Jimenez collects third win of the season
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Miguel Angel Jimenez, who made such a brilliant fist of locking up his team berth in the previous week¹s Johnnie Walker championship, was in the same inspired vein as he won the Omega European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre at what was his 22nd attempt.
Though a run-away victory was on the cards, the 46-year-old Spaniard had to withstand an eleventh-hour attack from Edoardo Molinari, a player whose immediate history was much the same as his own. Molinari, of course, had won the Johnnie Walker to force Colin Montgomerie to hand him one of his three Ryder Cup wildcards.
With eight holes to play, Jimenez was as many as six ahead. Then, though, Molinari notched a birdie and an eagle to his bogey and par at the back-to-back par fives, the 14th and 15th and, as they mounted the 16th tee, there was just one between them.
Spectators feared the worst of Jimenez as they noted that Molinari had precisely the same Tiger-like look in his eyes that they had witnessed at Gleneagles when he was in the throes of making his three closing birdies.
On this occasion, though, the 29-year-old failed to keep up the pressure. He made a four to Jimenez¹s three at the short 16th, followed by a par against a Spanish birdie at the penultimate hole.
That the 17-year-old Matteo Manassero finished in third place added to the buzz of the afternoon. The teenager, who was not born when Jimenez first started playing in Crans, has now mirrored what Rory McIlroy achieved a few years ago by winning himself his European Tour card via a handful of main Tour invitations.
"Mission accomplished," is what the young man said.
Jimenez¹s performance was a supreme example of the Spaniard's guts.
"Miguel Angel has always been like that," said Jose Maria Olazabal, a welcome visitor to the tournament. "What he did at Gleneagles was astonishing and he¹s been amazing again here."
Jimenez, whose third win this was of the 2010 season, should have had a rest following his heroics at Gleneagles. However, as he said at the start of the week, a few days in Crans, his favourite stopping point on the European Tour, was better than a rest.
After opening with a 67, he proved his point with an inspired ten-under-par 61, a course record.
He was three ahead of Molinari and Manassero at the half way stage and the three played together on Saturday in what was one of the most exciting groups of the year.
In a state of affairs to have every watching European hoping that there would be as many Italian supporters at Celtic Manor as there were at Crans, there were whistles and cheers for the two Italians and their older Mediterranean neighbour at every hole during that Saturday round.
Hardly surprisingly, they rose to a crescendo when, after they had each made a birdie at the seventh, they all did the same again at the short eighth, directly below the window of the Molinari family¹s apartment.
The atmosphere remained in the same heady vein on Sunday round as Jimenez raced into his lead and then succeeded in keeping Molinari at bay.
Though he escaped on that front, the winner had no such luck when, in the moments after his victory, his friends joined forces to shove him into the greenside pond.
He was dripping wet but, once he had donned his red winner¹s blazer, as dapper as ever.
Could the WGC-HSBC Champions, for which he has now qualified three times over, become the fourth victory of the season for a man who has had had as many as 12 of his 18 wins since he turned 40. |
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Also joining World Number One, Tiger Woods, and World Number Two and defending champion, Phil Mickelson, are Ian Poulter, winner of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and Hunter Mahan, winner of the recent WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, ensuring that the world’s best players of 2010 are all in Shanghai trying to win the coveted ‘Champion of Champions’ title and a share of the US$7million prize fund.
With so many top-class players already in the field, the 2010 WGC-HSBC Champions looks set to build upon last year’s success when, elevated to the illustrious World Golf Championship tier of events for the first time, it attracted the strongest field ever seen in Asia with seven of the world’s top 10 and 20 of the world’s top 30 golfers making it the second-highest ranked field anywhere in the world outside the US in 2009.
World Number three, Lee Westwood, winner of the inaugural Dubai World Golf Championship last November, finished second in the 2010 Masters tournament and The Open Championship and is looking for a big win to finish off his year. He explained, “I have had a great year in terms of getting my world ranking right up there and have been extremely consistent throughout. However, there is no doubt I’d love to win a big title like the WGC-HSBC Champions to finish off my year on a high note. I haven’t won a World Golf Championship before so it is a real goal of mine and the fact that the WGC-HSBC Champions is played in China makes it the most global one of all and the one I would most like to win.”
Graeme McDowell, who claimed his first Major at the US Open this year is looking forward to returning to China as a Major champion having finished tied 16th last year. He said, “It certainly gives you a little boost when you are announced on the tee as a Major Champion and in a tournament known as the ‘Champion of Champions,’ I hope it will give me a little bit of an edge. Last year I shot 65 in the second round amongst three rounds in the 70s so I know the Sheshan course suits me if I play well and I am really looking forward to having another go at winning this great event.”
Louis Oosthuizen became only the fourth South African to ever win a Major when he won the 2010 Open Championship finishing seven shots clear of the field at St Andrews in July. He also finished in tied 16th alongside Graeme McDowell in last year’s WGC-HSBC Champions, adding, “Winning the Open Championship is a huge turning point in my career and means I go to Majors and World Golf Championships with far higher expectations than I may have done in the past. I have played in the WGC-HSBC Champions three times now and have always enjoyed the experience very much. From the great hospitality to the immaculate condition of the Sheshan course, it is always a great week and one I look forward to very much.”
Germany’s Martin Kaymer, winner of the final Major of 2010, the USPGA Championship and current leader of the European Tour’s Race to Dubai rankings said, “I knew I had already secured my place in the WGC-HSBC Champions when I won the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in January so it was nice to take the pressure off by making sure of my place in the field so early in the year. Winning my first Major was a fantastic end to the summer but now I really want to keep my place at the top of the Race to Dubai and finish the year off well. I think a win at the WGC-HSBC Champions will be very significant in both the end-of-year European and World Rankings, especially with Tiger, Phil and Lee in the field.”
Giles Morgan, Group Head of Sponsorship at HSBC said “The number of early entries we have had this year from so many of the world’s best golfers confirms that the HSBC Champions has already established its place alongside the other WGC events and that the stars are going to make China’s WGC event a success. To have all of the Major winners of 2010 already in the line-up along with so many other great champions, coupled with all the great feedback they’re giving about the tournament, shows that Tiger knew what he was saying when he described the HSBC Champions as ‘the crowning jewel of all of Asian golf!’”
Robbie Henchman, Senior Vice President of the tournament promoters IMG concluded, “We are delighted at the way the tournament is shaping up. The field is already brimming with the world’s best golfers and we think everything is in place to deliver an even more exciting tournament this year.” |
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The Johnnie Walker in Scotland and the Barclays in America were closely interwoven on a last day when Colin Montgomerie was finalising his European team for the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor.
At Gleneagles, the 29-year-old Edoardo Molinari was an out-and-out star as he won the tournament and earned himself one of Monty’s three wildcards for a side in which his 28-year-old brother, Francesco, had already secured an automatic berth.
A few hours later at the Barclays, a very much in-form Matt Kuchar came out on top and earned himself a place in the WGC-HSBC as he defeated Scotland’s Martin Laird at the first extra hole. With Laird more an American Tour player than European, he was never under serious consideration for a place in Monty’s side. However, the same did not apply to Luke Donald and Padraig Harrington. As Donald was in the process of finishing in a share of 15th place and Harrington was pulling up inside the top 50, Monty was reading out their names at Gleneagles as his two other picks.
There are between 70,000 and 100,000 Italian-Scots in Scotland and, to no-one’s great surprise, Molinari’s wild-card had the best of receptions. Earlier in the week, the player – and his many fans - had feared that Montgomerie would make all his choices from among the so-called ‘Fed-Ex Four’ of Harrington, Donald, Paul Casey and Justin Rose.
As it was, Montgomerie was ever more taken with the way Edoardo was playing and with the courage he showed in tying things up with three successive birdies.
Before he teed up at the 16th, Edoardo had seen a board showing how Australia’s Brett Rumford had signed off with two birdies to finish at nine under par. Since he was only seven under at that stage, it was all too apparent what he had to do to beat him.
He caught the green in two at the par-five 16th en route to the first of his trio of birdies and then, at the short 17th, holed a swinging putt from all of 30 feet for the second. As the ball dropped, so he punched the air time and time again in the knowledge that he had to be making some kind of impression on the Ryder Cup captain.
At the last, he was short of the green in two but chipped close and holed out for a 71 and a win to set alongside the victory at Loch Lomond which had already qualified him for the WGC-HSBC in Shanghai.
Rumford had second place to himself as Francesco, after his closing 75, finished in a share of third.
Edoardo was hard put to believe that, this time last year, he had been nothing better than a humble Challenge Tour player. “This has been such a great day for me,” he said. “To win and to get to play alongside my brother in the Ryder Cup is a dream come true.”
When Montgomerie told him the good news, he had been sufficiently excited to promise that he and his brother would win all their matches.
After naming his wild cards, Montgomerie gave details of his thinking process.
Harrington had got the nod because he was a man of three majors and opponents feared him accordingly; Donald had stood out because of a Ryder Cup record in which he had lost only one game in five starts.
When he came to Molinari, the captain began with a rhetorical, “What can I say about Edoardo?” The Scot added that in his 24 years on the European Tour, he had never seen “a finish of that quality under such pressure by anyone, ever.
“All credit goes to him for having come here having to win and doing so – and joining his brother as the first brother partnership that’s ever played on either team in the Ryder Cup.”
Though there will almost certainly be those who will argue that Casey and Rose should have been given captain’s picks, this was the only area where Montgomerie was unequivocally wrong. The three Whitcombe brothers, Charlie, Earnest and Reg, played in the Ryder Cup of 1935, while the two Hunts, Bernard and Geoff, were in the side of 1965.
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Everything comes right for Hanson
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The 32-year-old Swede matched his twin aims to perfection. After letting slip a four-shot Saturday-night lead, he came back to defeat Peter Lawrie and newcomer Gary Boyd at the second play-off hole. At the same time, he kept his unbeaten play-off record intact – three wins in three starts.
Yet before any of this could happen, Hansonhad to ask for a sponsor’s invitation to play at the Prosper Golf Resort. Having been at the PGA championship at Whistling Straits the week before, he had planned on a break before the Johnnie Walker at Gleneagles. However, the moment it hit him that a week off could end up costing him his place at Celtic Manor, he had gone into action.
The sponsors gave him the thumbs up on the Monday and, after rushing out to the Czech Republic,Hanson did not take too long to discover the form which saw him winning in Mallorca in May.
There were a few hiccups for the player at the start of the fourth round and, though he recaptured his lead with a birdie at the 10th, there was more trouble in the offing at the 12th. After a good enough drive, he dispatched too-long a second which plugged in the bunker beyond the green. It cost him a six and saw him slipping behindLawrie and Boyd. Once again, he fought back, notching a birdie at the 16thwhich paved the way for his closing 74.
Boyd was the most surprising of the play-off candidates – a 23-year-old graduate of the Challenge circuit who had known nothing better than a 14th place in his first year on the European Tour. He had started the day six shots behind Hanson but played his way through the field with five birdies in an outward 31. As for Lawrie, he had prospered with a run of birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie around the turn.
Throughout his 74, the Swede had radiated nothing but anxiety. Now, after everything had come so right, a wide smile surfaced. “I’ve still got a week to go,” he said of the Johnnie Walker, the last counting event on the Ryder Cup points list, “but things are looking so much better, now.”
Montgomerie was going to be pleased to see him. At a time when others looking to play in the Ryder Cup had not answered his call to enter the last few counting tournaments, both Hanson – and Simon Dyson, for that matter – had followed the captain’s wishes to the letter.
Talking of champions, Hanson will, of course, be among those in the WGC-HSBC Champions from 4-7 November. One way and another, his second rush of form in the 2010 season has come at the right time. |
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Kaymer claims his first major
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Martin Kaymer was never going to turn somersaults for the cameramen after holing the short putt which won him the play-off against Bubba Watson in the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. Quiet elation was more the order of the day for a player who first made news in 2006 when he handed in a 59 while playing on a humble European development tour. (That was before scores in the 50s became the relatively regular happening they have been this season.)
The 25-year-old German, who exudes much the same calm as Bernhard Langer, had left any nerves behind after he and Watson tied at 11 under. “The pressure,” he said, “had kind of gone because the worst you can do is finish second. Of course you want to win but I felt relaxed. I only had to beat one guy and that was it.”
Before they set out, Kaymer and Watson had spared more than a thought for Dustin Johnson who would have accompanied them but for a ruling which will presumably be the subject of much official debate. Johnson was three under par and one ahead playing the 72nd when he hit into a patch of sand in the right rough. It never struck him for a second that it counted as one of the 1,000-plus waste bunkers on the course.
It was only after he had missed the six-footer which people thought he had for the championship that he was approached by an official. The latter put a hand on his shoulder and explained that if he had grounded his club in the sand, he was due a two-shot penalty.
Since Johnson could not say for sure that he had not, the penalty was applied and his tournament was over. “The only worse thing which could have happened to me,” he suggested, “would have been if I’d holed my six-footer and been told then.”
As Kaymer and Watson returned to the course, the sorely dejected Johnson went on his way with a sad, “I gotta deal with it.”
The German and the American were level when it came to the 18th, the third and last of the play-off holes and it was Watson who had the first crack at the second shot. He went for the green – a carry of 210 yards over water – but, to his horror, his ball ended up in the hazard.
Kaymer, who already had five European Tour titles to his name, promptly decided to play safe and won the hole with room to spare.
Watson pre-empted the question as to whether his had been a good decision. “Before you ask,” he said, “if I had to do it all over again, I would hit that shot every day. I don’t play to lay up, hopefully make a putt and tie.”
Where Johnson finished in a share of fifth place, Rory McIlroy, another who had come within a whisker of making the play-off, finished in a tie for third with Zach Johson on an afternoon when he was left kicking himself over the shots which had got away down the stretch. Having been tied for the lead with four to play, he had a three-putt green at the 15th and an iron which failed to come round on the wind at the 16th. Yet, with two top three finishes under his belt from this year’s majors, the Irishman has to fancy his chances of bagging one of the four in 2011.
Nick Watney went into the final round with a three-shot lead but not enough sleep. He had woken at four and at six and, at eight o’clock, he finally gave up on the idea of getting any more rest. Butch Harmon, his coach, could see that he was rushing things on the range and the same applied on the course as he started with a double-bogey. Kaymer went ahead as early as the fourth where Watney and Johnson both dropped a shot as the wind started to hammer at the course.
Last year, Kaymer broke four bones in his foot in a go-carting accident which left him on the side-lines for two months and limping for rather longer. The injury gave him the space to ponder on his dreams, two of which he has now accomplished – winning a major and securing a place in Europe’s Ryder Cup side for Celtic Manor. |
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Tiger and Phil’s Stamp of Approval for HSBC Champions a Big Boost for Asia-Pacific Golf
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The news that Tiger Woods is once again going to try to win the most important trophy in the world NOT to have his fingerprints on it, and that Phil Mickelson is going to attempt to keep his grip on the Old Tom Morris Trophy should mean another bonanza for golf fans across the region. Tim Maitland reports.
Tiger Woods surprised the elite of the international golf media by offering an emphatic “yes” when asked before the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio whether he intended to cross the Pacific to play the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai this November. When that news was quickly backed up with the announcement that 2009 winner Phil Mickelson would be back to defend his title in China it proved that the world’s best golfers have fully embraced the concept of a World Golf Championships event in Asia. It also guarantees that October and November should be like watching through the Hubble Space Telescope for the region’s star-gazing golf fans.
Mickelson’s love affair with the HSBC Champions started in 2007 when he finally secured the first significant overseas trophy of his career and he described its elevation to World Golf Championships stable as “a giant step forward in the world of golf”. Tiger has backed it since its inception in 2005, but, while he finished second in the first two editions and was in contention on the final day in 09, surprisingly he has yet to win.
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The news that the big two are going to be out in Asia this year is of significant on two counts; firstly it means the WGC-HSBC Champions should again find itself confirmed as the second biggest tournament of the year outside the United States (behind only the Open Championship in terms of overall strength of field) and that the other autumn events in the region, whether it’s the Singapore Open, Hong Kong Open or the Australian Masters, should reap the rewards in the form of some high-profile additions to their fields, thanks to the draw of the HSBC event.
“They’re building a schedule around that,” explained world number three Lee Westwood, whose own diary will be on hold until he has shaken off the calf injury that forced him to withdraw from the Bridgestone and reluctantly abandon his trip to the PGA Championship, but should include Shanghai providing he gets through the Ryder Cup unscathed. “It’s grown very quickly. Look at it! It’s now a World Golf Championships event! It’s achieved a high-profile status very quickly, amazingly quickly when you look at other tournaments and how much history they have before they achieve that kind of fame,” added the Englishman.
The return of Woods and Mickelson also serves to vindicate the decision made in 2009 by the International Federation of PGA Tours to add the HSBC Champions to the WGC calendar that currently includes the Accenture Match Play Championship, the CA Championship at Doral’s TPC Blue Monster and the Bridgestone Invitational. “When the best players continue to show up that validates that it is a real event. When they win it shows that they are taking it seriously and it’s a good golf course if the top names do well,” says Nick Watney, the 29-year-old Las Vegas resident who partnered Tiger and Phil in the final group on the final day on his way to a fifth-place finish last year.
“It was a blast. I’ll never forget it and I hope I get another chance to do it. It was an exciting time and maybe next time I can beat them. It was a lot of fun and very motivating. Just to be there with those guys who I have watched since I just started playing the game. To be in the last group with them, that’s the goal, that’s what makes the game fun and it’s a bit of validation I guess.”
While the 2009 event in Shanghai saw the biggest ever contingent of fans travelling to the event from across the region, the confirmation of golf’s two marquee names should also mean some treats for fans at the events that manage to piggyback on the lure of the World Golf Championships in the same way that the Australian Masters revitalized interest in the sport Down Under by luring Tiger across to win in Melbourne last year.
“From an Australian point of view, we placed our tournament (immediately after Shanghai) to grab Tiger the next week. We got a hell of a performance from him that week,” explains Stuart Appleby, a nine-time winner on the PGA Tour. “Shanghai has been at the centre of the some real growth for golf in Asia. I remember playing on the Asian Tour and it was very small. All the tours have grown for sure, but Asia has the most explosive opportunity by far.”
For the tournament itself, the signs that the field will almost certainly be as strong or stronger than last year’s record-breaking mark for Asia, is seen as a sign that it has avoided the struggle to attract the world’s best that undermined the international nature of the WGC calendar in the first half of the “noughties”.
“A few questions were raised when WGC status was confirmed last year about whether an event in Asia could raise the field worthy of the name. I think they were answered in 2009 and now we are in an excellent position to make that debate complete unnecessary. Asia has the world-class tournament that its love of golf and its enthusiasm for golf deserves,” declared Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship. “It’s not about whether the players are willing to travel to Shanghai; they want to come, they’re enthusiastic about coming and they’re enjoying it when they do!”
Appleby, who ended a four-year victory drought by winning the Greenbrier Classic in July, also typifies the attitude towards the trip to Shanghai among the world’s elite golfers. Less than 48 hours after shooting golf’s magic number – a 59 – to win in West Virginia, the Aussie was eagerly asking if that victory qualified him for the HSBC Champions. It didn’t, but that doesn’t mean he won’t stop trying to get in. “Absolutely! I’ve played a lot of WGC events over the years, so HSBC... I would love to put that on my schedule. Being as the Australian Masters is the next week; that would be a great little stint. I’d love to get up there because I’ve hardly ever been up there, although I played the World Cup last year at Mission Hills. To get up to the HSBC would be an honour. It’s a pretty powerful event and I’d love to get up there,” Appleby said.
Swedish Ryder Cup star Henrik Stenson is another of the top golfers with half an eye on whether he can turn the pencil marks for the first week of November into more permanent ink. “I think I’m right on the bubble in the world rankings to be eligible to play and hopefully I will manage to win a tournament or two before we’re heading to Shanghai or be on the right side of the top 25 in the world in the world rankings,” said the 34-year-old winner of the 2009 Players Championship, who was 24 in the world at the start of August.
Another Swede sweating over his eligibility is Peter Hanson who, while dreaming of making this year’s Ryder Cup team, is also hoping for the victory that will get him to Shanghai as his win at the Iberdrola Open Cala Millor Mallorca was not one of the 23 highest-ranking European Tour events that do earn an automatic ticket. “The event in China is very special for us Europeans – it feels very close to the European Tour because we’ve played a lot in Asia. The Match Play, Doral and Bridgestone are all fantastic events but as a European we feel a bit more at home in Shanghai. I’ve been there so many times now. I think it’s a great event. It’s a great golf course and it’s nice to come back to the same place. That’s the big thing about the WGC events; you come back to Tucson, you come back to Doral and to Akron and I’ve been playing HSBC three or four times and I am really looking forward to going back there as well,” he explained.
“I haven’t played that tournament, but it always looks like it gets great crowds and people are enthusiastic about the game. It’s an amazing accolade for an Asian tournament to have the second strongest field in golf (outside the US). I’ve seen it on TV and it looks like a great tournament. I’m really excited about the opportunity of going over there. I’ve never been to Shanghai as a city either. It’s definitely one, having had the wins to be eligible for the tournament, I’m certainly excited about the opportunity to come and play. “It gets a good field, so you get the opportunity to compete against the best players in the world. It looks like it’s well set up and it always looks like it has an exciting and dramatic finish with the 18th hole there. Anytime you get a world-class field together I think that says it all. It’s a tournament that everyone wants to be a part of and the fact that it has an exclusive little club of winners is a nice reward as well,” Rose said.
That club includes Mickelson twice, Sergio Garcia and Asia’s first Major winner “YE” Yang Yong-Eun. Lee Westwood, who missed out in a play-off to the Spaniard in 2008, says the roll of honour coupled with Sheshan’s knack of producing white-knuckle-ride finishes could earn the tournament legendary status worldwide and not just in the 20- or 30-year timescale normally used in such discussions. “If it keeps getting the support, it can grow faster than that for sure. They’re enthusiastic fans. It’s just a big tournament. It’s one you want to pencil in (to your schedule) and not miss,” he said. “It’s a great run for Asia around that time of year, with Singapore too, it creates a big buzz in that part of the world. The top players support that area because that’s the emerging area for talent if you look at the ladies game and Korea and Taiwan and I think the men’s game will go that way as well.”
Such remarks show how quickly Asia has established its right to a WGC event and a world-leading tournament, to the point that, compared to just a couple of years ago when players were reluctant to extend their schedule beyond September or October, the trip to Shanghai is almost a given if you meet the “champions” qualifying criteria.
To what extent? Well, you didn’t have to see the twinkle in the eye and the tongue firmly in the cheek of English youngster David Horsey to know he was joking when asked if he’d decided if he’d take the berth his win at the BMW International Open in Munich booked him on the boat to Shanghai. “I’ll have to check my schedule and see if I can squeeze it in,” he grinned. He might be one of the few golfers to say that, and he certainly didn’t mean it. |
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World's top two players set to battle it out for WGC-HSBC Champions title
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World Number One, Tiger Woods, and World Number Two and defending champion, Phil Mickelson, will play in the 2010 WGC-HSBC Champions at the Sheshan International Golf Club, Shanghai, from the 4th to 7th November 2010.
Last year, the first carrying the coveted World Golf Championship title, the WGC-HSBC Champions gathered the strongest field of Champions ever seen in Asia with seven of the world’s top 10 and 20 of the world’s top 30 golfers competing for the ‘champion of champions’ title.
Phil Mickelson finished top of a star studded leader board at the 2009 WGC-HSBC Champions, finishing one shot clear of three-time Major winner, Ernie Els after the South African piled on the pressure with a magnificent round of 63. Paired with fellow American Tiger Woods on the Sunday, Mickelson capped off four magnificent sub 70 rounds with a 69 to seal his second win at Sheshan International Golf Club while Woods’ challenge failed to catch fire with a level par 72 leaving him in tied 6thpostion.
Mickelson, a four Time Major Winner and World Number 2, explained “It was an honour to win the first World Golf Championships to be held in China against such a truly world-class field and I am really looking forward to defending my WGC-HSBC Champions title in November.”
This will be Mickelson’s fourth consecutive appearance in the event. He also claimed the title in 2007 for his first victory in Asia and first internationally since 1993.
He said, “Shanghai is a special place and I’ve felt very comfortable there ever since my first visit, when my family joined me and we had the fun of exploring and experiencing so much of what Shanghai as to offer.”
He concluded, “I think we saw a giant step forward in the world of golf when HSBC were elevated to WGC status last year, recognising the importance of our fastest growing and potentially largest market. HSBC delivered another world class tournament and I strongly believe this will play an important part in growing the game of golf in China and throughout Asia.”
Tiger Woods is looking for his first HSBC Champions title having finished runner up in 2005 and 2006 and sixth at last year’s tournament. Winner of 71 PGA Tour titles, 14 Majors and 16 WGC titles, and Number one for the last 270 weeks, Tiger said of the WGC HSBC Champions, “This is a title the players would love to win and I am looking forward to having another shot at the title this year. The success of the WGC-HSBC Champions last year was noted all around the world and I believe, along with golf’s new Olympic status, the WGC-HSBC Champions will play a very significant role in developing the game of golf in Asia and around the globe. I am looking forward to returning to Shanghai and the immaculately conditioned Sheshan International Golf Club in November.
Giles Morgan, Group Head of Sponsorship at HSBC said “In our first year carrying the WGC mantle we gathered a world class field and delivered a world class tournament. Phil was a deserving champion and given his proactive support of golf in Asia, a very popular one. We are delighted with the way everything went last year and are working very hard to raise the bar again at this year’s WGC-HSBC Champions. |
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Having won the WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone, the 28-year-old Hunter Mahan should feel more than a little confident when he tees up in what will be the next of the World Golf Championship events - the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
Hidden behind his dark glasses, this former US junior champion stole round in 64 to finish two ahead of Ryan Palmer who had shared the overnight lead with Sean O¹Hair. Retief Goosen and Bo Van Pelt ended up in a share of third place, with O¹Hair fifth.
Having seized five birdies on the front nine to be out in 30, Mahan holed an unappetising putt at the 13th to move to 12 under par. That done, he saved his par at the 16th after playing the hole via a flowerbed and pinned down two further pars for what was his second victory of the year. " was definitely nervous," he said in connection with his floral diversion. "I was too busy thinking of what not to do."
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For the most part, though, he was thrilled with the way he played."Every club I had in my hand seemed to be the right number.It was great to come out today and hit the shots I wanted to hit."
The winner had been in the throes of an up-and-down 2010 season. True, he had won the Waste Management event at the start of the year but, against that, he had missed as many as six cuts. What is more, though he had played his way into the Ryder Cup, he was slipping out of it until suddenly his game came good.
It meant a lot to Mahan that he would not be looking for a captain¹s pick for the match at Celtic Manor. He had one for the President¹s Cup in 2007 andneeded another for the Ryder Cup in 2008. "It was a goal of mine to make it on my own this year," said Mahan, who had two wins and three halves at Valhalla.
Mickelson, had he finished in the top four at Firestone, would have taken Tiger Woods' place as the No 1 in the world. As it turned out, both men were light years removed from top-of-the-world form on the final day. Had they been playing a match, it would have been a close-run thing, with Mickelson, though round in 78 to Woods' 77, winning on the home green.
When Woods, who currently needs a captain's pick, was asked about his position vis-à-vis the Ryder Cup, he suggested that he would not pick himself. "No-one would help the team if they were 18 over par as I have been this week," he said. Yet he added that he still hoped to turn his game round in time.
Mahan was quick to say that the team would be the poorer without Woods.He also refuted the oft-repeated suggestion that Woods is not a good team person. "He's a great man to talk to and very open," said Mahan."When Tiger gets back in a routine and finds himself, he'll be fine.Contrary to what a lot of people believe, I think he wants to be in the Ryder Cup setting."
The unluckiest shot of the week belonged to Jim Furyk who finished in a share of sixth place. On an afternoon when he was doing everything right, Furyk hit a perfectly-struck third to the long 16th which cannoned into the slender flagstick and bounced back into the water. He ended up with a bogey rather than a birdie.
Others would have been blazing at such injustice but not Furyk, who said afterward that he would have been far more upset had his watery mishap been down to a bad shot. When he holed a 12-foot birdie putt at the last, he still equalled the best round of the day a 64. |
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Fisher succeeds in keeping Harrington at bay in Ireland
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Ross Fisher entered the winners’ arena and the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai as he captured the Irish Open at the Killarney Golf and Fishing Club by two shots from Padraig Harrington.
The 29-year-old had followed his opening 68 with a scintillating 61 and looked as if he was going to romp clear of the field when he set out on Saturday with four birdies in his first seven holes. As it was, he had something of a rude awakening at the eighth when he hit into water and amassed a double-bogey.
By the end of the afternoon, he had tacked a 71 to the previous day’s 61 to be no more than one ahead of Chris Wood and Edoardo Molinari.
Early on Sunday, Fisher's lead disappeared altogether but, to his credit, this enviably placid individual found his feet with an eagle at the seventh and was two clear at the turn.
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By this point, though, Padraig Harrington was making waves and the locals suspected that the massive roar detonated by the Irishman’s eagle at the 16th might rattle the leader. Fisher, though, proved that he is made of sterner stuff….It was not just a matter of hearing the roar. As he was walking on to the 15th green, he could see those manning the scoreboard adjusting it to read Fisher -16, Harrington -16.
So how did he react? He calmly holed the four-footer he needed for a birdie to move to -17. That done, he doubled his one-shot advantage by reeling off another birdie at the 16th.
It has done no harm to Fisher’s cause that he nowadays has as good a man on the bag as “Wobbly” Morbey. Wobbly has caddied for any number of great players, including Ian Woosnam when the latter won the 1991 Masters. His nickname name may suggest that he is not the steadiest in times of crisis but the truth is that he speaks and acts in such a way as to sire nothing but good vibes.
Fisher was barely on to his follow through with his second to the 72nd when Wobbly said a reassuring, “Lovely shot”. The ball finished close enough to pave the way for an easy par and the 65 which enabled the player to keep his two-shot lead intact.
Harrington, whose closing round was a 64, has had as many as 26 second-place finishes in his illustrious career but this was not the kind of runner-up spot to leave him in any way despondent. “Fair play to Ross,” he said. “He played well going out with the lead and shooting something as good as a 65. I don’t feel like I lost this tournament.”
In a year when Ryo Ishikawa returned a 58 in the Crowns tournament in Japan and Paul Goydos and Stuart Appleby have both had 59s on US soil, Fisher's second round 61 would in itself have had Colin Montgomerie, the Ryder Cup captain, pricking up his ears.
Now, Fisher will have leapt still further into Monty’s thoughts. With his win having taken him from 13th place on the European Ryder Cup points list to sixth he is currently safely in the side. Yet he knows as well as anyone that there is still time for things to go wrong. "I'm desperate to play well over the next couple of weeks in the States to show that this result was not a fluke," he said.
As for Harrington, this man of three majors remains outside the ranks of those who currently qualify for an automatic slot. However, unlike Fisher, who was always going to have to play his way in, Harrington has never been less than an obvious choice for a wild-card.
Though he has now demonstrated to all and sundry that he deserves one, this most conscientious of men will still want to arrive in Wales via the automatic points list. His play in the Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA could make for exciting viewing.
Meanwhile, what about Bernhard Langer for a wildcard after back-to-back wins in the senior arena? |
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Johnson’s 30-footer first step on road to WGC-HSBC Champions
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Just as Louis Oosthuizen took people unawares at the Open, so the unsung Richard S Johnson did much the same at the Nordea Scandinavian Masters at Bro Ho Slott.
Johnson himself was more than a little taken aback....
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“This is a huge tournament for a Swede to win,” he marvelled. “I’m ecstatic.” In fact, he was only the second home winner in the last 13 years, the first being Jesper Parnevic in 1998.
With Sunday’s play having been put back because of morning rain, events were set to stretch well into the evening when Johnson arrived on the last green needing two putts from 30 feet for the 72 and ten-under-par aggregate which ould have detonated a play-off between himself and Rafa Echenique of the Argentine.
He had not holed anything of any moment of all day but now, to electrifying scenes all round, he made this mammoth putt for what was only his second ever win. The various repercussions will unfold as he flies back to America but, for sure, he will be pondering happily on the place he has won for himself in the WGC-HSBC Champions.
That the 33-year-old Johnson had failed to notch a single top 30 finish in his last five months on the USPGA Tour since February almost certainly contributed to the decision taken in advance of the tournament by his caddie, Ten Broek. Namely, to compete in the Senior British Open at Carnoustie while Johnson played in Sweden with an old friend on the bag.
Where Johnson earned himself any amount of plaudits, Broek had to make do with sympathy. Firstly for failing to make the cut at Carnoustie and, secondly, for missing out on his master’s week of weeks.
Johnson and KJ Choi, as co-leaders, had been due to set out together on the last day but, when pairs became trios after the rain-delay, they were joined by Louis Oosthuizen, who was one shot back.
Choi got off on the wrong foot when he drove out of bounds at the first on his way to a seven but came back into the picture after Johnson made a five at each of the second and third. At that point, there was a four-way tie involving Johnson, Choi, Oosthuizen and Echenique.
Choi, it turned out, was having one of those days and eventually ended up with a 78. As for Oosthuizen, his putter was not the hot affair it had been at St Andrews when he holed almost everything from six feet and under. He did hit his approach dead at the second to pick up one shot on the leaders but it was not enough to prompt a change in his fortunes.
Yet his fourth-place finish was one he would happily have taken at the start of the week. “I’m a bit disappointed,” he said, “but bearing in mind I thought I’d be doing well to make the cut, I’ve not done badly.”
No-one was more taken with Oosthuizen’s Open success than Gary Player, who took time out to speak of his compatriot’s triumph before he flew back to South Africa the following day.
Player had practised alongside Oosthuizen at this year’s Masters and been impressed by his length and strength. “He’s far longer than people think,” he observed.
After watching his progress at St Andrews, Player lit on the way he handled a last-round which, in his eyes, was not exactly the run-away affair which so many had been making out. He was thinking, in particular, of how, after Oosthuizen had dropped a shot at the eighth, Casey had replied by driving the green at the par-four ninth.
An unfazed Oosthuizen responded by hitting a still better drive and retrieved his four-shot shot as he walked from the green with an eagle to Casey’s birdie.
Even though the Scandinavian Masters started just four days after his Open triumph, Oosthuizen never had any intention of pulling out of the event.
He did, though, take time to arrange a small present for himself. Not the usual red Ferrari beloved by so many winners on tour but a handsome John Deere tractor for his farm back in South Africa. It was, he said, the tractor of his dreams.
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On a slightly different tack, he also kept himself as far removed as possible from the pressures which usually attach to an Open¹s last day.
Sir Nick Faldo had talked, at the start of the week, of how these pressures are ³ten-fold² what they can be on any other Sunday afternoon and Oosthuizen was uncomfortably aware that he could ill afford anything in the way of a sloppy mistake.
He concentrated 100% over the shortest of putts and when, at the ninth, Paul Casey was in a position to make a significant move, he sorted him out straightaway.
The four-shot gap between himself and Casey had been reduced to three after he had dropped a shot at the eighth and Casey had wasted no time in capitalising on the situation by driving the green at the par-four ninth.
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The crowd wondered if Oosthuizen, at this point, was in danger of doing as many another in tangling with the gorse on the left. Instead, he responded to Casey¹s move by hitting a still better shot, one which left him with a five yard putt as against Casey¹s ten-yarder.
Oosthuizen departed the green with an eagle to Casey¹s birdie. His four-shot lead was back and his victory was more or less secure when Casey drove into the gorse the thickest on the links at the 12th.
Oosthuizen was still worried about some of the tee shots ahead but his timing and temperament were such that he continued to bisect each fairway in turn.
"It was fantastic" beamed the winner after he had shown the Claret Jug around the thousands of spectators who, as per usual at St Andrews, were watching from rooftops, from the stands and from all around the 18th. Gary Player had warned him not to expect too much in the way of crowd support when there were so many UK players starting out not too far behind him but the people of St Andrews recognise a good golfer when they see one and in Oosthuizen they felt they had a thoroughly worthy winner.
Westwood, who was satisfied with his second place on a day when he had been too far away to have a chance to win, said he had first stopped to look at Oosthuizen on last year¹s Desert Swing. "I had known him to chat to but I watched him hit a couple of irons on the range and then stood back to watch him hit some more. He has this lovely flight and penetration with his irons."
At St Andrews, Oosthuizen, who won the Andalucian Masters in Malaga earlier in the year, also had a hot putter. "I didn¹t," he said, "miss too much under six feet." He also made that hammer-blow of a five-yarder for his eagle at the ninth, along with a 15-footer which allowed him to notch a birdie where Casey ran up a seven at the 12th.
In addition to winning a £850,000 cheque and the Claret Jug, Oosthuizen was awarded a replica of the original Championship Belt which had been captured outright by Young Tom Morris when he won three Opens in a row from 1868 to 1870. The original cost what was at the time an outrageous £25.
There was no mention of what the replica cost. Suffice to say that the belt and its story will loom large in the Oosthuizen family for centuries to come.
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| Steve Stricker and Edoardo Molinari emerge triumphant from action-packed week by Lewine Mair |
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Steve Stricker successfully defended his title in the John Deere Classic and Edoardo Molinari captured the Barclays Scottish Open in a week when both events sired any amount of excitement. Both winners had already secured their places in the WGC-HSBC Champions.
The 43-year-old Stricker was a record 25-under-par for his first three rounds before handing in the closing 70 which saw him finish two clear of Paul Goydos. The latter, as was relayed around the world, was the player who had set the tournament alight with an opening 59.
Over in Scotland, it was the last day rather than the first which produced something out of the ordinary. For the first time, the two Molinaris, the 29-year-old Edoardo and the 27-year-old Francesco, were together in the final group. The 41-year-old Darren Clarke was the third member of the party and, in terms of scoring, was sandwiched between the brothers for most of the afternoon. Edoardo eventually won by three from Clarke, while Francesco, though he was at one point close to seizing the second spot, finished in a tie for fourth.
Much though Edoardo rejoiced in what was his maiden victory on tour, there was a touch of sadness in there as well as Francesco missed the tiny putt which would have seen him finish in a tie for third. Raphael Jacquelin finished his week with that spot to himself, with Francesco sharing his fourth place with Stephen Gallacher and Peter Hedblom.
Edoardo, who won the US Amateur five years ago, said nothing had pleased him more about his victory than the way he handled himself. He would have been thinking, in particular, of how he reacted to his double-bogey at the 15th where he drove off the beaten track into a melee of long grass and wild flowers. That mishap cut his lead to three, while his advantage was further reduced when Clarke made a grand birdie at the short 17th.
Small wonder that he gave a relieved whistle as he launched a successful tee shot down the last. His next move was to catch the green in two before leaving the best of long putts just inches from the cup. |
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At the prize-giving, Edoardo said that he hoped Francesco would win the Open: “That way it will be 1 - 1 for us in tournaments this year.”
Where Francesco would have shared the same feel-good factor as Edoardo was over the Ryder Cup. Both and are now in with an excellent chance of being the first brothers to play in the match since Bernard and Geoffrey Hunt in 1963.
Clarke was another with mixed emotions at the finish. Having been three shots ahead at the half-way stage and only one to the bad after three rounds, he was left ruing the third hole where he was splashing around on the edge of the watery hazard to the left of the green. He had three attempts at the shot on his way to a seven which must have given something of a boost to the older Molinari.
What went a long way towards making up for his disappointment was the fact that he was the player to bag a last-minute place in the Open championship, an event which has always suited a player with his links skills. To date, he has twice finished in the top three.
There was another eleventh-hour Open slot available at the John Deere. Fittingly, this was won by Goydos.
The Goydos hole in one occurred just one day after Ryo Ishikawa had been regaling his Scottish hosts with the story of his 58 in this year’s Crowns event in Japan, Where Ryo said that his excitement as he came down the last few holes was tempered by a feeling of feeling cool and in control, Goydos talked of how he was intent on making the most of the experience.
“If you’re playing this well,” he told himself, “let’s enjoy it and see what happens.” |
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| Rose and Jimenez make it two wins apiece for 2010 by Lewine Mair |
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One thing which Justin Rose and Miguel Angel Jimenez had in common as Rose won the AT&T National and Jimenez captured the Alstom French Open was that neither had to worry about making the field for the WGC-HSBC Champions. The 29-year-old Englishman secured his berth when he won the recent Memorial Championship, while the 46-year-old Spaniard did what he had to do way back at the Dubai Desert Classic.
Both men, however, had plenty at stake, not least in terms of positioning themselves for Colin Montgomerie’s team for this year’s Ryder Cup. Prior to last week, they were too low on the relevant lists. Now, the two of them have reached the point where, were the Scot’s team to be finalised today, they would be safely aboard.
Rose had another still more immediate task on his hands. Somewhat improbably, his win in the Memorial had not provided a passport to this year’s Open. Thanks to what was his second victory in three starts in America, he is now in a position where he can make arrangements for the venue where he once won the amateur game’s St Andrews Links’ Trophy.
When Rose dropped a shot at the first in his fourth round at Aronimink, there were those who feared that he might do as he had done at the preceding Travelers championship in losing from a winning position. His lead was down from four shots to three but on this occasion he kept himself nicely in check and, when it came to the ninth, he played what was generally held to be the shot of the championship - a five-wood to three feet. He walked from the green with an eagle which left him five ahead with nine to play. “It was great for momentum,” he said afterwards.
Though there were putting lapses at the tenth and eleventh, he eventually signed off with a 70 and ten under aggregate to win by one shot from Ryan Moore. The latter had come bounding through the field with a fourth-round 65.
Jimenez, for his part, was two ahead playing the last at French National when, as he said himself, nerves came into the equation and he dispatched his second into water en route to adding a 67 to earlier rounds of 71,69 and 66.
At a time when he should have been holding the trophy aloft, he was setting out on a three-way play off with Alejandro Canizarez and Francesco Molinari.
It would only be the briefest of delays. Since he had the honour at the first extra hole, the senior Spaniard made sure that he hit his ball down the middle. It put the pressure on his less-experienced rivals, both of whom missed the fairway. Canizarez proceeded to pay two visits to the water and Molinari, after catching sand, had to hole across the green to pin down a bogey.
At that, Jimenez slotted a 15-footer for his winning par and, even before the official handing over of the trophy, he gave the cup a feeling kiss.
At 46, he was the oldest winner of the oldest tournament aside from the Open. “I keep fighting with all of the young people and I am proud to be a part of history,” he said. Intriguingly, he has won 10 of his 17 tour titles since he turned 40, with his secret one of "keeping fit and keeping enjoying myself as much as possible.”
Montgomerie has talked of how, with so many rookies seemingly set to make his side, he would welcome an older hand and Jimenez could be that man. The cigar-smoking Spaniard would play his part in settling the most apprehensive of new arrivals. With Rose having shown himself to be the hottest player of the moment, the captain will indeed be counting his blessings.
Watson and Horsey Enjoy a New Experience
Like everyone else who took part in the 2007 Walker Cup, Horsey was in Rory McIlroy’s shadow at the start of his professional career. Yet it is a fact that he had the best record as GB&I lost to the Americans, notching three points out of four. On turning professional, he recorded two wins on the 2008 Challenge Tour and finished at the top of that year’s Order of Merit by way of qualifying for the PGA European Tour.
Having tied for second in last year’s Maybank Malaysian Open, Horsey earlier this year came within a whisker of winning the Italian Open. After six birdies on the Sunday, he was in a share of the lead after the 13th. Then, though, he ruined his chances with a couple of late bogeys. “It was disappointing,” he said at the time, “but I can still take a lot of positives out of the day.”
Which he did. In Munich, he said he had learned from the experience, learned to stay patient.
At both the Travelers and the BMW International Open, people would have been making as much of an effort to commiserate with the losers as to congratulate the winners. Justin Rose had been the owner of a three-shot lead after third rounds at the Travelers and had been looking to join Ernie Els and Jim Furyk as one of this season’s two-time winners. He, however, struggled off the tee on the last day and his last hopes disappeared with a drive splashed into water at the 15th. His final tally, a 75, saw him slipping to a share of ninth place.
In Munich, Bradley Dredge had the same three-shot advantage after 54-holes.
The Welshman knew that if he could win, he would have half a chance of earning himself a slot in Colin Montgomerie’s Ryder Cup side for Celtic Manor.
His start to the final round was a good one but, on turning for home, he dropped three shots in his first five holes. He then made a double at the 16th en route to the 74 which left him in a tie for third.
Watson, who admitted to being so emotional as to have struggled to say the word “Yes” at the appropriate moment in his wedding service, dissolved into tears in his moment of victory.
Horsey was scarcely less tongue-tied. Asked to put his joy into words, he could only find one – “Awesome”.
Graeme McDowell joins the WGC-HSBC Champions field after winning at the US Open
A host of great players have already secured their places in the 2010 WGC-HSBC Champions, with the 30-year-old Graeme McDowell bursting into the field with his recent win of wins in the US Open at Pebble Beach.
McDowell is one of several major champions safely in the mix, the others being Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, Geoff Ogilvy and YE Yang.
Last year’s WGC-HSBC Champions was as exciting as they come, while it also served as a pretty accurate precursor of what was to happen in the first half of this season….
When Mickelson came from behind to defeat Els by a shot, he was no less elated with the way he won than the win itself. “I didn’t hit it great and the putts didn’t drop but I hung in there,” he said, proudly.
Els, for his part, did not show too much disappointment at the watery six at the last which cost him the title. Instead, he issued something of a warning. “This was a great week for me…. I made a lot of putts and my short game is back.”
After Mickelson had returned from his winter break to bag the Masters, Els confirmed that his Shanghai hunch was on the mark as he re-entered the winners’ circle for a first time since 2008 by making off with two US PGA Tour titles. In the space of three weeks, he annexed the WGC CA event in Doral and the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
As is so often the way, it only takes one player in the Over 40 age group to have a win for the rest to be reminded that they can do the same. Like Els, Furyk made doubly sure of his place in this year’s Champions by winning twice, with his events the Verizon Heritage and the Transitions. Steve Striker came out on top in the Northern Trust Open and, over on the PGA European Tour, Miguel Angel Jimenez won the Dubai Desert Classic at the relatively grand old age of 46.
Jimenez, of course, is one of the game’s treasures. He may puff idly away on his cigar but, behind the scenes, he is putting in more hours in the gym by way of staying up there with the best of the best. Jimenez has plenty in common with Ian Poulter, winner of this year’s WGC Accenture Match Play championship in that, in an era where most golfers graduate to the professional tour via the amateur game, neither had any experience in that area.
The Spaniard rightly prides himself on being the last of the top Spanish golfers to have come through the caddie ranks. As for Poulter, the fact that he was working in a professional’s shop while others were honing their match-play skills in Home Internationals and Walker Cups merely served to make his Accenture result all the more impressive.
Just as that group of Over 40s came in a rush to lay early claim to their places in the WGC-HSBC Champions, so Poulter’s success detonated a sudden flurry of activity among Europeans in the States….
After Poulter had led the way in Arizona, the 20-year-old Rory McIlroy followed up with a win at Quail Hollow. McIlroy’s performance would have helped to ignite Justin Rose in the Memorial and Rose, in turn, would have had at least something to do with Lee Westwood being in place to take the money at the St Jude Classic.
By the time the US Open came around, McDowell would have been thinking that there was nothing to stop a European from taking that title for the first time in 40 years.
The chances are that McDowell’s young friend McIlroy, with whom he could well be paired in the forthcoming Ryder Cup, will not be the youngest when he tees up in Shanghai.
The 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa is just waiting for the right result in the right week - in other words, in a WGC-HSBC qualifier. On precisely the same day as McIlroy was notching his victory in the States, Ishikawa put the Irishman’s closing 63 in the shade by handing in a 58 to tie up the Crowns championship in Japan.
It was the lowest round to have been posted on any circuit, while it was the teenager’s seventh Japanese Tour title. All of which adds up to some feat for a young man who, had he not turned professional, would only just have graduated from the junior arena.
Phil Mickelson chased by everyone other than Tiger as he wins the WGC-HSBC Champions
To say that the last day of the WGC-HSBC Champions did not pan out as anticipated was something of an understatement. Though the expectation was that Phil Mickelson, the overnight leader on 14 under par, would have the mother and father of all battles with Tiger Woods, the World No 1 tumbled from the leader-board and Mickelson ended up winning by a shot from Ernie Els.
In tacking a 69 to earlier scores of 69, 66 and 67, he finished at 17 under to Els’ 16 under. Ryan Moore closed on 15 under with the 20-year-old Rory McIlroy seizing fourth place on 14 under.
Though Mickelson won here in 2007, he saw this latest result as the better of the two. Not just because of the tournament’s new World Golf Championship status but because of the degree to which he had to struggle. “I didn’t hit it great and the putts didn’t drop but I hung in there,” he said.
So what happened to Tiger? He made a disaster of a start from which he never really recovered. Having missed the two-to-three footer he needed for his birdie at the second, he let slip two more putts that he would normally have stroked home no bother. The first was the three-footer he needed to salvage a bogey at the fourth after a dip in the canal. As for the second, that was a five-footer at the sixth.
It was at the seventh that he ran into the kind of trouble with which not a few club golfers would readily have been readily able to identify. Badly bunkered of the tee, he emerged no further than the bunker’s bank before catching another trap with his third. Finally aboard the putting surface in four, he holed for the five which put him four over par after seven.
The statisticians will be aware that of the four latest occasions he has gone out in the last group, starting with the PGA championship at Hazeltine, he has won only once.
Mickelson was not too much better than Woods at the start. He missed a four-footer for his par at the fourth and ran up a second successive bogey when he was bunkered at the fifth. There was a birdie at the seventh but he was soon to become uncomfortably aware of the Els’ fireworks up ahead.
With the help of an eagle at the eighth, the South African was out in 30 and 13 under par.
By the time Mickelson mounted the tee of the 288 yards 16th, Els was 17 under and a shot ahead.
“I knew I needed a birdie at 16 to get even with him,” said the American.
He did not come close. Having tried for the green and missed it to the right, he ended up in thick rough and went virtually clean under the ball at the first time of asking. He caught the green with his third before holing from 18 feet for the par. “That putt was a critical for me,” he confirmed. “It was the best putt I made all week as I had to swing it in from the side.”
Amid his relief, he made a birdie at the next before hitting into rough and spectators with his tee shot at the par-five 18th. He hacked his second further up the rough but, from what was a rather better lie, managed to catch the green’s apron in three before signing off with the par which did the trick.
Almost the first thing he did was to ring his wife. Amy, he said, had felt so nervous as to have started tidying out cupboards rather than concentrate on the television. Earlier this year, Mickelson missed out on the Open after his spouse had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Now, she is doing well and Mickelson is looking forward to a long break at home. He will not play again until the end of January.
Though Els finished his 63 with a watery six, he was far from upset. “This was a great week for me. I made a lot of putts and my short game is back.”
Finally, what of McIlroy who, having started the day at five under, matched Els’ 63 on an afternoon when his first eight holes consisted of one bogey and seven birdies.
Having finished 40th in Europe a year ago, the Irishman heads for Hong Kong this week lying second behind Lee Westwood in the Race to Dubai.
Giles Morgan, HSBC's Group Head of Sponsorship, described Mickelson as "a great and deserving champion", while he was no less thrilled with the tournament itself. "To have delivered such a successful event in our first WGC year is particularly gratifying."
Mickelson struggles to hang on to his lead
There was a long way to go but, after eight holes of the final round of the WGC-HSBC Champions at Sheshan, Phil Mickelson was 14 under par and a shot ahead of all three of Ernie Els, Ryan Moore and Nick Watney. As for Woods, who had started the day at 12 under to Mickelson’s 14 under, he had dropped back to eight under after dropping four shots in his first eight holes.
Nothing was quite as anyone had anticipated.
There had been unprecedented scenes at Sheshan as the crowds prepared for what they expected to be the mother and father of all battles between Mickelson and Woods.
On the practice ground, they were side by side and, with Woods on the left and Mickelson on the right, the two were facing each other. They exchanged a polite “Good morning” before getting down to work. Watney, who was going out alongside them, kept away from both at this juncture, moving in among the more ordinary mortals further down the line.
Spectators were packed solid on the veranda to the rear of the range and, of the thirty people on the front row who were asked for their opinion as to which of Mickelson and Woods would win, there were 17 votes for Woods, 13 for Mickelson. But later, when the players moved to the first hole, where a crowd in excess of 7,500 awaited, the roars for each of these superstars were probably on a par.
Mickelson, who had been crowd-aware all week, beamed broadly to the people calling his name from the stand. Woods, on the other hand, was locked in his own bubble.
The starter called for people to turn off their cameras and their phones, hopefully to some avail, and the party were off. Watney, taking the first of the deep breaths which Butch Harman, his coach, had recommended, led the way with a drive which bisected the fairway. Woods hit left and Mickelson right but, golf being the game it is, the two of them made their pars where Watney dropped a shot.
Mickelson made a birdie at the par-four third to go to 15 under but followed up with back-to-back bogeys to retreat to 13. He let slip a four-foot par putt at the fourth before running up a bunkered five at the par-four fifth.
Woods’ troubles began when he missed the two-footer he needed for his birdie at the second. He then missed two more putts that everyone expected him to make – the three-footer he needed to salvage a bogey at the fourth after a visit to the canal and a five-footer at the sixth.
It was at the seventh that he ran into the kind of trouble better known to your average club golfer. Badly bunkered of the tee, he escaped no further than the bunker’s grassy bank before catching another trap with his third. On the green in four, he holed for the bogey which put him four over after seven.
With Mickelson making a birdie at the seventh, the scoreboard was showing Mickelson at -14, Els, Moore and Watney at -13 and Rory McIlroy at -11.
A distraught Paul Casey was forced to abandon ship after his damaged rib, which has kept him out of the game for much of the season, started to play up. He made an eight at the second and decided enough was enough before heading back to the States.
On a happier note, young McIlroy was romping up the leader-board. It was some card he had going. In the first seven holes, he had six birdies to set against a lone bogey.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods feature in dream final round of WGC-HSBC Champions
The last time these leading lights played alongside each other on Sunday was at this year’s Masters, which was won by Angel Cabrera. “I don’t know how many times it’s happened over the years but I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” maintained Mickelson. When asked what it would mean if he could repeat of his win of 2007, Mickelson chose not to go down that route. “I’ve got a tough day ahead of me playing with Tiger and Nick and with Ryan Moore and Lee Westwood right up there. I want to stay in the present. I’m not inclined to look ahead.”
Woods, for his part, said of himself and Watney, “We’re right there. Unfortunately, I’m two back but, you know, it’s just one of those things where Nick and I have got a chance and we are going to have to go out there and play well.
“A lot depends on the weather but whatever happens, I’m going to have to play well tomorrow and make some putts.” Asked if there was an extra edge with Mickelson the man ahead of him, Woods pointed to how it did not matter who was in that position. “You just go and play no matter who is out in front. You try to do the best you possibly can.”
Watney described the round ahead as "a big experience...I'm kind of the odd man out but the goal in golf is always to improve and tomorrow is a big step for me."
The most interesting little third-round twist occurred before the turn. Woods and Mickelson were sharing the lead at 12 under when Woods holed to go to 13 under at the eighth at the same time as Mickelson was playing a right-handed escape from trees at the ninth.
Woods had a two-shot advantage after those twin happenings but Mickelson had seen his right-handed antics as good news rather than bad. “I turned to my caddie, Bones, and said I saw it as a good omen because I had hit a right-handed shot in winning this year’s WGC event at Doral,” he explained.
When Woods missed a six-footer at the ninth and followed his birdie on the tenth with another bogey, his lead was in danger. Sure enough, Mickelson seized his opportunity, making back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th to move to 13 under as against the 12- under tally on which Woods stuck fast for the rest of the day as he matched Watney's 70. For good measure, Mickelson added one last birdie at the 18th where he was safely aboard the green in two.
The one surprise package on the leader-board is Lee Westwood. No better-placed than three under par after two rounds, the Englishman holed a 30-footer at the first on his way to the outward 31 and round-of-the-day 65 which left him on ten under and four off the pace. As he played the ninth, he volunteered that he was “riding a wave of euphoria”. This was a cheerful reference to how, the previous evening, his caddie Billy Foster had won the HSBC Caddie of the Year trophy, with Westwood having made the presentation.
“He’s a great caddie to have on the bag,” said Westwood, who is revelling in the opportunity to see what he can do against the World No. 1 and 2. “Billy’s been in the heat of battle a lot and, even though he’s caddied for my friend Darren rather more than he has for me, he knows my game inside out.”
Lee Westwood arrives among the leaders as he turns in 31 on third day of WGC-HSBC Champions
It was a burst to leave him four shots off the day’s early lead held by Tiger Woods, Nick Watney and Phil Mickelson at 12-under. Ryan Moore and Quiros, meantime, were both ten under after five.
As Westwood was playing down the ninth, he volunteered that he was “riding high on a wave of euphoria”. This was a cheerful reference to how his caddie, Billy Foster, had won the HSBC’s Caddie of the Year award the night before.
Westwood had himself presented the trophy to the caddie who has helped him to the top of this year’s Race to Dubai.
Apart from being a caddie of the highest Order, Foster had been commended for his charity work. Starting on the Thursday prior to this year’s Open, he walked the 88 miles to Turnberry with a full-sized golf bag on his back and raised in excess of £65,000. The sum was divided between the cancer fund set up by his old employer, Darren Clarke, in memory of his wife, Heather, and the Candlelighters Children’s Charity.
After mounting the second tee at four under par yesterday morning, Westwood caught the green in two at the 550 yards second and walked off with a second birdie. A three-footer at the third added another to his collection, while he went on from there to slot a 16-footer at the fifth and a six-footer at the seventh.
Safely through the notorious eighth, Westwood, all muscle since he started on a rigorous training programme five or so years ago, crunched another fine drive down the ninth.
The pin at this 466 yards hole looked as if it was signalling danger rather than anything else, what with the fierce slope immediately to the right ensuring that anything a tad off line would end up in the water.
Westwood, Rod Pampling and Garth Mulroy sensibly sprinkled their balls front and left of the putting surface. None was better placed than 40 feet from the flag but each succeeded in getting down in two. A more than minor triumph.
There were no other early movers quite in Westwood’s league but Rory McIlroy, from the match behind, was out in 34 to be five under at the turn.
Mickelson’s advance has come as no surprise. When he says he loves to play in China, he means it. He already has two design projects under his belt – one in Kunming and the other in Tianjin - while he has left the locals wide-eyed by coming out with more than the occasion phrase in Mandarin.
When Mickelson opened with three birdies in his first five holes, Woods and Watney, in the last group, responded with two birdies apiece over that little run.
Woods catches Watney at half-way stage
Such a state of affairs had seemed unlikely when the World No 1 knocked his approach into a bunker’s grassy bank at the 288 yards 16th. As it was, he holed out from 20 yards for what would have been the most improbable of birdies for anyone other than him. That done, he went on to pick up another shot at the par-five 538 yards 18th when he hit a resounding iron to the back of the green.
Though Woods had opened his day with a birdie, he had a pretty mundane outward half in which the putts refused to drop. However, with no-one making much of a move, he stayed patient and was finally rewarded at the ninth. And from then on, as he said, his putter was hot. “I knew,” he said, “that if I could play the back nine in three under that it would probably be a pretty good number and I did a couple better.” He and Watney are one ahead of Alvaro Quiros, Ryan Moore and Phil Mickelson, with Anthony Kim one further back.
When Watney and Quiros bumped into each other shortly after the end of their rounds, Watney had a question for the huge-hitting Spaniard. “What,” he asked, “did you take for your second to the eighth?”
The eighth measures 603 yards and everyone else, including Woods, was playing safely short of the water in two and hoping to get up and down from there for a birdie.
Quiros, whose second round was a 66, was able to tell a disbelieving Watney that he had gone for the green with a four-iron. His ball slipped into sand but he got up and down for his four. Having eagled the second, he was three under par for the two par fives in his outward 31.
Watney, who had started the day two ahead, did not take long to lose his lead. Though he had notched a birdie at the second to move to nine under, he hit into a fairway bunker at the fifth and took two to escape. He then compounded his problems by taking three putts for the double-bogey which saw him dropping to seven under.
His comeback took a bit of time…. Having turned in a one-over par 37, he at last got back on track with a couple of birdies at the tenth and 11th. When it came to the 17th, he made two more.
“I played very well again,” he said, “The main difference between yesterday’s 64 and today’s 70 was the putter. Whereas yesterday I made a whole lot of putts, today was a bit of a struggle – at least until the end.”
Watney slept well enough last night and suggested that the same would apply tonight in spite of being in such illustrious company.
“I knew from the start that these great players were in the field so it’s not surprising that they are playing well,” he said.
The 28-year-old Watney has experienced a few firsts this week. He has never been to a bigger city than Shanghai, with its population of 18 million, and he has never been on a longer flight than that from the US to China.
On top of that, it would seem that he has never seen balls struck further than those unleashed by Quiros.
Wen-tang Lin goes to top of early second-day leader-board at WGC-HSBC Champions
Wen-tag Lin from Chinese Taipei shot to the top of the leader-board early on the second day of the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions at Sheshan.
Lin, who had been three shots behind America’s Nick Watney overnight, had five birdies in his first nine holes to move to ten under par, at which point he was one ahead of Watney and two clear of Alvaro Quiros, Ryan Moore and Pat Perez.
Whenever anyone mentions Lin, they refer back to last year’s Hong Kong Open where the player will forever be remembered for the way he shrugged off Rory McIlroy at the second extra hole. Having smashed his drive behind trees, he hit through a seemingly non-existent gap in the woods to within inches of the hole.
Watney had looked as if he would hang on to his Thursday lead when he caught the green in two at the 550 yards second and just missed for the eagle. He stayed at nine under for the next two holes but, when it came to the fifth, ran into trouble. Big trouble. After catching a bunker off the tee, he failed to get out at the first time of asking, while his next mistake was to run up three putts for a double-bogey.
The sizzling iron he hit to the back of the ninth green was a shot to suggest that his confidence had not taken too much of a knock. Sure enough, he birdied each of the next two holes and was once again riding high at nine under.
There were cheers and sighs in equal measure at the start of the day. The assumption was that the first of the cheers, as it rang out across the course, was for Tiger Woods. Instead, it was an Ernie Els’ cheer as the South African holed in one with a six-iron at the 200 yards sixth – the eleventh ace of his career.
On the other side of the coin, there was nothing to match Sean O’Hair’s sad plight at the eighth. And that in a land where eight is supposed to be a lucky number, with the latest Olympics having started at eight o’clock in the evening on 08.08.’08.
O’Hair, who was one under at the time, had looked set to pick up a shot when his third – seemingly the perfect weight - headed towards the flag. As it was, his ball hit the bottom of the flagpole and came back a couple of bounces before rolling inexorably into the river.
Nick Dougherty was another having a distinctly hard time of time of it. Dougherty was on the right side of par when he teed up at the long and trouble-strewn 18th. When he left the green, he was three over having amassed a nine.
Tiger Woods had still to embark on one of his more spectacular thrusts. Though the World No 1 opened with a birdie, he dropped a shot at the fifth, where he missed the green on the right.
There was a birdie at the ninth to have him turning in 35 but, at that point, he was still four shots behind Lin, the player of the moment. Watney goes into second round of HSBC Champions with two-shot lead
After 13 holes, the winner of this year’s Buick Invitational was as many as nine under par having notched seven birdies and an eagle. The magic did not exactly evaporate in that he got up and down from a nasty stretch of rough behind his 16th green. However, his finish took in four pars and a bogey. His second to the ninth, his 18th, veered a little left and, after a day of holing everything, he misjudged his first putt from the left edge and wound up missing the 12-footer he needed to save par.
“I played very well, got off to a nice start,” said Watney, who not unnaturally preferred to concentrate on the positive. “The greens helped. They’re so good that if you hit a putt on line, it’s definitely going to go in. I tried to give myself as many chances as possible and was able to make a few.”
Moore, who won at Greensboro, was happy with the way he capitalised on his good shots and happy with the way he scrambled on the couple of occasions he hit trouble.
Kaymer had a great back nine, one in which he was four under. All of which served as something as an antidote to the fact that the toes he broke in a go-carting crash in August were beginning to play up. Lowry, though he had six birdies to his name, was rather prouder of the par he had salvaged at the 14th after hitting his drive into water. “A great par,” said the Irishman who won the Irish Open while still an amateur. “It helped to keep the momentum going and I went on to finish strong.”
Tiger Woods, meantime, is lurking three shots off the lead in the company of Wen-tang Lin, Anthony Kim and Paul Casey. Woods was neither elated nor deflated at his 67. “Well,” he began, “I got it around today. It wasn’t my best ball-striking day but I made some putts and just managed my game well. That was about it.”
Though, early on, there was a bit of commotion with cameras clicking at the wrong times, Woods commended the marshals on sorting things out to such good effect. Having watched golf develop in any number of different lands, the World No 1 is a firm believer in giving people time. “As they get more experience of watching and playing the game and understanding what it's all about it [the interruptions] don’t happen as much,” he said.
The extent to which the crowds at Sheshan have learned in the last five years was never better illustrated than when Woods hit a bunker shot of some 70 yards to 10 feet at the 14th on the way to picking up his first birdie of the day. To a man, the spectators recognised it as a shot of the highest order.
Lin had a quiet front nine before “coming alive” on the homeward half with three birdies in a row, the third of which came within a whisker of being a hole in one.
Lin was asked if it excited him that he had matched Woods’ 67.
He replied, “I don’t know”, but from the width of his smile you would have to suspect that he was well pleased with his day’s work.
Nick Watney takes early two-shot lead in WGC-HSBC Champions
Three more pars and he was out in 31 against the par of 36 on his way to the 64 which left him two ahead of Ryan Moore, Martin Kaymer and Shane Lowry.
Tiger Woods, four under par with two to play, closed at five under, while Phil Mickelson finished his day at three under. At the start, Watney could not miss on the Sheshan greens. “They were so good,” he marvelled. “Whenever you hit your putt on line it was going in.”
There was no putt involved in his eagle at the par five 14th.... Had he been back in Las Vegas, he would have opted for a three-iron for his second but, having discovered in practice that the ball does not travel as far in this part of the world, he opted instead for his hybrid. His ball finished just right of the green – and he chipped in for his three.
Asked how he felt when he moved to nine under par after 13 holes, Watney claimed that he had no trouble in keeping things in perspective. “Since this was only the first day, I was not remotely jumpy. I just tried to focus on the next two holes because there’s trouble out there,” he said.
His views were much the same about going into the second round ahead of Woods and the rest. “If this were Saturday,” he said, “I don’t know how well I’d be sleeping but to be where I am on the first day is OK.”
Woods opened what is his third HSBC Champions by driving into the right rough at the 10th and knocking his second into sand. He followed up with a bunker shot to eight feet and holed for the par. Typical Tiger.
It was precisely what had left such an impression on Ross Fisher when he first played with this great champion two years ago in Dubai. “Tiger’s got this amazing mental strength,” he marvelled. “He hits his bad shots but somehow he always goes on to make up for them.”
The crowds were out in force for the trio of Woods, Fisher and Thongchai Jaidee. In 2005, the tournament’s first year, watching golf was a new experience. Five years on and the locals have no problem in identifying the great shots from the good. When, for instance, Woods caught a fairway bunker down the long 14th and hit his 70 yard recovery to ten feet, the applause was in keeping with the feat.
All morning, small children were being ushered to the front of the crowd, their excitement no doubt enhanced by the recent confirmation that golf will be an Olympic sport in 2016.
Anthony Kim was one of the first to post a good score. He had a 12-footer at the last which got away but was happy enough to have returned a 67 on a course where he had not had time for a practice round.
Such were his visa problems that he only arrived at Sheshan at 1.30 on Wednesday morning. He slept until three in the afternoon and in retrospect felt that was the best possible thing. During the course of the Volvo World Match Play, where he lost to Fisher in the final, he had played 100 plus holes and was pretty well exhausted. “I needed the rest,” he said.
Rest, he has decided, is from now on going to have a higher priority in his golfing life. He explained how he had not given himself enough space between the 2008 and 2009 seasons and, as a result, had had a season peppered with injury problems. Hence the reason he has pulled out of the last lap of the Race to Dubai, though he has promised to play more golf in Europe next year.
As Woods has said, getting a schedule right is something which you ever master in the first few years. “It’s not something you can learn in college. It’s something you learn from experience.”
Garcia ready to defend but Tiger on the attack
Sergio Garcia, the defending champion, is in the right mood going into the WGC – HSBC Champions. Following on from the fun and games in Shanghai on Tuesday night when he, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and YE Yang launched balls into the Huangpu, Garcia was answering requests to hit over the netting at the far end of the practice range.
He has no concerns with his play but admits to sensing the difference between the HSBC Champions of last year and the WGC-HSBC Champions as it is now. “It was a very good tournament before,” he began, “but when we talk about a World Golf Championship event, we always talk about it as if it is a bit special. It brings something else to the table. It’s going to be tougher to win but I’m going to enjoy the challenge.”
When Woods, who has played in this event twice and finished second each time, was asked what his strategy would be for the week, he was quick to explain that it was not exactly complex: “It’s simple. I want to finish lower than anybody else.”
One more question for Woods concerned all his travelling and training. Surely, it had to take its toll. Here, Woods gave a reply which did a lot to sum up why he is the player he is. “It’s fun training and trying to get better,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed the process whether it’s the off-course conditioning or the practice sessions.”
Yesterday morning, down at the far end of the range, the four winners of HSBC’s 2009 junior programme – Zhou Tian, Zhang Jin, Liu Yu and the 12-year-old Marty Doe - were drawing lots for who would get to play with whom at the short 17th. As part of their HSBC prize, they were to spend that penultimate hole as a fifth member of the pro-am party belonging to one of Woods, Garcia, Phil Mickelson and Ian Poulter.
The 17-year-old Zhou got the player they all wanted – Tiger. “It’s my first time to see Tiger,” he said excitedly. A year ago, Zhou was amassing scores in the high 90s and finishing close to last in the HSBC junior events. Twelve months on and he is shooting in the low 70s. All four had to guess at their handicaps because, at least as yet, Chinese courses are not rated for handicap purposes. They all – and that included the 12 year old – saw themselves as three or better.
Thongchai Jaidee is in the same position as Zhou in that he, too, is playing with Woods for a first time this week, only for 36 holes rather than one. “It’s difficult to anticipate how things will pan out,” said Jaidee, who is currently ranked 60th in the world. “There are always big crowds following Tiger so I’ll have to concentrate on my own shots. I should be OK.”
Ross Fisher, who won last week’s Volvo Match Play championship at Finca Cortesin, is the third member of the Woods’ group. He played with him two years ago in Dubai and cannot wait for this second chance. “It’s an honour and a privilege,” said Fisher.
Though he knows he must concentrate on his own play, he suspects it would be madness not to use the two days as a learning experience. “Two years ago,” he said, “I learned a lot about Tiger’s strength of mind. He duffed one shot and skied another but, in the end, he always made amends.”
Mickelson, the World No 2, won here in 2007 and is determined to repeat that feat. Not just because the Champions has become a WGC event but because he wants to have his name to the fore before the opening of his new course project in Kunming. He has talked long and hard about wanting to encourage the growth of the game in China and he is putting in a par-3 course at Kunming where children can learn.
At the same time, he is having his new short-game book translated into Mandarin. “While the kids are learning, I want them to learn the right way,” he stressed.
Mickelson has a young playing companion at his side over the first two rounds at Sheshan in the 20-year-old Rory McIlroy. “His playing skills are incredible,” he marvelled.
McIlroy is beginning to tire at the end of what has been a long season and said that when he flew into Shanghai, he didn’t "have a clue” as to where he was.
In Race to Dubai terms, he is lying third behind Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer who are well within reach.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson warm up for the WGC-HSBC Champions with shots into the Huangpu River
Woods was speaking at the pre-tournament conference-cum-celebration which took place at Shanghai’s famous Port International Cruise Terminal. known locally as “The Bubble”. Earlier, he, Phil Mickelson, YE Yang and Sergio Garcia had indulged in a game of Chinese Checkers before launching a series of balls as far as they could across the Huangpu River – a distance from bank to bank of some 550 yards.
Sandy Flockhart, the Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Asia-Pacific, described his tournament’s new WGC label as confirmation that China and Asia had arrived on the world stage. “The success of HSBC’s sponsorship is a working example of how the world’s local bank plays its role in driving Asian’s emerging markets forward,” he said. “We set out to create a partnership that would spearhead the arrival of world-class golf in this region and within five years, here we are.” Aside from sponsoring the HSBC-Champions, the bank boasts a sister tournament for the women professionals and an HSBC China Junior programme.
Phil Mickelson suggested that the HSBC Champions' promotion, along with this year’s news that golf will be included in the 2016 Olympics, could only accelerate the already remarkable growth of the sport. The World No. 2, who won the Champions in 2007, said that he felt proud to have played and won in China and to have had something of an input in proceedings. He would later add that probably the most important role players like himself, Woods, Yang and Garcia could play in Asia’s future was to help to spark interest among the young.
China, in turn, would need “to provide places for kids to play”. Mickelson mentioned that he and Tiger had had access to driving ranges and par-3 courses from the start – and that it had all been very affordable. “If China has good public facilities,” he continued, “the country will become a dominant force.”
Wisely, Chinese officialdom was not about to be drawn into stating that the country would win golfing gold in the 2016 Olympics. They pointed to how, with the country’s golfing history no more than a frugal 25 years, it would be wrong to expect too much too soon. “We have a lot to do,” said Zhang Ziaoning. Director General of the Multi-ball Sports Administration Centre. “Hopefully Chinese golfers can get qualified for the 2016 Olympics and we can look forward to an excellent performance.”
When Woods was asked if he would be trying for a gold medal, he gently pointed to how he would be 40 when the great day came. Another question he had to field came from a former gold medallist in the realm of gymnastics. As one who was turning her hand to golf, she wanted to know how Woods managed to strike a balance between family life and playing all over the world.
Woods explained that his secret lay in having “a fantastic wife” who was making the best possible job of bringing up the children when he was away. He said he found it hard to leave home at the moment – and suspected that it would get harder in the years to come. Yet he, like Mickelson, thought it was part of a player’s responsibility to ply his trade all over the world.
He described the game as "pretty healthy" at the moment and suggested that it would become even more so as it spreads.“It will be exciting to see what’s happening 15 – 20 years from now,” he ventured.
Make that 150 - 200 years from now and the champions of the day could be achieving that 550 yard carry over the Huangpu.
Sergio Garcia ready to defend title as top players converge on HSBC-Champions
A field of true global excellence will take China by storm this week to mark the arrival of the newest World Golf Championships event – the WGC-HSBC Champions – at the Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai.
Now the fourth WGC event on The European Tour International Schedule, the WGC-HSBC Champions has attracted a compelling list of golfing superstars, headed by World Number One Tiger Woods.
The American is one of seven of the top ten players on the Official World Golf Ranking to make their passage to China from all corners of the globe, while a total of 20 of the top 30 – in addition to 14 of the top 15 in the current Race to Dubai – will compete for the US$7 million prize fund.
World Number Nine, Sergio Garcia of Spain, defends the title he won at Sheshan 12 months ago, as the inaugural Race to Dubai enters the final fortnight before the season’s climax takes place with the Dubai World Championship on the Earth course at Jumeirah Golf Estates from November 19-22.
Adding glamour and spice to the competition is the welcome appearance of the world’s two leading players, Woods and Phil Mickelson, who are joined by Korea’s Y E Yang, who will receive a warm welcome back to the scene of his triumph in November 2006, less than three months after becoming the first Asian male golfer to win a Major Championship – the US PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota.
Woods has enjoyed a decade of astonishing dominance in WGC events, claiming an astonishing 16 individual WGC titles in total. His first triumph came in the WGC – NEC Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Ohio in August 1999, while his most recent success came a mere three months ago at the same venue in the WGC – Bridgestone Invitational.
“I played in the HSBC Champions in 2005 and 2006 and I look forward to returning to Shanghai,” he said. “It is an event that symbolises the amazing progress of golf in Asia and its new WGC status underlines how firmly China has established its place on the global golf calendar.”
One man who knows exactly what it takes to win the WGC-HSBC Champions is Phil Mickelson, who emerged triumphant from a thrilling play-off at Sheshan against Englishmen Ross Fisher and Lee Westwood two years ago.
The left-hander finished in a tie for eighth place in the last HSBC Champions in November 2008 but has already experienced success in the WGC arena this year, overcoming a spell of heat exhaustion and dehydration at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Florida in March, to hold off the challenge of fellow American Nick Watney on the final day to win the WGC – CA Championship.
“After The Open Championship, it is hard to think of a bigger and better tournament held outside America,” he said. “This tournament already had everything in place and deserves to be part of the WGC series. It has always attracted strong fields and so has a great reputation worldwide and I am really looking forward to trying to reclaim my title.”
Yang, who preceded Mickelson as the champion at Sheshan to serve notice of his emerging status as a world class player, is relishing a return to the scene of his biggest success prior to claiming that first Major.
He said: “Winning the tournament in 2007 set the foundation for bigger things to come. It gave me the courage to achieve bigger goals like winning the PGA Championship.There were so many things that happened, but in the bigger picture it definitely changed my career because it gave the strength that I needed and the confidence and belief that I could achieve bigger things.”
Cink, the 2009 Open Champion and winner of five US PGA Tour events including the 2004 World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational, is very much looking forward to his first visit to the Sheshan International Golf Club.
“I am really excited to be going to China for the first time” said Cink. “Anywhere the best players in the world are gathered together, you don’t want to miss out, and I think it is fantastic for world golf that China will be hosting the WGC-HSBC Champions.”
Garcia captured the title last November, following a play-off with England’s Oliver Wilson, and he commented: “I suppose being defending champion brings its own unique pressure but, actually, I feel more excited than anything else about going back to Shanghai,” he said. “I’ll be the defending champion on a course I really enjoy and it goes without saying I’d love this to be the first tournament in my career that I successfully defend.”
Garcia is also, of course, one of the men who currently occupy 14 of the top 15 places in The Race to Dubai on The European Tour. With only three counting events left to be played before the Dubai World Championship, England’s Lee Westwood continues to lead the way from Germany’s Martin Kaymer, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Ross Fisher of England, who moved up to fourth place after this victory in the Volvo World Match Play in Spain last week.
Another big mover in the ‘Race’ was Fisher’s fellow Englishman, Ian Poulter, who captured the Barclays Singapore Open to move to tenth place overall and will cross Asia from Singapore to China with his game in fine fettle.
Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher riding high at start of Champions week
Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher will almost certainly be giving each other a congratulatory handshake when they meet up at this week’s WGC-HSBC Champions at Sheshan. Poulter won last week’s Singapore Masters by a shot from China’s Liang Wen-chong and, in so doing, sealed his place in this HSBC field. As for Fisher, whose berth was already secure, he captured the coveted Volvo World Match Play title at Finca Cortesin.
Of the two, Poulter had the more nerve-wracking Sunday. Having at one point on the back nine been briefly overtaken by Graeme McDowell, he came to the last needing a par to beat Liang, who was safely in the clubhouse at nine under.
The English player was still a little unsure of himself after the six-week break he had taken prior to the tournament, while his confidence had hardly been helped by the loss on Saturday of his five-shot half-way lead. Now, though, he held firm, securing his par for a closing 72 and what was his first title since the 2007 Dunlop Phoenix in Japan. “I had a few mis-hits over the tournament and especially over the weekend but to finish like that made me very happy,” he said.
Fisher, meanwhile, had a mentally less-taxing last day after a Saturday semi-final in which he took to the 39th or third extra hole to defeat Angel Cabrera, the Masters champion. At the third time of asking, he delivered a cracking three-wood to the heart of the 18th green where Cabrera was bunkered through the back. Not least because of where it was and the number of spectators who were afforded the perfect view, it will surely go down as one of the pressure shots of the year.
In his final against Anthony Kim, Fisher produced his most telling thrust at the 22nd - a 35-foot eagle putt. That done, he threw in a birdie at the next to move three clear. Eventually, he won by a handsome 4/3. “It was one thing to beat Kim but to beat him by that margin makes it extra special,” he said. “Ross played great,” acknowledged Kim. “I gave it all I had but I made a few mistakes and, unfortunately, simply wasn’t good enough.”
In particular, the American would have been ruing his two three-putt greens at the third and fourth. They hardly added up to the kind of early message he wanted to send to a player of Fisher’s calibre.
Ironically, Fisher will be taking the cup back to Wentworth, the club which hosted the World Match Play from its inception in 1964 until 2008. It was 14 years ago that Fisher went up to Wentworth for a junior trial where Bernhard Gallacher, then the head professional, picked him out for a Wentworth junior scholarship which covered all his playing and coaching costs.
Having caught the eye of that former Ryder Cup captain – Gallacher was at the helm in 1991,1993 and 1995 - Fisher is currently out to impress the present incumbent, Colin Montgomerie. “I would love to be on Monty’s team in Wales,” said Fisher who, unlike Poulter, has yet to play in the match versus the Americans.
At the start of last week, Fisher and Poulter were in precisely the same boat in being desperate to notch their first wins of the season. Now both are hoping that they can keep going this week over the course where, in 2006, Poulter made something of an unforgettable debut. By way of reminding people where they were, he had a different pair of embroidered Chinese silk trousers for each of the tournament days.
He will tell you that the only question which used to exercise his mind about this balancing of the ledger between East and West was “when”.
For years, Harrington would head for venues such as Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore in the early part of the season. He would play with one rising star from the East after another and it struck him long ago that a high percentage of them had the look of world-class players when performing in their own back yard.
“Where the Asian contingent tended to struggle,” continued this winner of the 2003 BMW Asian Open and the 2004 Omega Hong Kong Open. “was when they travelled overseas. The language barrier was one problem, the unfamiliar foodstuffs another. They simply weren’t comfortable out of their own environment.”
Gradually, those who made the decision to travel became bolder and better in their overseas forays. “K J Choi,” says Harrington, “led the way but Yang is the one to have made the big breakthrough by winning at Hazeltine. Naturally enough, he has prompted other Asian golfers to believe that they can do the same…”
In answer to the question as to whether there are any areas in which the Asian golfers have an edge over their Western counterparts, Harrington settled for their quiet acceptance of whatever was thrown at them. “They have this ability to keep playing. They don’t expect every inch of grass to be beautifully manicured and they don’t look for perfect weather conditions all the time. They just get on with things and you don’t hear them complaining.”
Rory McIlroy, from the next generation, has the sensation of being on a par with Asian contemporaries such as Danny Lee and Ryo Ishikawa. “There are so many great young players in Asia,” said the 20-year-old, who qualified to play alongside Tiger Woods, Harrington and the rest in the HSBC Champions when he won this year’s Dubai Desert Classic.
McIlroy, like Harrington, picks on the Asian temperament as a definite plus. “They all seem to be on this wonderfully even keel,” he said enviously. He picked out Yang for never getting fazed as he had the better of Tiger both in the 2007 HSBC and in this year’s PGA. And then he picked out Tiger, suggesting that Wood’s Thai mother, Kultida, had contributed to his mental strength.
It was Boonchu Ruangit, the so-called father of Thai golf, who first suggested that Tiger had the optimum combination of parents…
Ruangkit said he had seen plenty of Americans who had none of Tiger’s Thai qualities - and plenty of Thais who were woefully short of the opportunities on offer in the States. In which connection, he shyly recalled an occasion a couple of decades ago when Tom Kite, the former US Open champion, turned to him and said, “Boonchu, you were born in the wrong country. If you had been born in the States, you would have been one of the greats.”
No less than Harrington and McIlroy, Boonchu will be celebrating the extent to which this week’s HSBC-Champions is a microcosm of the modern game.
Yang headlines powerful Asian challenge for the WGC-HSBC Champions
Y E Yang is a man used to making golfing history and the 37 year old Korean will attempt to carve another niche for himself in the game’s record books next week when he bids to become the first player to win the WGC-HSBC Champions twice.
Yang will headline a powerful Asian challenge for the event at the Sheshan International Golf Club from November 5-8, an event he captured in November 2006 and which is now elevated to a World Golf Championship for the first time.
When Yang triumphed at the Shanghai venue three years ago he was relatively unknown outside Asia but that will most definitely not be the case when he returns thanks to his thrilling victory in the US PGA Championship at Hazeltine National in August where he held off, amongst others, World Number One Tiger Woods, to become the first Asian player to capture a Major Championship.
“Even to this day, I try to revive the feeling I had the week I won the HSBC three years ago,” said Yang, who also captured the Honda Classic on the US PGA Tour in March. “It was such a big tournament and yet I played with such poise. I try to recapture that feeling every time I play – it was my perfect tournament.
“On the final day at the PGA Championship, I was drawing on the feelings I had when I won in Shanghai. I was trying to recapture the calmness and the serenity, and it worked. A lot of players are usually forced out of their element because of their strong desire to win and thus try too hard. In my case there, I just tried to enjoy the moment because I had no pressure and nothing to lose.
Alongside Yang, the Asian challenge for the WGC-HSBC Champions will be bolstered by an impressive cast of champions from across the continent.
Japan will provide the precocious talent of 18 year old Ryo Ishikawa alongside established stars, Daisuke Maruyama, Shingo Katayama and Yuta Ikeda. Ishikawa is already a superstar in the Land of the Rising Sun having become the youngest winner of a men’s regular tournament on the Japan Golf Tour in May 2007 at the age of 15 years and eight months.
He continues to go from strength to strength and his four wins in Japan this year persuaded Greg Norman to select him as a wild card for the International Team in the Presidents Cup, a decision which proved wise as he won three out of five points.
“I am delighted to have qualified for my first World Golf Championship event and looking forward to playing in Shanghai very much,” he said. “It has been an exciting year playing in The Masters, The Open Championship and the US PGA Championship and now I have earned my place in the WGC-HSBC Champions. I have heard very good things about the tournament and the course and I am very much looking forward to making my World Golf Championship debut at the Sheshan International Golf Club.”
Elsewhere, the experienced Jeev Milkha Singh – a winner of 18 tournaments around the globe – spearheads the Indian challenge while another seasoned campaigner, Thongchai Jaidee, leads the quest to take the title to Thailand.
Jaidee, already a winner of the Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia Open and the Ballantine’s Championship this season and the most decorated champion in the history of the Asian Tour, will have a special reason for wanting to claim the WGC-HSBC Champions title, for the final day – Sunday November 8 – also happens to be his 40th birthday.
Finally, the large crowds expected at the wonderful Shanghai course, while marvelling at the gathering of the world’s top golfers, will also be keen to see one of their own countrymen challenge for the title with the best chance for Chinese success lying with the experienced Zhang Lian-wei and his fellow countryman Liang Wen-chong.
Zhang, 44, made history in 2003 when he held off the challenge of Ernie Els to win the Singapore Masters and become the first Chinese golfer to win an event on The European Tour International Schedule. Incredibly, 31 year old Liang followed him into the record books by winning the same event in 2007.
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