Honda Classic. Rory Mac Still on Track.

Rory McIlroy is still on track to win The Honda Classic, leading the competition on  the PGA National course at Palm Beach Gardens.

Rory McIlroy / Getty Images

Rory shot a -4 under par 66 to maintain his momentum at the top of the leaderboard at The Honda Classic, with a -11 under par total. He spoke about his implosion last year and thinks maturity has helped him overcome those difficulties;

“It’s a different end of the spectrum I guess, I wasn’t quite comfortable with my golf swing. I was still tinkering with equipment. I just wasn’t feeling in control of, you know, what I needed to be in control of. This year is obviously a lot different. I think it’s just a sign of a little more maturity, not really trying to force the issue or press. I knew that with the way I’m playing and the confidence in my ability, I would be able to get those shots back. I didn’t panic.”

“When you’re not quite in control of your swing, your confidence can sort of go in peaks and troughs. When you hit a few good shots, your confidence can go up quite quickly but then you hit one bad one, it can sort of go down again and that’s where I was sort of most of last year. Now I feel I’m happy with where my swing is, and even if I do hit a loose shot, I can get over it much quicker and much easier because I have the confidence in what I’m doing. I’m playing well and I’m comfortable.”

Brendon de Jong is in second place after his super second round -6 under par 64, which elevated him to -10 under par overall. Brendon, who has never won on the PGA TOUR,  will be in the last group Saturday, alongside Rory. He mentioned the wind picking up in the afternoon;

“I think I might have got a little bit of switch in the wind. I feel very comfortable, I’ve been out here long enough now. I’ve played quite a bit with Rory. I know obviously what a great player he is. I feel very comfortable. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

In third place at -8 under par is Russell Henley, who carded a second round -2 under par 70, to stay in touch with the leaders.

Among those making the cut on the number, at even par were some dignitaries; Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, V.J. Singh and Paul Casey.

Tiger reported;

“I hit it good enough to shoot probably at least three or four lower than I did. I had so many looks where I just missed, and I just need to read them a little bit better than I did today.”

Sergio is struggling;

“It’s just been a little bit of a struggle, it’s just one of those weeks where you just don’t feel it. I wish I could put my hand on what it is. I just didn’t feel comfortable starting out, but I have to be happy with the finish and hope for a decent weekend.”

There were also a couple of big names on the missed cut column, Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson. Phil was +1 over par and Henrik was +9 over par for the first two rounds.

Turkish Open. Three Tied At The Top, 1st Round Play Suspended

There are three players tied at the top of the leaderboard on the opening day of the Turkish Airlines Open at The Montgomerie Maxx Royal course in Antalya.

Paul Casey / Getty Images

Paul Casey, Darren Fichardt and Steve Webster were all at  -7 under par for their unfinished first rounds of The Turkish Open when play was suspended for the day due to darkness. There had been a three-hour delay before play could commence, overnight thunder storms refusing to disperse in time.

Paul reported that he liked Monty designed courses, and that all bodes well for him in this tournament;

“I seem to play very well around Monty’s golf courses, I won in Bahrain a couple of years ago and then Carton House this year. I do enjoy his golf courses. I have no idea why, but maybe the fact that you can be incredibly aggressive does bode well for me. I made a very aggressive start with eagle at the first hole and this is a golf course that seems to offer a lot of opportunities starting out. I probably aim for the stick probably too frequently, but you could get away with it today. If you have an opportunity to go at flag and a good yardage, you have to take it. It was foot flat to the floor today and just fire at the pins, take advantage of the soft conditions we’ve got and see what happens. The field is exceptionally strong and with the layout of the golf course, and the way it is set up, I fully expect somebody is going to get to maybe 20 plus under par this week.”

Ricardo Gonzalez and Thorbjørn Olesen were two players who managed to finish their first rounds,  each signing for a pair of -6 under par 66′s, and currently tied in fourth spot.

Tiger Woods made a more reserved start with two birdies and a bogey in his first 11 holes taking him to -1 under par,before the darkness descended on the Montgomerie Maxx and play was suspended for bad light.

Play will resume at 8am local time on Friday morning, with the players finishing the first round before beginning round two, and with the tee-times the same as round one.

Euro Tour. KLM Open. Pablo and Miguel Spanish Duo Share Lead.

The Spanish duo of Miguel Angel Jiménez and Pablo Larrazábal share the lead at the KLM Open at the half way stage in Holland.

Miguel Angel Jimenez /Getty Images

Miguel fired a bogey free -3 under par 67 for his total score of -9 under par for the tournament. He is hoping that it will be his turn to win this week, after missing out last week in Switzerland;

“This course suits me, it’s not a very long course but you have to have the ball in position. I like this kind of links course and I feel very comfortable with my game. I didn’t manage to get the win in Switzerland last week, but maybe this week it will be my turn, I hope so.”

Pablo had two bogey’s in his second round -4 under par 66, to also reach -9 under par for the tournament at the Kennemer Golf Club, He said he had lost count of the putts he had missed on the back nine in a wet afternoon. Playing with Miguel tomorrow would be good, and a lot of fun;

“I’m happy, I’m hitting the ball as good as ever. I don’t know how many putts I missed today on that back nine. But I am on top of the leaderboard at the moment, the conditions were not good this afternoon, it was raining all the way so I am very happy with my game. It’s always good, we spend many practice rounds together, maybe 95 per cent we play together. We know each other well and have a lot of fun. We have a lot of dinners together.”

Simon Dyson, who won at Kennemer in 2006 and 2009 shot a bogey free -7 under par 63 second round, to finish tied in second place at -8 under par. Simon reported that he had a really solid round, and knows he can play well here;

“I’ve done well in previous years and played well around it today. I played really solid apart from the last two holes and never looked like making bogey. I hit a poor tee shot on the eighth, which was my 17th, and the lie determined the shot I had to play. I had quite a lot of room to pitch it on the green but had a terrible lie so had to play a little bump and run, a proper links shot, and managed to play it well. 
On the last I didn’t quite strike the chip as I wanted to but it was nice to roll the putt in and have a bogey-free round.”

Joining Simon in second place are Oliver Fisher and Julien Quesne, both players had a second round score of -5 under par 65, Julien bogey free and Oliver carding one bogey.

Top placed Dutchman is now Joost Luiten, a second round -5 under par 65 got him into a tie for seventh place at -6 under par. Missing the cut were Paul Casey and Padraig Harrington. Paul had shown signs of recovery lately but has slipped back, Padraig continues his disappointing season.

EURO Tour. Omega European Masters. Anirban Lahri Leads.

Anirban Lahri leads the Omega Masters European Tour event in Switzerland at the stunningly beautiful Crans-sur-Sierre.

Anirban Lahri / Getty Images

Anirban, from India, shot an opening round -8 under par 63, to lead the Omega European Masters by two strokes from a chasing pack of three players. He had to play through the pain barrier because he is still nursing a twisted knee, an injury he received after falling awkwardly four weeks ago. There is a sense of  déjà vu here as Anirban also held a share of the first round clubhouse lead last year, only to miss the cut when the weather turned on day two. He mentioned his knee and the missed cut last year;

” I’ve a history with my knee as I tore my ACL when I was 15 so it was tough. I didn’t hit balls for 15 days. Monday was probably my fourth round in a month. I came in with no expectations and just wanted to enjoy my golf and that’s probably what’s happening out there today. It was a tough pill to swallow last year but I’ve learnt a lot from that. The weather was so much colder and it was a big adjustment for me. It was a harsh lesson, but a lesson for life nevertheless.”

Tied in second place at -6 under par with rounds of  65 are the very experienced Miguel Angel Jiménez, the still slowly improving Paul Casey, and recent winner Tommy Fleetwood.

Tommy missed the cut the week after his recent win at the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, but feels better about himself now;

“I felt a lot better about my game from Monday onwards, it was a hard week.  I wasn’t prepared for how hectic it would be. It was my first win and hard to take and it was a big comedown but hopefully I’ll be more prepared for my next win.”

Miguel is making his 25th consecutive appearance in the event, and is also the 2010 winner. He was satisfied with his opening effort and also said he knows this course like the back of his hand;

” It is a very nice start, I played very well today. I can play this course with my eyes closed!”

Thomas Björn took the title out of Miguel’s grasp last year, and he is just one shot further back at -5 under par.

 

The Irish Open. Casey Captures Title at Carton

Paul Casey captured The Irish Open title at Carton House Golf Course with a brilliant closing round in tough conditions of -5 under par 67 for total of -14 under par and a three shot win.

Paul Casey / Getty Images

Paul returned to form in sensational style since his problems with form and fitness since winning his last European Tour title two and a half years ago. He really enjoyed the sweet redemption;

“It’s incredibly sweet, it’s been a while and when that putt went in half of it was relief and half of it was satisfaction. What a grandstand finish, winning an Irish open is an absolute dream. I was feeling wet when it rained. It was a shaky start, I didn’t hit the ball particularly close going out but when the putts did start to go in I got on a bit of a roll. I love playing in Ireland, I always have. The Irish Open has great history,  just looking at Seve’s name on the trophy. We’ve had some interesting weather but they’ve turned out as Irish fans always do and I love playing in front of Irish crowds, I’m looking forward to coming back.”

Overnight leader Dutchman Joost Luiten, struggled in the final round carding a +3 over par 74, to tie for second place with  England’s Robert Rock, both players finished on -11 under par. Joost was happy to finish in second place;

“All in all, a good week, second place is always good, but if you go in the last round as the leader, you want to have more, but sometimes you can’t.”

Robert said he wanted to win, but it was a good performance;

“It’s as good as I’ve done in a while. When you’re that close, you want to win, but Paul played the better golf around the important part of the day where the rain came down. There were some shots I should have played better; things to work on.”

Spain’s Pablo Larrazábal finished fourth place, after a closing +4 over par 75, with former Ryder Cup captain José María Olazábal a shot further back in a share of fifth position on-8 under par, with Shane Lowery, Gareth Shaw, Alvaro Quiros and Rafa Cabrera-Bello.

 

Euro Tour. The Irish Open. Luiten Likes It.

Joost Luiten likes the way he is playing at The Irish Open on the European Tour, giving himself a one shot lead to take into the final round.

Joost Luiten / Getty Images

Joost fired a flawless bogey free round of -6 under par, 66, to take him into a clear lead going into the final round. Good approach play, all birdies were from ten feet or less, coupled with good putting put him into this precious position. He also likes this course;

” It was good to-day, a round in this wind with no bogeys is always good. It looks like I’m playing good, playing consistently. I don’t make a lot of silly mistakes, the game feels good. I like the course , obviously after three rounds if you’re leading you like it. The key is to stay out of the fairway bunkers. It’s always great to go into the last round of the tournament as the leader, but this is The Irish Open and perhaps bigger than some other events. I don’t really care who is behind me, as long as they stay behind me. You still have to go out and make some birdies, be patient and take it one shot at a time. It’s always good to have a win under your belt, you can go a little bit more for the win. You have nothing to lose so that’s how I am going to go out tomorrow. I’ve been working on my swing for a long time and am finally fully fit after a shoulder problem which meant I couldn’t practice as much on the range. It has been good for a couple of months and feels really good now.”

Pablo Larrazábal is alone in second place at -14 under par, he also had a third round of -6 under par 66, and at just one shot back is certain to mount a charge for the title. He is hoping he will strike the ball as well tomorrow as he has done the other three rounds, and continue making the putts.

” I’ve been playing good. The last month I didn’t play as good as the three months before, so I feel that I’m hitting the ball good, and I have to fight for the tournament. I hope tomorrow I can hit the ball as good as these days and hole as many putts.”

Robert Rock occupies third place, just three shots off the lead after his disappointing -1 under par round, leaving him on -10 under par for the tournament. He is still very much in this competition, and maybe Paul Casey can make an impression tomorrow. Paul is showing some form here and at -9 under par in total can not be ruled out of contention. Sharing that position with Paul is Scot Henry.

Another shot further back at -8 under par is former Ryder Cup Captain José María Olazábal, sadly halfway joint-leader Peter Uihlein slipped back to -7  under after a poor round of +2 over par 74.

The Honda Classic, Luke Guthrie Leads by One.

Luke Guthrie / Getty Images

The Honda Classic second round was dominated by Luke Guthrie, shooting -7 under par, 63 to lead by one shot on the              PGA National Champion Course at Palm Beach. His tournament total of -9 under par is just one shot ahead of Michael Thompson, alone in second spot, who had a -5 under par second round of 65.

Luke said he had no idea about Rory’s situation;

” I had no clue, I was just kind of going about my business out there.”

Tied in third place at -7 under par are Boo Weekley and Graham DeLaet, Boo with a second round of -3 under par 67, and Graham with a  -2 under par round of 70.

There are six players tied in fifth place at -6 under par, they are; Lee Westwood, Geoff Ogilvy, Doug LaBelle 111, Justin Rose, Sean O’Hair and Chucky Three-Sticks.

Rory McIlroy was forced to withdraw due to pain in his wisdom tooth, there are some conflicting stories around about why he actually quit, he was -7 over par through eight holes of his second round at the time. The pain in the tooth statement came form Rory’s management company, make what you want with that. With Tiger Woods just making the cut on the number it represents another poor start to a tournament for the stars of Nike. It was Rory’s third missed cut in a row. Tiger felt he just did not hit the ball very well today;

” Well, I didn’t hit it anywhere near as good as I did Thursday, I didn’t have it today. I had it going early and then I would lose it.”

 

Overnight leader Camilo Villegas  shot a second round -7 over par, 77 a mighty difference of 13 strokes from his opening round of 64,  to miss the cut by a shot.

Other notables missing the cut were, Major winners Louis Oosthuizen and David Duval, followed by Mike Weir, Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey.

BMW Masters, China, Peter Hanson Wins

Peter Hanson/Getty Images

Ryder Cup player Peter Hanson won the BMW Masters at  Lake Malaren Golf Club in Shanghai, China, shooting a last round of -5 under par 67, to lift the title with a tournament total of -21 under par. He held at bay another Ryder Cup player, World number one, Rory McIlroy who also had a last round of -5 under par 67, and was beaten by just one shot.

Members of the 2012 European Ryder Cup Team filled the first four places with Luke Donald finishing alone in third place after his final round of -6 under par 66, and he must be ruing his customary slow start to a tournament. Best round of the day came from another Ryder Cupper, Ian Poulter, who fired in a final round -7 under par 65, to end up in fourth spot on his own. Ireland’s Shane Lowry finished in fifth place alone on -15 under par.

It was nice to see a return to form from England’s Paul Casey, who finished the tournament at -14 under par, he was tied for sixth place along with, Justin Rose, Louis Oosthuizen, Noren Alexander and the man from Zimbabwe, George Coetzee.

Jamie Donaldson, who led the tournament after his amazing first round 62, finished tied in sixteenth place, his first round was followed by rounds of 74, 72 and a 69.  A really sad end to a brilliant start to the tournament.

European Tour, Down Under, ISPS Handa Perth International

The European Tour has gone down under, to be precise the event is the ISPS Handa Perth International, being contested at the Lake Karrinyup Country Club.

Alejandro Cañizares/getty images

Alejandro Cañizares of Spain shares the first round lead at the ISPS HANDA Perth International with Michael Hendry from New Zealand. Both players had opening rounds of -7 under par, 65 on the Lake Karrinyup Country Club course.

Alejandro said he needs a good finish here to propel himself up the board in the Race to Dubai;

“I’m 70th at the moment so this is either my last or my second to last tournament of the year. I need a good finish, if I win it will fix a lot of things. I’m not sure what finish I need because there are still some big tournaments going on at the moment. Singapore is a big tournament and BMW and HSBC, some guys behind me are playing that, so you never know. I’m just going to try to play my best. It was a good round, I hit the ball really well and made some putts, so I’m really happy. I was pretty steady the whole round and gave myself plenty of chances. I think I only missed two greens in the whole round. The year has been a little slow since March. I started pretty well, a couple top tens, a top five in México in the US PGA Tour event, and then finished second in the Spanish Open. Since then, it’s been very slow.  I haven’t played good enough to be in contention, and every week I was falling down the rankings. So I came here from Portugal, I didn’t play very good last week. I hit the ball terribly, but I came here and I felt great. Maybe the 24 hours travelling helped, I feel good with my swing and hopefully the week keeps going like this.”

Michael, who usually plays on the OneAsia Tour, said he just repeated the round of 65 he had in the Pro-Am yesterday;

“I actually shot 65 in the Pro-Am yesterday as well. I think around here, if you can hit your drives in the right place, you can give yourself lots of opportunities to hit it close with wedges. I hit my driver pretty well and wedged it well and putted it well. All in all, just a really solid round of golf. If you’re going to play good golf, you’re going to have a lot of opportunities around this golf course. Luckily enough, I capitalized on them today.”

Emiliano Grillo, a 20-year-old Qualifying School graduate, from Argentina is alone in third place after his opening round of -6 under par, 66. Emiliano said he was pleased with his days work;

“ I hit a lot of fairways out there, that’s very important on this golf course and a lot of greens and then the ones that I missed, I got up and down, so it was a good round overall. There are not many tournaments left, so I’m trying to make as much ground as I can this week. It was very nice to get my card through Q School last year. It’s been a great year so far and I’m enjoying it.”

Paul Casey and English compatriot Andrew Johnston, both had rounds of -5 under par, 67, to be just two shots off the lead.

 

 

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, 2nd Round

Branden Grace/getty images

Branden Grace cemented his place at the top of the leaderboard in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland on Friday with a 2nd round score of -5 under par 67, on the St Andrews Old Course. Branden now has a total tournament score of -17 under par, 5 shots clear of the two players tied in second place on -12 under par. Branden suffered his first bogey, on the fourth hole at the home of Golf, but then bounced back with six birdies on the day;

” As soon as I made the birdie at the fifth I settled down and got things going and the form of yesterday kicked in. The putts kept going in and I made three 25 footers which was nice.I think the way I’m playing and hitting the ball I’m looking forward to playing Carnoustie. The putter is going and I’m looking forward to it.”

The two players who are five shots back are Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen and Sweden’s wonderfully dressed Joel Sjoholm, his plus fours outfit is totally in keeping with Scotland and Links courses.

Joel Sjoholm/getty images

Joel played himself into contention on day two of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship with a second round -5 under par 67 on the Old Course at St Andrews. Joel said he loved the course at St Andrews;

“It was a pleasure, this was the first time I have played 18 holes at St Andrews, so it’s been an absolutely fantastic adventure for me.
It has been a really good day.  Now I honestly understand why everybody’s talking so much about it, and I don’t know the history, so you cannot quiz me on that, but I guess that on a course like this a lot of things can happen. I can see myself that today I’ve been a little bit lucky, I’m hitting drives, they might be in the bunker or all these bushes everywhere and we find them and some guys might just stripe it in the fairway.  This course is absolutely amazing.”

Thorbjorn, an equally strikingly dressed golfer, usually in very bright dazzling colors, remained near the top of the leaderboard for second day with his round of -3 under par 69 on the challenging Carnoustie Championship Course. Thorbjorn was happy with his good play over the two days. He spoke about the good friendship his has with Joel and how that rivalry inspired him on his last hole of the day, to go for a birdie and tie Joel for second spot;

“It’s been good the last two days, definitely, I hit a lot of solid drives and good irons too.  I actually thought I left a few out there today,         it could have been a few more but three under is still a good score at Carnoustie. I was standing on the last three holes and I thought, ‘I need to make a birdie just to tie him, It was quite funny. We have a really good friendship and I think that’s good for our games also.”

Paul Casey had some fun with a stray dog on the course at Kingsbarns;

Paul Casey/getty images

Paul said of his encounter with the dog;

” The wee dog was roaming around this morning on the first tee when we teed off 10, so we got to the 12th fairway, the dog is running around, and to be honest it just looked like it was a little bit lost. So I went over and made friends with it on the back of the 12th green and next thing I know, the thing runs over and picks up my ball.  I had about 30 feet for eagle.  I was trying to get him to put it in the hole, but then he ran off with it up the hill toward the 13th tee. There was a moment when panic set in when I was wondering if I would have to play it where I found it!”

Another aside to a splendid day was from American Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 22 medals. Michael can add to his tally of records with his first record of his  new career sport of golf. He has entered the record books for making the longest putt ever televised, with a 159 foot putt at the 6th hole on the Kingsbarns course in this tournament.