Great venue, great event and great format but the one issue that faces this week’s ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf at the outstanding Metropolitan Golf Club is that 16 of the event’s 28 countries are not represented by their best players.
An excellent example of this is that the USA is represented by their 15th and 16th highest ranked players in Matt Kuchar and Kyle Stanley, fine golfers though they are.
A number of reasons can be blamed for this rather unfortunate situation, scheduling, apathy by some of the leading players, a format that does not suit all and, likely, a lack of appearance money being paid but it might be that the event’s rather bizzare qualifying criteria can also cop some of the blame.
That the leading ranked player from any of the 28 qualifying countries selects his partner from fellow countrymen, essentially inside the top 500 in the world ranking, brings into question the capacity of the event to get as strong a field as possible.
Surely event organisers should reconsider this nepotism as a curse on the event’s credibility as the chance for the best country in the field (in theory at least) to win the event is lessened by having a friend of the leading ranked player in a country team up with his mate.
Surely a system which picks players purely on the leading available world ranked players from any country irrespective of mateship would offer the event considerably more credibility than is the case now.
Admittedly it could be that some of the leading players in the event are in the field because they have been able to bring their friend to the event but does such a process do anything for the standing of the World Cup – I think not.
I have been to three World Cups now and enjoyed each one of them but that the event hardly determines the best country in the world means it loses much of its impact.
The purse of US$7 million (reduced from US$8 million when last played in 2016) is still a significant carrot but, sadly, many of the game’s leading players in today’s era would hardly get out of bed for even a purse of that size on the other side of the world.
There is something quite special about seeing some of the world’s lesser countries competing in such a significant championship but it could be made even more significant if it were to consider selecting the field based on a country’s leading available world ranked players without having to rely on its number one ranked player’s discretion.
Golf Betting Guide December 13th
This week offers one last chance to hopefully boost the Xmas spending allowance with betting available on three events in South Africa, Indonesia and the Seychelles.
We managed a profit on investments last week so to finish the year off with a rush is what we are looking for.
All the best and thanks for your support as I look to expand on this concept in 2019.
Steve Williams with Rod Morri and Bruce Young
New Zealand golf caddie and the most successful in the history of the game, Steve Williams, chatted with myself and iseekgolf.com’s podcast host, Rod Morri, in this podcast we recorded over a year ago.
Despite being recorded in November of 2017 it provides an interesting insight into Williams and some of the reasons for his success and thought it well worth revisiting.
https://podcast.iseekgolf.com/32
Betting Guide for December 6th 2018
The golfing year is winding to a close but there are three events will be looking at from a betting perspective this week.
The BMW South African Open is being played in Johannesburg, The European Staysure Tour’s MCB Championship is played in Mauritius and the QBE Shootout is held in Naples in Florida.
Click below to listen
Golf Betting Guide for November 29th
RACV Royal Pines’ 18th hole – the home of the Australian PGA Championship.
This week we assess, from a betting angle, the Australian PGA Championship on the Gold Coast, the Mauritius Open in Mauritius, the Japan Tour’s season ending Golf Nippon Series event in Tokyo and the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
With the golfing world winding down for 2018 perhaps a chance to finish the year off with a whirl.
Click below to listen
Audio Golf Betting Guide for events beginning Thursday Nov 22nd
Three events come under scrutiny this week namely the ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf in Melbourne, Australia, the Honma Hong Kong Open and the Casio World Open in Japan.
Click below to listen
World Cup of Golf Could Be So Much Better
Great venue, great event and great format but the one issue that faces this week’s ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf at the outstanding Metropolitan Golf Club is that 16 of the event’s 28 countries are not represented by their best players.
An excellent example of this is that the USA is represented by their 15th and 16th highest ranked players in Matt Kuchar and Kyle Stanley, fine golfers though they are.
A number of reasons can be blamed for this rather unfortunate situation, scheduling, apathy by some of the leading players, a format that does not suit all and, likely, a lack of appearance money being paid but it might be that the event’s rather bizzare qualifying criteria can also cop some of the blame.
That the leading ranked player from any of the 28 qualifying countries selects his partner from fellow countrymen, essentially inside the top 500 in the world ranking, brings into question the capacity of the event to get as strong a field as possible.
Surely event organisers should reconsider this nepotism as a curse on the event’s credibility as the chance for the best country in the field (in theory at least) to win the event is lessened by having a friend of the leading ranked player in a country team up with his mate.
Surely a system which picks players purely on the leading available world ranked players from any country irrespective of mateship would offer the event considerably more credibility than is the case now.
Admittedly it could be that some of the leading players in the event are in the field because they have been able to bring their friend to the event but does such a process do anything for the standing of the World Cup – I think not.
I have been to three World Cups now and enjoyed each one of them but that the event hardly determines the best country in the world means it loses much of its impact.
The purse of US$7 million (reduced from US$8 million when last played in 2016) is still a significant carrot but, sadly, many of the game’s leading players in today’s era would hardly get out of bed for even a purse of that size on the other side of the world.
There is something quite special about seeing some of the world’s lesser countries competing in such a significant championship but it could be made even more significant if it were to consider selecting the field based on a country’s leading available world ranked players without having to rely on its number one ranked player’s discretion.
Audio Betting Guide Including 2018 Australian Open
Above Matt Kuchar the likely favourite for the Australian Open
This week we take a look at four events beginning with the Australian Open Championship at the Lakes Golf Club in Sydney.
We also cast an eye over the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, the LPGA’s CME Tour Championship and the RSM Classic on the PGA Tour.
Click to listen
Golf Betting Guide for November 8th
This week we take a look at the PGA Tour’s Mayakoba Classic in Mexico, the European Tour’s Nedbank Challenge at Sun City in South Africa and the Visa Taiheiyo Masters on the Japan Tour.
click to listen
Audio Betting Guide for November 1st.
This week we take a look at four tournaments on which betting is being held, the PGA Tour event in Las Vegas, the LPGA Tour event in Japan, the European Tour’s Turkish Airlines Open and the PGA Tour of Australasia’s Isuzu Queensland Open.
Click to listen
Sarah Kemp’s decision vindicated
New South Wales golfer Sarah Kemp’s 9th place finish at last week’s Ladies European Tour event in India continues a rewarding return to the Ladies European Tour after several years dividing her attention between the LPGA and LET Tours.
Late in 2017 Kemp made the difficult decision to focus her attention on Europe after losing virtually all status on the LPGA Tour.
Rather than go through the process of trying to regain that status she made the decision to play only in Europe where she had experienced reasonable success earlier in her career and on the occasions in which she had ventured across the Atlantic from the USA.
In 2018 Kemp has been inside the top 12 in six of her 12 Ladies European Tour starts and she now lies in 5th place on the Order of Merit.
Kemp’s best finish of the season came when runner-up in Morocco and when 3rd in France.
Kemp first joined the Ladies European Tour in 2006 but in 2008 earned the right to play the LPGA Tour and has split her focus between the two tours for much of her career since.
Kemp has played three LPGA Tour events in 2018 although only one has been in the US where she qualified to play the US Women’s Open. She also played The Evian Championship in France courtesy of her Ladies European Tour status and the Australian Women’s Open in Adelaide.
Kemp was a former leading amateur in Australia and, while that success has not yet been carried over to the professional ranks, that she continues to put herself into position on the Ladies European Tour should see a breakthrough win before long for the still only 32 year old.