Rather Late Weekend Wrap - Golf Week 22.02.2016

Euro Front:

Turning from the wildness of Africa’s southern tip, the tour moved to its renowned and quite lucrative stop, the Maybank Championships in lovely Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. The Royal Selangor GC is a layout which provides ample scoring, however there is always that one round that can trap you and will see your grip on the trophy sliding away. With fine scoring conditions over the week, this was exactly the case and that one round could in fact be a quality 70, or unfortunately in the case of Peter Uhlein a 75, but it is still good to see the tall American making his way back up leaderboards after a quiet few seasons. Another victim was Australian Nathan Holman, who saw his chances of a second season victory fall far short with two rounds in the 70’s over the weekend. To the winner, a fine four round display of 66, 69, 66, and 68, was what it took for Marcus Fraser to again feel the winners cheque in his hands. The Austrian who has had a tough time of the sport in recent years, and who admitted that his game was not up to scratch coming into the event, turned things around with his 15-under display. This is his 3rd tour victory, the last coming in 2010, indeed a ‘welcome back’ salute is in order.

State Side:

Over the enthusiastic pond of the Atlantic, the Riviera CC hosted the Northern Trust Open and an absolute cracker of a week. The event which drew numerous members of the world’s golfing elite, set up a certain expectation for a brilliant viewing experience and the crowds in attendance were not to be disappointed. The only shock to the schedule was seeing World No1 Speith fall out of contentions and even out of the cut line early on. A PGA worst score for the young American in his opening round, the 79 was followed by a more appeasing 68, but set him on the sidelines to watch the Sunday drama unfold. Another casualty, albeit far later in the event, McIlroy after an opening hole eagle, slipped down the leaderboard adding 7 bogeys and only 1 more birdie to his card. To the top and where the battle went right down to the final hole. Adam Scott wielding a far shorter flat stick, thank you USPGA and R&A for that, is enjoying the shift and sank a couple of outrageous putts to put his hand up as clubhouse leader, alongside Jason Kokrak. However, the pair could only watch on as eventual winner, Bubba Watson did what Bubba Watson does best, and that is snatch tournaments from the hands of others, obviously in the nicest sense of the phrase, except for Masters 2012 as I have not entirely come to terms with his win over Louis Oosthuizen in that playoff. That aside it took a superb birdie-birdie finish to ease himself one shot clear of Scott and Kokrak and the 15-under total meant another trophy would be added to his impressive collection. Bubba now needs only one more trophy for a double digit career haul.

Other events of note included:

• Haru Nomura (Japan) cruised to victory at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open. She fired a final round 65 to extend her lead over Women’s No1 Lydia Ko, beating the Australian in her own back yard by three strokes. This win is her first and the cheque the largest she has collected so far in her career. It also boosts her Rolex Ranking to 48.

• George Cotzee along with many of the Sunshine Tour’s overseas stars, tends to make a fine habit of pitching up at the right time and certainly this happened last week at the Dimension Data Pro-Am down in beautiful Fancourt. He pipped the player’s player of the year Dean Burmester on the final hole in superb fashion, carding a birdie-birdie-eagle combination to finish both the 3rd and 4th rounds. Nothing more to say except #impressed.

• Amateur golf is at a fine level in SA, with Ruan Conradie beating IGT Tour regular winner David Ashley in a playoff to win the Centurion Classic on 13-under. (IGT Gauteng)

To look forward to this week –

• ISPS Handa Perth International (European Tour)

• The Honda Classic (US PGA Tour)

• Eye of Africa PGA Championships (Sunshine Tour)

• Honda LPGA Thailand (LPGA)

• No Event (Web.com Tour)

• Centurion Classic (IGT Gauteng)