Golf, by TourMiss

Supercaddy John ‘Ronnie’ Roberts has turned up in the most unlikeliest of places. Ronnie has been absent from the European Tour for some months as he helped deliver his beloved Bournemouth Football Club team the rich reward of promotion to the England Premier Division. But while the affable bagman was on assignment with Bournemouth he bizarrely turned up last week with his picture, well a rear view of Ronnie, featuring on the back page of the famed Wall Street Journal. Ronnie had been ...

Padraig Harrington’s chances of qualifying for next month’s US Open shortened after a right shoulder injury forced him out after just two holes of the BMW PGA Championship. Harrington, and currently ranked 83rd in the world, has to rely on qualifying for the US Open at next Monday’s 36-hole qualifier at Walton Heath or finishing top-three at next week’s Irish Open or the following week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis. Harrington had been in doubt all week with the injury he sustained ...

Dubliner Peter Lawrie had fellow Irishman and out-going European Tour CEO George O’Grady to thank for a three-under par 69 to lead the big contingent of Irish on the opening day of the BMW PGA Championship. Lawrie superbly recovered from a third hole double bogey to complete the remaining 15 holes in five under par in a score of a three under par 69. It left the affable Irishman trailing just four shots behind Italy’s Francesco Molinari who posted a sizzling seven under par 65. And ...

World No. 1 Rory McIlroy is staring at a second fine in just under two months after hurling a club during the opening round defence of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. McIlroy didn’t hide his frustration throwing his Nike 3-wood club some 30 yards after his second shot into the 17th hole flew the green on route to a very no frills one under par 71. It left McIlroy trailing six shots behind Ryder Cup winning team-mate Francesco Molinari who birdied his closing two holes in a seven-under par ...

Belgium’s big-hitting Nicolas Colsaerts put himself back in contention to again win on the European Tour with a new Callaway mini-driver. Colsaerts posted seven birdies in a three under par 69 to end the opening day of the BMW PGA Championship sharing eighth place. The double Tour winner has finished no higher 24th at Tour HQ but with a new club in the bag Colsaerts has given himself a superb chance also in ending a three-year winless drought. “This new Callaway mini driver is like a ...

World No. 1 Rory McIlroy should not be teeing up this week as defending BMW PGA defending champion. Of McIlroy’s then 17 worldwide wins as a professional winning at Wentworth a year ago was the most unlikeliest. Indeed McIlroy should not have been standing on the 18th green to be handed the gleaming silver trophy. McIlroy had not entered the tournament given the upheaval in his private life and bust-up in his intended marriage to Danish-born tennis ace Caroline Wozniacki. Rumours abound sport’s ...

Three time Tour winning Martin Laird tongue- in-cheek remarked the 2017 PGA Championship trophy should now be presented more than two years ahead of the Major to World No. 1 Rory McIlroy. Laird had completed his final round of the Wells Fargo Championship holing a superb 31-foot par putt in a round of 71 for a two-under par tally and on the Quail Hollow course that in two years will host the PGA Championship. The Scot, and along with his wife, was already well into the 90-minute drive back to their ...