January Betting Review: How did we do?

For the past four weeks in January, the YourGolfTravel tipster has been casting his eye over the various tournaments and revealing his thoughts as to the likely winners each week throughout the golfing calendar, selecting his three against the field.

But how did he perform throughout the month? Did he manage to turn over a profit, or end up bunkered in the red?

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South Lodge Hotel and Manning’s Heath Golf Club Review

Having visited South Lodge Hotel and Manning’s Heath Golf Club this weekend I had such a fantastic time I would like to share it with you.

Given the time of year the golf courses at Manning’s Heath were in fairly good condition. We played the Waterfall on our first day which is currently undergoing some development work however this did not affect our experience. It superbly laid out and is a very good test for all standards of golfer. The greens were true and given the recent weather I was very impressed. Read more

Bubba holds off Phil to win Farmers Insurance Open

Big-hitting Bubba Watson showed his mettle for a fight after holding off fellow left-hander Phil Mickelson to capture the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, California.

Watson, who had started the day one shot behind overnight leaders Mickelson and Bill Haas made a series of big drives and vital putts at just the right times en-route to a round of 67.

Playing in the group ahead of Mickelson, Watson birdied the last hole to close on a 16-under par total 272, leaving Mickelson requiring an eagle to force a tie and a play-off. The world number four failed to reach the final green in two, meaning he had to hole out from around 75 yards.

It had been a strategic choice by Mickelson to lay-up short of the green in two. His drive had left him in the rough to the left of the fairway and between clubs – a 3-wood would have been too much and would have likely saw him fly the green, while a hybrid would struggle to clear the water, leaving his best chance at eagle from the fairway by using the green’s contours to feed the ball down to the hole.

And Mickelson gave the ball every chance, coming up just three feet short of the flag.

Watson also saw spirited challenges come from Dustin Johnson and last week’s Bob Hope Classic winner, Jhonattan Vegas; both players finishing in a tie for third place on 13-under par. Vegas had briefly tied Watson for the lead at the 10th hole, and held a chance of back-to-back victories in consecutive weeks until finding the water hazard on the last hole and making a bogey.

DA Points shot a 5-under par 67 to take fifth spot.

The win was only Watson’s second on the PGA Tour after breaking his duck in 2010 at the Traveler’s Championship.

“It showed I can do it,” he said. “I’ve done it twice now. I’m only 50 behind Phil and about 80 behind Tiger. So they better watch out.”

Tiger Woods, making his seasonal debut in this event, had a poor tournament. Starting the final day eight shots behind the leader, Woods stumbled to a 3-over par 75 to bring to an end his five-tournament winning streak at Torrey Pines, and heralded the worst seasonal debut since his first full PGA Tour season in 1997.

“I have some work to do,” Woods said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Nick Watney staged an amazing final day charge over Torrey Pines’ tough South Course. Starting out well down the leaderboard, Watney started his final day from the tenth hole, and made eight birdies on his outward nine; parring only the par-4 15th hole.

On his inward nine, he dropped a shot on the par-3 3rd hole after finding the bunker off the tee, but later eagled the par-5 6th hole for a -10 under par round of 63 to claim a share of 6th place with Anthony Kim and Hunter Mahan.

The other overnight leader, Bill Haas, could only manage a 75 as he slipped from a share of top spot into a share of ninth, alongside Troy Matteson, Marc Leishman and Brandt Snedeker.

Golfdotz: Tattoos for your golf ball

If you’re looking for a different way to scribble an identifying mark on your golf ball, you could always tattoo it.

Golfdotz (www.golfdotz.com) is a new product that has been released in the USA which allows players to apply any one of a number of fanciful designs to their golf ball.

Golfdotz come on a sheet, like stamps and can be peeled off and applied to the ball. Once on the ball, the sticker is rubbed until it fully applied and then the covering paper is removed to leave the tattoo design on the ball.

It has proved popular with some pros; Rory Sabbatini has designed his own custom tattoo, a red dragon curved in the shape of a ‘S’; while Natalie Gulbis has also adopted a customised tattoo – hers is in the shape of a heart, set between two reverse ‘G’s, and resembling a pair of swans.

Popular ‘standard’ tattoos include a skull and crossbones, a shamroch and the American Stars and Stripes flag.

Each sheet of Golfdotz tattoos features 24 ‘tattoos’, with the range comprising of 52 designs. They retail for $5.99.

What would your design be?

(via Golf.com)

Casey reigns in Bahrain

England’s Paul Casey came out on top after a titanic final 18 hole battle with Swedish Ryder Cup star Peter Hanson to win the Volvo Golf Champions event at the Colin Montgomerie-designed Royal Golf Club, Bahrain. It is Casey’s first tournament victory in almost two years; his last coming in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in 2009.

The final day’s play saw the lead change no less than 23 times, and in addition to Casey and Hanson, Spaniard Miguel Angel Jiminez would also challenge for top honours.

Jiminez might well have been the one to lift the trophy had it not been for ill-timed losses at the 13th and 16th holes, but a birdie on the last saw him set the clubhouse target at 19-under par, beating the previous target of 18-under par that had been set by Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher.

Both Casey and Hanson stood on the 18th tee locked together at 20-under par, but after Hanson had bogeyed the final hole, Casey had to hold his nerve to sink a six-footer for a winning par and the first prize of €283,329. Casey’s win moves him into the top 6 in the world, and could also see him climb into the top-5 when the next Offfical Golf World Rankings are published, but that latter scenario is dependant on the result of the Farmer’s Insurance Open.

“It feels fantastic – the most important thing to me is winning and that was huge. The goal is obviously the Majors, but how are you going to win Major Championships if you can’t win regular events?”

Favourable early conditions lent well to low scoring, with many players recording sub-par rounds; not least Soren Kjeldsen and Richard Finch, who both shot 63s to set and share a new course record.

Jiminez, Darren Clarke, Johan Edfors and James Kingston also all held a share of the lead at one stage in the final round but none of them could hold onto it, but Jiminez came closest to upsetting the leading pair of Hanson and Casey.

Stephen Gallacher took fourth place and Swede Robert Karlsson, the defending champion in Qatar this coming week, came fifth.

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