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Ken Borland



Grace beats Els & Goosen in playoff 0

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Ken

South Africa’s Branden Grace beat compatriots Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in a playoff, after they had all finished on 12-under-par, to claim the Volvo World Champions title at the Fancourt Links on Sunday.
    Grace birdied the 18th hole in a sudden-death playoff to claim back-to-back European Tour titles, beating Els and Goosen by one stroke after they could just par the par-five closing hole.
    The 23-year-old Grace must have thought he had the win wrapped up in regulation play as he stood over a four-foot putt for birdie on the 502-metre 18th, but he shovelled the short putt horribly wide to force him into a playoff with his two seasoned compatriots.
    Els’s tee shot on the sudden death hole was down the left and ran through the fairway into the rough, meaning he was always under pressure in the playoff. The three-time major champion hacked out on to the fairway and then hit a superb long-iron third shot that ended 15 feet from the hole. Els’s birdie putt was just wide.
    Goosen hit his drive down the middle of the fairway and his second on to a bank just right of the green, but his hopes were ended by an awful chip that finished 25 feet short of the flag.
    Grace hit a rescue-wood from the fairway on to the green and an excellent first putt ensured that he had another little four-footer for the win.
    Nicolas Colsaerts earlier had a three-foot putt for par on the 72nd hole of regulation play for a place in the playoff, but the Belgian rushed it past the hole.
    The victory was the second in two weeks for Grace, last week’s Joburg Open champion, who became just the sixth golfer after Graham Marsh (1972), Jack Newton (1972), Charles Coody (1973), Baldovino Dassu (1976) and Fred Couples (1995) to win their first two European Tour events in back-to-back tournaments.
    Grace began the day tied for the lead with Colsaerts on 10-under-par and made up for a poor start in which he double-bogeyed the third and bogeyed the fourth, with birdies on the sixth, ninth, 12th, 13th and 16th holes.
    “I really wanted to do well and perform on a course so close to home, it’s a dream come true and unbelievable to win a tournament of this calibre,” Grace, who is based at nearby George Golf Club, said.
    “I was lying in bed last night reading the articles about the tournament and I saw there were 14 majors behind me. I just had to stick to my routines and I had a calm about me for the whole playoff.
    “It was awesome to beat two of my idols in the playoff and I felt really comfortable on that tee-shot on 18 the whole week. I’m just running on emotion and I’m going to keep going until I’m exhausted,” Grace said.
    Masters champion Charl Schwartzel also challenged strongly for the lead but wayward tee shots led to bogeys on the par-three 11th and 17th holes, and a poor approach into the water follwed by a duffed chip caused a double-bogey on the 12th. Despite a run of eagle-birdie-birdie from the 13th to the 15th holes, those dropped shots proved crucial for Schwartzel.
    Goosen, who had also eagled the par-five 13th hole, birdied the last two holes to make the playoff.
    Els, who had begun the day four shots behind Grace and Colsaerts, fired a six-under-par 67 – the best round of the day – to catch up and birdied the 18th thanks to a brilliant third shot that curled down the final green’s steep slope and finished a couple of feet from the hole. The 42-year-old was unable to do it again in the playoff, however.
    European Ryder Cup captain Jose’-Maria Olazabal completed an impressive week with a level-par 73 that left him in sixth place on eight-under-par, while former British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen bombed out of contention after a quadruple-bogey eight at the 14th hole. He eventually finished on six-under-par in a tie for seventh with Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin.

Els desperate to get game going 0

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Ken

Three-time major champion Ernie Els is desperate to get his game going at the Volvo Golf Champions that tees off at the Fancourt Links on Thursday as he eyes a return to the top-50 of the world rankings and an invitation to the Masters.
    Els has plummeted to number 71 in the rankings after what he termed a “dismal” 2011 in which he failed to win a tournament. The South African needs to return to the top-50 by the end of March in order to avoid failing to qualify for the Masters for the first time since 1993.
    The 42-year-old Els said his putting has been at the core of his loss of form.
    “A lot of people are reminding me that, at the moment, I’m not in the Masters. I know where I stand in the rankings, I don’t need reminding. But I’ve got a couple of months to rectify it – you don’t want to be asking for an invitation to Augusta, so I’ll just have to qualify,” Els told a news conference at Fancourt, an estate course in the southern Cape, on Wednesday.

    “But you lose your sense of humour when you’re not putting well and I’d like to get that back. If I can get the putter working, then you’ll see me smiling more.
    “My work ethic and determination are more than ever. The last season was dismal and I really want to turn things around and win some tournaments,” Els said.
    Els will be one of eight South Africans in the 35-man field for the winners-only invitation event, having qualified thanks to his 2010 victory in the South African Open, and he said the home golfers will have an advantage over the European contingent.
    “Local knowledge will definitely come into play here, especially when the sea-breeze picks up, and it’s definitely an advantage for myself, Retief Goosen and Louis Oosthuizen because we’re here on vacation every year and we know the course,” Els said.

    “The family and I have been coming down here now for the last 22 years, so it’s home for us. I played all of December here, so I have a good feel for the course. Knowing the course is also a big advantage,” Els said.
    World number nine Charl Schwartzel will be out to justify his standing as the highest-ranked player in the field and will also be eyeing the April 5-8 Masters, where he is the defending champion. The wiry South African did not get off to a quick start to the year, missing the cut in last week’s Joburg Open, where he was also the defending champion.
    “Last week I missed out, but I played decently and only missed 4 greens in 36 holes – I just couldn’t get the ball in the hole. My game feels even better now and hopefully some putts go in so I can get my confidence going as I build up to Augusta.
    “The way I’m striking the ball and my physical shape just keeps improving. I’m not stationary, my game keeps going forward, but I just need to putt well to win. At Augusta, your success also has a lot to do with the greens,” Schwartzel said.
    Fellow major champions Oosthuizen, Darren Clarke, Paul Lawrie, Jose’-Maria Olazabal, Goosen and Padraig Harrington will also be teeing it up at the two million euro event on the 6652-metre, par-73 Fancourt Links.
    Harrington was one of the golfers who qualifed thanks to having won more than nine times on the European Tour and the three-time major champion will be concentrating on regaining his best form – having tumbled to 89th on the world rankings – in an event where there is no cut.
    “If I play well from the word go, then I can compete, otherwise I have four days to work on my game and play myself into form. The South African lads have a big advantage and you can’t win every year, I just have to be patient,” Harrington said.

We’ll have a big advantage – Els 0

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Ken

by Ken Borland 18 January 2012, 17:00

 

Ernie Els is certain that the eight-man South African contingent will have a big advantage playing on home ground in the European Tour’s Volvo Golf Champions event teeing off at Fancourt on Thursday.

The winners-only invitation event has been moved from Bahrain to George due to political unrest in the Middle East, and the South Africans are licking their lips at the prospect of playing for two million euro on a course they all know well, Fancourt being one of the country’s premier tracks.

Els spends his Christmas holiday every year in nearby Herold’s Bay, while Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace both come from the Southern Cape and Retief Goosen spends plenty of time here too. Hennie Otto, Garth Mulroy, Thomas Aiken and Charl Schwartzel also have plenty of experience of playing on the Links.

“Local knowledge will definitely come into play here, especially when the sea-breeze picks up, and it’s definitely an advantage for myself, Retief and Louis because we’re here on vacation every year and we know the course,” Els said at Fancourt on Wednesday.

And if there’s anyone determined to make that home-ground advantage count, it’s Els, who is coming off a poor year and played several rounds at Fancourt during December.

“We’ve been coming down here now for the last 22 years, so it’s home for us as a family. I played all of December here, so I have a good feel for the course. Knowing the course is also a big advantage,” Els said.

The three-time major winner has dropped out of the top 50 on the world rankings – he’s currently 71st – and it was his victory in the 100th staging of the South African Open in December 2010 that earned him his spot in the 35-man field.

The awful prospect of not qualifying for the Masters looms large for the South African legend, and The Big Easy is certainly not happy with the situation.

“You lose your sense of humour when you’re not putting well and I’d like to get that back. If I can get the putter working, then you’ll see me smiling more.

“But my work ethic and determination are more than ever. The last season was dismal and I really want to turn things around and win some tournaments.

“A lot of people are reminding me that, at the moment, I’m not in the Masters. I know where I stand in the rankings, I don’t need reminding. But I’ve got a couple of months to rectify it – you don’t want to be asking for an invitation to Augusta, so I’ll just have to qualify!” Els said.

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    Galatians 5:25 – “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep walking in step with the Spirit.”

    There is only one Christ and all things that are preached in his name must conform to his character. We can only know Christ’s character through an intimate and personal relationship with him.

    How would Christ respond in situations in which you find yourself? Would he be underhanded? Would he be unforgiving and cause broken relationships?

    “The value of your faith and the depth of your spiritual experience can only be measured by their practical application in your daily life. You can spend hours at mass crusades; have the ability to pray in public; quote endlessly from the Word; but if you have not had a personal encounter with the living Christ your outward acts count for nothing.” – Solly Ozrovech, A Shelter From The Storm

     

     



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