The Story is Rory!

Woods misses the cut. Ryo Ishikawa shoots 58 in Japan. Rory McIlroy storms Quail Hollow with a final day 62 and a 16 under weekend to take his 1st PGA Tour Title.

Is it it out with the old and in with the new? I'm not prepared to go that far yet. But here is what I do know. Quail Hollow is one of the best courses you can play, anywhere in the world. It tests every part of your game, and every green is a potential 3 putt for us amateurs, unless you are both within 15ft AND under the hole.

Rory took on this gem of a course, with a field absolutely loaded to the hilt with former Major winners, and brought home the bacon. Good on you Rory !

Padraig Harrington hung around for 2 hours after he finished to cheer Rory home. And Lee Westwood, the Pom who thinks he is an Irishman (according to Darren Clarke) waited for him too. I thought this was an Australian trait, but then again, the Irish are a fairly big contributor to the Aussie DNA Gene pool. This is mostly due to their thieving ways - but that's another story.....

Anyway, I told you this event would be won by a player who can flush a long iron, and I wasn't wrong. None of us were on the new bona fide superstar and so the skinny jackpots to $60, the overall to $96, Tony & Rick to do their thing at Newport and we all owe $90.

This week, we are off to The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. I don't know about you, but I love this tournament just as much as The Majors. You gotta love a 17th hole that is an easy 8 iron with a green nearly as big as a , um a , um a , a, really big green, that gives the players fits.

Apart from Alistair MacKenzie, who designed  places like Augusta National, Royal Melbourne, La Hinch and Cypress Point, Pete Dye stands out for me as the greatest course designer of our time. TPC Sawgrass is probably his masterpiece. It certainly is the course for which he is most famous - thanks mostly to that 17th hole.



Anyway, classy players win this event. But they need to be in form as well. This course simply demands ball striking excellence, a keen up & down game, and confidence with the putter.

They don't call it The 5th Major for nothing.

Good luck all

The LRFG !