ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

A bit of a concern is that all our probable ryder cuppers were soundly beaten by the world number 471. Fair play to simon kahn of course-marvellous achievement. its notjust luke donald who failed to rise to the occasion.It pains me to say this about lee westwood who is a local hero to us up here. Theres all this talk about his run of close shaves in the recent majors that the door will eventually open for him.It'll have to be a pretty big door though.Garry Player shamed lee and clarky years ago into dropping some weight.I see lees won millions already this year-good on him but he looks like hes carrying it all with him in a money belt. In change!And how disappointing were the rest of our"big hitters"?Poults,Mcilroy,Harrington,Casey,Stenson et al big tournament winners not in the frame this week.As regards wentworth its just not quite yet but it will be no doubt.

I don’t agree with Iain’s assessment that β€œsecond place at the PGA Championship does not fall into that category”. I think it unfortunately highlights Donald even more. Yes the 17th is now very tough but the hash he made of it for a player who is known for consistency can only be the mental game not agreeing with the physical. I agree with Iain in terms of his Ryder Cup place his short game was a master class of cool and calm. Donald like his peers are not finishing despite bullying the Leader boards for 3 rounds. At the start of year Iain’s blog was for a great year for English players and I had some doubt about that. Six months in I still have more doubt and the criticism justified is quietly growing this side of the pond to balance the hubris in the states. We’ll see if Westwood for example does land the US OPEN we might see a Stuart Pearce Euro 96 style celebration on the 18th ....

I largely disagree with the above posts as British, and in particular, English golf does seem to be thriving - and with the likes of Wood and Willett coming through, there seems to be much hope for the future. Yes, it is true that the Ryder Cup hopefuls would benefit from closing out major tournaments but there is a consistency to the leaderboards at the moment (notwithstanding the world rankings) which suggests that come Celtic Manor, we'll be in a good place. Moreover, i woudn't say that a one shot win is being "soundly beaten", particularly when Khan's putt on the 18th could easily have lipped out on another day. Re: Donald, I would hope that he would be a pick even if he doesn't make it through from qualifying directly due to his good record in RC and his ability to complement the likes of Casey. Khan's achievement was superb but the fact remains that this was a once in a lifetime win for him (sorry Simon!). Westwood had a bad weekend by his standards (on a course not suited to his game) but still finished tied for 10th so hardly disasterous. Let's see what happens at Pebble Beach - I will still be going e/w on Westwood!

It was dissapointed to see Donald fail to see it through, I really wanted him to win this one, but Khan is a better player than most people think, so I'm glad for him.

Re: Wentworth course. I bet the members I loving the prospect of the course being dug up again!!

I have to admit to being one of the Westwood/choker subscribers and I note he managed to put together a good round after he'd ensured he had no chance of winning, but the revamped Wentworth seemed to present quite a challenge.

It was exasperating listening to Peter Alliss mumping and groaning at the standard of play, but it doesn't require Sherlock Holmes to deduce conditions are hard if only 6 players break par in a day. I like to think someone had told the old curmudgeon to lighten up a bit yesterday, but recall he was guilty of the same behaviour last year. Perhaps it is time to depart whilst there are still one or two people enjoying his comments.

I was impressed by Danny Willet's tenacity, hanging in there through a difficult Saturday and still having a chance of winning on Sunday. Because none of the top players were able to put that round together to steal the title, it was left to Simon Kahn to do so. Playing his best round of the weekend, which was a good score by anyone's standards, was always going to put him in contention, so well played. I would be very surprised to see him challenging for the title again.

Luke Donald can't really be described as dynamic, but he might have tried a bit too hard on the 17th tee, as that hole presents more of a challenge to him than many. He still gave it a good go on 18 though, so well played Luke.

Paul Casey just didn't catch fire over the weekend. He kept himself in contention until the turn yesterday, but all golfers know sometimes it just doesn't happen on the day. I remain to be convinced the changes represent improvements, as they're not necessarily aesthetically superior, leading to a fairly dull television spectacle. Hopefully some fine tuning will strike the right balance between rewarding quality and punishing mistakes, as I think it doesn't at the moment.

Overall, a disappointing tournament, but it's good to see one or two new(ish) faces.

Sorry to see Luke Donald not win, a significant absentee from the last Ryder Cup team and one whose name should be inked in towards the top of Monty's list for this year.
But Iain's characterisation of Donald as a "precision" golfer is sadly outdated. He has been described repeatedly on 606 as "short and crooked", he has bulked up (everything's relative) to try and add muscle and yardage, but is still short (170th on the PGA Tour) and not very straight, 65th. Not bad, and sharply improved on the past two years, but not exactly Calvin Peete either.
There is the sense that, as yesterday, when he wants to reach back for something extra, that silky smooth swing gets over-extended and the ball goes sideways.
The best short game in the world can only make up for so much.
Great tournament though on a great course, surely even better next year.

It's a shame that Englands only tour event hasn't been the great success everyone hoped for and had been tainted by some negativity.

I appreciate that Wentworth is a special place and think that the endeavour to restore some magic is both commendable and, to some degree, horribly sentimental.

Of course Mr Caring is going to spend his hard earned on his course in an attempt to put it (and English golf) back on the map but is it really going to make any difference? And is there any risk that the sponsors will look elsewhere for a host venue for Englands only tour event?

It's not like England is short of championship courses? I was wondering if there is something in place to stop events being held on courses on the Open rota? St Andrews is part of the Dunhill Links event so I assume not? Could these fantastic courses not be used to generate a little magic?

Gee (A Scotsman who wants to see more Gowf in Ingurland!!)

Luke Donald - beautiful swing, beautiful short game ... but unfortunately fell at the final hurdle in a spectacular way. It was like he shot himself in the foot with that drive. Great news for Simon Khan and I was pleased to see him win after having to struggle through Q school.

The course is obviously a lot tougher, but not many people played it well - mostly a bit too aggressive. The last day is not much of a spectacle when that happens, and for most of us amateurs we saw a lot of the punishment we normally get for missing relatively easy shots. I saw a lot of short putts missed, and a lot of wedge shots miss the greens. I couldn't really understand why the players were so inaccurate - there was no wind, the greens were not that fast and the conditions were perfect. Maybe they didn't have enough respect for what was a tough test.

On Sunday morning I had 2 betting slips. One had Β£15 win at 50/1 on Karlsson the other Β£10 win at 50/1 on Wood. By tea time they were in the bin. You will go a long way to see two more woeful rounds of golf than those played by the aforementioned.

I wont have it that the course was tough etc. The weather was perfect, there was very little wind it was a great day to play golf. Peter Aliss was correct in some of his comments. Players were going in with 7 or 8 irons and missing the green by miles. It was just poor play.

I think Luke Donald did remarkably well to stay in contention despite obviously struggling with his game; also I couldn't believe how many players went chasing tough pins .If Chris Wood had played more defensively early in his round he would have romped home.Will he learn? Lets hope so

I think it is a shame we are so quick to stamp all over our British golfing prospects. Donald clearly hit a bad drive on 17, his swing deserted him on a particularly difficult driving hole. However, to slag him off and other home players for their performance is concerning.

Do you think Els, Woods, Mickelson, Harrington haven't thrown tournaments away when in good position. It can happen, they accept it, deal with it and move on to the next tournament.

As for people talking badly about Westwood, it took a player of immense skill in Mickelson to beat him at Augusta who took unbelievable risks on the back 9 and got the rewards. Westwood did not lose, Mickelson won that tournament. He didnt shoot mid 70s to fizzle out, he played under par which shows a lot in my book. If those shots of Mickelson hadn't of come off, Westy would have won and people would be saying that Mickelson threw it away!

A game of very fine margins at the highest level.

I for one can't wait for the Ryder Cup, the Europeans have the better players across the team in better form.

Jonallan - I think it was a tougher test than the players remember at Wentworth and there were quite a few raised greens with run off areas. If 6 under par won, with the type of field there was, it had to be otugher than a lot of courses. I agree with Alliss and you that the players played poorly ( by their standards), and they often didn't hit many shots safely into the middle of the greens. If they had they would have scored better, but no-one would have torn up the course over the 4 days like a lot of other courses in Europe where they end up 20 under par for 4 days. I think in that sense the course was tougher than normal and deserved a bit more respect.