GOLF/ TOUR NEWS:WHILE IRELAND'S two major champions yesterday headed in opposite directions over the Atlantic – Pádraig Harrington returning home for a short break before building up to the British Open on the back of a fifth-place finish in the Travelers Championship, Graeme McDowell heading over to his house in Lake Nona for some downtime ahead of resuming tournament play next week – the vast majority of the Irish touring professionals had Paris on their minds, specifically the French Open at Le Golf National in Versailles.
No fewer than nine Irish players will be in the field, with Rory McIlroy, ranked 10th in the official world rankings, headlining a strong contingent that also features Paul McGinley, Shane Lowry, Darren Clarke, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Michael Hoey, Gareth Maybin and Simon Thornton.
Thornton secured a place courtesy of his career-best top-10 finish in Munich last Sunday.
Significantly, the French Open also features the welcome return of the injury-plagued Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal, a former winner, who has not played a full tournament since last October.
Olazabal has been afflicted by a condition known as rheumatoid polyarthritis in his feet for over a decade but his manager Sergio Gomez said the player “is progressing, he is much better than two or three months ago. He is enjoying golf again”.
McIlroy is part of a quartet from the world’s top 10 in the field, which also includes Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Luke Donald.
And, buoyed on by the US Open victory by Graeme McDowell, the 21-year-old Ulsterman is keen to get his competitive juices flowing again after missing the cut at Pebble Beach, which led to an early trip home and missing out on witnessing his friend’s major breakthrough.
Indeed, McIlroy is already casting an eye ahead to the British Open at St Andrews in just over a fortnight’s time. While he will be seeking a third career title – to add to his Dubai Desert Classic of last year and his Quail Hollow victory on the US Tour in May – in France, McIlroy has admitted post-Paris plans that will involve playing links golf at home in Northern Ireland after playing in next week’s JP McManus Invitational Pro-Am at Adare Manor (on Monday and Tuesday).
“I’ll probably play a couple of rounds of links golf with (coach) Michael (Bannon) and then I’m off to St Andrews on the Friday and Saturday so I can get some early practice under my belt,” said McIlroy, who then plans to return home for a couple of days before heading back to the Old Course on the Tuesday before the Open.
His aim is to make it seem as much like a regular tournament as he can. “Major weeks are so long and you feel like you’ve been there forever, so the way I’m doing it just makes it a bit more or a normal tournament week. I know St Andrews like the back of my hand anyway, so it is just a matter of taking the course conditions into account.”
Of course, there’s a lot of work to be done before then. The French Open, which has a prize fund of €3 million, placing it very much in the upper-tier of tournaments on the European Tour, is a prize worth chasing in its own right and McIlroy – who missed the cut in his only previous appearance in the event in 2008 – will be keen to get not only tournament sharpness but also into contention.
Incidentally, all four of those top-10 players from the world rankings competing in Paris will be moving on as soon as play finishes on Sunday to Adare, for the JP McManus tournament.
On the other side of the Atlantic, there are just two players from the world’s top 10 in action in the ATT National – Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk – and, yes, both of them are also headed to the Co Limerick venue.
That JP McManus tournament will also feature McDowell’s return to competitive action after his US Open win. The Ulsterman – who flew to Orlando yesterday for a few days break – will be playing in the charity tournament before moving on to the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond and, then, on to the British Open at the Old Course.
Harrington, meanwhile, will use the Adare Manor 36-hole as his final competitive preparation for a bid at a third British Open title in four years before fine-tuning for the actual championship with practice rounds at St Andrews on the Saturday and Sunday, which seems like a likely place in which to bump into McIlroy who has very similar plans.
The Dubliner’s final round 64 on Sunday gave him a fourth top-10 finish on the US Tour this season, and moved him to 45th on the tour’s FedEx Cup standings.
Despite picking up additional world ranking points for his fifth place finish in Connecticut, Harrington currently remains outside an automatic place on Europe’s Ryder Cup team for the match against the United States in October.
Watson secures first victory on PGA Tour
THE TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP was won by American Bubba Watson who broke through for his first PGA Tour victory late on Sunday, sinking a nervous three-foot par putt on the second play-off hole to defeat Scott Verplank and Corey Pavin.
The win was Watson’s first from 122 starts and his comeback from six strokes behind the largest on the PGA Tour this season.
“To get into a play-off was amazing,” said Watson, who birdied the 72nd hole for a final round 66.
If someone would have told me that I would shoot four under today I would have thought that might get me in the top five.
“To get in the play-off and somehow make that par putt was amazing.”
Watson and Verplank birdied the 18th, the first play-off hole, to see off fellow American Pavin, who hit his approach into a greenside bunker and then failed to hole out.
At the second extra hole, the par-three 16th, neither Watson nor Verplank were on target, the former leaving himself with a more than 40-foot birdie putt, the latter missing the green completely on the left.
Verplank failed to get up and down and Watson made his par putt to wrap up the victory.
“I didn’t feel nervous on the front nine,” Watson said. “But I was nervous down the stretch. When I took that par putt, I couldn’t feel my arms.”
Englishman Justin Rose, who carried a three-stroke lead into Sunday with high hopes of a second Tour victory in a month, crashed out with a 75 to finish in a tie for ninth.
One over at the turn, he fell apart with three bogeys and a double-bogey on the back nine.
“It’s hard to play golf when you feel like you are going to miss every putt from two feet,” Rose said.
“I was just that uncomfortable on the greens all day.
FINAL ROUND SCORES:(US unless stated, par 70)
266– Bubba Watson 65 68 67 66 (Bubba Watson bt Scott Verplank and Corey Pavin at second playoff hole), Corey Pavin 65 66 69 66, Scott Verplank 67 69 66 64
267– Chris Riley 68 65 69 65
268– Ricky Barnes 69 67 64 68, Chad Campbell 67 70 65 66, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 68 69 64 67, Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 64 71 69 64
269– Brendon De Jonge 70 63 67 69, Kris Blanks 68 67 67 67, Justin Rose (Eng) 64 62 68 75, Vaughn Taylor 67 65 67 70
270– Scott McCarron 68 66 66 70, Ben Curtis 65 68 64 73, Kevin Sutherland 65 65 71 69, Matthew Jones (Aus) 65 67 68 70, Vijay Singh (Fij) 65 66 73 66, Rickie Fowler 71 65 68 66, Ryan Moore 68 67 69 66, Nicholas Thompson 68 70 66 66
271– Charlie Wi (Kor) 64 67 71 69, Michael Sim (Aus) 68 67 67 69, Bill Lunde 68 63 69 71, Tim Petrovic 67 69 66 69, Cliff Kresge 70 64 71 66, Jason Bohn 66 69 67 69
