What The Golfinggods Say….

 

Sometimes in sport situations occur that are painful to watch by individuals who are not related or have no direct relationship with the person the pain is being inflicted upon. A situation where you can only look away because the indignity inflicted upon a person is too much to watch. I saw one of these situations yesterday.

 

Thomas Bjorn, who at the best of times is only a short step from being described as a ‘loose cannon’ mentally, held a four stroke lead going into the final round of the European Open in Ireland. He had played beautiful golf for three days but a hooked tee shot on the first on Sunday was the start of a round to forget. He still was holding a one stroke lead when he stood on the seventeenth tee but when he left the seventeenth green he was six strokes off the lead and an eleven had been pencilled into his scorecard. A bogey at the eighteenth resulted in a round of eighty-six.

 

It was a sad sight indeed to see Bjorn walking down the eighteenth fairway in the driving rain with is head slumped. What will this performance do to his confidence with The Open only two weeks away? Surely he must find inspiration from somewhere to turn this latest disaster around. The whole golfing world hopes he does, as he is too popular to walk away from the game. We wish him luck.

 

And so to this week….

 

The Scottish Open played around the beautiful Loch Lomond course is the premier tournament this week with a host of top golfers playing. This tournament has been played the week before The Open for the past nine years and a number of the top American golfers will use the event to work on their shots for the following week. The Loch Lomond course is a Tom Weiskopf designed creation, which places an emphasis on approach shots into smallish greens. The fairways are very generous and the weather can always play a part in the event.

 

Selections:

 

Ernie Els: if the big South African plays this week he will be the man to beat. With two wins and two other top five places in the past five years his record at this event speaks for itself. If he is fresh to compete this week then he is fresh enough to win a third title. The one they all have to beat.

 

David Howell: a very good player who is just not winning the tournaments he should. With the course set up to favour the good ball strikers he may go close this week. He must start making the clutch putts but if he does this is a course he will go very close on.

 

Darren Clarke: a good return performance in Ireland last week will see the popular Ulsterman in prime condition to go well this week. His ball striking will come into its own around this course and if the putter starts to behave he could win this week.

 

Other to mention: Jose Maria Olazabal, Robert Allenby and Tim Clarke.

 

The US PGA tour moves to the TPC course at Deere Run, Illinois for the John Deere Classic. This tournament is the routine tournament before The Open and attracts a weaker field than most US PGA events. The course is a stadium course and rewards good straight driving and a solid short game. Length is not as big a factor as most tournaments with this ‘stadium’ course playing only 7,100 yards.

 

Selections:

 

Lucas Glover: a consistent ball striker who will be at home on this course. A solid set of results in June has this player at the top of his game, and in this weakened field he must have an excellent chance to win his first US PGA event.

 

Bo Van Pelt: a similar player to Lucas Glover in that he is a good ball striker who is in solid form. He does have a weakness with the putter and this will need to improve for him to win. However he does hit a lot of greens in regulation so should score well this week.

 

Nick Price: at forty-seven Nick perhaps should not be tipped up for victory but his game is starting to show signs of getting back to where it was. His ball striking is starting to resemble his brilliant best and the putter only needs to behave this week for him to show the young guys a thing or two about winning tournaments.

 

Others to mention: Jeff Sluman, Kirk Triplett and Duffy Waldorf.

 

Until next week – May The Golfinggods Be With You!

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