Rather Late Weekend Wrap - Golf Week 25.01.2016

The last two weeks has been something awesome to watch, from a local and an international perspective. It certainly appears that golf’s youth are beginning to become the sport’s stalwart winners and our journeymen out there have really got to pick their socks up a bit.

Euro Front:

The last two weeks have seen the sub 30s doing well once more.

Taking a look at the previous euro stop, The Joburg Open, held on the two Kensington courses, the West and the East ‘Beast’ layouts. The week was characterised by some seriously good scoring, especially on the tougher East course. Amongst others it was the two young SA pros that stood out above the rest. The duo of Hadyn Porteous and Zander Lombard, who have played countless times against each other in amateur golf, took up the challenge this time on the pro side of the ranks. This time it was Porteous who put a notch against his name in their one v one tally, he took advantage of a few missed putts by Lombard coming down the stretch to ease his way down the par-5 18th with a 2-shot lead. A solid long iron into the heart of the green assured him of the victory, withstanding a 4-putt of course. As this did not happen he calmly rolled in his tap in birdie to take his maiden European Tour Title and assured a place on tour for two more seasons. Although Lombard did not lift the trophy, his final hole birdie, meant he saved a solo 2nd and R1 800 000 cheque, but even more importantly he still gets to tee it up with Porteous at this years Open Championship. Top stuff for the young gents!

Moving to this most recent week’s events, we got the chance to watch the world’s elite battle it out on the beautiful Abu Dhabi GC layout. The week was captioned by some impressive scoring, pristine putting surfaces, hand-cut fairways (well at least the 40 yards of fairway before the greens) and an interesting tussle between world no 1 Spieth and the rules marshals. An apparent breech of time taken to putt on the 17th hole of his first round saw head rules official John Paramore pull Spieth over for an unscrupulous chat, basically he was told he had breeched the slow play monitoring rule (of which had only come into play that very morning) and if it were to happen again that week, he would be fined 2 600 euro (which is equivalent to too many Rands). The conversation that happened as he teed off on his final hole, left him and his playing partners, Fowler and McIlroy, perplexed and thinking some ‘common sense’ should be used alongside the rules executions. I certainly agree, slow play should not be tolerated, however the group in front had only teed off when Spieth was taking a look at his putt and the group behind had not even reached the fairway. You make your own call, but on this one I am with the young American.

Anyway that should not take from the display of golfing talent that was in action over the week. Four of the world’s top 10 strutted their styles around the course and certainly entertained the crowds over the week, impressively each finished inside the top 10 and did their rankings no harm at all. Although they all played some impressive golf, it was the 6th ranked player who after a faltering opening round edged himself clear to claim the title. Rickie Fowler and his ‘intriguing’ high topped golf shoes strode ahead of his peers on the final day, putting together a 69, and although not the best of the four on the day, it was exactly what he needed to do. The 69 won him his 2nd Euro title and may ease him into the 4th spot in the world rankings, dependent of course on what takes place across the pond.

State Side:

Looking back two weeks, the PGA Tour was in serene Hawaii for the Sony Open, hosted on the Waialae Country Club. A par 70, that certainly did not disappoint those who enjoy a bit of low scoring. The week appeared to have been made for a cementing of the return of Brandt Snedeker, who after a lackluster 2014, sought the help of coach Butch Harmon. The change up certainly worked and a win last year was followed up this year with a tie 1st in the Franklin Templeton Shoot Out in December 2015. Unfortunately for Snedeker quite far back in the pack lurked an Argentinian with other ideas. Fabian Gomez blasted his way through the field in the final round, shooting a 62 (which included a birdie-birdie finish), he positioned himself in a playoff with Snedeker and eventually won on the 74th hole of the week. The win is his 2nd on tour and is a great way to start his 2016.

The CareerBuilder Challenge (in partnership with the Clinton Foundation) was most definitely an apt name for the event and not for whom you would normally think was in need of a career build (well that would have been a few seasons ago). Jason Dufner is the man I am talking about, the one-time major winner (2013 PGA Championships) has had an indifferent last two seasons notching only 6 top tens over that period and very winless in both. He has finished in the top 100 of the FedEx Cup since 2009, however he certainly hasn’t matched the pedigree he has shown during that time. Thus his performance this week aligned itself perfectly with the event’s cause and after an opening 64 he did not look back, until David Lingmerth begun hovering over his shoulder. A final round 65 by the swede placed himself alongside Dufner in another 2016 Playoff. Thankfully for the American the return story was not over there and 2 holes later he was again a winner. Welcome back!

Other events of note included:

• Wingate Park CC Open, won by Amateur Estiaan Conradie (RSA) with a fine 14 under (IGT Gauteng)

To look forward to this week –

• Commercial Bank Qatar Masters (European Tour)

• Farmers Insurance Open (US PGA Tour)

• Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic (LPGA)

• Killarney Open (IGT Gauteng)