Golfbidder Tour Wrap Tim Clark is like a character from Oliver Twist. The South African picked the pocket of Jim Furyk and stole the Canadian Open from under his nose. It was impossible to tell during the final round that Clark was coming off one of the darkest periods of his career with more missed cuts than a blunt scissors as he birdied five of the last eight holes in Montreal to add the trophy to his 2010 Players Championship crown. Maybe its being a bit disingenuous to Jim Furyk, given that he shot rounds of 67-63-65-69, to say he blew another lead but its kind of getting to the point where you begin to worry about the guy mentally. Jims grand total for leading after 54 holes yet not winning now stands at seven straight times since he won the Tour Championship in 2010. Furyk had a three shot lead with eight holes to play again yesterday and you just wonder how many times he can pick himself back up off the proverbial canvass. It is surely also a question for USA Ryder Cup Captin Tom Watson. What role, if any, will Furyk play for the USA at Gleneagles? Tim Clark, it turns out, has an affinity with Canada. His wife, Candice, is from Toronto and has family in Montreal. Clark won his very first professional tournament on the Canadian Tour in 1998. The irony of it is Canada could be the location of my first win and my last one, Clark said after the in. To come back here, its full circle. That was 16 years ago when I was just cutting my teeth as a professional golfer and I was fortunate enough to be given some starts up here, so I have fond memories. From a European standpoint the Canadian Open saw Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano secure his PGA Tour for 2015 with a tie for fourth and GMac scored yet another top 10 finish with a final day flourish. Meanwhile at a sunny Royal Porthcawl Bernhard Langer underlined his status as a golfing legend with the most dominating performance ever at the Senior British Open championship. The German beat his next nearest rival, Colin Montgomerie, by a whopping 13 shots to win the title for the second time. In the history of the Seniors Tour, no player has ever won by that many shots; it was as though Langer was playing a totally different golf course to the others with an irresistible mixture of guile, craft and course management. “The secret was I didnt make too many mistakes and my driver was very good and my long putting was excellent, although not quite today as I was lacking a little,” said Langer. “Perhaps my lead was too big.” On the European Tour the Russian Open couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time in the wake of the MH-17 tragedy but it proceeded in a low key manner without incident. David Horsey emerged the winner after a playoff with Damien McGrane. It was Horsey’s third Tour win and the consolation for McGrane was securing his playing rights for 2015. Off the course the rift between Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell deepened when a court in the McIlroy versus Horizon Sports Management case ruled that McIlroy’s lawyers will now get to see intricate details of GMacs Horizon dealings. Basically Team Rory say their man paid Horizon above and beyond reasonable rates and that Horizon arent due a penny more from any Nike deal in future. They also say Rory was told he would be getting the same terms as GMac when he signed his Horizon deal. They say it turned out Rory was paying a lot more than GMac in fees and found out almost by the back door that hey GMac is also a shareholder in Horizon, after Rory signed his contract, which added to their displeasure. Now McIlroys lawyers have won the right to examine in intricate detail ALL GMacs dealing with Horizon. I think I’m standing on pretty solid ground here by predicting that Rory and GMac will not be featuring as one of Paul McGinley’s pairings at the Ryder Cup. Speaking of the Ryder Cup, all is not well in the USA camp either ahead of this September’s matches with Jack Nicklaus weighing in the whole Tiger Woods will he won’t he play debate. Tom Watson will surely not be thanking Jack for his Ryder Cup comments which seemed to back him into a corner. He wants Tiger Woods on Team USA and thats that. Oh, absolutely, Nicklaus said. I couldnt imagine Woods not being on a Ryder Cup team, unless he does absolutely nothing in recovering from his game between now and then. I dont care what he does between now and then. If Tiger wants to play, I would certainly choose him, Nicklaus said. My guess is that Tom feels pretty much the same way. Tom would certainly like to have Tiger on his team and I think anybody in their right mind, unless he just doesnt want to play or doesnt think he could play, would not choose him. Watson, not Nicklaus, will make his Ryder Cup selections on September 2nd.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000
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