The last two weeks have been good for European golf with European players winning tournaments or being in contention all over the world. Last Weekend Tommy Fleetwood won in Abu Dhabi, Jon Rahm won on the PGA Tour and Sergio Garcia won in Hong Kong.
This weekend saw Rory McIlroy finish runner up in Dubai and Alex Noreen involved in a play off at Torrey Pines with Jason day. Jon Rahm has also moved up to be the world’s number 2 so everything looks good for the European Ryder Cup team. It should be noted however that in a lot of these tournaments were missed by many of Americas top players. One American who did compete was of course Tiger Woods and you could be forgiven for thinking that he was in contention the amount of time that the American broadcasters spent on following him. Considering that this was his first proper tournament he would be satisfied with his performance. He just made the cut and then played pretty well in the windy conditions for the last two rounds. His putting touch seemed to have returned and he made a number of crucial putts to keep his score going. As he said himself he scrambled brilliantly to shoot 3 under par and finished 23rd. His driving however was somewhat problematic, and he missed the fairways by miles on both sides on a regular basis. Overall, he seemed pleased with his return and even more will now be expected of him when he next tees it up in a couple of weeks’ time.
I am sure Mcllroy wasn’t quite as pleased and he made that clear in his pos round press conference. On the face of it a runner up spot after such a long lay off should be seen as a very positive outcome especially as his average driving distance was 315 yards well above the rest of the field. He squandered a two-shot lead with six holes to go however and whilst the winner Chinas Li Haotong had more than his fair share of luck, Mcllory should have been able to clinch the victory. On the positive side in two tournaments he has finished 40 under par so his game seems to be in good shape and providing he can control his still far from perfect putting stroke a won shouldn’t be too far away.
