Golf, by TourMiss

Highly-respected Australian-born scribe, Bernie McGuire celebrated Australia Day (January 26th) with a booming victory drive down the last hole in a ‘winner takes all’ encounter against leading European Tour photographer, Eoin Clarke. It was insignificant Clarke completely dominated the match winning 4up over eight holes on the Academy course that ajoins the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters championship course here in Doha. But given the importance of the day for all Australians your author ...

Double winning Ryder Cup star, Peter Hanson believes Europe could be an even stronger force under Paul McGinley than compared to victorious captains, Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal. Hanson played under both Monty and Olazabal but earning just one point from his five matches including a Medinah Singles defeat at the hands of Jason Dufner, who finished one shot better at nine under par on day three of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. In the 11 days since McGinley was appointed 2014 Gleneagles ...

Michael Campbell’s resurgence continues with the proud New Zealander just one round and three strokes away from ending a seven-year winless drought. Campbell was again a picture of consistency shooting his third round of a four-under par 68 to be tied in second place on 12-under par with England’s Simon Khan (64) and Sweden’s Alex Noren (66). England’s Chris Wood matched Khan’s score and move three clear at 15-under par.  The 25-year, who finished third in the 2009 Open Championship, ...

American Jason Dufner is already considering returning to compete next year on the European Tour’s Middle East Swing. Dufner is targeting a top-three finish after muscling his way up the board with a 67 on day three of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. The double PGA Tour winner, and a member of last year’s losing USA Ryder Cup side, posted six birdies over his opening 11 holes and with his only bogey coming at par three, 13th. It had been the 13th on Thursday when Dufner found himself the ...

Rory McIlroy is understood to have  invested at least £100,000 into a fund backing the Hampton by Hilton hotel, which is due to open at the site of the  former West Bar police station at the end of this year.   The World No. 1 is thought to be joined in the investment by Republic of Ireland and Sunderland FC goalkeeper Keiren Westwood among others. A document for the Downing scheme, called West Bar BPRA LLP, indicates that each backer could net returns of up to 23 per cent over eight years ...

Michael Hoey awoke to second best Doha score but all he wanted to do was go back to bed on day two of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.  Hoey posted a three-under par 69 to move to five under in unusually benign conditions on  the only golf course in Doha.  It left the Belfast golfer trailing   just four shots behind the leading four of Portugal’s Ricardo Santos (70), Australia’s Marcus Fraser (67) and the Ryder Cup heavyweight duo of Martin Kaymer (67) and Sergio Garcia (66).  Among ...

Former US Open champion and Ryder Cup star, Graeme McDowell shed some of the off season cobwebs taking part earlier this week in the 4th Annual $10,000 Timacuan Scramble at the Timacuan Golf & Country Club some 15 miles north of Orlando. PGA Tour colleague, Rick Cochran and his team won the event with a 19-under-par 53 after defeating three other teams in a sudden-death playoff with a birdie on the par 3 16th. However it was McDowell who proved a big winner in his first public appearance ...