With his wire-to-wire win at this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland, the young 24 year-old South African Branden Grace has capped an incredible run from surviving the qualifying school to amassing four victories on the European Tour in the last 12 months.  Four European tour wins in a year puts him in some rarified air with guys like Seve, Tiger, Ernie, Sir Nick, Monty, Bernard Langer, Lee Westwood, and Martin Kaymer.

Grace wins $800,000 for his wire-to-wire 22 under score in this prestigious event played over the Old Course at St. Andrews, the Championship Course at Carnoustie, and the Kingsbarns Golf Links.  He set the tone early with a sizzling 60 at Kingbarns on the first day and held a four-shot lead going into the final round at St. Andrews.

But it would be no cake walk with Denmark’s Thorbjorn Oelsen nipping at his heels making three birdies on the front side and pulling even for the championship when Grace bogied the 11th.  He gathered himself making birdies on the next three holes rebuilding his advantage and played even down the last four to hold on for a two-shot win.

This championship has been a site for some heart stopping duels of late.  As recounted in this moegolf post of the 2012 Championship,  an unheralded Northern Irishman, Michael Hoey, outdueled the two previous U.S. Open champions, fellow countrymen Rory McIllroy and Graeme McDowell, to win the top prize.

A product of the Ernie Els development program in South Africa, Branden Grace is in the mold of Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel as possibly the next great player from a country that has produced so many distinguished global champions.

Maybe the most impressive stat is that Grace has won 100% of the time he has had or shared the lead going into the final round of a European Tour event.  No one will challenge his ability to close.   You have to think this young phenom has his eyes on a spot on the President’s Cup team for 2013 and some solid performances when he gets invites to the World Golf Events and Majors next year.

October, 2012

The colossal collapse of the American Ryder Cup team at Medina this weekend is wrought with all kinds of hubris.  Down 10 to 6 going into the Sunday Singles the Europeans gathered themselves winning 8 of the 12 matches outright to snatch victory for the jaws defeat and return the Gold Cup to European soil for the next two years.

So many personal vignettes from this weekend-below are reflections on some of them.

Jose Maria Olazabal: A direct connection to Seve who remains the heart and spirit that drives the European Ryder Cup successes.  Some delayed gratification to Jose for having to putt through the American footprints at Brookline in 1999.

Ian Poulter: The flashy duds are just a distraction.  There is a heart of a champion burning in his chest and the Ryder Cup is a personal display case for this.  He just cannot seem to hasten it in the Majors but maybe it is just a matter of time.  In retrospect, Poulter’s late birdie run in the exhilarating comeback in Saturday afternoon’s four-ball match against Johnson and Dufner may have been the turning of the tide.  Four wins this week and 12-3-0 overall in the Ryder Cup is an impressive resume.

Justin Rose: This man will win a major in the next 18 months.  His gutsy performance making the par saving putt on 16 and the two daggers on 17 and 18 to pull out the seminal singles match against Phil should dispel the notion that Rose cannot putt when it matters.  The bigger the stage, the more difficult the track the better this man performs.

Rory McIllroy: The yoke of #1 in the world can be heavy but he has proven time and again this season that he is strong enough to bear it’s burden.  Besides the small matter of not being able to set his alarm clock for his Sunday appointment, at 23 years old he was a true leader for this team.  He came through with Poulter on Saturday night and had a convincing win  against Keegan on Sunday that helped right the European ship.

Sergio Garcia: He cannot ever make up for his perception as an underachiever because of his lack of a major victory, but the Ryder Cup has always been his forte.  Teaming with Luke Donald they beat Tiger-Stricker in the other key Four-Ball match on Saturday and a gusty back nine performance Sunday outfitted Jim Furyk for the another goat costume in the singles.  Sergio may not believe in himself but the Europeans sure believe in him and were sure glad to have him back on the team.

Luke Donald: May not be a true #1 in the world but you could see throughout this competition that his competitive grit and amazing short game make him a formidable foe.  He surely silenced the babbling Bubba as the first match out this Sunday.

Nicolas Colsaerts: His 1 and 3 performance as a rookie was only so-so but an eight birdie-one eagle performance to single handedly beat Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in the Friday Four Ball is a thing of Ryder Cup lore.

Martin Kaymer: Proof that, if you have the right stuff, you can 180 a bad career trend in one afternoon.  His steely five-foot par putt on 18 against Stricker erased some bad German memories from the 1991 War By The Shore and put the Cup back in a first class trans Atlantic seat for the ride home.

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Davis Love III: He brought the right temperament to the U.S. squad to make these show ponies feel comfortable.  Some will second guess a couple of line up moves but winning the first three sessions you have to think he put the Americans in a position to be successful.  The abject failure of his hottest players to win a point in the first five matches on Sunday has to fall on the players not the coach.

Steve Stricker: Next time you see him at a team event he will be wearing an earplug as a captain’s assistant.

Tiger Woods: 1/2 a point contribution….really…you have to expect more from your top stallion no matter how poorly his support staff supports.

Zach Johnson: Testimony that it is not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog that matters.  His two wins with Dufner may have lacked sizzle but they helped build a formidable American advantage through two days.  A sound drubbing of a struggling Graeme McDowell may have been one of the reasons that the competition came down to the last three games.

Keegan Bradley: The crazed look, the boundless reservoir of energy makes him the ultimate warrior to have with you in the fox hole.  He single handedly revived Mickey’s Ryder Cup performance and that was no small order.

Phil Mickeson: In some ways he may be the greatest sportsman of this golf generation.  There is so much Arnold fire and Nicklaus grace sewn into his competitive personality.  Phil handled the Justin Rose onslaught on the final three holes of their singles match with dignity and aplomb worth sharing with your children.

Jason Dufner: We have to accept his flat line TV persona as a genetic given but he shown in this Ryder Cup that he has the fire and talent set to perform at the highest level in the biggest events.  He, like Rose, will win a major in the next couple of years and maybe more than one.

Jim Furyk: Not withstanding the 5-hour Energy sponsorship, he is a tired figment of his former warrior self.  It has been difficult to watch him be placed in the cross hairs at a major golf competition so many times this summer.  Another one who may be better outfitted with a head set for the next international team competition.

In the end we have seen that the Ryder Cup remains a compelling piece of golf drama and that the Europeans continue to write the script.  They have won five of the past six and, more than anything, this means that home court advantage for the Americans is just a figment of our imagination.

September, 2012

Check out indelible images of the Ryder Cup 2012 from Guardian UK

With the deluge of Golf Channel pre-game coverage for the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah this weekend our heads are bursting from pundit past analysis versus future predictions…..Brandel Chamblee alone has compiled an encyclopedia of data to justify any outcome you could possibly imagine.

Bottom line is that based on history alone the European Team has the advantage no matter what soil the matches are played on.  It is going to take some very stellar team play, something the Americans have not proven to have an high aptitude for, by both veterans and rookies to bring this trophy by the American soil.

The secret weapon may be the putting of rookies like Sneds, Keegan, Webb, and Dufner.  Making putts wins Ryder Cups.

Here is the skinny on the basic stats in the last 13 Ryder Cup Competitions between 1985 and 2010.

…………………….United States     Europe…………………………..

Wins                              4                     8

Ties                                1                    1

Matches Won              142               175

Points Won                  171               193

Foursomes Points       48.5              55.5

Four Ball Points           41.5              62.5

Singles Points              81                  75

Besides the obvious that Europe in the Seve and After Era has dominated the results with a 66% winning percentage they have also won this thing three times on foreign soil.  They can handle the partisan crowds.  The Europeans have also won 56% of the matches outright which goes a long way to explaining the 22 points spread overall in the 13 appearances.

Maybe the most startling and unexpected difference is that the Euros have outscored the Americans by 21 points in Four Ball matches.  It is not obvious why the Europeans would have an advantage in Best Ball matches, the likes of which they have played their entire competitive lives back to the cradle.  Frank Nobilo’s theory is that the Americans do not communicate well with their partners and are not willing to defer their tactics to protect their partners in these matches.

The American’s 7 point edge in the Alternate Shot Foursomes is pretty hard to figure as well.  I guess there is no deference required there, you just have to hit it where your partner put it.

The slight edge of 6 points in Singles makes sense because this is the least team oriented format and, if as so many of these pundits have posited, the Americans are more lone wolves than team players they would fare best in the format where they rely solely themselves only.

Brandel had one very interesting stat he shared the other night.  According to him during this same period the team that won the first match in the first session won the Ryder Cup over 60% of the time.  He said no other first match in any session had such a distinct correlation to overall outcome.  I guess if I am Olazabal I am putting Rory and Graeme out in the first foursomes match on Friday morning.  Not sure who the best duo for DL III would be under this theory.

One last thought.  If the Americans fail once again to take back this piece of hardware home I think they should suggest changing the Ryder Cup format to a Golf-Ping Pong Biathlon.  According to this article, Matt Kuchar could be the Roger Federer of table tennis and Mickelson and Tiger are plus fours and would be a formidable combination in the Ping Pong Foursomes.

September, 2012

Brandt Snedeker controlled his own destiny going into the final stage of the PGA Tour Playoffs and proved up to the task on Sunday shooting a 2-under par 68 on his way to winning the Tour Championship and the Fed Ex Cup for 2012.

You can relive the final round below, just like the Post Game on Golf Channel but without the sophomoric blabber of Rich Lerner, Charlie Rymer, and Brandel Chamblee.
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Thursday September 20th before round 1

Fed Ex Kup Standings:

1st  Rory McIllroy
2nd Tiger Woods
3rd  Nick Watney
4th  Phil Mickelson
5th  Brandt Snedeker

All five can determine  their own fate.  Win the Tour Championship they win the FedEx Cup and all the semolians.  For Rory it would sear his brand on the #1 World Ranking.  For Tiger it would be his fourth win of the year and put him back in the discussion as Player of The Year.  This opportunity frames the hot new Rory-Tiger rivalry that has developed since the PGA Championship at Kiawah.

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Sunday 1:00 PM  before leaders tee off

Tour Championship Standings:

1st Brandt Snedeker -8   Justin Rose         -8
3rd Ryan Moore        -6
4th Rory McIlroy       -5    Bubba Watson    -5     Jim Furyk            -5

Snedeker has the most to gain with this win.  A quasi-major in the Tour Championship and a super major in the FedEx Cup and over $11,400,000 in cash would certainly change his life.

For Rose and Moore 24th and 28th respectively in the Fed Ex Standings at the beginning of the week the win of the Tour Championship would be a prestigious feather in their career cap and about $1.4 million in their bank accounts.   But they would need serious help to repeat Bill Haas’s accomplishment of stealing the cup from the bottom quartile.  It seems unlikely that McIllroy and Woods will both fall far enough from grace to give them a shot at the Overnight Delivery Grand Prize.

As this day has begun it looks like Mickelson and Watney are no threat to McIllroy. It is only Eldrick and Sneds that have Rory’s attention at this point.  Pretty confident that McIlroy is only seriously worried about the man in the red shirt.

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Sunday 3:30 PM leaders thru #8

Tour Championship Standings:

1st  Brandt Snedeker -8
2nd Justin Rose         -6
3rd  Ryan Moore        -6
4th  Jim Furyk            -5
5th  Bubba Watson    -4

After an early birdie got him to 10 under Sneds had his first hiccup with a nervous double bogie on six he looks shaken going to the seventh tee.

A great bounce back birdie for Snedeker on 8 asserting the long putting prowess that has buffeted him all week.  Justin Rose has struggled with two bogies so far but made a nice par save on the same hole to stay in touch with Snedeker.

Got to marvel at Ryan Moore handling this pressure.  With great focus he is finding fairways and greens.  So far the hole has been about 1/2 an inch too narrow to grace him with the birdies he has deserved with his aggressive putting.  But he is not going away.

At this point, McIllroy and Woods are both 4 over through the first seven and in a tandem nose dive to 11th and 14th respectively.  Not the start of the compelling duel between them that Tim Finchem was hoping for.

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Sunday 4:00 PM leaders thru #10

Tour Championship Standings:

1st  Brandt Snedeker  -8
2nd Ryan Moore         -7
3rd  Justin Rose         -6
4th  Jim Furyk            -5
5th  Bubba Watson    -4     Webb Simpson   -4     Luke Donald       -4

The pressure is starting to take it’s toll across the field.  Rose has had a number of chances to close the gap with some terrific iron play but his putter has lacked sufficient enthusiasm to cash in.

Moore just made a long birdie putt on the par three 11th to close within one shot.  But Snedeker answered with a clutch sand save on 10 right behind him-he is giving no quarter.

Jim Furyk is parring the course to death through the first 12 holes but him making pars does not make up any ground.

McIllroy finally made a birdie on 12 to stop the hemorhaging and settle back to 2 under.  Unlike the first three days, he looks uncomfortable out there, his distance and towardness control into the greens is sketchy and the ball on the green does not seem to have eyes for the cup.

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Sunday 4:40 PM leaders thru #13

Tour Championship Standings:

1st  Brandt Snedeker -9
2nd Ryan Moore        -8
3rd  Justin Rose        -7
4th  Luke Donald       -5       Webb Simpson   -5
6th  Bubba Watson    -4      Jim Furyk            -4

Luke Donald is proving he is still one of the best in the world on the greens.  With five birdies through 16 holes….only three bogies has kept him from from seriously threatening the lead.

Dustin Johnson has not been a factor.  He did show a momentary spark with an eagle on 15 after knocking it in close and made a birdie on the tough 17th with a long range bomb from way uptown. But gave most of it back with bogies on 16 and 18.

Webb Simpson still has bad memories of blowing out all four tires in last year’s Tour Championship and setting up Bill Haas’s unlikely come from the oblivion win in the Fed Ex Cup.  His play today provides some redemption.  Five birdies, including one on the tough par three finishing hole, earned him a 66, tie for the low round of the day, and moves up to 4th in the Tour Championship.

Once again Sneds long putting is proving to be his own best friend making another improbable one for birdie on the 13th to assert his advantage back to two shots.

Ryan Moore is one cool cucumber with that smooth unorthodox swing and those unorthodox True Linkswear shoes.  He has shown his ability to cope with the challenge burying a long one on 14 to get back to within one and take over second alone at 8 under.

It is likely that scoring opportunities on the par five 15th will be pivotal for guys who are chasing.  Hitting the fairway on the water confined 17th and showing respect for the difficult pin placements on 17 and 18 will be crucial for the leaders trying to avoid a train wreck that could decide this championship.
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Sunday 5:10 PM leaders thru #15

Tour Championship Standings:

1st  Brandt Snedeker -10
2nd Ryan Moore          -9
3rd  Justin Rose          -8
4th  Luke Donald         -6
5th  Webb Simpson     -5      Bubba Watson      -5

A shout out for the Tour’s tribute to the military on the 16th hole where every player walking off the green has the opportunity to shake the hands of active military personnel and thank them for their contribution to the freedom’s we enjoy.

As predicted Moore carded a second consecutive birdie on the pivotal 15th, chasing a hybrid approach just past the hole and getting up and down from behind the flag for a four.  This threw down the gauntlet putting him into a tie at the top of the leader board at 9 under.

But Sneds answered the challenge hitting the green in two and lagging it for a tap in birdie to get the lead back alone at 10 under.

Rose had a little magic of his own with a sand save birdie from the front bunker on 15 to stay within two.

One last bit of heroics for Luke-he hits it to 10 feet of the phone booth pin placement on the finishing par three and buries it for one more birdie to shoot 67 and take fourth alone at this six under.

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Sunday 5:45 PM-The Finish

Tour Championship Final Standings:

1st  Brandt Snedeker -10
2nd Justin Rose          -7
3rd  Luke Donald        -6          Ryan Moore         -6
5th  Webb Simpson    -5          Bubba Watson     -5

Fed Ex Cup Final Standings:

1st Brandt Snedeker               2nd Rory McIllroy                   3rd Tiger Woods

Tiger reclaimed a little bit of the red hue in his Sunday shirt hitting it stiff on 18 and sending the green side crowd into a momentary delirium as he had a tap in birdie to end his day.  Mission not accomplished, his two over 72 did not do much to improve his position in this championship, the FedEx Standing, or the Woods-McIllroy Rivalry.

Rory never had it together today with three bogies and a double ending the day with a lackluster four over 74.   Because of the reset bias from winning two previous playoff events he still finished second in the Final Fed Ex standing.

In a quaint memory moment, Furyk had the identical bunker shot up and down on 18 that won him the Tour Championship and Fed Ex Cup in the rain two years ago.  But his two over score left him high and dry today.

Bubba Watson made a scintillating birdie on 17 but hit the green side bunker going for the flag on 18 resulting in his fourth bogey to go with his four birdies. Result was he treaded water at five under for fifth place in the championship.

In a sharp reversal of fortune down the stretch, Ryan Moore squandered his chance with back-to-back-to-back bogies on 16, 17, and 18 getting out of position and missing all three greens.  Ends up T-3 with Looooook.

In retrospect it was apparent from the start that today was to be Snedeker’s coronation as a deserving champion of both the Tour Championship and the Fed Ex Cup.  The bounces went his way right to the end.  He banked his drive off the hospitality tents next to the driving area on 17 and then cleared the front bunker by two feet on his approach into the green.  He proceeded to replicate his hero Tom Watson’s accomplishment holing a short pitch for birdie on the 71st hole to seal the victory.  A safe bogey on the finishing hole and he had his arms around both trophies and a pile of cash.

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Snedeker’s stats for the week tell it all.

Number one in Birdies.
Number one in Strokes Gained Putting.
Number two in Putts Per Round.
Number three in Putts on Greens in Regulation.
Second in Fairways Hit.
Seventh in Greens In Regulation.
He only missed one putt from 8 feet or in all week.
That will get it done.

September, 2012

(For more background on Sneds read moegolf’s posting earlier this year)