Golf Clubs Reviews

PGA Champion Keegan Bradley held off a charging Masters champion Charl Schwartzel to win the elite, end-of-season PGA Grand Slam of Golf by one shot  in Bermuda on Wednesday.

American Bradley fired a level-par 71 for a four-under 36-hole total of 138 at the Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton that turned out to be just enough to pip Schwartzel.

Schwartzel, who had trailed co-leaders Bradley and Rory McIlroy by seven strokes overnight in the two-round stroke-play event, signed off on the second and final day with a blistering 7-birdie 65.

He raced to the turn in a 5-under 31 with five consecutive birdies from the fifth to briefly hold a share of the lead before dropping his only shot of the Callaway RAZR X Tour Irons at the par-three 13th.

The pencil-slim South African picked up further shots at the 15th and 17th holes but it wasn’t quite enough. He eventually ended up a stroke behind Bradley.

US. Open champion McIlroy didn’t have anything like as good a closing round.

He followed an opening 67 with a disappointing 75 to finish third at even par with fellow Northern Irishman Darren Clarke (74) a distant fourth at nine over.

The Grand Slam event, billed as “the most exclusive tournament in golf”, traditionally brings together the winners of the year’s four majors and this year’s battle was a lot more competitive than Bradley had thought it would be.

“It was a lot more intense than I thought it was going to be,” he said after his victory, breathing a huge sigh of relief.

“Maybe that was because of the players that were here. I’m sure everybody wanted to win Callaway RAZR X Tour Irons.

“Coming down the stretch, it felt like any other tournament that I played golf in. It was very, very intense, and I was nervous over that five-footer to win.”

Schwartzel said: “Today was tough. The wind was very strong – it made shots difficult. I just made a nice putt there on five, which is the first one that felt like the whole tournament, and a long one on six.

“And all of a sudden it felt like, ‘I can do this, I can make a few putts out there.’ ( Callaway RAZR X Tour Irons )

“My stroke started to become a little smoother and I could see the lines a bit better and made a whole bunch of birdies and got myself in it.”

Rory McIlroy, who began the day sharing the lead with Bradley on 67, once more struggled to find some consistency.

Sergio Garcia’s hopes of a first win for almost three years were boosted by a four-under-par opening round of 67 at his home club in Spain today.

The 31-year-old, looking much more like his old self this season after suffering personal problems and a real slump in the quality of his Ping G20 Driver last year, was only one behind early pace-setter Fabrizio Zanotti midway through Thursday’s second round in the Castello Masters at Castello’s Mediterraneo course.

Garcia played golf in the same group as defending champion Matteo Manassero and England’s first time Tour winner last week, Tom Lewis, – and it was the 18-year-old Italian who made the fastest start with four successive birdies.

Unfortunately Manassero was unable to maintain his frenetic pace and after running into a double bogey at his sixth hole where his 4-under total was suddenly cut to two under, the wind went out of his sails he was only able to finish a 2-under 69 by playing Ping G20 Driver.

Lewis, who stunningly captured the Portugal Masters in only his third professional start on Sunday, played Thursday first round feeling somewhat under the weather “because of a virus and fared even worse. He had to be content with a level-par 71.

A buoyant Garcia, who was just one over at the turn, in the meantime, had caught alight coming home on the front nine to record a five-under 31 with birdies at the second, fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth holes.

That would have taken him into a share of the lead with South African George Coetzee at 4-under, but for the fact that Paraguayan Zanotti, chasing his Ping G20 Driver, had five birdies in a row from the 11th to get across the finish line ahead of both of them and in the early clubhouse lead with a 5-under 66.

Garcia said: “It was a slow start, but the par putt on one (his 10th hole) was huge and then I got going.”

England’s Robert Coles and German Marcel Siem both reached five-under to briefly lead the field during their rounds, but Coles double-bogeyed the 14th and Siem did the same on the 15th to fall back on the leaderboard.

Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal and John Daly were among the later starters.

Since Darren Clarke’s victory in July’s Open Championship,he hosted his foundation’s first “Champions Weekend” at Portmarnock.

The Darren Clarke Foundation, welcomed 20 winners from across Ireland to the annual event where they competed at Portmarnock Golf Club and Portmarnock Links and enjoyed a series of clinics hosted by the Champion Golfer of the Year.

Those winners of the boys and girls national and regional age group championships were invited to there. In addition special invitations were extended to Leona and Lisa Maguire, Tom Lewis,has won his open Championship Silver Medallist at the Portugal Masters, in only his third professional start.

The 20-year-old, who was a member of the victorious GB&I Walker Cup team at Royal Aberdeen just five weeks ago, birdied five of his last seven holes to take the title and secure his tour card for the next two years.

A delighted Lewis said: “I’ve not thought about the money — I was thinking about winning.

“I’ve got a long way to go. I’m nowhere near the player I want to be, so I’ll put this win behind me at the end of the year and start fresh next year.

“I would not have expected this at all. I was really dreading going to the Qualifying School at the end of the year, but it looks like I’ve skipped that.”

Clarke, who won the 140th Open Championship at Royal St George’s, said:

“I am delighted to have hosted the 2011 Champions Weekend. One of the main aims of the foundation is to promote and foster junior golf in Ireland.

“My sincere thanks goes to Portmarnock Links and in particular Portmarnock Golf Club which has become the home of the DCF Champions Weekend.

“From the feedback I have received the participants seem to have enjoyed themselves and hopefully my advice and mentoring will help them in the development of their golf game.”

The event also saw Clarke award €5,000 bursaries to the 16-year-old Maguire twins, who follow other successful players including 2011 GB&I Walker Cup team member Alan Dunbar in receiving an award from the foundation.

What’s more,for the European Junior Solheim team, Leona won the 2011 British Women’s Amateur Stroke Play Championship and Lisa won the 2011 European Women’s Amateur Championship. Both played in the 2010 Curtis Cup team, at 15-years-old the youngest players ever selected for Great Britian & Ireland.

Duncan Weir, The R&A’s Director of Golf Development, said: “The R&A hugely admires the work of the Darren Clarke Foundation which I am sure will play a part in extending the recent run of Irish success in Major championships long into the future.

“This foundation can be added to a long list of initiatives led by Open Champion.The work of these great champions ensures that thousands of youngsters are given the opportunity to experience golf and that the stars of tomorrow embark on their careers with as much help and advice as possible.”

Even if you don’t know much about golf, it’s likely that you still know Tiger Woods, the man who has become the face of not only EA’s golf franchise, but the sport as a whole. The infamous scandals surrounding the man’s indiscretions over the past year have done a great deal to tarnish his reputation, and apparently EA Sports is doing some damage control.

Whether the decision to spotlight the game’s most famous American course is a direct effort to shift attention from Tiger Woods to the game itself can’t be known, but after the previous game’s shockingly disappointing sales, it was safe to assume that the developers would have to change something.

Nowdays come out the PGA Tour news and its 2012 schedule which shows only minor changes from this year’s listings.

Once more it will feature 45 official money tournaments – the same number and configuration as 2011 with 37 during the Regular Season, four Playoffs for the FedExCup and the four-tournament Fall Series.

It means the PGA Tour, still golf’s richest despite the recent gains made by the European Tour, has been able to maintain the same number of events for a fifth successive year, an outcome that has been heralded as a minor triumph by many in the US given the global economic downturn and the loss of some of its oldest sponsors in the past few years.

“The 2012 schedule again demonstrates the strength of our sport with a very strong collection of tournaments, venues and sponsors that provide outstanding playing opportunities for our members and attractive viewing options for our fans,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem.

“The FedExCup and the PGA Tour Playoffs continue to generate interest and excitement through September, with the Fall Series focusing on the drama of players fighting for their playing privileges.”Augusta National and the Masters is something that fans have been deprived of, and Moore stated that the featuring of the event on the box art is a fan service, showing that they’re set to give fans something that they’ve been “literally begging for for close to a decade,” and that there is no truth to the idea of EA distancing itself from the face of the franchise.

The game will also feature a few new game modes, like ‘Masters Moments,’ giving players the opportunity to re-enact some of the tournament’s most famous shots. ‘Tiger at the Masters’ should sound familiar to those who have played NBA, as it calls on the player to measure up to the legend, and relive each of Tiger’s 4 wins. The addition to the NBA 2K franchise was well-liked, so apparently EA is learning from its competition.