Friday Morning Golf News

Oosthuizen Drives On – One week ago, Louis Oosthuizen walked onto the first tee at the Old Course to the polite applause afforded to all competitors from the St Andrews crowd. Given the difficulty in pronouncing his surname, coupled with the fact that he was a 250-1 outsider to win golf’s grandest prize at the start of the tournament last Thursday, you could forgive the watching thousands the rather easy quip of ‘Louis who?’

Seven days and one Open Championship victory later, the South African was roared onto the first tee at the Nordea Scandinavian Masters by a crowd who know exactly who the man from Mossel Bay, South Africa, is.

After obliterating the very best players on the planet with that mesmerising performance to win golf’s most cherished trophy, Oosthuizen and the Claret Jug jumped on a private jet to Sweden to honour the sponsor’s invitation that the 27 year old had requested from the tournament organisers before winning at St Andrews.

It will be a long time before Louis has to go looking for an invitation to another golf tournament, but it is to his great credit that he honoured the Nordea Scandinavian Masters invitation after seeing the course lay-out on www.europeantour.com and feeling that the wonderful Bro Hof Slott Golf Club would suit his game to a tee.

He proved that emphatically by moving into share into a share of the five under par first round lead with Richard Green and Dustin Johnson to provide early proof that his new career in golf’s most intense spotlight will not phase the man whose gift to himself for winning The Open was a new tractor. [Europeantour]

Scandinavian Masters
Rnd 1 Leaderboard
T1.L Oosthuizen -5
T1.R Green
T1.D Johnson
T4.KJ Choi-4
T4.E Molinari
T4.S Jeppesen
T4.R Echenique
T8.N Fasth -3
T8.D Dixon
T8.G Boyd

Delahoussaye Equals Record 62 – Brent Delahoussaye thought he would be overmatched at St. George’s Golf and Country Club. It turns out, the historic course was no match for the former Clemson player whose lone pro victory came in the 2006 Hooters Tour Classic.

The 29-year-old Delahoussaye shot an 8-under 62 on Thursday to match the Canadian Open record and take a two-stroke lead in the national championship.

“I’ve been hitting it well. I was just getting in my own way,” Delahoussaye said. “Today, I was like, you know what, `I’m just going to go out there and play. This course doesn’t set up good for me, so I’m just going to go out there with a good attitude and not worry about it.’ And look where I am now.”

He had an eagle, seven birdies and a bogey in perfect scoring conditions on the Stanley Thompson-designed course, the tree-lined, hilly layout that features thick rough, narrow fairways and undulating greens.

“The key was probably hitting fairways,” the short-hitting Delahoussaye said after hitting 13 of 14 fairways in regulation, 14 of 18 greens and needing only 24 putts.

Vance Veazey and Brock Mackenzie shot 64s, and Mahan, Dean Wilson, Charley Hoffman, Jimmy Walker, Rich Barcelo, Steve Wheatcroft, Spencer Levin, Daniel Chopra and Brian Stuard had 65s. Seventy of the 156 players broke par and the field average was 69.712. [Pgatour]

RBC Canadian open
Rnd 1 Leaderboard
1.B Delahoussaye -8
T2.V Veazey -6
T2.B Mackenzie
T4.D Wilson -5
T4.H Mahan
T4.C Hoffman
T4.J Walker
T4.R Barcelo
T4.S Wheatcroft
T4.S levin

Watson accepts European Tour honorary life membership -  Tom Watson has been granted honorary life membership of the European Tour.

The eight-time major winner received the award at Carnoustie ahead of the Senior British Open, which began Thursday.

The 60-year-old Watson said it was a “great honor” and “totally unexpected.”

Watson joins Arnold Palmer, Bob Charles and Gary Player among the greats who have received the award while Champions Tour players. [Pgatour]

Anthony Kim not looking for Ryder Cup favour – Anthony Kim, who has been out for more than two months due to thumb surgery, could be fit to play in next month’s U.S. PGA Championship but is more concerned about making sure he qualifies for the Ryder Cup team.

“I think so,” the American told reporters at the Canadian Open on Wednesday when asked if he would be ready for the year’s final major at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin from Aug. 12-15. “We’re taking it week-to-week.

“I don’t want to say I’m going to come back on a day and not show up so we’re just trying to work as hard as we can (but) I definitely want to make that Ryder Cup team,” added Kim who is unable to play in this week’s tournament in Toronto.

“It’s a very special event to me and hopefully I can get back and get some more points so I won’t need to have any favours called in from Corey (Pavin).” [Golfinternationalmag]

McIlroy stars at Lough Erne – The Northern Irish duo of Rory McIlroy & Darren Clarke defeated the Republic of Ireland pairing of Padraig Harrington & Shane Lowry by a single shot in a close-fought contest at the second Lough Erne Challenge match.

Along the banks of the beautiful Loch Erne the few thousand hardy souls who turned up in high winds and heavy rain might have thought they were watching a one-man show as McIlroy birdied four of the first five holes.

McIlroy is the touring pro from the Loch Erne Resort and has a house on the grounds so you would expect him to play well with home advantage and so it proved as his ball striking was impeccable.

They say the scorecard never lies but the Northern Ireland team should have been six-under after the first five holes except McIlroy missed a 10 foot birdie putt on the first and his 12 foot putt for eagle on the fourth just slid by the hole.

After the match his partner, Clarke, said: “It was great to watch my partner make so many birdies while I had a nice stroll around the golf course.” [Golf365]