MADRID MASTERS CANCELLED BECAUSE OF SPANISH BANK WOES

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE

This year’s Madrid Masters has been cancelled because of the financial crisis and the woes of Bankia, the Spanish lender that is its main sponsor.

“The Madrid Masters will be postponed until 2013 because of the difficult economic situation,” the Spanish golf federation (RFEG) said on Tuesday.

Bankia, which sponsors the European Tour event, won last year by England’s Lee Slattery, required a state rescue worth €23.5 billion in May. The rescue prompted Spain to request European aid for its banks and a Spanish court this week opened a fraud case against former Bankia executives.

The tournament had been due to take place from Sept 20-23.

Meanwhile Paul Casey has vowed to go on fighting after one of the worst experiences of his golfing life last week.

The former world No 3, still to rediscover form more than six months after dislocating his shoulder snowboarding, slumped to back-to-back rounds of 80 for the first time in his career at the French Open and finished joint last. 

“That course beat me up,” Casey admitted at Castle Stuart near Inverness, where the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open starts 5. “The shoulder’s absolutely fine and I feel good physically and mentally, but I just wasn’t hitting it the way I wanted to.
“In a way, though, this is an opportunity. For a long time I was just on autopilot, but now I’m doing a lot of learning about my swing.
“I’m also being incredibly thorough and not leaving any stone unturned. I’m addressing the mental side, the nutritional side, everything I do on and off the course.
“Yes, the shoulder has damaged my golf, but I’m addressing all these other points now because I want to get to a whole new level.”
Casey, now down at 72nd in the rankings, spent two months out following his accident in Colorado on Christmas Eve and decided to take more time off last month even though it meant missing the US Open.
The Ryder Cup star will be at Royal Lytham for the Open next week, however, and having already made a trip back to the course on which he won the English amateur title in 2000 he is warning what a tough week is in store there.
“To me it was a classic course - make your score going out and hang on for dear life coming in,” he said. “Now, with the changes they’ve made, we hang on for dear life out and back.”
The sixth hole has changed from a par five to a par four and a total of 181 yards has been added since the 2001 Open.