Left field

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."

McIlroy and Woods still have reasons to be positive

One of the most riveting final rounds at the Masters left Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy dealing with bitter disappointment, although they each appear to have bright prospects going forward.

Woods, without a tournament win for nearly 17 months, looked like the Tiger of old as he charged into contention over the front nine at Augusta National on Sunday, banishing any thought he might be a spent force.

He may have stalled in his title bid after the turn as his putter cooled but his inspired form from tee to green, which sparked trademark Tiger roars across the course, suggested a 15th major victory could be on the immediate horizon.

Britain’s McIlroy will almost certainly take longer to come to terms with his major heartache, having suffered one of the worst final-round collapses of all time in a grand slam event.

The 21-year-old, touted as a future world number one, led by four strokes going into the last day at Augusta National before tumbling out of contention with an eight-over-par 80 that was almost unbearable to watch.

Having produced remarkably mature golf well beyond his years over the first three rounds, McIlroy let a first green jacket slip through his hands as he missed several short putts early on before succumbing to a snap left hook.

Yet the brave and honest way in which the Northern Irish prodigy faced up to the media after enduring one of his worst days on a golf course suggested he is a characterful player who will rebound.

McIlroy and the new breed spice up golf’s dominant pack

Professional golf has benefited from two refreshing developments over the last year-and-a-half: the stunning impact made by some of the younger guns and a preponderance of first-time winners in the majors.

Sensational victories in the United States and Japan by Rory McIlroy and Ryo Ishikawa in early June served notice a new guard may be emerging to dominate the game over the next decade.

Northern Irishman McIlroy shot a course record 10-under-par 62 to win the PGA Tour’s Quail Hollow Championship by four strokes while Ishikawa blazed his way to a seventh Japanese tour title by firing a magical 12-under-par 58, the lowest score ever on a major international tour.

At the time of their respective successes, McIlroy had just turned 21 and Ishikawa was only 18. It would be an understatement to say the watching world was taken aback and, at the very least, the appetite of fans across the globe has been sharply whetted in anticipation of what may follow.

Since then, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell has clinched the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and South African Louis Oosthuizen has lifted the claret jug in the British Open at St. Andrews, unexpected major breakthroughs which have maintained the re-shaping of the golfing landscape.

Remarkably, there have been five first-time winners in the last six majors with Phil Mickelson’s emotional victory at the U.S. Masters in April the sole exception.

Memorial offers pointers to Pebble Beach contenders

This week’s Memorial tournament, an elite PGA Tour event in its own right hosted by golfing great Jack Nicklaus, is sure to offer several pointers toward the likely contenders at this month’s U.S. Open.

Many of the game’s leading players are making their final appearances on the circuit before switching focus to the second major of the year, which takes place at majestic Pebble Beach from June 17-20.

Two of the big guns — world number one Tiger Woods and second-ranked Phil Mickelson – have more than a few question marks hovering over their form at the moment. Woods, whose private life spectacularly unravelled at the end of last year, is returning to the tour after three weeks on the sidelines to defend his title at the Memorial.

 The 14-times major winner has not competed since he was forced to withdraw from the final round of last month’s Players Championship in Florida because of neck pain. An inflamed joint made it difficult for Woods to execute his swing and his driving accuracy, never his strongest suit, was woeful in his last outing at the TPC Sawgrass.

Mickelson, who delivered a ‘feel-good’ moment for the game when he clinched his fourth major title at the Masters in front of his wife Amy who is recovering from breast cancer, has also struggled off the tee. The American left-hander missed his first PGA Tour cut in more than a year at last week’s Colonial tournament, where he would have replaced Woods he had he triumphed.

A short-game magician who thrills the fans with his creative shot-making, Mickelson has averaged less than 50 percent in driving accuracy this season to languish 185th in the tour’s standings. Given that U.S. Opens place a high premium on accuracy with their traditionally tight fairways flanked by thick rough, Mickelson will be banking on a major improvement in this area of his game.

British Open proves elementary for Watson, tough on Tiger

It is fair to say we all expected an American with a surname beginning with W to be soaring up the British Open leaderboard but everyone has been shocked that it is 59-year-old senior Tom Watson topping the strong field and not a certain Tiger Woods.

Whilst the world number one toiled in calm conditions at Turnberry’s Ailsa course on Thursday, five-times Open champion Watson was recording a bogey-free five-under-par 65 to take the early clubhouse lead.

“Yesterday and the day before, playing the practice rounds I felt very good about the way I was hitting the ball and the way I was putting the ball,” Watson told reporters. “And it was not much of a surprise for me to go out there and get under par.”

Many will expect the eight-times major winner to fall away and not remain in contention but may I remind you cynics of the performance of another past master, Greg Norman, at last year’s championship at Birkdale. Norman finished third after leading going into the final round.

And it is not just Watson who is proving a torch bearer for the elder members of the golf circuit. Fifty-two year-old twice Open champion Mark O’Meara went out early and fired a solid three-under par 67 to sit alongside 1989 champion Mark Calcavecchia – one year shy of his 50th birthday.

Much of the talk at Turnberry before the championship had been about the chances of young Briton Rory McIlroy and teenaged Japanese sensation Ryo Ishikawa lifting the Claret Jug but Watson and co have shown them they still have a lot to learn on the South Ayrshire links.

In light of the fact that veteran Kenny Perry, 48, came within a whisker of winning this year’s Masters, only succumbing to eventual winner Angel Cabrera in a play-off, could this be the year the veterans fights back?

Rory McIlroy: Genuine Open Contender

Rory McIlroy can win The Open Championship at Turnberry this weekend.

The bushy-haired 20-year old from Northern Ireland is playing only his second Open, and first as a professional. But he is such a talent that he is capable of pulling off the biggest win in a major championship since the 21-year old Tiger Woods ran off with The U.S. Masters in 1997.

Rory’s youth should not hamper his chances. In fact it could encourage him. Only Tiger himself — who only a lunatic would argue is not the greatest golfer who ever lived — has a comparable early career record.  Tiger had just turned pro when he won the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational as a 20 year-old, but McIlroy was still a teenager when he secured his first victory as a professional: the high profile Dubai Desert Classic earlier this year.

Youthful prodigies are rare in golf. The Open’s two-time defending champion Padraig Harrington did not even turn pro until he was 24. But if you watch Rory play it immediately becomes apparent why he has had so much success.

I was lucky enough to arrive at Wentworth Golf Club in south west London a few minutes before Rory was due to begin his 3rd round at the BMW PGA Championship.

The first shot I saw him hit, his drive at the Par 3 second, was unlike any that his older peers had attempted in the groups before him. The ball fizzed extraordinarily high, drawing in right to left over the greenside bunker and onto the pin. He made the birdie putt, and proceeded to go round in a 7-under par 65, including eight birdies. At the 18th, a severe dog-leg par 5, he was so confident he smashed his drive well over 300 yards and around the corner of the fairway. Afterwards he just turned to his caddy and grinned.