Archive for April, 2009
There really is only one place to start with this week’s Blog and that is with a quick look back at last week’s Volvo China Open where Titleist ambassador Scott Strange emerged victorious. We felt compelled to mention Scott in last week’s post as he was showing such strong form during practice and it was great to see this form continue through the event. Scott saved his best for last as he carded a stunning final round 68 (-4) on Sunday, including three birdies in the final five holes, to take victory by a single shot. The tournament was Scott’s first event played with the new 2009 Pro V1 and it’s fair to say the switch yielded instant results. In addition to the new ball, Scott also trusted a full bag of Titleist equipment to claim his second career European Tour title, including the 909D2 driver and AP2 Forged irons.
Many congratulations to Scott from the Titleist team!!
This week’s event takes us to South Korea’s Jeju Island and the magnificent Pinx Golf Club for the Ballantine’s Championship, an event tri-sanctioned by the European Tour, Asian Tour and Korean PGA Tour. Another cosmopolitan field is punctuated by a number of big names which includes European Tour stalwart Lee Westwood, yet another player to have recently made the switch to the new Titleist Pro V1x.
Click here to view the slide show.
As you’d expect, the field has a strong South Korean representation and one of the most notable names is young Titleist Ambassador Seung-Yul Noh. Noh is the newest addition to the worldwide team of Titleist ambassadors and is undoubtedly one of the hottest prospects in Asian golf following a hugely successful debut season on the Asian Tour in 2008. A maiden Tour victory, three runners-up finishes and six top-tens in just 16 starts is a hugely impressive season for any player, but is even more outstanding when you consider that this all came from a 17-year old rookie!! We will watch Noh with great interest in the coming years as he looks to build on his strong start to professional golf and, at the time of writing, things are certainly going well at the Ballantine’s Championship with Noh well positioned in a tie for 13th at four under par.
Titleist ambassador Branden Grace has also made a strong start to the event lying in a tie for 7th at the halfway stage. It is no surprise to see Branden playing well following a strong top 20 finish at last week’s event and he was certainly in confident mood as he chatted with our South African Tour Representative Leonard Loxton earlier in the week. Branden has been a regular feature on the Tour Blog over recent weeks having made a few equipment changes, including a switch to the new 2009 Pro V1x, and these changes seem to be paying dividends. Branden’s game is in fine shape at present and it would be no surprise to see him contend for the title this weekend.
Next week the European Tour heads back to mainland Europe for the Open de Espana at the PGA Golf de Catalunya resort in Girona, Spain. Having been absent from the last two events the Titleist Tour Support Vehicle will be back in attendance giving the players an opportunity to work on their equipment needs. The team fully expect a number of players to take this opportunity and it promises to be another industrious week for the Titleist team. As usual, we will keep you up to speed on all the latest developments. Stay tuned for next weeks Blog!!
April 24th, 2009
The European Tour is back in business following a break in the schedule for last week’s Masters Tournament and, whilst the players were focusing on another week of fierce competition at the Volvo China Open, it is fair to say that Angel Cabrera’s triumph at Augusta is very much the talk of the town. Angel’s victory was certainly a hot topic among the Titleist team as it marked a major victory for the recently launched 2009 Pro V1x and the third major championship in succession for a Titleist golf ball following Padraig Harrington’s Open and USPGA Championship wins in 2008. Congratulations Angel!!!!
Following the first few events of the season to be held on European soil the Tour jumped back to Asia for this week’s event in Beijing and next week’s Ballantine’s Championship held on Jeju Island, South Korea. This week’s Volvo China Open maybe missing some of the European Tour’s more recognisable players but, in one of the most cosmopolitan fields of the year, there is still plenty of talent on show including Titleist Ambassadors Paul Waring, Gregory Bourdy, Scott Strange, Carlos Del Moral and Thailand’s Chinnarat Phadungsil. And talent is certainly going to be required to post a winning score around this week’s host course, the Beijing CBD International, which features an array of water hazards which come into play on 17 of the 18 holes!!!
Click here to view the slide show.>
The new 2009 Titleist Pro V1 continues to make news at the event with yet more players making the switch to the new ball. Over 60% of Titleist golf ball loyalists in the field for the Volvo China Open are playing either the new Pro V1 or Pro V1x. This week saw one particularly notable switch as 8-time European Tour Order of Merit winner and 2010 Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomerie moved into the new 2009 Pro V1x.
With the Titleist Tour Support Vehicle not present at the next two European Tour events the players will now wait until the Open de Espana in two weeks time before making any significant changes to their equipment. That said, the practice days in Beijing saw the players working hard on their games and none were working harder than Titleist ambassador Carlos Del Moral. Coming off the back of a good run of form with top 15 finishes in the past two events, he continues to work hard on his game in search of his maiden European Tour victory. Carlos spent a lot of time working on his putting having received a new Custom Scotty back at the Open de Portugal two weeks ago. We profiled this new putter in our post from the event and, following a successful practice session, it has ousted his usual ‘gamer’ and gone into the bag for this week’s event. At the time of writing Carlos lies tied for 12th on level par and with just 24 putts in round one and 27 in round two the new flatstick seems to be working well.
Another player that has been working hard on their game is Titleist Ambassador Scott Strange. Scott has been back home in Perth, Australia for a few weeks and looked in great shape on the range as he continued to fine tune his swing for the event. The slide show features a great shot of Scott on his downswing and I think we’d all agree that it’s a strong position to give it a rip. Scott’s hard work seems to be paying off as he’s in contention at one under par after his opening two rounds.
That’s all from Beijing but we’ll be back next week with an update from the next week’s Ballantine’s Classic. The European Tour visits some beautiful venues throughout a season and Pinx Golf Club on South Korea’s Jeju Island is certainly one of the best. A mix of stunning topography and another excellent golf course promises to make it another great week on the European Tour.
April 17th, 2009
The latest stop on the European Tour schedule brings us to Cascais, Portugal for the Estoril Open de Portugal held at the magnificent Oitavos Dunes. The course is situated on Lisbon’s Atlantic coastline which normally ensures a stiff breeze and the potential for fast changing weather conditions. The course is not overly long by European Tour standards at just under 6900 yards but trouble is easy to come by as the majority of fairways are bordered by gorse covered sand dunes. Keeping it out of the dunes is essential for any player looking to contend this week, I can tell you first hand that they are not the place to be!!!
The big story of the week has again been the new Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x with yet more players making the transition into the new ball. As we reported last week in Seville a whole host of players have already made the switch and many more are currently testing the ball. Here is a list of the players to make the switch this week in Portugal.
NEW ProV1
José Manuel Lara
NEW Pro V1x
Daniel Vancsik
Estanislao Goya
Jean-Francois Remesy
Jean Van de Velde
Ricardo Gonzalez
Paul Waring
Jean-Baptiste Gonnet
Francois Delamontagne
Wil Besseling
John Mellor
Stuart Manley
John E Morgan
Birgir Hafthorsson
The Titleist Tour Support Vehicle (TTSV) is in attendance for this week’s event and Titleist Tour Technician Mattias Jelver has been particularly busy working on new drivers for a number of Titleist players. One such player is hard-hitting Englishman Paul Waring. Paul has been using a prototype Titleist 907D4 driver for some time but, in the presence of the new 909 drivers, couldn’t resist heading out to the range to test some new options. After spending an hour with Mattias and the Titleist SureFit system Paul went away with a brand new 909D2 8.5° fitted with Mitsubishi Rayon Fubuki 73 X-Flex shaft and, as the picture shows, was pretty excited about it.
Click here to view the slide show.>
Another player back in the TTSV this week was Spaniard Carlos Del Moral. Carlos is in confident mood following a strong finish at last week’s Open de Andalucia in Seville and, having carried out some driver testing last week was back for more at this week’s event. We documented in last week’s blog that Carlos had a new 909D3 to test and following further testing this week has another option in his armoury; a 909D2 8.5° fitted with a Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana White Board 73 X-Flex shaft. Del Moral is certainly a player who enjoys experimenting with new equipment and with a couple of different 909 options to choose from will undoubtedly be having some fun on the range in the coming weeks. In addition to telling you all about Carlos’ new drivers we thought you might also appreciate a look at his new flatstick. Check out the slide show for a look at Carlos’ personalised Scotty Cameron T10 Select Newport 2 ordered as a back up to his usual gamer. Nice!!!
Young Englishman Seve Benson was another player to spend some time working with Mattias and the Titleist SureFit system this week in order to establish his optimum 909 driver spec. Seve is currently 9th in driving accuracy on the European Tour but was looking to find a few more yards from the new 909 product. Following a successful fitting with the Trackman system, Seve found a driver which gained some valuable extra yards without sacrificing any of his usual accuracy. Seve has taken away a 909D3 8.5° fitted with a Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana Whiteboard 73 X-Flex shaft.
Next week sees the European Tour take a week off as the world’s best head out to the legendary Augusta National for The Masters. The first major of the year will be hotly contested and a number of Titleist Ambassadors will go there with high hopes of claiming the famous green jacket. We wish our guys well!!
April 3rd, 2009
