Golf: The Open Championship Contenders 2011

The Open at Royal St.George's kicks off next week and the stage is set for someone to seize the claret jug and cement their name in golfing history. I believe Lee Westwood is well placed to break his Major winning duck. The level headed Englishman is a majestic iron player and has the experience to finally land one of golf's big 4 titles. A sizzling 65 in the first round at The Scottish Open shows he is in the mood to go well in golf's oldest major.The winner is likely to be someone with a reputation for straight driving and impressive greens in regulation statistics. The importance of long, straight driving is emphasised more than usual by the quirky layout of the course.

Luke Donald is an obvious contender,with his long game precision, as is USPGA champion, Martin Kaymer. Rory Mcilroy is the favourite and is priced as short as 5/1 chance with the bookmakers. The 2011 US Open victory along with 3 strong rounds at Augusta illustrate that he is a threat, I just wonder whether the newly formed pressure of last month's performance will hinder his concentration and mental approach.

2010 US Open Champion Graeme Mcdowell has the ability to beat strong winds with low trajectory shot-making where necessary and a stunning 2nd round at The Scottish Open show that he is finding the groove at just the right time.

Charl Schwartzel will still be enjoying the confidence boost of his Masters win and has the length,shot shaping ability and accuracy off the tee to be a contender.

When considering outside shots for the Championship, Bubba Watson springs to mind. If the big American can avoid hitting too many errant tee shots, he can overpower this course if he gets things going on the greens.  Matteo Mannasero and Anthony Kim will win majors one day. These two young stars have the power and accuracy to make them a threat at any tournament.

Padraig Harrington must be considered with his 3 major wins and who would write off Ernie Els? The experience, swing consistency and wind control shot-making of the South African could surprise many by going close next week.

Royal St. Georges has a habit of producing surprise winners. Could Phil Mickelson finally capture a British Open crown? I would be surprised if the big hitting left hander lifts the Claret Jug next Sunday but with his Major winning pedigree and amazing short game, who knows?

Name the 5 Players who will dominate golf over the next 5 years.

There has been a seismic shift at the summit of world golf of late. The European Tour players have come to the fore, resulting in the US Open victories of Graeme Mcdowell and Rory Mcilroy, the US PGA victory of Martin Kaymer and the the world number 1 rankings recently earned by Lee Westwood and Luke Donald. The American presence at the top, has been weakened by the dips in form of Tiger Woods but Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker are still flying the US flag in the top 10. The improvement of the European contingent is demonstrated by the fact that the top four players all hail  from the shores of the current Ryder Cup holders.

The 10 players that have a shot at consistent world dominance are:

Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Rory Mcilroy, Phil Mickelson, Charl Schwartzel, Matteo Manaserro, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, Luke Donald and Tiger Woods. Who would have thought that Tiger would be found at the tail end of this list, having amassed 14 major titles in record time? The 2008 US Open Champion is having some health problems with his knee but only a fool would rule him out of returning to his best, such is the mental strength of the man. In whittling the shortlist down to 5 one has to consider the player's:

1) Major winning potential.
2) Age and Experience.
3) Performance over the last 12 months.
4) Past Major winning record including bis USPGA and European  Tour championship such as the Players' and PGA Championship at Wentworth.
5) Consistency of swing mechanics and injury history.

My final 5 would be: Martin Kaymer, Rory Mcilroy, Matteo Manaserro, Jason Day and Tiger Woods.

The rationale between excluding Mickelson and Westwood is that they have reached their peak at the ages of 41 and 38 respectively and are unlikely to go any better after circa 2012. There would be a case for placing Tiger in this same bracket but he is an exception ,on the grounds that he is arguably the best player of all time and that he has Jack Nicklaus' all time Major record in sight, which will keep him motivated. Luke Donald has been omitted on the grounds that his Major record so far is weak relative to his his ability (best finish is tied 3rd at The Masters 5 years ago) and that his game is lacking in power, he can only depend on his unerring accuracy so far, on occasion it will dessert him. Rickie Fowler is promising but poor Major performance thus far (his best is tied 14th in the Masters) rules him out. Charl Schwartzel is a great player as he showed at the Masters but I am not convinced he will sustain a high enough level to challenge the top 5 in years to come. Jason Day has finished second in both The Masters and The US Open this year, major winning pedigree by anybody's standard. I have included Rory Mcilroy and Matteo Mannasero on the grounds that they are the hottest properties in golf at the minute. Mannasero has won 2 tour titles at the tender age of 18, while Mcilroy destroyed the field at the US Open with as good a swing as you will see in the game today.

It is hard to predict the future in such a variable filled sport but these are my thoughts. What are yours?

Rory the lion roars warning to Tiger. Is Rory Mcilroy the new Tiger Woods?

After Rory Mcilroy destroyed the field at Congressional yesterday everyone in the golfing world is asking the same question: Is Rory the new Tiger?

The manner in which the young Northern Irishman dismantled the field on Sunday has earned him admiration worldwide in the eyes of golfing fans.In comparison the formerly omnipotent world number one has languished into the background, missing this years US Open with a recurring knee injury.It is now 3 years since the mighty Woods added his 14th major title to his bulging trophy cabinet and many qualified onlookers have suggested that he may struggle to add another.

                                   Personally I still think Rory has a long way to go before he can even be mentioned in the same breathe as Tiger Woods in terms of golfing greatness. We must remember that Tiger is second only in the all-time major winners rankings to Jack Nicklaus. Rory was very impressive on Sunday but he will have to repeat such impressive performances another 4 or 5 times before we can talk about him surpassing Tiger as the dominating force in golf worldwide. Is Rory talented enough to surpass Tiger? Without question. But does he have the mental fortitude to repeatedly bear the pressure of competing at the business end of major tournaments. It was only in April this year that we saw Rory struggle to cope with the weight of expectancy when his title campaign crumbled after an errant tee shot on the 10th tee at Augusta. We know that Tiger has demonstrated time and time again that he has the ruthless focus to close out major tournaments  consistently. I would expect that Tiger is on the practice ground at this very minute fine tuning his swing and adjusting his swing to compensate for the problems he is having with his knee. Tiger still has Jack Nicklaus' record of 18                               Majors in sight and I still believe he has what it takes to come back and reclaim his place at the summit of world golf. Rory Mcilroy is likely to lead a pack of young talents taking the fight to Tiger. Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Luke Donald, Jason Day, Matteo Manaserro the list goes on but do not be surprised if Tiger quickly finds the groove and shows those that have written him off that he is far from finished writing his entry in the record books.

In answer to the initial question I would say: Is Rory Mcilroy the new Tiger? Yes. But for how long? With so many young competitors around and with the experienced Els , Mickelson and Westwood far from finished with their pursuit for glory, can we award the top mantle to Rory so readily? Maybe for a few weeks but who knows? Maybe The Open in July will unveil another pretender to Tigers' crown?!