Battle lines drawn for Euro stars in dollar drive
The quartet lead the field in the battle for the lucrative Race to Dubai jackpot and will be keeping a wary eye on each another between now and the Dubai World Championship at the Earth Course, Jumeirah Golf Estates in mid November (19th -22nd).
Westwood, Kaymer, McIlroy and Casey will be playing in the same three tournaments between now and this week’s Volvo World Match Play Championship in southern Spain followed by the WGC-HSBC Championship in Shanghai and the Hong Kong Open – with their sights firmly set on the million and a half dollar jackpot on offer in the bonus pool on top of the tournament winner’s one million dollar prize in the Dubai World Championship event.
Battle lines will be drawn this week at the luxurious Finca Cortesin course at Casares near Estepona in Spain.
The match play championship not alone moves out of its traditional home at Wentworth after 42 years and has been given an interesting new appearance. Instead of direct knock-out, the 16 qualifiers have been broken up into groups of four who will play each other over 18 holes in a “Champion’s League” style round robin format before the leaders go on to the semi-finals on Saturday and the final on Sunday over 36 holes.
It will be the survival of the fittest and that will hardly appeal to Kaymer and Casey, both of whom have been sidelined for several weeks by foot and rib injuries respectively, or the Indian Jeev Milkha Singh, who has been suffering an ankle problem.
History suggests this could be a big week for McIlroy. At 20, he is the youngest player in the field and has an outstanding match-play record having captured both the West of Ireland and Irish Close Championships twice in his amateur days and helped Ireland to capture the European Team Championship.
He demonstrated in the recent Vivendi/Seve Trophy that he hasn’t lost the knack for the format when winning three of his four ‘doubles’ matches with Graeme McDowell before defeating Henrik Stenson in the singles. McIlroy has been drawn in the same pool this week as Stenson, Masters champion Angel Cabrera and Simon Dyson of England.
Lee Westwood is drawn with Colombian Camilo Villegas, England’s Ross Fisher and Jeev Milkha Singh. Kaymer comes up against Sergio Garcia, Robert Allenby and Oliver Wilson while Casey takes on Retief Goosen, Anthony Kim and Scott Strange.
Meanwhile, many of Europe’s finest will be in action in the Barclays Singapore Open, an event co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours, and offering $US5 million in prize money. Holder Ernie Els and Pádraig Harrington gave this event preference over the match play. The other Irish in the field are Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell, Damien McGrane, Darren Clarke, Peter Lawrie and Shane Lowry.
It is a tournament of considerable consequence for Clarke, who got to 59th in the Race to Dubai order of merit by finishing 8th in Spain at the weekend and picking up €42, 900 in prize money. However, only the leading 60 qualify for Dubai.
McIlroy (3rd) , Harrington (16th) and McDowell (38th) are sure of their places in Dubai while Gareth Maybin (48th) and Peter Lawrie (49th) look safe bets for the finale. A decent cheque this week will clinch a spot for Damien McGrane (53rd) but Clarke is extremely vulnerable so near the cut off line.
At the other end of the scale, Gary Murphy’s survival on tour hangs on a knife edge needing a good show at the Hong Kong Open to join the top 115 players who retain their cards at the end of the year. The Kilkenny man tied for 64th in the Castello Masters on Sunday and picked up €4, 400 in prize money. Nevertheless, he slipped back to 123rd in the order of merit and unless he banks a meaningful cheque in Hong Kong, he could be on his way back to the Tour School for the first time since 2002.
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