Golf Poll: Which South African will have the best finish this weekend

Who will be the top placed South African this weekend Ernie Els Rory Sabbatini Retief Goosen Charl Schwartzel Trevor Immelman view results

Nedbank Golf Challenge - Preview

The Nedbank Golf Challenge is a popular tournament in South Africa played over the Gary Player Country Club Course in Sun City. The tournament is a twelve man invitational stroke play event.

This years tournament features:

Player	Country	Comments
Jim Furyk	United States	Withdrawn due to recent injury
Ernie Els	South Africa
Adam Scott	Australia
Pádraig Harrington	Ireland
Rory Sabbatini	South Africa
Sergio García	Spain	Withdrawn due to personal reasons
Justin Rose	England
Geoff Ogilvy	Australia
Luke Donald	England
Henrik Stenson	Sweden
Retief Goosen	South Africa
Charl Schwartzel	South Africa
Trevor Immelman	South Africa	Late entrant (replaces García)
Niclas Fasth	Sweden	Late entrant (replaces Furyk)

My Thoughts
As this is a South African tournament I think the locals have the best chance of taking out the tournament. I will be watching out for Ernie Els (who has won 3 times), Rory Sabbatini, Retief Goosen. My outside tip is Trevor Immelman who has replaced Garcia in the tournament.

Great Golf Swings of the PGA tour (Video)

There are some amazing golf swings going around on the tour. This little video showcases the swinging talents of:
Sergio Garcia
Phil Mickelson
Padraig Harrington
Ernie Els
Tiger Woods

It is well worth watching as it contains swing analysis and some amazing slow motion shots. After following some great advice I always have tired to model my swing on players with similar body types than me so I am off to find a slow motion camera to see how my swing compares to some of the greats of the game.

Golf: HSBC Champions Tournament Preivew

Tiger is missing, but the field that has assembled for this tournament suggests that Asian golf is on the up and up. The world ranking points and the 5 million dollar prize money probably helped too.

Some of the top players that have turned out include:
Phil Mickelson
Ernie Els
Vijay Singh
Angel Cabrera
Padraig Harrington
K.J. Choi

For some reason Ernie Els pops up in my mind as my tip for the event. However Angel Cabrera has been is some kind of form this season and could take out his second event in as many weeks. Luckily for me China falls within my timezone so I will be watching closely.

HSBC World Match Play Championship

This is another of my favourite European Tour golf tournaments, maybe I just like it when things are a little different or something. For those new to the game match play this little snipet from wikipedia.org might help explain things better:

Unlike stroke play, in which the unit of scoring is the stroke, in match play the unit of scoring is the hole. On each hole, the most that can be gained is one point. Golfers play as normal. The golfer with the lowest score on a given hole receives one point. If the golfers tie, then the hole is halved.

Match play scores of a game in progress are kept with a running tally. At the start of a match, the score is "all square" or tied. The score is then recorded in terms of one player's lead over another player. For example, if Player A has won 3 holes, Player B has won 1 hole and they have halved 2 (or any number of) holes, Player A is said to be leading, "2-up" (3 holes won minus 1 hole lost).

These are the results from the first round (source www.europeantour.com):

Match : 1 Paul Casey v Jerry Kelly Paul Casey won 3 & 2 Match : 2 Retief Goosen v Angel Cabrera Angel Cabrera won 6 & 5 Match : 3 Justin Rose v Hunter Mahan Hunter Mahan won 5 & 4 Match : 4 Rory Sabbatini v Søren Hansen Søren Hansen won 4 & 3 Match : 5 Padraig Harrington v Anders Hansen Anders Hansen won 4 & 2 Match : 6 Henrik Stenson v Woody Austin Henrik Stenson won by 1 Hole Match : 7 Niclas Fasth v Andres Romero Andres Romero won 3 & 2 Match : 8 Ernie Els v Colin Montgomerie Ernie Els won 6 & 5

For me the most interesting results were Ernie Els thrashing Colin Montgomerie and Angel Cabrera also thrashing Retief Goosen, who I rate as a very good player. I also liked the look of Andres Romero and after his British Open heroics could be one of the players to watch next year!

In the Quarter finals we have:
Paul Casey V Angel Cabrera
Hunter Mahan V Søren Hansen
Anders Hansen V Henrik Stenson
Andres Romero V Ernie Els

I think the match to watch out for will be Romero and Els both coming off impressive performances yesterday!