Harrington Defends Open Title
Padraig Harrington successfully defended his Open Championship title with a four-shot victory over Ian Poulter at Royal Birkdale, becoming the first European to successfully defend The Open since James Braid in 1906.
Harrington, who beat Sergio Garcia in a play-off to win at Carnoustie last year, was a major doubt in the days leading up to the event after injuring his wrist winning the Irish PGA. It seems that history has repeated itself as Harrington missed out on practice time leading up to The Open at Royal Birkdale and at Carnoustie last year. The victory all but assures Harrington of a place in Nick Faldo’s European Ryder Cup team for the defence of their title in September.
Choi, who was tied with Harrington on four over after three rounds, fell back with a 79 to end 13 over. England’s Simon Wakefield, third overnight, partnered Choi in the penultimate group on Sunday but plummeted with a disastrous back nine of 43, including a triple-bogey eight at the 17th to end 14 over. South Africa’s two-time Open champion Ernie Els ended in a tie for seventh on 12 over despite a first-round 80 after carding a closing 69. England’s Paul Casey also finished tied seventh after a 70, as did countryman David Howell who climbed back up the leaderboard with a 67.
Another nice story from The Open was that of the English amateur, Chris Wood, who finished tied for 7th. He birdied the par-five 17th hole and parred the last at Hillside to secure his place at Birkdale through LFQ with rounds of 71-72 and was the winner of the Welsh Stroke Play Championship at Conwy in 2008, he moved to seventh spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking to become England’s leading player.
The 2008 Open Starts Tomorrow
So, it’s finally upon us. The 2008 Open begins tomorrow and promises to be just as interesting and exciting without Tiger Woods. Last year’s winner Padraig Harrington is off to a very similar start to the 2007 Open as he is suffering from an injury on his wrist which means he is missing out on practice time just like last year. Can lightning strike the same place twice?
There seems to be a healthy mixed opinion of who might win this year’s tournament at Royal Birkdale. There is a lot of press surrounding both Lee Westwood and last year’s runner-up Sergio Garcia. Westwood finished 3rd at this year’s US Open at Torrey Pines which was his highest finish so far of any of the 4 majors. Sergio Garcia has not won a major either, but did finish runner-up at the 2007 Open. He finished tied for 18th at this year’s US Open and won this year’s Player’s Championship after a playoff against Paul Goydos. Both golfers will be working hard to make this year’s Open Championship their first major win.
Lee Westwood’s golf bag currently contains:
Sergio Garcia is currently using:
Driver: TaylorMade Tour Burner TP
Woods: TaylorMade Burner TP and TaylorMade r7 TP
Putter: Scotty Cameron Newport
A lot of golf fans are saying that The Open this year will not be as challenging or rewarding with Tiger Woods not playing. What a load of rubbish. This year’s Open will be just as interesting as any other and for whoever wins, it will most certainly be rewarding, after all it’s not the “Who Can Beat Tiger Woods Tournament”!
8 Days Until The 2008 Open
Royal Birkdale, one of Britain’s finest golf clubs has been voted the Number One course in Britain, and is among the best in the world. Having already hosted The Open Championship 8 times, Royal Birkdale is again to host The Open 2008 Championship.
No two players prepare the same. Every one of them wants to go into next week’s Open at Royal Birkdale feeling that he could not have done his homework better. Sergio Garcia, an obvious favourite for Birkdale would not want to do things like Ben Hogan, the winner of the 1953 Open who arrived weeks ahead of time, and will not be putting in an appearance until Sunday. He said: “If you go too early you feel like the tournament never starts and the week never ends.”
Yet, as you would expect after his fifth-place finish in 2005 and 2006 and his near-miss in 2007, a lot of thought has gone into his plans over the last few weeks. He had four days of links golf in Ireland at the end of June and opted to play in the European Open above the Scottish Open because the London Club has linksland characteristics.
Garcia may be a favourite, but a workman is only ever as good as his tools. Recently Garcia has been using the following golf equipment:
Driver: TaylorMade Tour Burner
Woods: TaylorMade Burner TP
Irons: TaylorMade rac MB TP
Wedges: TaylorMade rac TP
Putter: Scotty Cameron Newport
Can all the practice he’s been putting in make perfect? Only time will tell.
9 Days Until The 2008 Open
Well, it seems that since I was last writing these countdown blogs things have changed. There will be no Tiger this year which means the Top Ten golfers who are the favourites have changed.
The Top Ten favourites as it stands currently are:
Sergio Garcia
Ernie Els
Lee Westwood
Phil Mickelson
Justin Rose
Jim Furyk
Vijay Singh
Geoff Ogilvy
Retief Goosen
Adam Scott
It’s nice to see some names that were not picked previously such as Lee Westwood, Adam Scott and Retief Goosen. Westwood, who uses Ping Golf Clubs, recently finished in 3rd place at the US Open and so will be hoping to give the other golfers a run for their money and also beat his position at The Open last year, when he finished tied for 35th.
Titleist player Adam Scott has also been added to the list of Top Ten favourites to win this year’s Open Championship. Recently finishing tied for 26th at the US Open and finishing tied for 27th at last year’s Open Championship he is maybe an odd choice as a winner of The Open, but then Padraig Harrington won The Open last year and he missed the halfway cut at that year’s US Open and the previous year’s Open Championship, so anything can happen! Another new entry to the favourites list is Retief Goosen. Goosen, who plays with TaylorMade equipment, finished tied for 14th at this year’s US Open and tied for 23rd at last year’s Open Championship, so he is another outsider, but we’ll just have to keep an eye on play to see how it all pans out!
23 Days Until the 2008 Open
Vijay Singh may have 3 major wins under his belt, but The Big Fijian is without a major win this year and with only 2 more major events to go this year he’ll have to work harder than he is already doing, which apparently, is harder than British golfers. Singh is no stranger to opening his mouth and causing a stir. In 2003 he was quoted as saying, “I hope she misses the cut … because she doesn’t belong out here” regarding Annika Sörenstam. Due to this Singh became known as “pro golf’s bad guy” as well as a “sexist oaf”, a “big, whiny, whimpering baby” and “Vijay the Villain”.
Singh uses a Cleveland 900 Tour Action Gun Metal Wedge. The unique finish on the gun metal version reduces glare and helps frame the ball at address. The treatment to create this finish is a proprietary process that retains the softness of the inner core while strengthening its exterior. Two solid years of research on the PGA Tours helped Cleveland develop the 900 series wedges with the consistency of Form Forged Irons and a new shape, size sole design. The 900 Form Forged Wedges feature a loft and bounce selection system that allows all golfers a simple way to select wedges for their own short games.
24 Days Until the 2008 Open
Phil Mickelson was paired with Tiger Woods at the recent US Open at Torrey Pines, struggled mightily even though he was seen as one of the top favourites to win; unfortunately he even notched a quadruple bogey. Finishing tied for 18th place he will be looking to improve on this if he is to beat his highest win at The Open which was 3rd place in 2004.
Mickelson’s putter is the White Hot XG putter by Odyssey which is the latest generation of White Hot Technology that uses a multi-layer insert and takes feel, feedback and distance control to the next level. The White Hot XG is Odyssey’s latest putter that uses a insert made up of multi-layers which results in excellent performance on the putting green. It combines two materials with different properties to take the level of feedback, feel and distance control to an all-new, extreme level.
25 Days Until the 2008 Open
Justin Rose may not have made the halfway cut at last weekend’s US Open, but he feels positive that his performance will improve for both the Traveller’s Championship and The Open. His result at the US Open is more disappointing that his result at this year’s Masters where he finished tied for 36th.
Rose hit some nice iron shots at Torrey Pines thanks to both his ability and also his TaylorMade rac TP Forged irons. TaylorMade engineers worked closely with Tour professionals to create the rac TP Forged irons, which sets a new industry standard in tour-performance irons. Improved rac technology makes this TaylorMade’s best-feeling forged iron ever. Thin top-line, progressive offset and great shape instantly increases confidence at address. Tour-cambered sole and leading edge limit turf-resistance for improved power and accuracy.
26 Days Until the 2008 Open
Sergio Garcia has never won a major, but has been a runner up a number of times including the 1999 PGA Championship and the 2007 Open. At the recent US Open Garcia finished tied for 18th place, which means he will have to work harder at The Open if he wants to finish higher than last year.
The majority of Garcia’s equipment is by TaylorMade and his Fairway Wood is the Burner TP Fairway. The Burner TP fairway has a tour-shaped clubhead with a compact footprint that promotes confidence at address and is preferred by tour pros. The superfast crown alignment is easy to aim and promotes increased confidence and accuracy.
27 Days Until the 2008 Open
Jim Furyk may have been one of the 12 golfers who finished tied for 36th at the recent US Open, but he is still a favourite to win The Open at Royal Birkdale in July. Furyk has finished 4th at The Open three times and last year finished tied for 12th.
Furyk uses Srixon golf equipment and his driver is a Srixon W-506 Driver. The Srixon W-506 Driver is the world’s first high volume driver to feature Srixon’s proprietary Impact Power Body construction, a remarkable advancement in driver design, where not only the clubface but the sole and backwall of the driver all have varying wall thicknesses. Complementing the W-506 is the proprietary Srixon SV 3004 graphite shaft which has been custom designed specifically for the W-506. The flex, torque and weight characteristics of the SV 3004 have been optimised for the dynamics of the W-506 design.
28 Days Until the 2008 Open
Padraig Harrington may have won The Open in 2007, but during this year’s US Open, he finished tied for 36th. Victory at the Open at Carnoustie last July has left Harrington with a voracious appetite for the winning feeling. And yet, apart from a relatively small invitation tournament in Morocco last October, he hasn’t won. He has played some excellent golf and been a consistent high finisher on the USPGA Tour with four top five finishes in eight events, but winning has eluded him and he may just have realised that the pursuit of perfection might be costly rather than rewarding.
Harrington’s wedges of choice are Titleist Vokey Wedges. Vokey wedges come in two types, Spin Milled and the Design 200 Series. Vokey Design Spin Milled wedges are unique new products that provide a truly discernible performance option, increased spin and control into and around the greens. Vokey Design 200 Series wedges are tour-proven wedges that are available in a broad range of loft, sole and bounce configurations to fit any swing type or course condition.
