TURKEY WITHDRAWS INTEREST IN STAGING 2022 RYDER CUP

FROM GOLF.COM
By WILL GRAY
Turkey has officially withdrawn as a prospective host for the 2022 Ryder Cup, while site visits for the remaining five nations begin this week.
Ryder Cup Europe officials will begin their tour of prospective hosts tomorrow in Germany, with visits to Spain and Italy planned for next week according to a media release. A trip to Austria is scheduled for late March, while a timetable has not yet been established for a visit to Portugal.
Turkey was originally among the nations interested in hosting the biennial matches, but Turkish officials have confirmed that its bid had been withdrawn.
"Although we believe that Turkey is now an established golfing destination, with a collection of world-class courses, it has not proven possible to secure the necessary logistical arrangements in order to proceed," said Ahmet Agaoglu, president of the Turkish Golf Federation.
Of the remaining countries still in the running, only Spain has previously hosted the Ryder Cup, a European victory at Valderrama in 1997.
Countries will have until April 30 to formalise a bid, with the 2022 host country and venue expected to be announced in the fall. The 2018 Ryder Cup will be held at Le Golf National in Paris, France.

ROEHAMPTON FIRST NEW MEMBER FOR 

REBRANDED WORLD OF LEADING GOLF 

NEWS RELEASE
The exclusive Roehampton Club, in the heart of South-west London, has become the first new member of the recently rebranded World of Leading Golf (WLG), a corporation representing some of the globe’s most distinctive clubs.
Formerly known as Leading Golf Courses of Europe, WLG changed its identity to reflect better its burgeoning worldwide influence. Roehampton Club, a unique private members’ sports club, with a reputation for its smooth greens, is the first venue to be accepted as a member since the new name was launched.
In addition to a 6,300yd, par-71 attractive parkland golf course – remodelled in 2010 by Ken Moodie and Ken Brown of Creative Golf Design, members also benefit from 
*Thirty tennis courts, including 10 championship grass courts;
*Four world-championship standard croquet lawns
*Five heated squash courts, with a sixth under construction
*Two swimming pools
*A state-of-the-art gym and fitness studio.

Originally formed in 1901 as a polo and croquet club, Roehampton Club’s list of members and visitors reads like a Who’s Who of society – Sir Winston Churchill and the Duke of Edinburgh played polo regularly there, while King George VI, Admiral Jellicoe and David Lloyd George all captained the golf club.
 Later, tennis legends Angela Mortimer, Christine Truman, Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong all won open hard-court titles at the venue, while, today, member Boris Becker regularly coaches aspiring juniors at the club.
WLG general manager Claus Feld said: “Roehampton Club is only the second English club to join our organisation and the first since we became World of Leading Golf. It follows Stoke Park (at Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire) and it is testament to the standards we set in our organisation that two such prestigious, high-quality venues should choose to become members.
“The core of the terms of admission to the World of Leading Golf is an utter devotion to the quality and values of golf. Member clubs and potential members are tested anonymously to certify the clubs’ compliance to WLG standards, which enables us to identify the ‘best of the best’ and position them as the ‘Champions League’ of golf courses.”
Roehampton Club’s chief executive, Marc Newey, added: “The international approach pursued by the World of Leading Golf really is a convincing concept. While we are confident we will meet the exacting quality standards laid down, while being proud of our full membership with a waiting list, we do appreciate how important it is to attract new international members who are moving to London – one of the most exciting world cities to live and play sport in.”
 +Membership of Roehampton Club is expensive. Entrance fee for a new member is £3,000. Annual subscription for a person aged 30 and over is £2,355. Members aged 40 or over are required to buy four shares (each costing £365) in the club. Aged 35 to 39 are required to buy two shares.
Picture above are some of Roehampton Club's tennis facilities and swimming pools.
 

SPIETH NOW CAREER-HIGH SIXTH IN 

WORLD PRO RANKINGS

Jordan Spieth moved to a career-best sixth in the Official World Golf Ranking after his play-off victory at the Valspar Championship on Sunday..
Spieth, who defeated Patrick Reed and Sean O'Hair at the third extra hole for his second US PGA Tour title, moved up four spots, from 10th. Reed jumped a spot to 15th while O'Hair went from No. 401 to No. 188.
Tiger Woods, who announced Friday that he will skip Bay Hill, continued his drop in the world rankings, falling from 79th to 87th.
Rory McIlroy, who will play the Arnold Palmer Invitational, remained No. 1, followed by Bubba Watson, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Spieth, Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose.

FOX AND REID SCORE FOURTH 

BETTER-BALL WIN

Graham Fox (Clydeway Golf) and West Lothian's Alan Reid have got the better-ball form of scoring down to a fine art, writes Colin Farquharson.
Today, over Western Gailes' par-71 course, they scored their fourth win in seven starts on the PGA in Scotland Four-ball, Better-ball Winter Series with an eight-under-par round of 63.
Fox and Reid ius a new partnership compared with last year when Graham had Paul McKechnie as a partner. A change in the rules of the competition, decreeing that two players from the top 25 could not pair up, broke up that partnership.
But Fox has struck it lucky in finding Alan Reid the ideal partner for him.
They had a bogey-free scorecard today with eight birdies, at the third, fourth, sixth, seventh, ninth (out in five-under 31), 10th, 13th and 15th (back in three-under 32). 
That performance earned them £530. Beats working for a living!
Someone once told me the secret of good 
foursomes play was "never complain (when your partner hits it out of bounds) and never explain (why your shot ended in a bunker). 
Perhaps Messrs Fox and Reid will tell us their winning secret?
Send it to Colin@scottishgolfview.com
We'll have details of their birdies and bogeys (probably none) later.
Runners-up in a field of 20 pairs were Paul Wardell, now playing out of North Berwick, and Carnoustie's Fraser Mann with a 65.
There was a three-way tie  on 66 featuring Ross Dixon (Renaissance Club) and his partner Stephen McAllister (S McAllister Golf);  the Bathgate pairing of Louis Gaughan and Stuart Callan, plus Norman Huguet (Musselburgh) and Gareth Wright (West Linton).

SCOREBOARD
Par 71
63 G Fox (Clydeway Golf) and A Reid (West Lothian).
65 P Wardell (North Berwick) and Fraser Mann (Carnoustie).
66 R Dixon (Renaissance Club) and Stephen McAllister (S McAllister Golf), L Gaughan and S Callan (Bathgate), N Huguet (Musselburgh) and G Wright (West Linton).
67 C Currie (Caldwell) and M Patterson (Kilmacolm), J McCreadie and P Robinson (Largs), I McNab (Dundonald Links) and S Gray (Hayston), N Colquhoun (Merchants of Edinburgh) and P Brookes (Pitreavie).
68 S Savage (Dalmuir) and C Everett (Caldwell).
69 M Loftus (Mearns Castle) and S Payne (Cowglen), D Snodgrass (Crail) and D Watt (St Andrews Links GA)
70 D Williamson (Kirkhill) and S Kerr (Strathaven), A White (Lanark) and J Porteous (Craigielaw).
71 C Billows and F Dunlop (Gleneagles Hotel), Brian Marehbank (unatt) and Billy Marchbank (Crieff), C Porciani (Turnberry Hotel) and A Todd (Prestwick).
73 D Knapp and M Pottinger (American Golf), A McHardy (Noah's Ark) GC) and Ross Leeds (Turnberry Hotel).
74 K Campbell (Machrihanish) and I Taylor (Drumpellier)

SCOTTISH JUNIOR TOUR TAKE A LEAF

OUT OF LUKE DONALD'S BOOK

By WALTER BURNS
Scottish Junior Golf Tour
In 2010 Luke Donald was working with performance coach Dave Alred when he was on his way to becoming World No 1. He was allowed three attempts at each shot to allow him to play with freedom - attack where appropriate, and ultimately to get into the mindset of going low regularly!
They called it WIG...Wow I’m Good! (Or something like that!)
The Scottish Junior Golf Tour was inspired by this concept and is developing different formats to help our young golfers to develop this mindset.
At Monifieth yesterday on the Ashludie course, one of the best courses in Scotland for junior golf, the Scottish Junior Golf Tour used the first of these new formats, 9:9Golf where only your best nine holes count – you forget about the bad ones!
At the end of your round you add up your score for your lowest nine holes. It’s as simple as that!
9:9Golf allows you to play with absolute freedom and go for every shot; it is a very attacking game and you need a lot of birdies to win.
It will probably take a while for some of the juniors to get used to but Craig Jackman understood what was required with his six birdies in his best-nine score of 27 being the outstanding score of the day.
Equally impressive was 11 year old Aamar Saleem’s four birdies in his best-nine score 28, closely followed by Ewan Wheat’s 30 including three birdies. 
All three boys are in our junior development program “Tour School” and are used to unusual formats.
This is the first in a whole series of nine and 18-hole versions that are designed to make the juniors gradually become aware of their best performance state and we are really excited about the possibilities for the future.

Leading Scores
Under 16 years
27 Craig Jackman (Dunblane)
33 Scott Hasell (Strathendrick)
38 Andrew McAlpine (Erskine)
Under 14 years
30 Ewan Wheat (Royal Montrose)
32 Ross Barclay (Carnoustie)         
33 Liam Kirkham (Troon Welbeck)
Under 1334 Roddy McCauley (Fereneze)
35 Scott Souter (Elie)
36 Jamie Fulton (Muckhart)
Under 12
28 Aamar Saleem (Ladybank)
33 George Cannon (Falkirk), Cameron Johnstone (Troon Welbeck)
35 Matthew Sime (Downfield)
The handicap prize was won by Liam Kirkham with a nett 25.5.
Ethan Gunn (Colville Park) won the putting skills competition.

 



Walter Burns
Scottish Junior Golf Tou
Mob: 07951 103 827
Email: walter@scottishjuniorgolftour.co.uk
Web: www.scottishjuniorgolftour.co.uk

PETER MALNATI WINS WEB.COM TOUR 

EVENT IN BRAZIL

FROM GOLFWEEK.COM

By Andy Zunz

Former US college circuit competitor Peter Malnati closed with three straight birdies to win the Web.com Tour's Brasil Champions at Sao Paulo Golf Club, Brazil on Sunday. He collected $183,000.
Malnati finished at 22 under after a final-round 66, beating out a group of seven at 18 under.
"This is a big win. This is a big event. That's the best kind of stress ever," said Malnati. 
"That's so much fun, but it really is stressful. I don't know the math but this is one of our biggest purses and it doesn't guarantee me of anything, it does help a lot to get me back to the PGA Tour and that's been my goal from the start."
Among those tying for second was former Oklahoma Sooner Abraham Ancer and Henrik Norlander, who played 22 events on the PGA Tour in 2013.
Malnati carded a round in the 60s in all four rounds, including a second-round 9-under 62. The win was his second on the Web.com Tour and first since 2013.

TO VIEW ALL THE FINAL TOTALS

CLICK HERE

Spieth becoming a commanding presence

FROM GOLF.COM 
By RANDALL MELL
Jordan Spieth isn’t just learning how to handle the pressure that can suffocate chances at the end of tournaments.

He isn’t just learning how to close and how to win.
He’s learning how to command a stage.

Watching 21-year-old Spieth, picture by courtesy of Getty Images(c), win the Valspar Championship on  Sunday, with his confident stride, his certainty of gesture, his fist pumps, and even watching the way he corralled and wrestled disappointment over mistakes, that was more than fun to watch. It was fun to listen to as he made his way around Innisbrook.
There was entertainment value listening to Spieth think out loud the way he likes to do under pressure. The way this young Texan talks to his golf ball, the way he chastises himself for bad shots, there can be danger in that with live microphones catching just about everything nowadays, but this observer didn’t detect anything objectionable.
Just the opposite. There was almost something Palmer-esque in the way Spieth drew us out there on to the stage with him.

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Valspar Championship: Articles, videos and photos

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Yes, the shot-making Sunday made Spieth’s victory compelling, with Patrick Reed and Sean O’Hair adding to the drama with their own clutch plays. There was short-game wizardry of the highest order, up and downs that would have impressed Seve Ballesteros. The action was captivating, but there was more than a good script holding our attention.
Spieth was a commanding presence, and that bodes well for the entertainment value the game loses without Tiger Woods on stage. Reed was a commanding presence, too. 
Though he’s being painted as more anti-hero than he would like, Reed is good theatre. And O’Hair was more than a character actor along for the ride. He offered the possibility of delivering us a feel-good comeback story.
With his victory Sunday, Spieth joined Woods, Sergio Garcia and Robert Gamez as the only players since 1940 to win two US PGA Tour titles before turning 22. 
With Rory McIlroy, 25, trying to win the career Grand Slam at the Masters next month, there’s more than a load of young talent claiming the game’s big stages as their own. There are stars aplenty with stage presence stepping up.
With the quirky Bubba Watson at 36 looking to win his third green jacket in four years, the Masters offers plenty of compelling theatre. At this point, Woods’ return to Augusta National would be a bonus, maybe just a sideshow if he turns up without his short game.
Spieth may have just two US PGA Tour victories, but the way he challenged Watson at the Masters last year, taking the lead on the front nine of the final round, he will tee it up on that stage as one of the leading men.
Augusta National is the ultimate stage in American golf, and it looms as the ultimate test of what kind of stage presence Spieth can really command. 

SCROLL DOWN FOR DETAILS OF THE SUNDAY PLAY-OFF, LEADING TOTALS AND A LINK TO ALL THE SCORES