It’s the loudest tournament of all. Six hundred and fifty five thousand excited people over the week crowd into a confined space at TPC Scottsdale for the Waste Management Phoenix Open and it’s more like a party. These are people who really love golf. With 22 of the top 30 in the FedEx rankings playing this week – Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and Mickelson will be teeing up, it is like an American football crowd, just warming up for Super Bowl weekend.
My favourite thing is to watch golf on TV with the sound turned off, because sometimes the commentary is distracting, I enjoy it better, can see the shots better, and with this tournament don’t get knocked for six by the sound. It’s going to be a brilliant week, even if I don’t hear it.
Another week another marathon play off. This week over two days – Jason Day finally saw off a brilliant challenge from Alex Noren to win his 11th PGA Tour victory. After a turbulent 2017 personally Jason said he had worked very hard in the off season and after darkness curtailed the play off on Sunday he said he had been up all night thinking about the next win.
And the event wasn’t overshadowed by Tiger’s first return to regular tournament play in a year. He made the cut – his first in 888 days – and finished tied 23rd. He admitted he didn’t make any low scores but ground out some steady respectable scores.
I have to admit I was rooting for Alex Noren to get his first win on the PGA Tour. Last year when I was tending the putting green at a tournament he came over and thanked me. “Play well” I replied and he did exactly as he was told, shooting a course record 62 to overtake the field and win the tournament. I liked that a lot!
His coach on the Oklahoma State University golf team admits that Noren used to get in his own way. He needs to get out of his way now, not hold back and start to win these titles. He’s more than ready for the next level.
On the heels of the gherkin, the cheese grater and the hideous Walkie talkie, the next big building to be built in London will be the golf ball in the Olympic Park.
The new concert hall which will seat up to 20,000 people will be 430 metres tall, 20 metres higher than St Paul’s Cathedral.
Four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy and superstar Niall Horan of One Direction fame were joined by a lucky competition winner for the Omega Dubai Desert Classic Pro Am, after a global competition that saw 29,000 entrants play 260,000 holes of golf over four continents.
19 year old Saoirse Lambe from Dublin won the ultimate golfing package by downloading the VoxGolf app and playing nine holes of golf on a VoxGolf registered course.
As well as joining her golfing hero McIlroy and his fellow Irish star Horan for a round at Emirates Golf Club, Saoirse and her dad enjoyed a seven-night stay in Dubai including flights, plus tickets to each day of the 2018 Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
She had a wealth of experience by her side as she tackled the Majlis Course, with American professional golfer Paige Spiranac – who is also the Official Starter at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic – taking on caddie duties.
Saoirse also got an insight into McIlroy’s life on tour, as she dropped in on his pre-tournament media conference, toured the clubhouse – where she was given a personalised locker – and spent time warming up on the driving range alongside some of the world’s top golfers.
But the highlight was undoubtedly taking to the course with McIlroy, who won the event in 2009 and 2015, and Horan, who previously caddied for his good friend at the Par Three Contest at Augusta National in 2015.
The number of young – very young – girls who come to European tour events when Niall Horan is playing in pro ams is remarkable. They know nothing about golf, nor want to, but they find their way to the golf club to make a statement like the girl at the top. . A different kind of girls golf rocks..
McIlroy was beaten in the final round by a fantastic performance from Li Haotong of China who finished third in the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale
When asked what his feeling about players being paid to just turn up Keith Pelley was a tad dismissive about the subject.
The tour doesn’t get involved in appearance fees. Promoters do worldwide. IF promoters feel he need to pay for the use of big names to promote the tournament well in advance then good on them.
When asked if he wasn’t concerned, it was just a fact of life, he said no.
And he wasn’t aware of the European tour’s battle with Seve Ballesteros over appearance money which led to him withdrawing from the tour and not being selected for a Ryder Cup team.
It is this I find a little bit uncomfortable. In the fields in Dubai and Singapore the past few weeks has been American Pat Perez. Why would he be playing over here if he hadn’t been paid by promoters? To just say it’s none of our business we’ve got more important things to discuss is leaving individual tournaments that run themselves. And it is worrying, the lack of knowledge about what came before his tenure on the European Tour.
Being forward thinking, creatively marketing and finding new audiences is all well and good but it’s not learning from the past or taking heritage and legacy into consideration. Our past is always part of our present, while moving forward with golf is good anyone connected with golf at the highest level must know about who has gone before, It’s important to learn from what goes before.
While I appreciate everything Pelley is trying to modernise and popularise the sport it’s a double bogey here. He needs to take time to learn about the tour’s history. To say he’s not interested or too busy is detrimental.
Modest as well as formidably talented, Jon Rahm says that the return of Tiger Woods in today’s first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines is “a much bigger story than I’ll ever be”.
Well I wonder about that. If you have a look early on my blog there’s a piece that I wrote for Golf International about fate. There are times when the golfing gods clear the path of dominant players for someone special to come through. It happened at the 1996 Masters when the extraordinary battle between Norman and Faldo was the final fight before the Woods era dawned. And similarly, the completely unexpected decline of Woods has cleared the stage again. We have another comeback again this week, like Frank Sinatra Tiger does not want to really leave the stage. And everyone is really excited that Tiger came ninth at a very limited field at the Hero Challenge in December. Granted he has won at Torrey Pines eight times, but this week he will come up against defending champion Rahm who is just 23 years old, 19 years younger than Tiger. I am beginning to fear that the interest in Tiger is becoming more of morbid curiosity to watch how his story pans out rather than excited anticipation of him returning to win five more majors and beat Jack Nicklaus’ record.
I think that putt that Rahm holed on the 18th green at Torrey Pines last year, the extraordinary 60 foot putt from the fringe behind the green was a seminal moment. The beginning of the baton being passed to the next dominant player. He went on to win twice again on the European Tour last year and jumped from 137th in the world rankings to 4th. He is now 2nd after winning last week and the world number one spot is now within his grasp.
How this is possible is due to the incredibly complicated way the World Rankings are set up. Although Rahm has said “I never thought that I was going to be here at this point in my life” other players have said this would be unfair if he overtakes Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth who have multiple wins and majors.
To try and simplify – any tournament played in the previous 13 weeks has full point value. (Rahm has a win and a runner up place and if he wins at Torrey Pines he goes top). Over time points earned decrease in value until they drop off after two years. Stronger fields attract more points. points are divided by number of events played. This works to Rahm’s advantage. In the two year counting period he would have played 40 events. 383.51 points divided by 40 give him a points average of 9.58. Dustin Johnson has 502.8 points divided by 46 tournaments in 2 years giving him 10.93 average. Easy! fair, perhaps not, but it’s all about rewarding current form.
As far as Rahm playing for Europe in the Ryder Cup, he is a golfer who has been so intertwined with the other side. It was almost like providence that he gained his place at Arizona State when coach Tim Mickelson was told about him and he offered a Rahm a place without even interviewing him or seeing him play in person. It was a good gamble because a Rahm went on to be two time winner of the Ben Hogan Award for College golf’s top player and the McCormack Medal for Top Amateur in the world. Tim Mickelson had a job on his hand breaking some of his fiery temperament along the way. He made him run up and down the 56 steps of the Sun Devils Stadium as punishment for breaking a club in a fit of temper. So this is a man who knows Rahm’s temperament inside out, and he will be on brother Phil’s bag when inevitably Phil Mickelson gets a wild card to play in Paris. I have no doubt that will happen and it will be interesting to see what happens when they get put together on opposite sides, it may be history repeating itself. I think Rahm may be about to relive some of what Seve went through.
The European Tour are releasing free tickets today at 9am for the Golf Sixes event at Centurion Club, St Albans May 4-6.
Register at my European Tour and receive the special code. otherwise daily tickets are on sale at eventbrite.co.uk from £6.
Picture shows last year’s Danish winners Thorbjorn Oleson and Lucas Bjerregaard.
The European Tour report that GolfSixes brought a 42% increase in new golf fans and 14% increase in younger fans compared to their other tournaments. During last year’s event the social engagement was 24% above other tournaments with 20 million social media impressions.
This year’s event at Centurion club will be part of a festival of golf which will include a junior tournament, shot clock and fan zone. European Tour spokesman said that “Golf needs a route for younger fans and families to get involved. This combines the camaraderie of team golf with drama and intensity. The players love it and fans enjoy a different entertaining atmosphere”.
It
golfweloveit 