Weekly Irishman in Contention / Tour Golf 2009

PhilipMarlowe

Ok so a new thread for the new season...
The usual rules apply, you mention someone Irish on here that is doing well this week and, especially if you have money on him, he succumbs to the usual hex that being mentioned on here brings.

Jonathan Caldwell is t8 in south africa thru 11 holes of round 2

edit: just bogeyed the 12th... good to know we still have the power.

Mister Sifter

A 66 from McGrane today too... puts him on 7 under.

Looks like McIlroy is going to miss the cut though...

f22

Fair play to Jonny Caldwell, great to see him play well.

He was always impressive as an amateur but I always wondered how he'd fair on the big stage. Others such as Lloyd Saltman seem to have vanished off the raidar since turning pro.

PhilipMarlowe

McGrane is hot today, was -7 today for 10 holes, currently still -7 thru 13, -9 overall and is tied for the lead with Lee Westwood

Blunder

-8 for the day and -10 for the tournament. Brilliant bogey free round today. Hopefully he can push on from here and secure a second win of 2008! Maybin is also going well -9 to tie for 4th at the moment. I think the lead will go to around -12 or -13. Its a pretty good scoring day there it just depends on whether the course firms up in the afternoon. If it does it could keep the scores high for the afternoon starters.

fullstop

McIlroy 2nd now. Wind having a big effect today Can't believe how much they're struggling at the 12th, usually plays downwind and pretty easy but the wind has switched around today.
Also Gareth Maybin and McGrane tied 4th, Clarke 10th

Marshy

There seems to be a lot of Northern players in contention at the SA Open. At one stage earlier McIrloy was placed last of all the NI guys until he birdied 4 of the last 5.

Maybin is best placed in a tie for second on -12 with Rory 1 shot further back on -11. McGrane is also -10 and Darren had a nice round today to get to -8.

whatawaster

Maybin is leading on 14 under after 8 holes.

McIlroy double bogeyed 1 & 2 to go back to seven under and out of it. However he just eagled the par 4 tenth and birdied 11 to be only 3 behind. It's anyone's tournament still

fullstop

whatawaster wrote: »

Maybin is leading on 14 under after 8 holes.

McIlroy double bogeyed 1 & 2 to go back to seven under and out of it. However he just eagled the par 4 tenth and birdied 11 to be only 3 behind. It's anyone's tournament still

No he eagled 9 and birdied 10. Can't believe 9 is playin so short, normally plays very long and tough

whatawaster

fullstop wrote: »

No he eagled 9 and birdied 10. Can't believe 9 is playin so short, normally plays very long and tough

very unlucky at 11 too. And a great approach to 12.

whatawaster

birdie at 12 for McIlroy. He's on fire at the moment.

uberwolf

if he finishes like he did yesterday...

uberwolf

great days work by McIlroy, Hoey, McGrane and Murphy.

whatawaster

uberwolf wrote: »

great days work by McIlroy, Hoey, McGrane and Murphy.

not Maybin? Very unlucky not to win outright, hopefully he can do it in the playoff

uberwolf

whatawaster wrote: »

not Maybin? Very unlucky not to win outright, hopefully he can do it in the playoff

he'd an ok day had to settle for 2nd though.

Strong representation there though between them all.

Marshy

Disappointing for Maybin but showed he's got the temperament to succeed on this stage I thought. Stayed very cool throughout. Putter just let him down in the latter stages, missed quite a few shortish birdie putts.

copacetic

Nice to see Rory stay in top 50 and make the field for the Masters.

golfbgud

How are defining "Irishman" in these posts?

Just wondering as there's a lack of consistency in the Press......

fullstop

stockdam

golfbgud wrote: »

How are defining "Irishman" in these posts?

Just wondering as there's a lack of consistency in the Press......

Anyone born or whose parents were born on the island of Ireland are Irish (as in born on Ireland).

Anyone born in Northern Ireland can call themselves either British or Irish as they wish.

stockdam

Michael Hoey of Shandon shot a 7 under to lie one place off the lead in the Johannesburg Open.

Hopefully he'll kick on and have a great tournament.

Mister Sifter

He's made a good start to life on tour this season... hopefully another 3 good rounds from him this weekend.

stockdam

Another strong round of 68 today left Michael only a shot behind clubhouse leader David Drysdale.


Keep up the good play and good luck for the weekend.

Mister Sifter

Nice to see a Scottish lad in the lead... an all too rare thing these days.

stockdam

Until you mentioned it I hadn't realised that I can't remember when the last time a Scot won. Maybe I'm wrong.

Mister Sifter

stockdam wrote: »

Until you mentioned it I hadn't realised that I can't remember when the last time a Scot won. Maybe I'm wrong.

I know, there's a lot of talk in the papers and magazines at home about the dearth of Scottish talent currently on tour. Shame really. Been a good few promising players made the jump but have struggled. The likes of mark Warren and Scott Drummond were both rookies of the year in the past few years but haven't kicked on at all really. Young lads like Richie Ramsay haven't lived up to the hype so far either unfortunately.

Alistair Forsyth won the Madeira Open last year, but (bar the world cup win)that's it since Monty won the European Open in 2007.

Hopefully Drummond can change that this weekend!

WaldenByThoreua

Ya Ramsay was a very very good amatuer...the US win was pretty special...Seems to be taking him a while to bed in to life on tour...is Coltart playing on tour this year? Thought I heard he got his card but I could be wrong?

Mister Sifter

limerickmunster wrote: »

Ya Ramsay was a very very good amatuer...the US win was pretty special...Seems to be taking him a while to bed in to life on tour...is Coltart playing on tour this year? Thought I heard he got his card but I could be wrong?

Yeah, coltart is back on tour. Finished around 14th at tour school.

He played a couple of comps before Xmas and made the cut both times. Isn't playing this week but is a reserve for next weeks tournament. Hopefully he can keep his card this season. Probably my favourite player.

WaldenByThoreua

Graeme1982 wrote: »

Yeah, coltart is back on tour. Finished around 14th at tour school.

He played a couple of comps before Xmas and made the cut both times. Isn't playing this week but is a reserve for next weeks tournament. Hopefully he can keep his card this season. Probably my favourite player.

Nice, looks like hes regained his form, something which can be very hard to do at his age.

PhilipMarlowe

Graeme1982 wrote: »

Isn't playing this week but is a reserve for next weeks tournament. Hopefully he can keep his card this season.

Just goes to show the difference between even being the last player to retain the card and the guys coming on through the school... they need to make a fast start because they have limited opportunities to get into events.
I heard recently the number of players that come on to the tour that fail to keep their card... forget exactly but around 75% of them...
That's why it's great to see the likes of Maybin and hopefully Hoey making fast starts to the season.

Mister Sifter

I think Hoey will have learnt alot from his last shot at keeping his card. As you say Licksy, getting alot of money in the bank at this stage of the season could really take the pressure off him. Would hopefully free him up to play some good golf.

That's an interesting stat. Doesn't surprise me at all. Alot of guys seem to fail to keep their card and then it takes them a good few years to bounce back. Alot of them never get it back too, i suppose. It really is a cut throat business.

uberwolf

Micheal 2 shots off the pace a third of the way through his final round

edit: falling backwards now

liam12989

Hoey and Maybin can be thankful they played in he world cup for ireland few yrs bk....they were journey men up to that....that really give them the confidence they needed and its great to see them playing well...:D

PhilipMarlowe

Good few weeks of golf coming up on the European Tour now that they are in Dubai etc...

6 Irish tee it up early in the morning... Harrington opening up his season (Murphy, Lawrie, McIlroy, McGinley & McGrane are the others).
Great strong fields over the next few weeks with Garcia in there too. Hopefully we'll get someone to cheer.

PhilipMarlowe

Nice start by Murph, 69 for -3 and currently tied 7th though he was one of the first out today... good strong finish, 4 birdies in the last 5 holes.
Harrington -1 thru 16

Mister Sifter

Decent start by Murphy and Harrington - 1 under and 3 under respectively.

McIlroy 2 under thru 4

Garcia 3 under through 5

PhilipMarlowe

McIlroy finished off round one this morning with a couple of birdies to be joint leader on -6.
He's currently t2 on -8 thru 13 holes of round 2 with Paul Casey leading on -10... he's 7 under for his round thru 13 holes!
There's a Kiwi amateur called Danny Lee who is 7th on -7 thru 9 holes of his second round... 6 birdies, an eagle and only one bogey in his 27 holes so far.

Mister Sifter

What a cracking morning's play!! It's vintage Monty... 5 under with 1 to go of his 2nd round. Christ it would be great if he could do something this week (apart from rant and moan obviously!)

Great round from Casey - 7 under!, 10 under for the tournament and now leading.

Shaping up to be one hell of a weekend with all the big boys at the top.

copacetic

nice tee shot to 6 feet for Harrington on 12. Knocked it in to go 5 under for the day. 6 under overall. Course seems to be generally playing easy today though. Calm, warm and course is still soft from the rain.

WHIP IT!

copacetic wrote: »

nice tee shot to 6 feet for Harrington on 12. Knocked it in to go 5 under for the day. 6 under overall. Course seems to be generally playing easy today though. Calm, warm and course is still soft from the rain.

There's have to be an option for "Bad Tipper" for our resident Scotsman, Graemo! :pac:

rich87

Darren Clarke is tied for the lead in the African Open, He is on -12 with Angel Cabera. Didnt think he was back till the Qtar masters.

Mister Sifter

WHIP IT! wrote: »

There's have to be an option for "Bad Tipper" for our resident Scotsman, Graemo! :pac:

Ehhhh... wrong thread by any chance whipper?:D

copacetic

I know I certainly didn't get it!

copacetic

bogey, birdie, birdie finish for Harrington for a 66 and 7 under. Currently in tie for 9th. Lead is at -11. McIlroy 9 under, tied fifth.

Mister Sifter

copacetic wrote: »

bogey, birdie, birdie finish for Harrington for a 66 and 7 under. Currently in tie for 9th. Lead is at -11. McIlroy 9 under, tied fifth.

Great day of golf all round. Superb rounds by Mcilroy and Harrington. Hopefully they can carry it into the weekend. Not bad for Padraig's first outing of the year!

madds

Have this taped so will be sitting down to watch it when I get home if herself lets me....have a lesson in Carton this evening as well so it's all golf!

Watched a few minutes of McIlroy this morning and the guy is just an exceptional swinger of the club...as one of the Sky guys said after a Rory tee-shot - "look at that, perfect balance right through the shot, you get the sense he'd be able to hold that follow through position for 15 minutes with no difficulty".

PhilipMarlowe

Murphy had 6 birdies but 6 damn bogeys too which is why he'd drive you mad when you follow him If he had a few less bogeys he'd be nicely up there....

Anyway, he's -2 thru 8 this morning and t33, leaders are just starting out round 3

copacetic

some good golf today from Casey, but nothing really going right for Padraig or Rory. Nice to have a good tournament with a few bigger names out on TV at a good time..

Mister Sifter

Awesome stuff from Casey today - 63 for 19 under!!

In his last 27 holes he's 13 under - no dropped shots. Very impressive.

Have to say, people talk about Baltray being ripped apart in May by these guys. If it's as good to watch as that this morning then bring it on!!!

rich87

65 from clarke today, tied for the lead with Jamie Kingston on -18

rich87

Clarke and Michael Hoey both finished tied 2nd in the African open, one shot behind Retief Goosen.

Wasnt a great field, some decent players (Goosen, Caberea, Richard Sterne Charl Schwartzel) but still not a bad way to start the season.

I hope Clarke can take the form into next week