European Tour - Volvo China Open

We're moving to Tianjin in China this week for the Volvo China Open where Colsaerts finally got his maiden ET victory in 2011. It seems to be a good place for recording your first ET win, with Stephen Dodd, Jeev Milkha Singh and Damien McGrane also picking here their first ET victories, although looking at what happened with the carreers of those three after that I'm not quite sure if winning here is a good omen or not (remember also what happened to Colsaerts last year soon after his win)... Anyway, I'd like to think Colsaerts may be in a different league then those three and he seems to be determined enough to defend his title starting this morning with an eagle and birdie in his first three holes. Will it be another new winner this year then, Gary Boyd maybe...? Or perhaps Matthew Baldwin who is the rather unexpected leader at the moment after a great 7-under par round earlier on. That would be a bald win indeed...! We shall see...

Meanwhile, since we're in Asia, we can keep here an eye also on the adventures of Lee Westwood OBE at the Indonesian Masters, an event which is fair to say, he almost single-handedly put on the map last year when he won it helping him to recapture the #1 spot in the rankings... There could be no such joy for him this time around, but another nice little win won't do him (and the event itself) any harm at all. Lee just started his round with birdie-birdie-birdie.......

any idea why Lee is there. is it one of his sponsors or are there a few of the chubster's stable there?

Not sure exactly what his reason is, but imagine it's the same one that took him there last year. Some combo of ISM and sponsor commitments no doubt.

Annoying that the Sky China coverage seems to be at least an hour behind. May as well just check the website for scores. Looks an interesting course though, very bleak, not what I was expecting at all.

This tournament will break the record for the youngest player ever to compete on the European tour. 13 year 173 day old Guan Tianlang.

Well, I see that the press portrays Guan as a 13 year old, but if you believe his ET profile, he's actually only 12 years old (25/10/1999)... Either way, it's pretty crazy... I see he's got a birdie and pared a 572 yard par 5 hole... sharing the same score (+5) with young/old Tom Lewis

Nobody seems to threaten the earlier leaders, but Colsaerts and Olesen are well placed at -4 with some holes to go still...

Lee already in the lead in Indonesia at 6-under after 11 holes...

I can tell already that this weeks betting will lead to nothing but frustration courtesy of Danny Willett... birdied none of the par 5s today and average 318 yards from the tee. Luiten birdied all 4, Casey, Noren, Gonnet, Grace, Olesen and Colsearts all managed -2 or better.

Extraordinary stuff from Casey:
After three par 5's he's clocked up two 7's and a TEN! godonly knows what he'll do on the 6th, site of his only Thursday bogey. Not bad on the 3's and 4's.

Memo to Paul:
Wouldn't you rather be in San Antonio?

Good round by Paul Lawrie.

Howler just above the cut with 10 pars on the trot.....just waiting for the double bogey at the last. He needs to up his game now that he has another mouth to feed.

And yesterday I was annoyed that I left Casey out of my fantasy team... Not sure what to make of his form and state of mind these days... there are some very rough winds over there by the looks of things, but as they say, it's been the same for all of them. He played alongside Colsaerts and look at him, leading now at 9 under par after a round of 67 today. Poulter is among 20 players at 1-under who are shaking in their boots as they're struggling to find a late birdie or two to push them above the cut line...
The Italians though have been ploughing through the wind and through the field led by Franny who's having a birdie fest for the last couple of hours. Ooops, Poults drops another shot and would need to pick now two shots in the last 4 holes...

Meanwhile, Lee's been marching on without a bother, 11-under after 2 rounds and 4 shots ahead of the competition... Playing for two days alongside a player of Lee's stature after only a handfull of tournaments as a pro, seems to have been a step too far for the Asian Tour revelation David Lipsky who misses the cut, mirrorring the bad week that his fellow Korean Americans have been experiencing back in TX USA...

14 pars on the trot for Howler now, I canny stand the tension, bound to end in tears.

Willett still only -1 through the par 5s. Most above him are -4 or 5, Boyd is -6 through those 8 holes.

Super birdie-birdie finish from Poults, showing as usual plenty of guts, and he should be safe at 2-under. And after he pared also the last par 5 available, Howler finally succombs to the pressure and bogeys the 16th (7th)... he needs some quick advise now from Poults as to how to get it back on track...

Yesterday I only meant it ~50% when I said that maybe will be Gary Boyd's turn for a first win here, now I'm shifting towards 75%... But His Grace is back again in contention and may have something to say about it over the weekend...

Super round (up to 9th) for Oliver Wilson, as welcome as Ross Fisher's loss of form is disappointing.
Poor week for Stephen Gallacher, but goldwolf's protege Gary Boyd is looking good!

Garrido's mood swings continue... finished 9th in Morocco, MC in Sicily, finished with rounds of 81-89 last week (13 bogeys or worse in the last 13 holes there), and now T5 in China after two excellent 67-69 rounds...

Scores of 66, 65 and 64 seem to be almost the order of the day in the 3rd round in China. No wind there today and the guys have been tearing that course apart, with Noren topping the lot with a blistering 63 (8 birdies in his last 11 holes!).

His Grace has indeed quite a lot to say about who's in charge there this week leading by 2 right now and looking very impressive... But Colsaerts' defense looks just as impressive so far, making some of those par 4s feel like long par 3s... Too many of them to mention with great rounds today, but the top of the LB looks very strong and should be a great final round tomorrow if the weather stays ok.

Otherwise, Lee is leading by 4 shots in Indonesia and by 3 shots in Japan...!
How does he do that?!

Wasted week for Poulter, as well as Casey, and very disappointing Round 3 for their Valhalla teammate Wilson. (In contrast to their fellow European Tour player, but adversary in Kentucky, Curtis!)

Willett still -1 through 12 par 5s. Grace and Colsaerts -8 through those holes.

I think 18 of the players started this tournament inside the top 100 of the OWGR's, is that not more than is normal for a European tour event?

Ladbrokes has Westwood at a 1/25 favorite. Risk 25 to net 1?

yes he is the class of the field and he has a 4 shot lead. But dang 1/25?

KT Kim is in 6 way tie for third going into last round. That is enough to tread water in the OWGR for him.

Ryo Ishikawa improved to T22

Maybe the bookies got word that the event in Indonesia will be cut down to 54 holes... they only completed around ~30% of the 3rd round today.

KTK is in a 5-way T3 and should climb 3-4 places if it stays as it is...

kwinigolfer wrote:Wasted week for Poulter, as well as Casey...

Probably not wasted at all as far as they're concerned... But on the golf course they're probably getting what they deserve... To me their Asian trips look more like business trips in the very basic sense of the word... Don't want to get into politics here, but Casey didn't seem to be bothered at all and quite enjoying being the front publicity figure for the Bahrain Invitational last week despite of what's been happening over there outside the royal enclosures...

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

...and Poulter has made no secret over the last week or so on twitter that he is going to use his trip to promote his label in Asia, plus IJPDesign was named official supplier for the Ballantine's event in Korea, etc...

If any sort of golfing success would come out of those trips as well, that would be more like a bonus...

But there'll be tears from both if they miss out on the Ryder Cup.
Casey in particular seems to have lost the plot as far as any golf ambitions are concerned.

Objectively, The bad finishes themselves don't hurt their Ryder Cup chances. A point is a point is a point as the points are not averaged.

Now Subjectively, is Ollie making a mental note of the Casey's Missed Cut and the Poulter 40th something finish in a weak field event?

Quite possibly.

Somewhat ironic that both, the captain and vice-captain of the previous RC team, Monty &Bjorn, who controversially overlooked Casey in Wales two years ago, quite happilly have joined Casey in the Bahrain exhibition...

A fine display by Branden Grace all week and 3 wins now in his rookie season, does anyone know if that's been done before?

Not sure if that was done before, would have to check it, but a very impressive win again from him. Colsaerts couldn't quite build up a proper charge today, but a great runner up position nevertheless... should certainly give him a boost not only in the owgr rankings but also in the RC tables...

Much better day today for the bigger 'stars' of this event, Hanson, Poulter and Paul Lawrie, but overall they'll be disappointed with their final results...

Meanwhile Lee is giving himself some unnecessary palpitations with two holes to go. He was 8 shots ahead at some point today but now that's down to only 2-shots. Should still be ok though, as all the challengers have completed their rounds, so it's up to him not to give anymore shots away in those last two holes...

Finish in Indoenesia... Lee won the event by 2 shots in the end defending his title. There will be no defence of the Ballantine's event in Korea though...

Hanson really had it going at one stage today, after 12 holes he was 8 under par, but he rather hit the buffers.
Good finish from Fran Molinari but not so good for his compatriots.
And Noren out of hibernation at last!

Westwood sacrifices Ballantines for Quail Hollow the following week - and I see he's plans to skip Memphis this year and have an early hol between Wentworth and Olympic Club.

princedracula wrote:Not sure if that was done before, would have to check it, but a very impressive win again from him. Colsaerts couldn't quite build up a proper charge today, but a great runner up position nevertheless... should certainly give him a boost not only in the owgr rankings but also in the RC tables...

Three wins in a rookie season hasn't been done even now, Grace had a tour card in 2009 but lost it again. Not sure if anyone has ever one three times out of Q-school though, still a great achievement.

Good point Ned, keep forgeting that Grace has been around before... Actually had a look at his results in 2009 and perhaps there was a hint in there about his performance this week... his best finish on the main ET outside South Africa in 2009 was a T16 at the Volvo China Open!

Didn't he also have a very good start to an Open Championship a few years ago?
Maybe another sign!

kwinigolfer wrote:Westwood sacrifices Ballantines for Quail Hollow the following week

I thought that it was an unwritten rule that you always defended your tournament?

I'm never wrong wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Westwood sacrifices Ballantines for Quail Hollow the following week

I thought that it was an unwritten rule that you always defended your tournament?

Only when it's an obscure event on a third tier tour that just happens to be paying you enormous appearance money, apparently....

To be fair, I recall the seemingly odd decision to play Ballantine's last year was justified as Westwood having a gap in his schedule to fill. This year, he has full status on PGA Tour and wants to have another crack at the Players'. Wells Fargo / Quail Hollow is probably better preparation for that, and he does also need to fulfill his US playing commitments for the whole year.

Still, I'd be disappointed at LW's absence if I was involved in sponsoring or organising the event in Korea. Or spectating, come to think of it.

The inevitable just happened... last year's rather misterious Shanghai Masters has become now an official ET event: BMW Masters with a purse of $7million!! Sounds BIG...

I see an interesting situation developing for the last three months in the year... PGAT trying to lift the stature of their Fall Series events on one side (including WGC HSBC), then on the other side you'll have two megabucks tourneys in China in that period, plus a few other pretty strong Asian tournaments and plus a revival of the Aussie golf events... It'll be very interesting to see where the best golfers in the world (and I'm thinking here more about the US best players) will go in that period in the years to come... I'm betting on the Australasia right now, but you never know....

Just saw that myself.

The European Tour is starting to look like a (much) healthier version of the LPGA Tour, with limited field, big-money events in far flung reaches of the world, with minimum new investment in the venues, audiences and players that are its core.

Wonder what the 78 players from the European Tour who will be excluded from this high-priced money grab feel about it?

I earnestly hope that the PGA Tour, far from perfect itself, keeps its values and supports its "Fall" tournaments.

Pathetic, no better than Chevron or NEDBank.

Do you think this is the start (or even the middle) of a push to buy / manufacture a major championship in China / Far East?

Don't know about a Major, but I DO see a trend to a two or three level sport to a greater degree than we've seen the past 20 or 30 years.

There's little or no allegiance to any Tour by the superstars of the game or by the super-agents of the game.

More than one Monday morning media column lamented lack of appearance money on the PGA Tour following a weekend when Tour members vamoosed to China and Indonesia, for instance, leaving a long-term sponsor and a much longer-term tournament with a perfectly crappy field.

The cow-towing of the PGA Tour to Woods and Mickelson in concluding the season with a FedEx flourish so they could earn Asia appearance fees has backfired with Asia offering lucrative largesse at any time of year.

And the umbrella of the European Tour doesn't lend any veneer of respectability when most of the European rank-and-file are excluded from the big money events.

Time for the E.T. and PGA Tour to regroup and an Asian Tour to develop on its own without player subsidy from elsewhere.

It's impossible to set aside a "control" group in these situations, but the Fed Ex series has worked from my observation. In an otherwise dead zone for golf in the states, they have been able to attract and keep top players during college and professional football season.

Is this a good investment for Fed Ex? Golf, like so many professional sport promotions or advertising has a distinct advantage over other channels: the decision makers REALLY like the athletes, the venues and special treatment they receive. When the top execs at Fed Ex (or whatever other major sponsor) get to take themselves and their best clients to the pro-ams, get the best playing partners, get 18th hole skyboxes ... well, the scrutiny of the "investment" is often overlooked.

There's a lesson there.

Sr,
I certainly agree with that.
My point was intended to be that anyone wanting to go to Asia to fill their pockets in the autumn was very welcome to do so, from the Tour's point of view, all good and fine!
But in reality "Asia" is trying to cannibalize other Tours by offering enticing purses and/or appearance money almost throughout the year, with the apparent complicity of the PGA and European Tours.
Eventually, that will undermine those Tours; the E.T. has chosen to secede this time of year to "Asia" (wonder what "appearance money" O'Grady takes to the bank?), but events like the Texas Open could certainly do with some of the PGA Tour members who sought fit to take the easy money in this 3-week period.

FedEx is fine and I'm glad that the inclusion of the Fall Series in the FedEx season is a (pretty much) done deal.

Kwin - Good points. The "world tour" will certainly come to into some shape (jumbled as it may be) as these appearance fees escalate.