US PGA Tour's petulant reaction to Rory's move
FROM THE GOLF.COM WEBSITE
PRESS TENT: By Steve Beslow
When young European upstart Rory McIlroy announced his intention to drop his US PGA Tour card on Tuesday, the Tour had a difficult choice to make.
Either it could be understanding and try to (at least outwardly) embrace the desire of talents like McIlroy and Martin Kaymer to play closer to home more often, or it could take some action against the increase in players abandoning ship.
As CBSSports.com's Steve Elling describes, the US Tour went with the second option.
Rory McIlroy's decision to quit after one year as a member of the US PGA Tour will come with a few strings attached.
If not some barbed wire.
The 21-year-old, who has already cracked the top 10 in the world rankings and won as a rookie this year on the U.S. tour, surprised fans and followers on Monday when he announced he was dropping his PGA Tour card after one season because, in part, he was homesick and over-extended.
According to US PGA Tour rules, if McIlroy drops his membership he will be limited to 10 appearances at sanctioned or co-sanctioned official U.S. events per season over the next five years, which includes the four majors and three official World Golf Championships events, said Andy Pazder, the PGA Tour's senior vice president of tournament administration.
Other non-members in good standing, for lack of a better term, can play in 12 US PGA Tour events. McIlroy on Monday told reporters in the U.K. that he would cut back on his U.S. schedule after dropping his membership in 2011, but was apparently unaware that quitting carried certain restrictions.
"I will play 11 or 12 there next year and I will be happy with that," McIlroy said.
Not exactly.
"That would be erroneous," Pazder said. "We are in the process of sending a note to Rory and his management."
On the surface, this isn't that big of a deal--McIlroy had planned to play 11 or 12 tournaments, instead he'll play 10--but there's a little more to it than that:
World No. 1 Lee Westwood managed to slip through some cracks in 2010, and he's managed by the same company, ISM.
Westwood played in 11 US PGA Tour events even though he dropped his U.S. membership after 2008 and is still within the five-year window. Had Westwood not withdrawn from the US PGA Championship because of an injury, he would have played in 12 US PGA Tour-sanctioned events, two more than he should have been allowed to enter based on his maximum of 10.
Pazder said the tour decided a few years ago that in such situations, they would not prohibit a player from competing in a cross-sanctioned WGC event if he had reached 10 starts already.
"We were not going to sit there and say, 'You should not have been able to play Memphis, so now you can't play here,'" Pazder said of the WGC start Westwood made in midsummer at Firestone.
So, how did Westwood dodge the regs? "We did not closely monitor his play in US PGA Tour events," Pazder admitted.
The US PGA Tour has already been called out on its double standards once this season (with the Jim Furyk alarm clock debacle), but that's not what I see as the Tour's main motivation in this case. Rather than playing favourites, the Tour is coming off like a spurned lover, lashing out at the Euros who are starting to take their relationship with golf's biggest cash cow for granted.
I can appreciate that the US PGA Tour wants to show that it's not going to be bullied around by young, foreign players, but can't it think of a way that makes it look less small and petulant than enforcing a rule that doesn't really help anybody?Labels: PRO GOLF
Four Scots at Alps Tour Q School
Lee Harper and Scott Henry, both holders of Scottish national titles as amateurs, are two of four Scots in the field for the Alps Tour Qualifying School Stage 1 test on Thursday and Friday this week.
Former Scottish boys champion Harper from Musselburgh, now playing out of Archerfield Links, is competing at Metaponto.
Henry, the Scottish boys match-play champion in 2004 and 2005 before he won the Scottish men's open amateur stroke-play title in 2006, will be playing at Riva dei Tessali.
James McGhee (Turhouse) and Ben Irving from Kirkcudbright are also among the entries at Metaponto.
Apologies to Ben for doubting his Scottish ancestry in an earlier Scottishgolfview.com bulletin!
We'll have all the Scots' scores on display on Thursday and Friday evening.Labels: ALPS TOUR
BYRNE NOW RANKED NO. 18 IN WORLD
James Byrne rose one place in this week's updated RandA World Amateur Golf Rankings to No 18 following the decision of world No 4 Andrea Pavan (Italy) to turn professional since last week's rankings were published.
The Banchory student at Arizona State University is the highest ranked British or Irish player, one place ahead of England's Michael Nixon who won the British boys championship at Royal Aberdeen in 2006.
Scottish men's champion Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck) has fallen five places to No. 58 while Ross Kellett (Colville Park) has remained at No 90.
The fifth highest ranked Scot is "Anglo" Stuart Ballingall from Norwich who is a student at the University of Missouri. Stuart, who was a Scotland boy cap, has gone up nine places to No 175. He finished fourth behind England's Jack Hiluta in the recent Memphis Intercollegiate tournament at Colonial CC, Memphis in Tennessee.
Fraserburgh's Kris Nicol has come down 22 places to No. 176 and Scott Larkin (Royal Aberdeen) has suffered an even bigger demotion, dropping 56 places to No 344.
LEADING SCOTS IN THE RandA WORLD AMATEUR RANKINGS
18 James Byrne +1 (compared with last week).
58 Michael Stewart -5.
90 Ross Kellett no change.
175 Stuart Ballingall +9.
176 Kris Nicol -22.
312 Scott Crichton -52.
330 James White -52.
344 Scott Larkin -56.
370 Peter Latimer -64.
388 Brian Soutar +94.
Labels: WAGR
Greg Norman designing new course in Patagonia Andes
NEWS RELEASEGreg Norman Golf Course Design and El Desafio Mountain Resort have announced that major earthworks have begun on the Australian's first golf course in South America.
The 7,100yd 18-hole lay-out is set at Patagonia in the Andes mountain range, which provides stunning mountain views in every direction. The golf course will meander through two distinctly different landscapes, a dense pine forest and an open plateau, which will ensure a good variety of golf holes for the golfer to navigate.
About Greg Norman
Norman serves as Chairman and CEO of Great White Shark Enterprises, a multinational corporation that comprises several companies and divisions including Greg Norman Golf Course Design, Greg Norman Collection, Greg Norman Wine Estates, Greg Norman Australian Prime, Southern Cross Developments and Greg Norman Production Company.
Labels: WHERE TO GO
PHILIP McLEAN IN ACTION - Image by Cal Carson Golf Agency
PHILIP McLEAN WINS BY THREE SHOTS AT ELLON
AS DAVID LAW HAS BOGEY-BOGEY FINISH
By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Peterhead’s Scotland cap Philip McLean drove and putted well on his way to a six-birdie round of four-under-par 66 (35-31) which gave him a three-stroke victory from a field of 111 in today’s North-east Golfers’ Alliance competition at McDonald Golf Club, Ellon.
“I holed a 25-footer at the first and that got me going, even though I dropped a shot at the next,” said McLean who flies out with the SGU Elite Squad on Thursday or next week for a month’s practice and training at Abu Dhabi.
McLean went on to birdie the sixth from 25ft, the short seventh with an four-iron tee shot to 15ft and the eighth with an eight-iron approach nestling close to the flagstick.
The Buchan man’s accurate tee shots earned him birdie 3s at the 13th where he drove the green with a three-wood at this 254yd hole and the 14th (255yd) where he used a driver and two-putted from through the back.
Joint runners-up on 69 were Hazlehead’s David Law (36-33), winner of the Scottish boys’ and men’s titles last year, Fraserburgh’s Jordan Findlay (37-32), beaten finalist in this year’s Scottish amateur championship and, more recently, easy winner of the Scottish Alliance championship, and Inchmarlo staff pro Ryan Fitzpatrick (36-33).
Law, needing a birdie-birdie finish for a winning 65, instead bogeyed both the last two holes while Fitzpatrick birdied the tricky last hole which Findlay bogeyed.
Law and Findlay will be joining McLean on the SGU Elite Squad's one-month long trip to Abu Dhabi.
This week's "game of two halves" belonged to former Scottish senior match-play champion George Paterson whose round of 77 was made up of an outward half of 45 (+8 to par) and an inward half of 32 (-1 to par). George, just back from a world cruise, had a double bogey 6 at the second and a triple bogey 7 at the fifth before he found his "land legs" again. He birdied the 13th and 18th and bogeyed the 18th.
You could write a book about players who have come to grief at Ellon's 18th holes. The most notable "victim" today was Newburgh club pro Ian Bratton who was out in 38 (+1) and level par for holes 10 to 17 ... and then must have had a disastrous 18th because Ian had a No Return.
Leading scratch scores
Par 70. Yardage 5,942
66 P McLean (Peterhead) 35-31.
69 R Fitzpatrick (Inchmarlo) p 36-33, D Law (Hazlehead), J Findlay (Fraserburgh) 37-32.
70 C Nelson (MacKenzie Club)p 37-33.
72 P Lovie (P1 Corporate) p 35-37, J Hopwood (Skibo Castle) p 37-35.
73 C Buchanan (Newmachar), D Brown (Kemnay) p, R Lamb (Newmachar).
74 G J Mitchell (Braemar), G Munro (Fraserburgh), K Beveridge (Inchmarlo) p.
75 H Roulston (Stonehaven), S Elrick (Kemnay), S J Lawrie (Portlethen), D Fleming (Portlethen).
76 C Cassie (Nigg Bay), P McIntosh (Newburgh). W Shaw (Banchory), H Love (Oldmeldrum) p.
77 S Scott (Auchmill), C Carnegie (Kemnay), A K Pirie (Hazlehead), G H Paterson (Northern), M Jenkins (Duff House Royal).
78 J Nicolson (Auchmill), S Lawrie (Portlethen), C Stewart (Kippie Lodge) p.
79 P Morrison (Oldmeldrum), J M Hamilton (Murcar Links), L Fowler (Royal Aberdeen), J Roberts (Cruden Bay), D Leslie (Westhill).
80 J Borthwick (Craibstone), D Wilson (Duff House Royal), D Bingham (Newburgh).
81 I Macdonald (Dunecht House).
82 G Geddes (Auchmill), C Ord (Auchmill), R Brown (Inverurie), Samantha Leslie (Westhill), D Bisset (Banchory), R O’Donnell (Oldmeldrum).
83 P Cornfield (Auchmill), M Forster (Cruden Bay), D MacKay (Newmachar), M Fraser (Longside), D McKay (Caledonian), J Murrray (Banchory).
84 B Harper (Newburgh), M Merchant (Newmachar), C Farquhar (Auchmill), M K Smith (Inverurie).
85 S Kennedy (Craibstone), D Wood (Newburgh).
86 J Scott (Peterculter), D Randall (Banchory), M F R Rogers (Kemnay)
HANDICAP
Class 1- C Buchanan (Newmachar) (8) 65; S Elrick (Kemnay) (7) 68; G J Mitchell (Braemar) (5), H Roulston (Stonehaven) (6), B Shaw (Banchory) (7), R Lamb (Newmachar) (4) 69.
Class 2 – C Farquhar (Auchmill) (18) 66; M Smith (Inverurie) (17) 67; P Cornfield (Auchmill) (15), R Brown (Inverurie) ((14), M F R Rogers (Kemnay) (15) 71.
McDONALD ELLON PAR (70) SCORECARD:
OUT: 4-4-4-5-4-4-3-4-5--37. IN: 4-3-3-4-4-3-4-4-4--33.
PHILIP McLEAN 66
OUT: 3-5-4-5-4-3-2-3-5--35. IN: 4-3-3-3-3-3-4-4-4--31.
DAVID LAW 69
OUT: 3-4-5-4-4-4-4-4-4--36. IN: 4-3-2-4-3-3-4-5-5--33
RYAN FITZPATRICK 69
OUT: 4-4-3-6-4-4-3-3-5--36. IN: 4-4-4-3-4-3-4-4-3--33.
JORDAN FINDLAY 69
OUT: 5-4-4-4-5-4-2-4-5--37. IN: 4-3-3-4-4-2-3-4-5--32
COLIN NELSON 70
OUT: 4-5-4-3-4-3-4-5-5--37. IN: 3-4-4--4-3-3-4-4-4--33
SPEED IT UP AT EDZELL NEXT WEDNESDAY!
There will be about half-an-hour less daylight next Wednesday for the NE Alliance competition at Edzell. The last tee time will be noon.
Players, particularly those in the first hour or two off the first tee, are urged to speed up their pace of play to give those who are off at the end of the field a chance of finishing before darkness falls.
The last four or five groups today at Ellon finished in almost unplayable conditions because the pace of play in front of them had been so slow.
The NE Alliance does not have the manpower to employ a ranger to keep things moving. Competitors have to impose their own discipline.
Ten minutes to play a hole means you get round in 180 minutes or three hours.
Fifteen minutes a hole means you get round in 270 minutes or four and a half hours.
Somewhere in between is the desired pace of play for NE Alliance fixtures in the diminishing light of November-December.
Results published for first time on Scottishgolfview.com
TURRIFF (October 13)
SCRATCH
66 A Ross (Deeside).
68 J Findlay (Fraserburgh), K Nicol (Fraserburgh).
70 A K Pirie (Hazlehead).
71 D Brown (Kemnay), C Nelson (Mackenzie Club), R Fitzpatrick (Inchmarlo).
HANDICAP
Class 1 - C Buchanan (Newmachar) (8) 65; P Morrison (Oldmeldrum) (6) 70; K Minty (Turriff) (9) 71; L Morland (Kemnay) (4) 71; K Dalglish (Nigg Bay) (2) 72.
Class 2 - N Chisholm (Kemnay) (11), S Davidson (Northern) (13) 69; M Smith (Inverurie) (17) 70; M Booth (Kemnay) (15), M F Rogers (Kemnay) (13) 71.
BALLATER (October 20)
SCRATCH
67 D Brown (Kemnay), A K Pirie (Hazlehead).
68 S Larkin (Royal Aberdeen).
69 S Finnie (Caledonian), B Nicolson (Auchmill).
HANDICAP
Class 1 - D Mackay (Newmachar) (6) 65; D Wilson (Duff House Royal) (5), P Guthrie (Peterculter) (9) 68; F Bisset (Banchory) (2), Laura Murray (Alford) (3) 69.
Class 2 - M F Rogers (Kemnay) (15), M Booth (Kemnay) (15) 64; P Cornfield (Auchmill) (15) 65; C Ord (Auchmill) (10) 67; C Brindley (Banchory) (12), G Brown (Portlethen) 68.Labels: Alliance
Focus on European Tour rookies
Jamieson and Murray
NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE EUROPEAN TOUR
Scott Jamieson and George Murray are the focus in the first of our “Meet the Rookies” series featuring the Challenge Tour graduates who will make their debuts on The European Tour next season...
Scott Jamieson, pictured top right, and George Murray, pictured lower right, have long been friends, compatriots and room-mates, but now the Scottish duo can add grooms-to-be and – perhaps most importantly of all – European Tour Members to the growing list of shared attributes.
When the pair eventually call time on their respective careers and sit down to reminisce, they might just look back on 2010 as the year when it all began to happen for them.
As both are 27 it might be stretching a point to suggest that they have gone from boys to men in the space of the past 12 months, but on and off the course their careers and lives have changed almost beyond recognition.
Thanks chiefly to a runner-up finish at the money-spinning Kazakhstan Open and a victory on home soil at the Scottish Hydro Challenge respectively, Jamieson and Murray have both earned promotion to The European Tour for the first time.
The pair finished 14th and tenth in the final Challenge Tour Rankings with respective earnings of €67,413 and €92,339 – which is perhaps just as well, given that they both needed strong seasons in order to fund their impending matrimonials.
Murray will wed his fiancée Carrie at a ceremony in their native Scotland in February next year, shortly after the traditional stag do in Newcastle, which will be organised by his elder brother Walker.
By then, Murray – George, that is – is hoping to have the house in Dundee the couple recently bought together fully furnished, and is looking forward to finding space for one item in particular.
He explained: “I picked the keys up when I got back from Rome, but then I headed off to Egypt and then to the Grand Final, so I’ve hardly seen the place. The next few weeks and months will be spent looking for furniture and doing the place up. I’ll be doing most of the painting and decorating myself, and I’m quite looking forward to it – it’ll certainly make a nice change from playing golf!
"I’m not sure whether or not my fiancée knows it, but the signed Ryder Cup caps that Garry Houston got me from Celtic Manor are going to take pride of place in the new house, because Monty’s my absolute hero.”
Jamieson, on the other hand, still lives several thousand miles away from his fiancée Natalie, a charity worker in the States. The pair met during Jamieson’s four-year Business and Marketing scholarship at Augusta State University – where Oliver Wilson also studied – and the Scot popped the question on a recent trip to the States.
He said: “We went to Amelia Island, which is just north of Jacksonville. It’s a beautiful place. I didn’t get down on bended knee – we were lying on the beach underneath the stars, so I thought that was quite romantic enough! I was obviously delighted when she said ‘yes’, because she’s a great girl.
"She works for a charity which raises money for youngsters with life-threatening illnesses, so she’s a better person than me. That helps keeps things in perspective and means I tend not to moan about anything golf-related, because it’s pretty unimportant compared to what they have to go through.”
If there is a certain symmetry in their home lives the same could also be said for their fledgling careers, which have followed similar paths since the duo turned professional in 2006, almost immediately after representing their country alongside Richie Ramsay in the Eisenhower Trophy in South Africa.
Murray, who like many of his compatriots is coached by Ian Rae of the Scottish Golf Union, gained a head start on his friend when he made the cut at the 2006 Qualifying School – Final Stage to earn a category on the Challenge Tour in 2007. He finished in the top 40 of the Rankings in his debut season, before a loss of form and fitness – he suffered ongoing back problems – meant he slipped down to 56th and 55th in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
But after the pain subsided – thanks largely to the advice of Stuart Barton, the former British Lions and Scotland physiotherapist – and the penny dropped, he made his winning breakthrough this year.
Jamieson took a little longer to hit his stride in the professional ranks, as he returned to the States for a year and then played on the Satellite EuroPro Tour for two seasons, topping the Order of Merit in 2009 and earning enough money on his limited appearances on the Challenge Tour as a sponsors’ invitation to earn full playing privileges this year.
The pair can now look forward to traversing the globe together – starting in South Africa in December – as they bid to retain their European Tour cards.
Jamieson said: “It’s a big help that George got his card as well, so I won’t be on my own. In a way it’ll probably be quite similar to this year, with us rooming together and dining together, although obviously we’ll be playing for a lot more money so hopefully we’ll be staying in nicer hotels and eating in nicer restaurants! I might also have to buy a decent set of earplugs, because he snores like you wouldn’t believe!”
Perhaps the only other potential sources of friction are their differing football allegiances – Murray is an avid Celtic supporter, whilst Jamieson has a season ticket holder at Ibrox, home of their auld enemy Rangers – and the pros and cons of a college education in the States.
Murray left Alabama University after just three months – “I was homesick, and absolutely hated it” – whereas Jamieson has nothing but fond memories of the time he spent on the other side of the Atlantic.
He recalled: “It was a big change from the amateur scene back home in Scotland, because all of a sudden you’re playing on courses which are regularly over 7,000 yards, so instead of hitting wedges into the par fours, you’re now hitting five irons.
"At first, I didn’t think it would be possible to break par on courses like that but you have to adapt very soon, so it was a steep learning curve. It really improves your short game, because obviously you’re missing a lot more greens than you were before.
"Most of the guys out here are of fairly similar standards with their drivers and irons, but it’s often how you play on and around the greens that can mean the difference between success and failure.”
The pair are certain to sample success and failure next season, but at least they will have one another to experience them with.
Labels: EUROPEAN TOUR
POULTER, YANG, DALY IN HONG KONG OPEN FIELD
Ryder Cup star Ian Poulter will be joined at next week’s UBS Hong Kong Open by Major champions Y E Yang and John Daly.
World No. 15 Poulter harbours ambitions of scaling the World Rankings over the coming months, with the UBS Hong Kong Open among the events he is hoping can put him into contention to challenge his Ryder Cup team-mate Lee Westwood for the World No. 1 spot.
Poulter gained three points out of four at the Ryder Cup match at Celtic Manor last month.
Labels: PRO GOLF
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