BURLINGTON AND KEEBLE BOUND FOR SOUTH AFRICA

Robert Burlison and Bobby Keeble, both members of England’s Under 18 squad, will represent England Golf in the Kenako South African World Juniors at Kingswood Golf Club in George   from March 3 to 7.
Burlison, 17, (Oxley Park, Staffordshire) and Keeble, 17, (Abridge, Essex) will also enjoy some warm weather training prior to the event and will also compete in the one-day Western Province under-23 Stroke Play Championship over 36 holes at Durbanville Golf Club on 10^th March.
Both players became boy caps in last year’s Boys Home Internationals, Burlison having stepped up from being an under 16 international for the previous two years.
Burlison (image copyright Tom Ward Sport Photography), a former English Schools under 16 champion, has finished runner-up in the South of England Boys Open for the past two years and was equal seventh in the Boys County Champions event at Woodhall Spa in 2012.
Apart from being selected for last year’s Boys Home Internationals, he has represented England Golf in the European Young Masters in Hungary, the Italian Under 16 Championship, and the Junior Players’ Championship in Florida.
Keeble had been ‘knocking on the door’ in several events before coming close to winning last year’s Carris Trophy (English Under 18 Championship) at Deal, losing to Patrick Kelly in a playoff, a performance that earned him his Boys' Home Internationals call.
He shared second spot with Burlison in the South of England Boys last year and accompanied him to the Junior Players’ Championship in America. Keeble also finished third in the Daily Telegraph Junior Championship and finished fifth on the Titleist/FootJoy England Golf Boys Order of Merit for 2012.
The Kenako event, which also embraces a girls’ competition, is played over 54 holes of stroke play and is part of the World Junior Golf Series


Lynne Fraser
England Golf 
Marketing and PR Manager
Email: pr@englandgolf.org
Tel: 01526 354500

GOLF CALENDAR NEEDS MORE MATCH-PLAY EXCITEMENT

FROM THE GOLFWEEK WEBSITE 
By Alistair Tait 
I have a confession to make – I have a hard time watching the first 54 holes of most stroke-play tournaments. Actually, I struggle with the first 63 holes.
That’s why I am looking forward to this week’s WGC – Accenture Match Play Championship. It’s a rare chance to watch the oldest – and best – form of golf at the highest level.
The death of match-play in the professional game is an indication of how commercialisation has taken over the game we love. To think this week is the only form of match play on this year’s US PGA Tour proves how much influence television networks have.
Europe isn’t much better on the match-play front, but at least we have two more match-play tournaments this year – the Volvo World Match Play Championship and the Vivendi Seve Trophy.
And that’s it. This is how far we’ve come. The oldest form of golf is relegated to three tournaments on the two biggest tours in the world.
This situation exists because match play is not a good fit for television. A match ending on the 13th hole is not good for their precious schedules. Nor is an unlikely Joe Bloggs winner good for ratings. 
And so the most exciting form of golf is lost to the pro game.
While it’s true 72 stroke-play events are more likely to produce the best winner, having to watch the first three rounds to get to that point can be painful. 
It was interesting hearing Jack Nicklaus a few years ago in Morocco. Someone asked him how much golf he watched on TV. Nicklaus replied: “I don’t watch golf on TV. I’d rather watch paint dry.”
I know how Jack feels.
Given the excitement of the Ryder, Solheim, Curtis and Walker Cups, you’d have thought sponsors would be dictating a return to match play. These tournaments, especially the Ryder Cup, are the tournaments that produce excitement and interest on a continual basis. Unlike 72 stroke-play tournaments that morph into each other week after endless week.
Let’s be honest, the real excitement in any stroke-play tournament happens over the last nine holes when you have a few players going hard at it for the title. The first 63 holes are just shadow boxing, no matter how hard TV commentators try to convince us otherwise.
I’ve often wondered why many sponsors even bother with the first three-and-a-half days of the tournament. Why hasn’t anyone thought to eliminate the first 63 holes, and most of the field? Let’s have a nine-hole shootout with, say, the world’s 20 or 30 best players? Give them easy pins, reachable par-5s and turn it into a quick shoot-out that’s done and dusted in a couple of hours.
I’m obviously not talking every week, but every once in a while a quicker form of golf would be most welcome, especially in these days of the five-hour plus rounds.
As for match play, we need more of it. It’s the original form of the game. It’s the form played at most clubs in the United Kingdom amongst ordinary golfers. And I’m not talking singles match play. Why no foursomes, four-ball or even greensome tournaments?
I’m lucky that I get to cover amateur golf. One of the highlights of my year is covering the British Amateur Championship, which I first started covering in 1994. I also look forward to the Walker and Curtis Cups, the British Boys, Ladies British Open. In fact, give me an amateur match-play tournament over a European Tour event and I know which one I want to cover. Match play wins out every time.
Save 72-hole golf for the majors and other key tournaments, but give us more match-play golf. There’s an endless fascination in watching golfers go head-to-head. The psychology of stroke play pales in comparison to match play.
So roll on Wednesday and the first round of the WGC–Accenture. I’ll be glued to my television screen from Wednesday all the way to Sunday for one of the very few times this year.

EUROPEAN TOUR HONOUR DAVE THOMAS

 Dave Thomas (left) and George O'Grady

NEWS RELEASE FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR

Dave Thomas, a four-time Ryder Cup player and renowned course designer, has been awarded Honorary Life Membership of The European Tour. 

Thomas was presented with the silver Membership card by George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, in the company of Board Member and life-long friend, John O’Leary, special guest Brendan Foster CBE and representatives of the Association of Golf Writers during a special luncheon at Shepherd’s Restaurant in London.

During an illustrious playing career which began in 1949, Thomas was twice runner-up in The Open Championship - in 1958 at Royal Lytham and St Annes when he tied with Peter Thomson before losing in a 36-hole play-off and eight years later at Muirfield when he finished tied second to Jack Nicklaus.

He played in four Ryder Cups in 1959, ‘63, ’65 and ’67, won many of Europe’s biggest tournaments and represented Wales 11 times in the World Cup of Golf, before arthritis ended his playing career and Thomas immersed himself in his other great passion of golf course architecture.

Together with Peter Alliss, he designed The Belfry’s famous Brabazon Course and his CV includes Slaley Hall in Northumberland and the Roxburghe in Scotland in addition to Continental  venues such as the latest European Tour Destination St Leon-Rot, San Roque, the Almenara Hotel, La Baule and Cannes Mougins and  courses in Japan, China, Taiwan, Africa and South America.

Thomas was also Captain of the Professional Golfers’ Association during its centenary year in 2001 and five years later he was made an honorary life member of the PGA.

In making the presentation, O’Grady said: “Dave Thomas is a four-time Ryder Cup player, has tied the Open Championship and finished second, was chosen by the British Professional Golfers’ Association to be Captain in their Centenary Year, an Honorary Life Member of the PGA, designer of many courses including The Belfry, an iconic Ryder Cup course. 

"Wherever we have gone in the world –  the north of England, The Belfry, Spain - we have played on his courses but above all that he is a great guy. 

(Editor's note: Also Scotland - Spey Valley, Newmachar, Blairgowrie to name just a few).

“It has been remiss of us not to have presented this award a long time ago but today we are righting that wrong. We have recently honoured Tommy Horton, Brian Huggett and Peter Alliss and Dave is in that league in helping build the game in Britain and all over the world. We would like to recognise that with Honorary Life Membership of The European Tour.” 

Thomas, born (August 16, 1934) and raised in Newcastle, recalled his first taste of The Ryder Cup when he watched  some of the game’s greats including Sam Snead during the 1949 match at Ganton at the age of 15 having just turned professional.

“I cannot tell you even today the impression it left on me as a player to be, and how could I achieve the standards that I watched in that Ryder Cup at Ganton?” he said. 

“There was Sam Snead, Lloyd Mangrum  and to watch them play was inspirational. To think just ten years later I played in my first Ryder Cup in Palm Springs in California and played against Sam Snead and Cary Middlecoff. 

“I have very fond memories of my playing career but by 1969 my back had gone and it was time to do something else, and what do you do? Someone suggested some design and architecture.  Peter Alliss was involved and we became designers. Who would have thought all these years on I would be close to designing 150 courses.

“I have seen how the game has grown, how The European Tour has developed and it has been wonderful to have been part of it all for the last 60 years. I am honoured to receive this award.”

 

EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS

Twitter: @European_Tour

Facebook: European Tour

Web: www.europeantour.com

 

 

WHO PLAYS WHOM IN WORLD MATCH-PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

First-round matchups for the WGC-Accenture Match Play:

7:25 a.m.: Sergio Garcia vs. Thongchai Jaidee
7:35 a.m.: Matt Kuchar vs. Hiroyuki Fujita
7:45 a.m.: Ian Poulter vs. Stephen Gallacher
7:55 a.m.: Bo Van Pelt vs. John Senden
8:05 a.m.: Charl Schwartzel vs. Russell Henley
8:15 a.m.: Zach Johnson vs. Jason Day
8:25 a.m.: Jason Dufner vs. Richard Sterne
8:35 a.m.: Hunter Mahan vs. Matteo Manassero
8:45 a.m.: Justin Rose vs. K.J. Choi
8:55 a.m.: Bill Haas vs. Nicolas Colsaerts
9:05 a.m.: Adam Scott vs. Tim Clark
9:15 a.m.: Jamie Donaldson vs. Thorbjorn Olesen
9:25 a.m.: Bubba Watson vs. Chris Wood
9:35 a.m.: Jim Furyk vs. Ryan Moore
9:45 a.m.: Lee Westwood vs. Rafael Cabrera-Bello
9:55 a.m.: Martin Kaymer vs. George Coetzee
10:05 a.m.: Keegan Bradley vs. Marcus Fraser
10:15 a.m.: Ernie Els vs. Fredrik Jacobson
10:25 a.m.: Steve Stricker vs. Henrik Stenson
10:35 a.m.: Nick Watney vs. David Toms
10:45 a.m.: Dustin Johnson vs. Alexander Noren
10:55 a.m.: Graeme McDowell vs. Padraig Harrington
11:05 a.m.: Webb Simpson vs. David Lynn
11:15 a.m.: Peter Hanson vs. Thomas Bjorn
11:25 a.m.: Louis Oosthuizen vs. Richie Ramsay
11:35 a.m.: Branden Grace vs. Robert Garrigus
11:45 a.m.: Luke Donald vs. Marcel Siem
11:55 a.m.: Paul Lawrie vs. Scott Piercy
12:05 p.m.: Rory McIlroy vs. Shane Lowry
12:15 p.m.: Rickie Fowler vs. Carl Pettersson
12:25 p.m.: Tiger Woods vs. Charles Howell III
12:35 p.m.: Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano vs. Francesco Molinari

It's not easy to read in wide-sheet form, but if 
you want to see the full matchplay bracket
 

CLICK HERE  

LANGER SCORES 17TH WIN ON US SENIORS' TOUR

FROM THE US CHAMPIONS TOUR WEBSITE
NAPLES, Florida  -- Bernhard Langer's second ACE Group Classic title in three years involved a little more drama on Sunday then he would have preferred.

Final leaderboard   

The German two-putted for par from 50 feet on the 18th to finish at 12-under 204, surviving three bogeys and a double bogey to finish one stroke ahead of Jay Don Blake at TwinEagles' Talon Course.
The winner in 2011 and the runner-up last year, Langer earned his 17th victory on the tour. It's the seventh year the 55-year-old has won at least one tournament on the Champions Tour.
"I'm certainly relieved now, having won," Langer said. "It was definitely a grind. I was hoping to come down to the last hole with, whatever, a three-shot lead or something, make it easy."
Blake's 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th looked like it had a chance until the last few feet, when it turned and grazed the edge of the cup.
"I actually thought I had made it, gave it a good effort, but just wasn't good enough," said Blake, who was playing ahead of Langer in the penultimate group.
Tom Pernice junior tied for third with John Cook, who birdied Nos. 16 and 18 for a 68 that left him at 9-under 207. David Frost and Rocco Mediate, a Calusa Pines Golf Club member, tied for fifth at 8-under.
After leading by four early in the round, Langer double-bogeyed No. 4, and later missed a 2-foot par putt on No. 10 for his second straight bogey to fall into a tie with Blake and Pernice.
Blake, who birdied four holes on the front nine, took the lead briefly with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 13th to get to 12 under. But Langer also birdied the hole, and added another on No. 14 to take the lead again.
Langer had switched up his putting grip after leaving a birdie putt short on No. 11.
"I made some better strokes that way, and made some decent putts there towards the end," he said.
Blake missed a 3-footer for par on No. 16, and Langer bogeyed No. 15, keeping Langer a stroke ahead. But the bogey could have been worse. Langer's tee shot ended up in a bad lie 95 yards from the green. He hit his second shot fat, and went in the water short of the green. After taking a drop, Langer hit a lob wedge to 5 feet.
"(I) made that for a great bogey," he said.
Pernice bogeyed No. 11, then missed a short birdie putt at No. 12 and couldn't recover. Down two strokes, he went for the green on the par-5 17th in two, hooked a 3-wood into the water and made bogey.