Golf, by TourMiss

Australia’s Scott Hend will be aiming to become the first man to win a record third Venetian Macao Open title beginning on Thursday, feeling refreshed and recharged after a week’s break. The renowned big-hitting Queenslander starts as one of the odd-on favourites at the US$1.1 million Asian Tour tournament, thanks largely to stylish victories here in 2013 and last year. He also finished runner-up to India’s Anirban Lahiri in 2014 and is a staggering 52-under-par at Macau Golf and Country Club ...

The Grove, Watford … Lee Westwood has returned to competition following an indifferent Ryder Cup showing and clearly targeting being appointed 2020 European Team captain. Westwood failed to score a point in three Hazeltine matches and the first occasion in 10 straight Ryder Cup appearances for Europe. The 43-year old Englishman went to Hazeltine looking to eclipse Nick Faldo’s all-time European record scoring feat but instead Westwood found himself dropped by long-time close friend Captain ...

Crail, Scotland … A day after celebrating one year as a pro and Paul Dunne is facing an anxious fortnight’s wait to know if he’s done enough to wrap-up his 2017 European Tour card Dunne was in the process of clearing out his locker at Sunday’s concluding Alfred Dunhill Links Championship when fellow Irishman Shane Lowry arrived at the St. Andrews clubhouse having been in the group behind Dunne. Lowry’s first task was to ‘rub-in’ the fact he’d beaten Dunne albeit by a stroke ...

St. Andrews, Scotland …. Graeme McDowell’s love-hate relationship with the Old Course at St. Andrews continued on the final day of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. McDowell was just inside the top-10 in playing the famed 17th ‘Road Hole’ but then taking a double bogey before a long birdie at the last in a round of 69 to share 15th place at 11-under par. It left McDowell trailing 12 shots adrift of England’s Tyrrell Hatton who clinched a maiden European Tour title with ease by ...

St. Andrews, Scotland … Three traits to being a good caddy – turn-up, keep-up and shut-up! Well the caddy to Masters champion Danny Willett added another a unique chapter to the caddying manual with Jonathan Smart holing a four foot putt, with Willett as his amateur partner, to win the US$50,000 first prize in the Alfred Dunhill Links Team Championship at St Andrews. Willett, who usually has Smart as his caddie in every other week of the golfing year, raised his arms in triumph when ...

Carnoustie, Scotland … Scotland’s Richie Ramsay joked his now wife, Angela was not a ‘Hazeltine Heckler’ when he met her during the course of his 2006 U.S. Amateur triumph. Watching TV coverage of last week’s Ryder Cup brought back fond memories for the Edinburgh-based Ramsay who became just the third Scot, and a first since 1898, when he defeated American John Kelly at Hazeltine National a decade ago. “I watched a bit of the Ryder Cup and it was really good,” ...

Carnoustie, Scotland … Rio Olympic Games Gold medal winning Justin Rose has ruled himself out of competition for next eight weeks to fully recover from a nagging back injury. Rose, who was due to contest next week’s European Tour’s British Masters north of London, indicated via Twitter he’s been suffering from a disc herniation that initially side-lined him from the Players Championship earlier this year. Then after recently competing in the BMW Championship at Indianapolis, and his final ...