Golf, by TourMiss

Home of Golf ambassador Padraig Harrington would not have won favour with his decision to use a belly putter during the opening round of yesterday’s (Thurs) Wells Fargo Championship at Charlotte, North Carolina. Harrington wears the R & A logo on all his attire but the St. Andrews-based ruling body seems certain to join the USGA in shortly announcing a ban in achoring any club to the body. Harrington’s decision to pack the belly putter into his bag for the $US 6.7m event goes against ...

Twelve year old Ye Wo-Cheng may have created history at the start of the week but he will be back in his Dongguan school on Monday after easily missing the Volvo China Open halfway cut with a pair of 79s. Ye bogeyed his closing two holes and in fact completed his closing seven holes in six over par. The Chinese younster had just one birdie over the two days to be in second last position with a 14-over par tally in the co-sanctioned European and One Asia Tour event. MORE TO FOLLOW

Brett Rumford edged closer to becoming only the third Australian to win back-to-back in the 41-year history of the European Tour. Rumford fired a five under par 67 to move to nine under par on day two of the Volvo China Open and less than a week after winning the Ballantine’s Championship. The Perth-born player, who was then joined by similiar in-form Thai golfer Kiradeck Aphibarnrate (67) atop of the board in the co-sanctioned European Tour and One Asia Tour event, birdied his closing four holes ...

Dutchman Robert-Jan Derksen set about ending a seven-year winless drought grabbing a two shot lead with a score of 66 on the first day of the Volvo China Open. Derksen, 39, ranked 465th in the world, capped his round with eight birdies including six in a seven hole stretch from sixth hole and then two over his closing three in bright but windy conditions on the exposed Pete Dye designed Binhai Golf Club course at Tianjin in north-east China. The effort is Derksen’s equal-lowest score in 33 rounds ...

World No. 2 Rory McIlroy is favourie to capture this week’s Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. Odds.com show McIlroy as a 9/1 favorite followed by Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood at 15/1. McIlroy won the event in 2010 in what was his first taste of success on the PGA Tour.  However the Northern Irishman, who turns 24 on Saturday, is yet to taste success this season on either the PGA Tour or European Tour. But in a head-to-head matchup, Mickelson is +110 vs. Westwood who is -130. Other ...

Triple Major winning Vijay Singh is free to continue competing after winning an appeal following the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) declaring as permissible his use of deer-antler spray. The PGA Tour had called the Fijian in February to answer after he admitted in an article in Sports Illustrated to using the supplement, which contains the prohibited human growth hormone IGF-1. But Singh and his legal team refused to accept the verdict that is believed to have been a three-month ban. However ...

This year’s 142nd Open Championship competitors will arrive to find a Muirfield course that has been lengthened by 158-yards since Ernie Els won the 2002 Open. Muirfield, to the east of Edinburgh in Scotland, is hosting golf’s oldest major for a 16th occasion since 1892. Peter Dawson, CEO at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, announced today (Mond) at the now annual pre-Open Championship press conference, major changes to seven holes at Muirfield. When The Open was last staged ...