Wednesday Morning Golf News

Durban Country Club to host SA Open 2010

Durban CC confirmed as SA Open host – Durban Country Club will host the 100th playing of the South African Open Championship between December 16-19, the South African Golf Association announced on Tuesday.

Durban Country Club is no stranger to the world’s top golfers, having hosted the SA Open on 16 previous occasions, more than any other venue.

Since it was first shaped from the bush and dunes of the KwaZulu-Natal coast in the early 1920s, the 18-hole championship course designed by Laurie Waters and George Waterman has remained a classic.

Gary Player, Bobby Locke, Ernie Els, Tim Clark, Tony Johnstone, Wayne Westner and Bobby Cole are among the illustrious list of past champions of the SA Open when it was played at Durban Country Club.

The course has achieved and maintained a standard of golfing excellence that has seen it ranked among the top 100 courses in the world.

“We certainly have a long history with the SA Open and are deeply honoured to have been selected to host the 100th playing,” said Ann Robbie, the chief executive of Durban Country Club.

“As always, the course will be a great test of golf and we will ensure that it is in pristine condition.

“We have established ourselves as a world-class golfing venue and we believe our course will enhance the reputation and prestige of the South African Open.” [Supersport]

Padraig Harrington voices Ryder Cup anxiety – PADRAIG HARRINGTON says he would be “gutted absolutely” and “devastated” if he was not part of Europe’s team at the Ryder Cup in October.
With only five weeks left in the points race, the three-time major champion admits he is in a “very perilous” position down at 17th place. Yet things are so tight that if Harrington wins this week’s Irish Open at Killarney he could move up to sixth.

Nine players qualify automatically at the end of next month and then captain Colin Montgomerie adds three wild cards. Competition is fiercer than ever before. Five players in the world’s top 25 – Paul Casey (9), Edoardo Molinari (17), Justin Rose (18), Harrington (19) and Henrik Stenson (23) – are in need of a wild card as things stand.

Harrington’s last victory was the US PGA two years ago, but he was at pains to point out that in the past 12 months he has had 14 top-10 finishes.

“I was asked the other day if I got selected would I actually pull out,” he said. “The inference was ‘would you pull out because you’re not playing well?’.

“I’ve had more top 10s in the last year than I’ve ever had in my career, so going on a guideline that most people use I’ve actually had the best year of my career.” [Sport.scotsman]

‘Biggest redneck’ on tour is right at home – The PGA Tour is making its first stop in West Virginia this week.

Wild and wonderful, says the tour’s resident country boy.

Boo Weekley, who cherishes his tag of being the circuit’s “biggest redneck,” is hoping The Greenbrier Classic will provide a jolt of medicine to help cure what thus far has been his worst season in four years on tour.

“Hopefully, I can get jump-started, because this would be a great place to get it jump-started at,” Weekley said Tuesday. “First thing, it’s beautiful up here. The terrain is awesome. Look around, and you get to see the big trees, you know, and different smells in the woods that you smell around this area.”

Four years ago, a second-place finish in a Nationwide Tour event — the National Mining Association Pete Dye Classic in Clarksburg, W.Va. — was pivotal in Weekley earning his way to the PGA Tour.

The Mountaineer State faithful embraced Weekley then, and he will be a huge gallery favorite this time. The fans see Weekley as a champion for the blue-collar man, a guy they can relate to. Seriously, name another PGA Tour player who once toiled as a laborer at a chemical plant. That was Weekley’s job in Pensacola, Fla., before he turned pro in 1997 and hit golf’s slew of mini-tours. [Roanoke]

New cut policy helped Pettersson – Good thing for Carl Pettersson that the PGA Tour amended its cut policy two years ago. Pettersson was among those who put in writing his opposition to the tour’s new cut rule at the start of the 2008 season. In an effort to avoid two-tee starts and 51/2-hour rounds on the weekend, the tour changed its policy from the top 70 and ties to the nearest number of players to 70th place whenever more than 78 players made the cut.

It caused so much consternation that someone posted a one-question survey – “Do you agree with the new cut policy?” in the locker room at the Sony Open. There were six signatures under “No,” which included Pettersson.

The policy was changed a short time later to include a 54-hole cut when more than 78 players qualified for the weekend. Two years later, that change enabled Pettersson, a former N.C. State golfer, to keep playing at the Canadian Open, where he made the cut on the number Friday, shot 60 on Saturday and closed with a 67 to win on Sunday.

“I would have missed the cut,” Pettersson said. “Now they have the Saturday cut instead, which … I really don’t see the point of it. But I guess it helps people get around quicker.” [Newsobserver]