Quail Hollow Championship - Video Preview
If you haven’t read my preview piece on the Quail Hollow Championship, well then go read it. Still refusing to do so? Fine, here is a quick video to keep you up to speed.
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Drive for show, putt for dough
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington….what do they all have in common? Great swings, multiple tour victories, major winners, Ryder cup representatives, hunger, desire, great putters, erratic drivers of the golf ball! Hold on a minute, what that last one again?
Yes it is true. Tiger has been inconsistent to say the least, off the tee over the past few years. Phil has been spraying it around too, although I sometimes wonder does he do it on purpose to amaze us with his recovery shots (Seve Ballesteros had a similar habit). This season, Harrington too seems to have caught the awful curse of having difficulty finding fairways.
Its a shame really becasue the art of driving the golf ball seems to be lost in many courses these days. Take for instance this weeks Quail Hollow Championship. While it is a tree lined course, the rough is non-existant. Early round leaders therefore include Woods (-7), Mickelson (-5) and Harrington (-4). Now obviously these are three of the best players in the world and might have been at the top regardless of the rough. However, consider that Woods hit just over 50% of fairways in his round and Harrington, after 14 holes, has hit a disappointing 33%…hardly inspiring is it?
Im not surprised by the course conditions though. Sponsors and TV companies want birdies and excitement and so, the courses are generally more playable these days. Roll on the thick lush rough of the US Open and countless pro’s moaning and complaining about the state of the course…. Chances are though, that Woods, Mickelson and Harrington will still be there or there-abouts then too, even if it does mean having to scramble time and time again….nit-picking the best players faults isnt easy you know!
Spanish stars to shine at home
The European Tour moves to Spain this week and I will be posting a complete preview of the Open d’Espana later today. However, to give you an insight, my top picks are as follows:
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano continues to perform extremely well. Although it will have to come to an end, it is difficult not to back him. He is a passionate player who will want to perform well in front of his home crowd so at 16/1, we are sticking with Gonzo.
I mentioned the young Rafael Cabrera Bello. He has won countless junior titles in his homeland and will want to add a professional title to the prestigious list. Long and accurate off the tee, We Get Golf view him as a winner in waiting and it would not surprise me if that was this week. Best priced at 40/1, he is great each way value.
Check back later for a full preview.
Website Issues
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Apologies for any inconvenience but it appears there are issues when viewing the blog from internet explorer. I am working on this but in the meantime, the blog is working fine from Firefox. I would encourage you all to use Firefox as it is faster and more secure. Therfore, here is the link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ie.html. Once you download this, the blog will work just fine and you wont miss a thing.
Once again, I apologise to all viewers. Please check back soon.
Mickelson to “Phil” his Boots at Quail Hollow
It’s a top quality field this week at the Quail Hollow Championship with Tiger Woods currently the 3/1 favourite. It is always difficult to look beyond any other winner than Tiger, but at 3/1 and with the course being tight and tree-lined, We Get Golf has picked out a few other players who could offer better value.
Phil Mickelson is a favourite here at We Get Golf for his attacking play. With 2 wins and 4 top-10’s from his eight events this season so far, Mickelson is a man in form and was not far off winning the US Masters in our view. Like Woods, his driving remains suspect but he is more than capable of offsetting the odd bad hole with so many great ones. Best priced at 10/1, I feel he could go close this week in what would be great preparation for Sawgrass next week.
Rory Sabbatini has impressed We Get Golf over the past few weeks. T20 in the Masters could have been better only for a 76 in the final round. He followed this up by finishing T8th at the Verizon Heritage and was T2 last week at the Zurich Classic. At odds of 35/1, he is worth an each way bet in our view.
Finally, David Toms can be got at 6/1 for a top-10 finish this week. After a disappointing 2008, Toms has come back into form with 4 top-10 finishes this season, including a 5th place finish last week in the Zurich Classic. An accurate player with a great putting stroke means we wouldn’t be surprised to see Toms claim a place in the top-10.
Verdict
Phil Mickelson (10/1) will reign supreme ahead of Woods and Garcia among others. Don’t be surprised to see Rory Sabbatini (35/1) in the places and David Toms (6/1 for top-10) to finish in the top-10.
Quail Hollow Championship 2009 Preview
This week is the halfway point of the PGA Tour regular season (16 weeks into the year) and the tour heads to North Carolina for the Quail Hollow Championship. Formerly known as the Wachovia Championship, the tournament has been held at the Quail Hollow Club since 2003.
There may been no headline sponsor but there is no shortage of top golfers. Seven of the world’s top ten players are in attendance, the winners of 14 tournaments so far this year on the PGA Tour and 19 major champions with a combined 40 major victories.
In 2008 Anthony Kim earned his first PGA Tour title, taking a four-stroke lead into the final round and rolling to a five-stroke victory over Ben Curtis. Kim finished with a tournament record 16 under par 272 and was the youngest winner on the PGA Tour last year aged 22 years, 10 months and 15 days.
Quail Hollow is a demanding golf course and ranked 20th most difficult course on tour in 2008 and 11th in 2007. It is an old fashioned style tree lined golf course with narrow fairways and multiple doglegs. No player has recorded four rounds in the 60’s.
The greens are some of the most sloping the players will ever come across and their putting strokes will undergo a rigorous examination on the bent-grass greens. There are a few greens out there that are maybe a little too undulating for my taste, and I’m sure if you asked a lot of the players they would say the same thing said Todd Hamilton.
The 17th, ranked the most difficult hole, is the signature hole at Quail Hollow. The tee shot requires a 200 yard carry over water and the green slopes back to front and right to left. It was the toughest par three hole on the PGA Tour in 2008 (average score 3.418). The 18th, ranked the second most difficult hole, has a creek that meanders along the left hand side of a narrow fairway. There is a hazard on both sides of the deep sloping green. Last year, it was the fourth toughest finishing hole on the PGA Tour (average score 4.367).
With less rough than in previous years and rain forecast players will need to make a lot of birdies to win. Three of the last six winners have been major champions so expect the highest ranked players to feature at the top of the leader board. For more, check out the video above featuring Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim and Vijay Singh amongst others.
Getting to Know - Anthony Kim
After We Get Golf showed you yesterday what’s in Anthony Kim’s bag, today we learn a little bit more about the man himself. From loving his moms home cooking to hating heavy metal music, all is revealed in this short video of Anthony Kim.
Ochoa out of this World!
Lorena Ochoa successfully defended her title at the 2009 Corona Championship. Contrary to her 11-stroke margin of victory in 2008, the Guadalajara native did not secure this year’s win until the final hole by one stroke over five-time LPGA Tour winner Suzann Pettersen. Ochoa, who has now won 26 events on the LPGA Tour, outlasted Pettersen on Sunday to finish at 25-under-par 267, as the duo never could gain more than a two-stroke lead over each other all day.
With the score tied at 23-under-par and only four holes to play, the defending champion recorded birdies the 15th and 16th, while Pettersen had to settle for par. As they walked to the 17th tee, Ochoa held a two-stroke lead, forcing Pettersen to either birdie the final two holes or record an eagle to insure a playoff. With both players making par on 17, a Pettersen birdie on the 18th left her at 24-under-par 268, one stroke shy of Ochoa.
Na Yeon Choi tied for 3rd on 18-under, Wendy Ward was next on 17-under while Christie Kerr and Yani Tseng tied for 5th a further shot behind. Although she hasn’t won yet, Michelle Wei continues to show some good form and she finished the week T10 on 14-under par. She might have hoped for more after opening with a 7-under 66 on Thursday but nevertheless, it was a solid performance. We Get Golf continue to believe she has the potential to become a superstar on the ladies tour…we just await the initial breakthrough.
Anthony Kim - Whats in the Bag?
Anthony Kim defends his title this week at the Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina. The young exciting star has already provided the golfing world with some magical moments. With this in mind, We Get Golf brings you up-to-date with the equipment Anthony Kim uses to achieve his success.
Watch out over the next few days for more videos of Anthony Kim from We Get Golf.
Even Tiger Woods is error prone!
When I first saw the Nike add with Tiger Woods bouncing the ball on his wedge so effortlessly, I immediately went to copy it. Looked simple right??….Wrong!!
Well the good news is that, even Tiger struggled. Nice to see the humorous side of Woods and even better to see that he is human!
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