Mavs Weekly European & Challenge tour update - UBS Hong Kong Open

Firstly congratulations to this week’s winners Hennie Otto in the SA Open another home grown winner taking the title and the spoils that go with it, 2year exemption to ET, Trophy, Winners cheque, oh and the prestige of having his own parking space at every subsequent SA Open he plays.

Then there was the USA win in the Omega Mission Hills Golf World Cup. Kuchar and Woodland moved through the pack nicely. They hit some superb shots in the foursomes and never did anything really to let each other down. Not surprised that Ireland or should that have been Northern Ireland not winning despite their pre tourney favouritism; the McIlroy putting issue again raising its head, he missed at my count several 8-15footers by a clear 4 inches of misread.

So we now head towards the final event of the ET season the RTD is almost travelled as we now enter the penultimate event of the season. If McIlroy is to stand a chance of winning the RTD crown he must win at Fanling this week or he won’t be able to accumulate enough money to catch Luke Donald.

So to this week’s event then:

UBS Hong Kong Open at the Hong Kong Golf Club Fanling.

1.Defending champion Ian Poulter will be relishing his return to a course where he shot a 2nd round 60 on his way to a 1shot victory that week over fellow Englishman Simon Dyson and Matteo Manassero

2.Ryder Cup captains past and Present Monty and Olly in the field this week as is the ever changing swing of Harrington wonder if he’s pronating or supernating this week.... Or if he has another trick up his sleeve

3.A big week for Mizuno this week in Hong Kong, no not the club manufacturer but in fact 17year Hong Kong resident Shinichi Mizuno will be in the field this week after winning this year’s Hong Kong Amateur title.

4.Big names in the field this week arguably the marquee group will be Poulter, McIlroy & Ed Molinari. Yet again John Daly appears like a bad dose with yet another invite, wonder how long till he spits the dummy out this week. Justin Rose, YE Yang and MAJ all tee it up together for the first 2 days then there’s the chalk and cheese of Quiros bombing it long and Manassero playing it straight and steady playing together along with Rikard Karlberg

5.Last chance for those languishing to secure tour cards this week even worse for some on the bubble that chose to sit this one out. Olly Wilson been saying he fancies it this week to retain his card, though I fear this is one event to far for my man Matt Haines, looks like back to Q School but a good learning experience this year for him.

Nothing else really to add as we have Q School action next week which will hot things up and at least come Sunday we’ll know who the 60 guys are that make it to the big final of the RTD.

Foot Note
Nick Dougherty (or however he spells it) will be feeling ashamed, his lovely DiDo presenting the other day had the job of showing the guys who were not yet secure on the money list and one of the telecasters popped Nick Do’s money this year on the board a princely sum of just 8k in Euros for this year, she looked suitably embarrassed at her mans efforts.

Mav,
What is the magic number of E.T. moneylist survivors? I had read somewhere that it might be as high as 118 because three above that number are not qualified.

Insult to injury for Harrington as Daly has an arguably more prestigious tee-time grouping.

Cheers, Mav.
Poults is not alone with that super low score, there's a bit of a history of low scoring on this course in HK and I've a feeling someone would get close to breaking 60 this week if conditions are good. Rory never won this but did well every time over the last 3 years he played there. In fact he is 50-under par over the 12 rounds played there in the last 3 years!!!! Hard to keep him out of the frame this week. Hoping also for an improvement in form from Matteo, as he did brilliantly here last year... And hope the same for Poults, he needs now to start scoring owgr points in stroke play events (not enough of them available in match play tournaments to keep one afloat forever)...

Hi Kwini,

118 was the word going round on the SA Open coverage last week. A check of the R2D standings shows Ryan Moore (!) and Freddie Jac appearing there despite single figure appearances, those two will definitely get thrown out. I assume the third extra spot is at the expense of Tom Lewis, although I thought guys in his position weren't required to play the full 11/13/whatever it is this year.
Still find it pretty shoddy that the regular tour season closes with a week where half the guys with tour cards can't get in the field. People like Phil Price, Steve O'Hara, Lloyd Saltman, Matt Haines etc surely deserve the chance to fight for their tour lives, if others around them are getting the same opportunity, otherwise the idea of a "tour card" becomes worthless. Nor is it the first time this has happened, I've moaned in the past about Julien Guerrier hitting a good spurt of late summer form after coming through Q-school, then barely getting a start in the final few months of the year and falling out of the exempt spots; and Mark Haastrup (who seems to have fallen off the face of the earth) only just held on to his card in the final place after getting not a single start for the last month or two. It makes Q-school pretty worthless if you need to have sewn your card up by mid-September to avoid a return visit, while the guys with better exemptions carry on earning for another 10 tournaments.

On a less grumpy note... PGA Q-school is paralleled this week by the Sunshine Tour one, 200+ mostly Saffa golfers fighting it out for 30 spots to play in highlights like the Zimbabwe Open. Some European presence there, including Mary's son, hope for some updates through the week from there.

Thanks Ned.
E.T. access to players with marginal status seems to be an annual gripe - same to a lesser extent on the PGA Tour. Both could be addressed quite easily but seemingly no will to level the playing field - Oliver Wilson, for instance, with a huge advantage over Matt Haines. Could say he's earned it I suppose.

Big Big week for Irishmen Maybin(120th) and McGrane(114th) and Lawrie (60th). McGrane should be safe if he makes the cut, Maybin needs prob a Top 20..............................Top 30 should do Lawrie............................

Not good for McGrane (77), but Maybin and Lawrie have passed their first test.

Don't you love European Tour events when the best guys are leading the way? Not so good for Poulter and Rose who would clearly prefer a foursomes format, but great to see Rory and the Spanish Armada close to the lead.

Yep, I'd be really worried for McGrane as this is not really the sort of course he would like. Scoring hasn't been as easy as in previous years, but great to see Rory still shining and playing so well. Together with Quiros, Horsey and Maybin they all had bogey free rounds. But still no sparks from Matteo or Padraig... From a local point of view, young Mizuno has been outshined today by the other exciting 17-year old HK prospect, Jason Hak...

Interesting to see how Rory goes from here. I think it's fair comment that closing out tournaments is an issue for him and 3 tournament wins is a poor return for him since he started out...............................

From a neutral point of view, having Rory win would make next week more interesting..........................

Worried for McGrane. Doubt that he has a 65 or 66 in him......................

I see Howler had a 69 with a triple bogey seven.
One day soon he will get it all together again!

Hadn't realised that James Byrne was playing in the New Zealand Open. 78 in his first round but off to a good (-2) start in Round 2.
And Burnley's Leighton James is playing also. Would've thought he'd be on the Senior Tour by now?

Hole-in-one for Maybin, followed up on the following hole by a double-bogey. Jekyll and Hyde.

So anybody know if Marc Warren is safe? Looks like he could well be along with McGrane, as from what I can see from below 118 only Maybin and Horne have made the cut?

I would agree with that, I'm not fully up to speed with this so I stand to be corrected, but the way I see it right now, Horne, Maybin and Dodd are the only ones from outside top 118 who still have a realistic chance to make it through. If all of them succeed, it means they'll push out Khan, Tullo and Price, so Warren, McGrane and even Brier should be ok. Philip Price's fate looks to be really in the hands of his fellow Welshman Stephen Dodd at the moment...

Hmm that's a shame. I was hoping Warren would drop out.

as far as i know... and i stand corrected... if Khan finished outside the cut line line then it is only down to 117 that is safe as he has a exemption due to his wenthworth win.

Think you could be right hend.

Don't think Khan's exemption has anything to do with it; surely Jacobson, Lewis and Moore are the golfers shifting the plimsoll line from 115 to 118?

Sorry to see Dougherty miss out by one stroke once again, what a miserable year for him, Oliver Wilson too.
Matteo must be looking for a drawing board to go back to?

No one bar Maybin making a push to get into the Top 118...............

Anyone know if Dougherty has any exemptions for next year, bar accompanying Di to the tournaments!

kwinigolfer wrote:Don't think Khan's exemption has anything to do with it; surely Jacobson, Lewis and Moore are the golfers shifting the plimsoll line from 115 to 118?

Sorry to see Dougherty miss out by one stroke once again, what a miserable year for him, Oliver Wilson too.
Matteo must be looking for a drawing board to go back to?

kwini, I agree, I don't think Khan's exemption has anything to do with that. And I believe it's Freddy, Moore and Kruger (not Lewis) who are shifting that cutline by 3...

As for Matteo, I'm still questioning the whole team around him and the advice he's been getting... All that stuff with beefing him up and fiddling with the swing to gain extra legth so soon in his life/carreer was a mistake. Really hope he/they can find a way to get him back on track, but I'm getting a bit woried...

John,
Dougherty is 50th on the career money list. Probably the first time anyone under 30 has had to use that exemption!

Nice one Nick!! So he won't have to spend 2012 being a "kept man"!!

The really silly thing about this is that the Tour doesn't seem to stipulate EXACTLY what the threshold is, 115, 116, 117, 118 or something completely different. I suppose the guys themselves know but it would certainly add to the intrigue if they'd publicise better.

John,
A bit premature to say that if 2012 doesn't register an improvement over 2011 . . . . . ! Harrington went backwards after I crashed last night. He'll be sitting next week out barring a miracle from Pete Cowen.

ET Q School started today in Spain - details on www.europeantour.com Scores only being posted as rounds end so not much chance of seeing who is doing what at the moment.

Interesting to see Peter Uiliem playing, did he fail to qualify in the USA or is he just keeping his options open?

Doon,

from memory, Uihlein committed himself to both Q-schools, on the basis that even if he got a card he wouldn't take it up but would finish his last year in college instead, basically just using the tournaments as practice. Think he dropped out at the second stage Stateside, looking good to make the final stage in Europe though.

Uihlein played terrible in Q-School here . . . . . .

Stephen Dodd helping out Phillip Price it seems, but Maybin not helping himself at all. Quiros and Hanson both need a top result so good to see them in the Hong Kong lead.
Peter Lawrie probably assured of a Dubai tee-time?

Both NI guys looked switched off today... Rory is totally drained and blaming now quite openly and loudly his&Chubby's crazy 12 week round-the-world golfing/circus/money making experience...

Peter L. should be ok really... I've seen some last round crashes from him in the past, but even if that happens he should still get enough to move up a couple of places and from behind looks like only Kjeldsen and Marcus Fraser are likely to threaten the last available positions...

Good to see Kjeldsen showing some form lately. That's two weeks in a row.

What a way to finish!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's more like it Rory.................faultless today..............

The E.T. site seems to confirm that McGrane, Horne, Maybin and Price all kept their cards, Mark Tullo missing out.
Lawrie safe, Gallacher just short.
Would love to see a McIlroy, Westwood double.

Did you see that there was only 42 euros between Warren and McGrain and about 400 euros to the 116 spot.
Squeeky bum times.

Of course, we all got carried away and missed the real story of the week here...
John Daly put together four decent rounds and finished T21, earning €21,631... the hard way!!!

princedracula wrote:Of course, we all got carried away and missed the real story of the week here...
John Daly put together four decent rounds and finished T21, earning €21,631... the hard way!!!

I bet he's off to Macao, wasting them on the casino...

The European Tour is "co-sanctioning" the Perth International Golf Championship next October, in Australia. Prize fund: $2M.
New event, but not sure what disappears to make way for it?

The"official" 606v2 twitter account mentioned this today asking if it was perth in scotland or it couldn't possbly be an ET event.

Davie wrote:The"official" 606v2 twitter account mentioned this today asking if it was perth in scotland or it couldn't possbly be an ET event.

Davie wrote:The"official" 606v2 twitter account mentioned this today asking if it was perth in scotland or it couldn't possbly be an ET event.

Do you actually think that the response was serious.

For goodness sake, why dont you act your age. I am getting fed up with your digs.

Whether it's serious or not, in MY opinion it was a pretty inane comment to make.

Are you going to start censoring opinions now?

Davie, Sometimes one feels twitter is aptly named.
Regardless of country, the P.I.G. Championship would be an unfortunate acronym.