Other golf news in brief
Chinese on a golfing mission
IF golf really catches on in China, the sky’s the limit – it would appear. Tenniel Chu, the executive director the Mission Hills resort in China which plays host to the World Cup foresees the day when a Chinese player will be a regular at the Masters.
“Among all the sports in China, golf is growing the fastest. We’re experiencing around 50 per cent growth each year; so right now you’re looking at four million golfers in China.”
European Tour player Lian-Wei Zhang became the first and so far only Chinese player to compete in the Masters, when he received a special exemption six years ago. Unfortunately he failed to make the cut.
But the Mission Hills connection was alive for the past two days, as the Asian amateur champion Chang-won Han – from South Korea – was trained at the multi-course facility.
Lyle eaten up by poor play
SANDY Lyle experienced golf’s Jekyll and Hyde personality traits in the two days, going from the high of Thursday’s opening 69 to the pits of yesterday’s 86 – a 17-shot difference that had him on an early plane home. How could he explain the difference? “It was a case of I just lost my rhythm completely,” he said. “Everything gets magnified out here on the greens. You just keep missing the greens in the wrong place, and you have to take gambles. I had to take gambles and go for the pins and that doesn’t pay off out there. You know, it was just tough, very, very tough . . . poor play just eats you up.”
Lyle’s disastrous start saw him go double bogey-bogey-double bogey-bogey-double bogey to drop eight shots to par in his first five holes. It ended a sequence of three successive cuts made by the Scotsman, champion back in 1988.
Injury forces Thongchai to bow out
THAILANDS Thongchai Jaidee withdrew yesterday because of an elbow injury. The former Royal Thai Army paratrooper, who was competing in his second Masters, pulled out after 10 holes of the second round. Thongchai, 40, had opened with a two-over-par 74 at Augusta National and was six over for the tournament when he quit.
Campbell says enough is enough
WHAT Michael Campbell, the former US Open champion needs quickly, is a tournament in Ireland. For it was after his European Open success in 2002 and Irish Open win in 2003 he found the belief to go on and claim a major title at Pinehurst in 2005.
How far away that all seems now, as the Kiwi – who added a second round 81 to his opening 83 for a horrific 164, 20-over, in the Masters – posted his sixth round in the 80s on tour this season and which has now forced him to take an extended leave of absence from the game. Campbell even implied he wouldn’t make it to the US Open at Pebble Beach in June.
“I need get away from the game a little bit, for maybe for a month or even six months. Who knows? I just need to get myself sorted out mentally . . . Michael Campbell should not be shooting these scores.
“This is 10 times I’ve played Augusta and 10 times I’ve missed the cut, so it hasn’t been kind to me at all. I have felt worse before in my career but not as bad as this week so that’s why it’s time to do something about it because this is ridiculous as I shouldn’t be hitting the shots I’m hitting. I need to rectify it. Enough is enough.”
If Campbell is looking for another Irish fillip, he will have to wait until the JP McManus pro-am in July.
