Tommy Fleetwood’s Abu Dhabi win and why your first golf coach is like your first love January 23, 2017 I always think that your first golf coach is a little like your first love; they know about your game and how you have developed better than anyone else. After his first win for three and a half years, Tommy Fleetwood may agree with that sentiment. His success at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on [...]
Golf’s world top 10 has never been as strong as it is now – and it makes for a fascinating season January 16, 2017 When Graeme Storm stepped off the last green at Vilamoura in October, having just missed the par putt he needed to retain his European Tour card, his world must have been shattered. Storm had been among a number of players still vying to make the top 111 on the order of merit – the cut-off [...]
Justin Thomas survived extraordinary finish to beat Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth shows promising signs, Rory McIlroy to start year in unusual circumstances, and why Jim Furyk can be a great captain January 9, 2017 He won well in the end but it took an extraordinary finish before Justin Thomas clinched his second PGA Tour title already this season at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii on Sunday. Thomas led by two overnight and stretched his advantage over the red-hot Hideki Matsuyama to five shots, only to see that gap [...]
Why Henrik Stenson and the Open made my golfing year: Sam Torrance’s 2016 review December 19, 2016 Player of the year At 40, Henrik Stenson had almost reached that stage of being the best player around without a Major when the Swede went and banished that tag by winning the Open at Royal Troon in such style. Rory McIlroy deserves a mention for his PGA Tour Championship-FedEx Cup double, but Stenson, who [...]
Sam Brazel’s surprise win in Hong Kong is a heart-warming tale but defeat will hurt for Rafa Cabrera Bello December 12, 2016 For an illustration of the vagaries of golf you need look no further than the Hong Kong Open, where unheralded Australian Sam Brazel saw off some illustrious rivals to land the biggest win of his career on Sunday. Brazel, a 37-year-old journeyman who started the week ranked 480th in the world and had never finished [...]
Tiger Woods may not have won but he couldn’t have wished for much more on his long-awaited comeback December 5, 2016 I saw nothing but positives in Tiger Woods’s comeback performance at the Hero World Challenge, which finished on Sunday – his first competitive outing for 15 injury-riddled months. The 14-time Major winner led the field in birdies, making 24 across the 72 holes in the Bahamas. That is hugely encouraging and at this stage you [...]
Team spirit proves a winner for great Danes Thorbjorn Olesen and Soren Kjeldsen at World Cup of Golf, and will Tiger Woods be “spectacular” on his comeback? November 28, 2016 The biggest prizes might have been handed out for another year but there is still lots for golf fans to get excited about, not least a magnificent win for Denmark at the weekend and the return of Tiger Woods. There was great entertainment on offer in Melbourne, where Thorbjorn Olesen and Soren Kjeldsen earned the [...]
Henrik Stenson’s unforgettable Open triumph makes his vintage 2016 even better than his 2013 double double November 21, 2016 In Sun City the previous week a weary Henrik Stenson threatened to win the Nedbank Golf Challenge but fell short, and the Swede showed his class without quite firing on all cylinders again in Dubai at the weekend. A share of ninth place at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship was sufficient, however, to hold [...]
Thorbjorn Olesen would have taken massive inspiration from his time spent driving Thomas Bjorn’s buggy at the Ryder Cup November 7, 2016 I'm a big fan of Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen and I know he was hugely inspired by what he witnessed at the Ryder Cup in Hazeltine where he was vice-captain and fellow countryman Thomas Bjorn’s on-course buggy driver. The 26-year-old was invited to the United States by Bjorn in a bid to expose him to a [...]
A Major title is obvious next step for Hideki Matsuyama, the brightest Asian prospect in the men’s game October 31, 2016 The golfing world has been talking about Hideki Matsuyama for a few years now and this week in Shanghai he took another big step towards fulfilling the promise he has displayed since he was a teenager. Matsuyama claimed the most significant victory yet of his career at the HSBC-Champions on Sunday, pulling clear of a [...]
