Left field

“Luuuke” golf beginning to win over fans

Luke Donald’s complete dominance of Wentworth’s brutal West Course has led the world to sit up and take notice, while his chanting fans have also made their mark.

Not that people were not aware of Donald before, just that his latest victory and the fashion in which he won Europe´s PGA have raised his profile in his native England and made him the golfer to beat again.

“Luuuke” screamed the crowds during the hustle and bustle of a weekend at Wentworth. For good reason. Donald was showing the galleries, TV viewers and his fellow professionals how to play the game.

Methodical rhythm in mind, I took to the course then range on a hot summer’s Monday and tried to replicate it, much like over a month ago, when, inspired by Bubba Watson’s US Masters win, I thought it best to go and swipe at the ball paying little attention to technique. That didn’t work.

The result of Donald golf? Try it. Slow everything down. Get everything flowing as one and….ball into ditch. OK that was me. And I got better until for a five minute period or so the ball was actually doing as I wanted.

‘With more practice I can better’ I thought, encouraged at my progress. I persevered and got worse. But I left with a positive feeling. Donald has always spoken of how hard he has worked at his game and it is now paying dividends.

“Just got back to Chi town, quick sweat in the gym to get the last of the Moët out! then off to The Memorial tomorrow to do it all over again,” tweeted the Englishman after leaving his home country for Chicago, his base.

Has ‘Bubba golf’ got the legs for world domination?

Inspired by Bubba Watson’s brilliance, beautifully encapsulated in that wedge from the pine needles on Augusta’s feared 10th hole en route to winning the Masters on Sunday, I took to the range for a good old clout of the golf ball rather than worrying about a textbook swing.

Ugly noise. Ball darts off right. Left-handed kid receiving a lesson two bays away, who when asked who his favourite player was replies “Bubba Watson”, hits it better with the same club (7 iron).

Try again. Legs and body sway violently. My wrists, better suited for short game artistry (well, escaping from behind trees and the like), bend like rubber while my head is about as stationary as a last-day Masters crowd galloping up the side of the fairway to glimpse a view of the winning putt.

The result of my second shot, or the next 168 balls I hit, is irrelevant. The point is that the unorthodox genius of Watson is unrivalled in the world of golf. Long may it continue.

Any instructor would tell you to ‘Look away now’ as the newly crowned Masters champion larrups another tee shot with his legs moving all over the place or bends a sand wedge into a tricky pin from 170 yards.  No one was averting their eyes on Sunday.

Can it last though? Watson’s first PGA Tour title, in June 2010, was four and a half years in the making after his debut in 2006 and his form has always been sporadic, until this year. So far in 2012 he has chalked up one win at the Masters, three top-fives and a worst finish of tied-18th.

Whether his current run of form can continue for years and years in the same vein as Tiger Woods is a tough question. Less than a year ago Louis Oosthuizen, defeated by Watson in the Masters playoff on Sunday, said to me he simply “wasn’t swinging it well” when I asked him the reasons behind missing the cut at the European Tour’s flagship event, the PGA Championship.

Masters Live

Follow all the action and excitement of the Masters with our team of reporters and photographers at Augusta National as Tiger Woods goes in search of his fifth Masters title while a host of rivals, including Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson and world number one Luke Donald seek the famous green jacket for themselves.

Click here for updates, pics, quotes, commentary and behind the scenes news from golf’s most iconic venue.

Woods wins at last but is Tiger “back” this time round?

“That was a huge win for Tiger Woods today. Our game just got a whole lot more interesting,” scribed world number 11 Dustin Johnson on Twitter on Sunday after his fellow American dominated the field at Bay Hill to clinch the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

This theme is already being discussed just hours after former world number one Woods won his first PGA Tour event since September 2009 after a much publicised fall from grace towards the end of that year and at the beginning of 2010.

Like him or loathe him, there is no doubt the 14-times major champion does wonders for the game of golf. You only had to listen to the raucous crowd chanting his name around the 18th green a few hours ago to appreciate that.

So, will this yield a new era of dominance by Woods? Commentators and experts were abuzz during his final round on Sunday, some saying he is now swinging the club better than when he was winning majors back in the middle of the last decade.

There’s a way to go however to match the relentless streak Woods set off on in 2000-01, when he held all four major tournaments at the same time and looked unstoppable. Those days are long gone.

Nonetheless, with the American hitting shots like his towering 267-yard three iron to within 15 feet on the par-five 6th during his final round and more importantly wielding a red hot putter, who is to say this is not the start of another era of dominance?

One thing is for sure. The year’s first major at Augusta National cannot come quickly enough. Woods to be paired with the top two ranked players Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy in rounds one and two? No doubt the Augusta committee are busy thinking up some star-billed trios as we speak.

McIlroy top of the world, Woods firing…Florida serves up a classic

Rory McIlroy became the second youngest number one golfer on Sunday after Tiger Woods when the Northern Irishman survived a final-round special from the 14-times major winner at the Honda Classic in Florida.

Golf is in fine fettle. 22-year-old McIlroy can do no wrong, Woods is showing signs of a resurgence and the pair will meet again at next week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship in nearby Doral for another elite-field event.

World number three Lee Westwood also shone on Sunday with a seven-under-par final-round 63 and by the tournament’s conclusion the leaderboard was a feast of talent.

The critics who had circled for 40 weeks since England’s Luke Donald reached top spot last May can now be silent again.

Some argued a major-winner should be at the top of the rankings, with Donald, despite a prolific 2011 in which he became the first player to win both the PGA Tour and European Tour money list titles, not yet on that list.

Now they not only have a major winner. They have the game’s brightest young player who could possibly go on to much greater heights. Stay tuned to golf in 2012.

Picture: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland holds the winner’s trophy after becoming golf’s new world number one player on the 18th green with his win in the Honda Classic PGA golf tournament at PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens

Woods caught between Rock and not such a hard place

There was no first full-field event win for the first time since November 2009 for Tiger Woods despite starting the final round of the Abu Dhabi Championship tied for the lead, but at long last the future seems bright for the 14-times major winner.

Englishman Robert Rock could barely believe what he had achieved in seeing off Woods in the final round to claim his second European Tour victory. It was a heart-warming triumph for the lesser known players who battle each season just to keep their tour-playing rights, galaxies away from the world Woods inhabits.

The American however seemed to return to earth during his time in the desert. Gone was his aloof, hot and cold manner of the past two years since his much-publicised sex scandal, replaced in the Middle East by friendly TV interviews and a vastly improved on-course demeanour.

Next up for the 36-year-old is the Pebble Beach Pro-Am starting on Feb. 9, another favoured location for Woods where he stormed to a record 15-shot U.S. Open win in 2000 when at the peak of his powers.

With two children to make time for, Woods’ schedule won’t be a packed one but will centre around the big events in the lead-up to the season’s defining months of April, May, June, July and August.

Another hurdle for the former world number one, now up to 17th in Monday’s rankings from 25, will be the release of former coach Hank Haney’s book on his time with the American, which provoked criticism from Woods himself given it will hit the shelves just before the first major of the year (U.S. Masters) in early April.

Nevermind. During his recent woes there were glimmers that Woods could enjoy himself and was relaxed, but they were few and far between. Those days are behind him now. As the old adage goes, form is temporary, class is permanent.

Will “fit and happy” Woods rediscover on-course cheer?

The photos depict it, Rory McIlroy’s been saying it, now it’s up to the Abu Dhabi Golf Club to confirm that at long last, Tiger Woods is happy and fighting fit again.

That the 14-times major champion should choose the European Tour’s first big event of the season to make his 2012 debut in favour of one of his favourite courses at Torrey Pines in California is one thing.

Woods’ results at Torrey Pines have been astonishing – seven wins including his last major at the U.S. Open in 2008 – while his rare forays to the Middle East have been equally impressive, two Dubai Desert Classic wins in six attempts with only one finish outside the top five.

More noticeable however is the American’s demeanour, critics say his huge appearance fee in the UAE capital might have something to do with it, but surely money no longer lures Woods. He wants to start winning again.

Whether he can do that in Abu Dhabi, with the spotlight firmly on him and a quality field including the world’s top four players, remains to be seen.

Should he find the going tough perhaps we will see the same surly Woods stomp around the course, spitting freely and winning no fans with his attitude.

But again, just like the money, surely those days are behind him.

from Tom Pilcher:

Two money list titles or a major? Opinion divided over Donald’s 2011

A quick glimpse at the statistics of Luke Donald’s season and you can’t fail to be impressed, though despite a record-breaking 2011 the world number one still has his doubters.

So, those statistics. 25 tournaments entered, two money list titles (he became the first person to win both the PGA Tour and European Tour order of merit honours in the same season), four victories, 19 top 10s (including wins), and three top 20s. Crucially however, no major title.

Does this make Donald’s season less successful? Certainly, but by no means should his phenomenal consistency be mocked, Australian golfer Aaron Baddeley said earlier this year.

Golf, after all, is a difficult sport to be consistent in, and while Donald might lack the big-hitting explosive talent of Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy, his ability to keep turning in good results even when off form has been remarkable this past season.

Like any sportsman at the top of their game, Donald knows winning the big titles matters most and the 34-year-old will want to land one of golf's four most treasured prizes in 2012.

Around a year ago Donald was answering to critics, such as one American writer who had coined the phrase "Luke Donald disease" in an article about under-achievers in golf.

"The critics will always be there and they make me stronger to be honest," Donald said. "Every time someone says I can't do a thing it just makes me work harder."

Major drought continues but U.S. in good shape behind Clarke

If American golf is in crisis then it is a crisis every other nation would like a taste of as the sport’s most dominant country made a determined assault on the 140th British Open at Royal St George’s this week.

They came up short as Darren Clarke secured a third major triumph in 14 months for Northern Ireland but the final leaderboard was otherwise littered with the Stars and Stripes as Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson shared second and Americans filled five of the top seven places and 12 of the top 24.

Clarke’s victory means that American golfers have failed to land any of the last six majors — the worst run since the Masters was launched in 1934 and the first time since 1994 that the sport has had a year without an American holding at least one of the four grand slam crowns.

Throw in last year’s defeat in the Ryder Cup and the fact that Europeans occupy the top four spots in the world rankings for the first time in 20 years, and something was surely rotten in United States golf.

Coming into the British Open virtually every member of the PGA Tour was asked at some point for their thoughts on what was causing such a drought.

Was it the legacy of the “Tiger effect” where a whole generation of players have been so scarred by always being in the shadow of Tiger Woods that now the great man is off the scene and/or off the pace they are unable to seize their opportunity?

Was the PGA Tour too cozy, enabling young players to earn millions without ever winning a tournament, let alone challenging for a major?Was the collegiate system out of date?

Charismatic “People’s Champion” Seve Ballesteros dies

Ask anyone you know you has attempted the game of golf “Which golfer’s style would you most like to copy?” and they will most likely say the dazzling Severiano Ballesteros.

The Spaniard’s flare and touch were what stood him apart, and here follows reaction from his friends and rivals. There will never be anyone quite like him again.

Record 18-times major winner Jack Nicklaus: “Today golf lost a great champion and a great friend. We also lost a great entertainer and ambassador for our sport. I have always had wonderful respect for Seve’s ability, how he played the game, and the flair he brought to the sport. It was his creativity, his imagination and his desire to compete which made him so popular not only in Europe but throughout American galleries too.

“He was a great entertainer. No matter the golf that particular day, you always knew you were going to be entertained. Seve’s enthusiasm was just unmatched by anybody I think that ever played the game…Seve was, without argument, a terrific player — his record speaks for itself — but more important was his influence on the game especially throughout Europe.

“Through the years his involvement with the Ryder Cup, as both a player and captain, served to further elevate the stature of the matches. He was probably the most passionate Ryder Cup player we’ve ever had. I think his team mates always rallied around him and that passion of his. He was Europe’s emotional and spiritual leader, the heart and soul of their team. The Ryder Cup was something that was very, very special to Seve and Seve was very special to us.” — Statement.

Fourteen-times major champion Tiger Woods: “I was deeply saddened to learn about the passing of Seve Ballesteros. I always enjoyed spending time with him at the Champions dinner each year at the U.S. Masters. Seve was one of the most talented and exciting golfers to ever play the game. His creativity and inventiveness on the golf course may never be surpassed. His death came much too soon.” — Twitter.

Six-times major winner Nick Faldo: “He was a leader; bringing the spotlight to the European Tour, paving the way to European success at the Masters and bringing his relentless passion to the Ryder Cup. Today I would call him Cirque du Soleil. For golf he was the greatest show on earth. I was a fan and so fortunate I had a front row seat.” — Statement.