Volvo World Match Play Championship

This event has kicked off this morning and matches are underway

As we've seen from Venice's fantasy league the format is a little strange with round robin matches this afternoon and tomorrow morning/afternoon

Currently Poults is 1 up on Senden after 4 holes and Sneds is 3 up after 3 against Bjorn who has bogeyed the first 3 holes!

Garcia has just won the first hole against Quiros

Rose against Rock looks a good match starting shortly - Rose is my pick for this tournament!

I've just read that Snedecker had his clubs lost/stolen/mislaid on during his flight to Andalucia and has teed off this morning with only 11 clubs in his bag, scrounged from various pro shops

Currently 4 up after 5!

So Poults beats Senden 3&2 and Sneds coasts to a 5&4 victory over Bjorn

All the other matches pretty close with the exception of Rosie giving Rock a good rolling

Disappointing from Der Kaiser Kaymer so far though - 2 down against Cabrero-Bello

Well no one seems inclinced to post at the moment but I'll continue anyway if only to keep Scarpa happy

Morning matches already on course with the unseeded players entering the fray

Morning matches:
Senden/Young Tom
Bjorn/Grace
Chippy Lawrie/Camilo
Quiros/Hiratsuka
Karlson/Kruger
Colsaerts/Goose
Rock'n'Roll/Darren Clarke
Cabrero-Bello/Finch

Afternoon Matches:
Poults/Young Tom
Sneds/Grace
Hanson/Villegas
Sergio/Hiratsuka
GMac/Kruger
Schwartzel/Goose
Rosie/Clarke
Der Kaiser/Finch


Not a lot happening in the morning matches yet though Young Tom looks to be in control against Senden. Chippy one down against the Spiderman though Lawrie showed he could finish strongly yesterday and Clarke one up against Rock who was soundly spanked yesterday
Charl against the Goose looks to be the pick of the afternoon matches and Der Kaiser needs to find some form quickly or he'll be back in Munich in time to see Bayern lose tomorrow night!

Great story about Snedeker's win... playing with borrowed clubs as his own were lost en route and only arrived when he was on the 4th tee.

Interesting dilemma as when he teed off he must have known his clubs had arrived at Malaga airport and were being driven to the course, so he had to decide how many clubs to begin with in the knowledge he would be able to add some of his own clubs at some point during his round.

Another point to add is that he played the first few holes wearing trainers, because his golf shoes were also with his luggage. Finca Cortesin would be fairly relaxed about that, but I can imagine the heart attacks from the members at Royal St Georges if Snedeker had walked around the clubhouse and course in a pair of trainers during the Open!

Ray, I thought it was a good story too. It was funny that he decided to keep the driver in the bag even though it was borrowed from John Senden. I think Bjorn's bad play to start must have helped but it just goes to show how good these guys are that they can play with anything. Does it mean customization and fitting don't really mean a thing?

The only fitting he had was from the club pro, who sorted a putter out for him. The putter will be staying in his bag this week because he had a beano with it

Last week I wrote a little article about Real Sevilla, as it is always nice to see a course you have actually played on tv. Always fascinating to see the pro's make light work of a hole you messed up, and very satisfying to watch the pro's struggle on a hole you birdied!

This week the European Tour visits another course I have played. I had the great pleasure of playing Finca Cortesin back in October, and what a fantastic experience it was. Finca Cortesin is down at the bottom of the Costa del Sol, about a 15 min drive from Sotogrande and Valderrama, and is very much focussed on providing a luxury experience. From the moment we arrived, the staff were on hand to help, unloading our clubs from the car and zipping them away in a buggy. Once we had changed and stepped out of the clubhouse, I walked on to the practice ground to find my clubs had been cleaned and were waiting for me next to a pyramid of pro V1 practice balls. When we had warmed up, our clubs were taken away again and loaded on to a buggy with GPS and a coolbox with fresh fruit and chilled mineral water. During our round a lovely girl drove out to us to restock the buggy with fruit and water and provide cooling flannels as well!

I'm not normally a fan of buggies, but I can see why they use them here. The course is spread out, with some lengthy gaps between holes and a number of steep uphill drives to get to elevated tee boxes with panoramic views. The course is set in a valley with significant changes in elevation and a spectacular mountinous back drop. Unlike many courses in Spain, there is no housing development bordering the course, and once you get away from the clubhouse you have a splendid feeling of isolation. The holes themselves are magnificent, immaculate conditioning, superfast undulating greens and a relentless succession of "signature holes" that just blow you away.

Surprisingly, despite the length on the scorecard (7,300 yards off the back tees!) the course is not a slog. Sure, there are some big holes... a number of monster par 4's where I was nowhere near the green in 2, and the par 5's were all 3 shot holes for me, but there were a surprising number of risk/reward short par 4's, which makes it a great matchplay course.

There are many feature holes but 3 stand out:
4. A short par 4 of around 330 yards, doglegging to the left around a lake. From the high elevated tee I hit a 4 iron to leave me a 100 yard wedge. I then chased the sucker flag position, pushed my approach 5 yards right and found myself short sided in the greenside bunker, having to play out on to a quick down slope with water beyond. Luckily the greens were receptive to well struck bunker shots, and I narrowly failed to get up and down. One of my mates took the aggressive approach, electing to cut the dogleg and drive the ball over the lake, a 260 yard carry to the front of the green. To his credit he pulled it off and walked away with a deserved birdie - classic risk/reward.

10. A 200 yard par 3 (230 for the pro's) with a figure of eight shaped green far far below. The flag was cunningly placed in the middle of the green, where the green's waist is pinched in by bunkers either side. I hit a 6 iron to the front half of the green and walked away with a solid 2 putt par, some of my playing partners were more aggressive and experienced a world of pain short-sided in the greenside bunkers - classic risk/reward again.

15. A 450 yard uphill par 4 (525 yards for the pro's!!!) playing from another elevated tee over a valley to a distant fairway which doglegs almost 90 degrees to the left. On the tee you are faced with a decision... how far left do you dare go? Failure to carry the valley means 3 off the tee - I hit a draw so I could cut some of the corner but didn't need to be too agressive as my shot shape suited the hole. Sadly a high block to the right off the tee meant I found the fairway but still had 250 yards uphill to the green. I then hit a hybrid to give me a nice wedge to the green and a safe bogey 5.

I don't think I could ever get bored of this course, it is so entertaining and strategically offers so much to think about on every shot. Inevitably, the length means it favours the bombers, but then every new course needs to build this in to future proof it. It is still only 5 years old, but I am sure this place will go on to challenge PGA Catalunya and Valderrama as the premier course in Spain.

spent a bit longer writing that than i intended, impossible to summarise such a great experience in a few words. maybe i should get back to work

Was it a bargain bucket special like the one Jim Furyk bought for the tour championship when he won it 2(?) years ago?

raycastleunited wrote:spent a bit longer writing that than i intended, impossible to summarise such a great experience in a few words. maybe i should get back to work

Nice story Ray. No worries about the post length and why spoil the habit of a lifetime on a Friday. I'm leaving early today to get 9 holes in with the missus at couples golf at the club tonight. Can't see much work being done today for me.

Very nice read ray. You should consider writing more based on what you've presented here. One could easily imagine a very short story evolving from your piece. I'm certain most here would read it even if it were a couple of pages long. The section about the buggies would be an excellent seed for an opening paragraph.

Ray, I've just done 18-holes whilst the wife was reading it to me good read, well done mate

Tis indeed good stuff Ray - perhaps you should consider copy/pasting them into the course reviews section - get it built up a little for reference sake?

Wrong match play event but Jodi Ewart continuing her magic as she takes out Sophie Gustafson 3 and 1. Still far away but wonder what the odds were for her to win it all before the tournament began.

That was a pretty amazing week for Nic Colsaerts - I had small wagers on both Rose and Snedecker and for the first few rounds they looked quite hot properties

Colsaerts then dispatched Rose on Saturday morning and Sneds on Saturday afternoon and my financial interest was over

I then watched a little of his semi this morning against Lawrie before I went out to the golf course myself and Lawrie had been 4 up after 5, but was only back to 2 up after nine

When I finished my own round and got the the 19th I was surprised to see Gmac playing Colsaerts in the final - and in what looked like pretty brutal conditions, Colsaerts closed it out on the last, though he'd been in the driving seat from about the 14th

Terrific week for him and thoroughly deserved