Lee Westwood wore Tiger Woods red on Sunday as he attempted to end two years in Europe without a victory.
Francesco Molinari wore Stewart Cink ogre-green as he tried to end three years without a victory. As usual Tiger-red triumphed and with this win at the Portugal Masters Westwood now goes top of the Race to Dubai ahead of Rory McIlroy.
The 36-year-old Englishman was both skilful and fortunate. On the 17th hole he baled out of his dangerous second shot over water, but was lucky that his nervy hoik finished in an ornamental shrubbery near a path from which he got a free drop.
The bad news was that he now faced a flop shot, off a bare lie, over some small trees, to a green with water beyond. He said earlier in the week that the weakness in his game is from 80 yards in. On Sunday Westwood played one of the shots of his life, all but holing the pitch and leaving a tap-in for birdie. It was just reward for an awful lot of hard work in the previous two years.
Poor Molinari watching back in the fairway must have been cursing his luck. The Italian had just jabbed a short putt for par left of the hole on the 16th green, having putted brilliantly earlier in the afternoon. But his old weakness had come back at the crucial moment.
At the start of the week Westwood said he wanted put himself in a position where a win in Dubai next month would guarantee he would finish top of the money list. By Saturday night it was no longer about the money, it was about winning.
Westwood’s caddie Billy Foster, who used to caddie for Seve Ballesteros, has been reprising the great Spaniard’s mantra all week “second is no good.” On Sunday evening Westwood became a winner again, just as he was back in 2000 when he had six victories and was known as the most ruthless closer on tour. Westwood can now take that winning feeling on into next year’s majors, having become such a formidable player in the big championships.
But spare a thought for Molinari. Like Westwood he is one of the best ball strikers on Tour, but Molinari fears the putter. Before his round Gary Wolstenholme, the conqueror of Molinari in the semi-final of the 2003 Amateur Championship, said: “Can he conquer his nerves? He was exceptionally long as an amateur but his putting was always a genuine weakness.” This time the weakness proved still as genuine as this Italian, who can yet become an important member of Colin Montgomerie’s Ryder Cup team.
Despite winning three majors, Padrraig Harrington is driven by the need to improve his game.
Many people thought that Padraig Harrington had gone mad. How could anyone win three majors and then start messing about with their game? Harrington’s answer is a simple one. He wasn’t going any higher.
Harrington believed that he had reached the top of his ascent and he could still see people above him. Harrington was not able to accept third best.
All day Harrington has been working on his game under the Portuguese sun. As Harrington grinds on the practice ground, Phil Bonham of Wilson has been grinding his irons in the equipment truck. It’s 4 o’clock in the afternoon and still they are grinding, searching for an ever sharper groove.
Harrington pauses and says: “My attitude is, yeah, I’ve won three majors but I want to get better. I would say that I had peaked at No 3 in the world when I won the three majors. I had peaked unless I did something to change and get better. Right or wrong that’s my nature. There’s no change in my nature, you got that right.”
Those who have questioned Harrington’s need to make changes might as well question why the river runs to the shore. Nature. It is the story of the scorpion who persuades the frog to give him a ride and then stings him halfway across the raging river. As they both accept their approaching deaths, the scorpion explains: “It’s my nature.”
Harrington has to keep trying to get better. It’s his nature. That nature won him three majors. It drives coach Bob Torrance mad and it keeps Harrington almost sane. He says: “I’m a happier person, even if I’m playing badly, if I know I’m going forward. Bob takes it to heart. It’s not easy for him if I don’t perform. I’m much better at saying this is all part of the process going forward.”
Some questioned if Harrington was as mentally sun-dried as we had thought after he dumped balls in the water in successive tournaments back in August. Harrington is amused at the thought that he might be haunted by those shots.
He says: “Someone said to me the other day: ‘Don’t hit it in the water’. Well, I could avoid hitting it in the water, but I wouldn’t be trying to win the tournament. That’s the fact. Tom Kite used to say he could lead greens-in-regulation stats every week if he wanted to, but he wouldn’t win the tournament by hitting it in the middle of the green.
“You have to take some chances. At Bridgestone I could have chipped it out to 15 feet, two-putted for my bogey, lost the tournament to Tiger [Woods] by a shot and everyone would say: ‘Oh well’. There’s a place where you are pushed into it and you have to go for it.
“At the PGA I came to a tough par-three. I didn’t feel I could afford to make bogey. I played lovely all day, but I hadn’t holed anything in the first seven holes. I didn’t feel I had the luxury of bailing out like a lot of people bailed out. I felt I had to go for it. You live by the sword, you die by it.”
If you want to second-guess Harrington’s decision, then look back at what Y E Yang did. He went for that flag, like Harrington. Tiger bailed out, like Lucas Glover and many, many others. Yang hit the shot of the day, caught Tiger and changed the future. Who is to say Harrington was wrong?
Still Harrington’s mind rages on. It must wear him out sometimes. Next year Harrington could accept not winning a major again, but only, precisely if “I’ve done everything I can.” But he would far rather “be pushed over the edge” by the effort of winning two majors and suffer the same exhaustion that led to his poor performance at the 2008 Ryder Cup.
He agrees that it was an issue and says that if Colin Montgomerie wants to rest him before next year’s Ryder Cup then he could now accept that. Harrington doubts whether even a year ago he could have admitted the need to rest, but “I’m better able to tell who I am now”.
So, who is he?
Harrington is the man who has won three majors, tied with Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson. The next one to “win and get to four will set them apart.” And the one who wins Olympic gold will stand even further apart in Harrington’s mental labyrinth.
He says: “I want to win an Olympic gold because when I’m 70 years of age and looking back, we might be counting that as a major. The majors weren’t the majors 60 years ago. I think it’s going to grow.”
There are not many professional sportsmen who can get past the present like that. But Harrington has always looked into the future. The trick is not to go blind when staring at the sun. Or mad. Welcome to the sun-dried mind of Padraig Harrington. It’s fascinating, but it’s a maze that you wonder if even he always knows the way out.
Jean van de Velde’s hopes of making it back into The Open were hanging by a thread after an opening five-over-par 76 in the 36-hole final qualifying competition at Glasgow Gailes in Scotland on Monday
A total of 288 players were battling for only 12 places over three courses and Van de Velde was fighting an uphill battle from the moment he bogeyed the first four holes.
The 1999 runner-up was at the French Open on Sunday and took a late night flight from Paris to Prestwick, but it looked to be in vain as he trailed seven behind early leader Elliot Saltman, whose brother Lloyd – top amateur in the 2005 Open – was competing at Kilmarnock Barassie.
Former European Open champion Kenneth Ferrie, who missed out on a Turnberry spot by one shot by finishing sixth in France, returned a two-under 71 at Barassie, but that was four behind Spaniard Manuel Quiros.
Two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal and 1993 Ryder Cup team-mate Barry Lane were later starters at the same course.
Three players who will be at Turnberry are American trio Bryce Molder, Paul Goydos and Brant Snedeker.
Molder and Goydos secured their places as the top two players not already exempt in a mini-money list which ran from the Players Championship in May through to last week’s AT&T National, while Snedeker’s fifth place on Sunday earned him a spot.
Collated first round scores in the Open Qualifying Final Championship, Glasgow Gailes, Kilmarnock Barassie, Western Gailes, Ayrshire, Scotland смотреть порно видеоролики бесплатно
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par: 71, 71, 73):
(x) denotes amateurs
Glasgow Gailes
67 Elliot Saltman
69 Craig Corrigan, James Gill (Nzl), Paul Maddy, Nicolas Redfern (Hkg), Peter Baker, Euan Little, Chris Gaunt (Aus), Thomas Aiken (Rsa)
70 John Mellor, (x) Jamie Abbott, Mark Davies, Chris Geraghty, David Higgins, Scott Barr (Aus)
71 Craig Matheson, Scott Dunlap (USA), Craig Lee, Tim Dykes, Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Scott Jackson, Luis Claverie (Spa), Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Oliver Whiteley, Ross Bain
72 Kenny Banks, Brendan McDermott, Matthew King, Stuart Archibald, Ronan Rafferty, Warren Bladon, David Mills, John Parry, (x) Jarred McKnight, Ian Keenan, Darryn Lliyd (Rsa)
73 Joey Carlisle, (x) Matt Haines, (x) James Atkinson, Andrew Marshall, Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Nick Soto
74 Kenny Hutton, (x) Mark Rogers, Ben Westgate, Garry Houston, (x) Ross Spurgeon, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Martin Edge, Will Barnes, Ross Kellett, Barry Taylor
75 Carl Duke, David Kirkpatrick, Paul Dwyer, Scott Marshall, Daniel Casey, (x) Pat Murray, (x) Sam Hutsby, Sebastian Garcia-Grout (Spa), David James, David Boyce, (x) Michael Stewart, Andrew Johnston
76 Mark Stewart, Jean Van de Velde (Fra), Chris Doak, Phil Worthington, Ben Banks, Brett Taylor, David Griffiths
77 (x) Graham Povey, Andrew Barnett, Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor), (x) Richard Prophet, Simon Stevenson, Kieron Gaskell, Jonathan Lomas, Martin Sell, John Gallagher
78 John Green, (x) Neil Hargreaves, Thomas Crozer
79 (x) Michael Downes, Shaun Webster, Matt Allen, (x) Ben Stow, (x) James Hamilton (Nzl), Jerry Scullion, (x) James Fox
70 (x) Tommy King, Matthew Nixon, Jonathan Caldwell, Richard Golding, James Busby, Daniel Greenwood, (x) James Wilson, Gordon J Brand, (x) Luke Goddard, Gary Wolstenholme, Jon Bevan, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa), (x) Chris Paisley
71 James Mason, Oskar Henningsson (Swe), Raymond Russell, Llewellyn Matthews, George Cowan, Steve Lewton, Paul Wesselingh, Andrea Basciu (Ita), Mark Kerr, Kenneth Ferrie, (x) Jonathan Watt
72 Graeme Bell, Simon Lilly, Craig Ronald, Gareth Davies, Barry Hume, (x) Duncan Harris, Ryan Fenwick, (x) Curtis Griffiths, Barry Lane, (x) Scott Pinckney (USA), James Wilkinson
73 (x) Steven Brown, Christopher Kelly, Ashley Lucas, Marcus Armitage, (x) Xavier Feyaerts (Bel), Justin Evans, Jesper Thuen (Den)
74 Steven Parry, (x) Daniel Byrne, (x) Michael Daily, Jamie Moul, Simon Ward, Adam Hodkinson, (x) Farren Keenan, James Jankowski, David Shacklady
75 (x) Alex Christie, (x) James Robinson, (x) Mark Chamberlain, (x) Josh Mere, Matthew Evans, Steven Taylor
76 Alan Tyson, Lloyd Campbell, Jason Levermore, Kieran Staunton, (x) Jonathan Gidney, Duncan Muscroft, (x) Jake Amos, Neil Lythgoe, Neil Rowlands, Steve McAnally
77 Adam Norman, David Rawluk, Jamie Howarth
78 Jonnie Cliff, Jon Wetton, Scott Emery, Jack Wallace
79 Paul Jones, Ian Ridgway
80 Craig Smith, Mike Bradley
81 James Hepworth, (x) Andrew Hogan, (x) Jack Senior
DQ: Anthony Snobeck (Fra), Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe)
NR: Alex Fuell
Western Gailes
68 (x) James Byrne
69 Carlos Balmaseda (Spa)
70 Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Duncan McCarthy, Martyn Thompson, Rob Harris, Daniel Perrett, Zane Scotland, (x) Dale Whitnell, Jason Dransfield, Peter O’Keefe, Mark Loftus
71 Matthew Baldwin, Iain Steel (Mal), Steve Richardson, Michael Curtain (Aus), Reinier Saxton (Ned), Peter Whiteford, Thomas Whitehouse, Raul Quiros (Spa), (x) Amir Habibi, Craig Shave
72 Alexander Wrigley, Steve Surry, Ian Ashenden, (x) Jonathan Bale, Daniel Wardrop, Greig Hutcheon, Johan Axgren (Swe)
73 Thomas Haylock, Chris Gill, (x) Scott Fallon, (x) Sam Matton, (x) Richard Hooper, (x) Tom Hayes, Andrew Oldcorn, Lee Jackson, Lee Clarke, Kevin Harper, Inder Van Weerelt (Ned), Hennie Otto (Rsa), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Scott Henderson
74 Michiel Bothma (Rsa), James Harper, James Heath, Steven Tiley, Simon Edwards, (x) Todd Adcock, (x) Myles Cunningham, (x) Adrian Ford (Rsa), Matthew Griffiths, Nick Ludwell
75 Mark Smith, Luke Eggleston, Davin Knudsen (Aus), (x) Garrick Porteous, (x) Andy Sullivan, David Stanton, Robin Carroll
76 Guy Woodman, Francisco Lagarto (Spa), (x) Brendan Smith (Aus), (x) Sean Einhaus (Ger), Nicholas Morris, Lloyd Davies, Jeremy Robinson
77 Richard Neil-Jones, Wilhelm Schauman (Swe), (x) Andrew Gunson, Daniel Sugrue, Daniel Wood, Benjamin Howlett, David Carter
78 Paul Bradshaw, (x) Kevin Garwood
79 (x) Peter Latimer, Scott Henry, (x) Tom Sherreard, Alec Smith, Craig Bell, (x) Alex Hogben, Chris Roake, (x) Patrick Spraggs, James Westwood, Ben Scott
October 2009
October 19th, 2009 
