anybody know what caused the slow play this afternoon?

I heard there was a bit of a "kerfuffle" at the burger stand. Didn't properly catch the names of the people involved but as I understand it there was someone called Esssss-Arghhhhh looking for a Lowery. I don't know if it was a matchstalk man Lowery (with or without matchstallk cats and dogs) but from the tone of the conversation, I suspect not

I see that the effort of Lowry carrying around his capacious gut resulted in him going from -2 after a few holes to +3 at the finish.

I think the delay was caused by the organisers making a public announcement to the crowd to find out if anyone could operate Windows 94.

"Lamborghini Battersela"

I'm a little shocked nobody picked up on this.

Battersela translates as: scarper

No-one shooting lights out this morning, can't find anything better than -2 out on the course. Some big names to go home empty:
Scwartzel (obviously)
Oosthuizen
Jimenez
with Molinaris currently on the outside looking in.
Plus, the usual pathetic (lack of) effort from Daly.
Cut looks like it could reach +5.

Hansen did get to about -5 earlier but fell away again. Ross Fisher going better than anyone currently. Broke away from those on the course at -2 to go -3 for the day.

I'm a JD fan but he's just a constant disappointment these days. Def needs to start earning the right to be out there. That way we and him would know he deserves to be out there and is capable of doing something decent.

+5 cut line would help Kaymer I reckon. Currenty +4 with 2 to play.

Tatty muncher Gareth Maybin is on fire today. -5 thru 8.

Kwini

If you need pga coverage it is on stream 2 of this site.

http://magictv.co/

Looks like the work experience gimp and their ZX81 are acting up again. Maybin chopping it about like everybody else.

Kaymer OK for the weekend.
Did Rose really make a NINE????
Defending champ at Jack's place on Thursday, perhaps needed to get home to mitigate his jetlag.