Your Golf Pro – Nick Bradley introduction

Hi everybody, I am delighted to be contributing for Your Golf Travel. My intention during the blogs and indeed the videos you will have access to is in answering some of the ‘travelling’ golf questions you may have, give you insights from the PGA Tour and be here to assist whenever you have a question; You can mail me anytime @ nrbradleygolf@gmail.com

This first blog deals with the mystery of why it can be difficult to take your current or standard golf game with you every time you board a plane or even tee it up in the next county. Read more

Lee Westwood finishes 2011 on a high with Thailand win

Lee Westwood ran out a comfortable winner of the Thailand Golf Championship in Bangkok, and ended 2011 on a high note following his earlier victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

Westwood, a former world number one, had raced into a halfway 11-shot lead before South African Charl Schwartzel – the current US Masters champion – had reeled him back to just four shots in the third round; setting up a tense final round for the Worksop golfer who has had a largely indifferent year.

However, despite the attentions of Schwartzel, Westwood was solid throughout Sunday to post a final round 69 for an overall score of 22-under par 266 – seven clear of second placed Schwartzel.

It wasn’t until the turn in the final round before Westwood could breathe easily; despite birdies at the second and third to give him some breathing space, Westwood added another on the 12^th and followed with another gain at the next to effectively put the seal on the win.

But with the island 17^th to come, Westwood knew he still had work to do. Thankfully for him, he navigated the hole safely, but Schwartzel wasn’t so fortunate and made bogey.

“I wasn’t happy until I was on that boat coming back from the island on 17 with a big lead.” Westwood said afterward his round, knowing that despite his big advantage heading into the hole, one slip could have undone much of his good work.

Schwartzel’s bogey on 17 was followed by another on the final hole, but it wasn’t enough to damage the US Masters champion’s second place. American Michael Thomson finished alone in third, while Simon Dyson took a share of fourth place on 12-under par alongside home player Chawalit Plaphol.

The win in South Africa and in Thailand ensured Westwood will go into the winter hiatus with a lot of renewed confidence after a relatively disappointing 2011. Westwood picked up wins at the Asian Tour’s Indonesian Masters and the co-sanctioned Ballantines Championship, before wins at the Nedbank Challenge and this past weekend.

Westwood will now take a break over the Christmas period before kicking off his 2012 season, and to help in his quest for an elusive first major, Westwood has rejoined the PGA Tour full-time for 2012.

“I’ll go into the winter with a lot of confidence and I’ll try to come out next year playing the same kind of golf as I played this week, a little bit leaner and well rested.”

Westwood also finishes the season ranked number 3 in the Official Golf World Rankings.

Top 5 Golf Shots – 2011

2011 has been one of the best seasons of golf in recent memory. The guys on tour have provided golf fans with some serious thrills and spills over the last 12 months and with Tiger seemingly on the way back to challenge McIlory & Co. we hope 2012 will be every bit as exciting. With so many golfing highlights it is tough to pick a best moment from the 2011 golf season but we can at least check out five of the very best shots from the last 12 months. There are some real corkers here and we want you to vote for your favourite. Read more

Impressive Bo Van Pelt wins in Malaysia

Birdies at five of the last eight holes saw American Bo Van Pelt cap an impressive six-shot victory at the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic in Malaysia.

Van Pelt signed for a closing 64 that gave him a sizeable win over second placed Jeff Overton, with Swede Freddie Jacobsen a further shot behind in third.

Van Pelt had taken a one-shot lead into the final round over Ryder Cup player Jeff Overton and struggled to shake off the attentions of Overton, who is still seeking his first win. But Van Pelt moved up a gear after the turn, making birdies on the 11^th, 13^th, 14^th, 15^th and 17^th holes. Overton meanwhile felt the heat of Van Pelt’s birdie blitz and slumped to back-to-back bogeys on the 12^th and 13^th holes, and despite birdies at the 15^th and 17^th the gap was too great to peg back.

“I’ve had a couple of chances to win this year, but didn’t come out on top,” Van Pelt said after his win. “Canada was a tough pill to swallow. I just wanted to learn from that and do a better job when I had the lead. I take a lot of satisfaction in how I played today.”

“I played well all day. I didn’t make any bogeys. I just tried to play to game plan all week.”

The event, which is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and Asian Tour saw Van Pelt lift a winner’s cheque of $1.3 million. Although the event is co-sanctioned, Van Pelt’s win doesn’t count as an official win on the PGA Tour, but does for the Asian Tour.

Overton was philosophical about once again playing second fiddle after holding chances to win.

“That was one of the best rounds of golf I’ve seen. I didn’t play a great round. I played a solid round. I kind of had a couple of hiccups. He birdied some holes that I bogeyed and those were huge momentum shifters.”

A three-way tie for fourth saw Columbia’s Camilo Villegas, and United States pair Cameron Tringale and Mark Wilson finish on 15-under par, while John Senden, Ryan Palmer and Vijay Sing finished a further shot behind in a share of 7^th place.

Donald tops PGA Tour money list with Florida win

Luke Donald knew exactly what he had to do on Sunday if he were to top the PGA Tour money list – win the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic. And trailing the lead by five shots heading into the final round, Donald’s chances of overhauling the prize money haul of Webb Simpson looked slim.

But Donald, who trailed Simpson by some $360,000, posted perhaps his best round of 2011 – no mean feat, given the season he has had – to wipe out the five shot deficit and claim the top spot in the money list; recording a 8-under par 64 to win by two from joint-overnight leader Justin Leonard.

Donald got off to the perfect start, notching up back-to-back birdies on the opening two holes, but he did his chances of the win little good with a bogey at the fifth. Two more birdies were tempered by another dropped shot as Donald turned in 2-under par, but it was on the homeward nine that me really made hay, notching up six birdies on the bounce before playing the final three holes in par to post a 17-under par clubhouse target.

It was Donald’s second PGA Tour win of the season, following his WGC-Accenture World Match Play Championship back in February, but it’s a wonder that he has only won twice on the Tour in 2011; following a season-opening missed cut in the Northern Trust Open, Donald has only three times finished outside the top-10 in all his events since on the PGA Tour, and lost out to Brandt Snedeker in a play-off for The Heritage in April.

With Justin Leonard claiming second spot, two behind the Englishman, there was a three-way tie for third, which featured Kevin Chappell – who had also shared the third round lead, as well as Korea’s Sunghoon Kang and veteran Tom Pernice Jr, who could easily be plying his trade on the Seniors Tour, but chooses instead to compete against the younger generation. His finish meant he crept into the top-125 on the money list, and win back his card for next season.

Tour rookie Chappell will look back on a missed 3-footer at the 10^th hole which cost him a birdie, and he dropped a shot on the next when his approach found a bunker. He eventually posted a level-par 72.

Webb Simpson finished second on the money list behind Donald, but couldn’t live with the world number one once he hit his stride; eventually carding a third straight round of 69 for a 13-under par score and a tie for 6^th alongside former US Masters champion Trevor Immelman, John Rollins, and Nick O’Hearn.

“This is one of the most satisfying wins of my career,” Donald said after his win in the event, which he only decided to play in after Simpson had competed the previous week at Sea Island, otherwise he might have taken the week off. The fact that Simpson finished runner-up gave the world number one little choice if he were to claim the top honours in the money list, and he knew his best chance was to win the tournament.

“It was do or die, everything was on the line,” Donald said, who now could become the first player to win both the PGA Tour and European Tour money lists in the same season. “I’m thrilled and over the moon.”

With five tournaments left of the European Tour, Donald leads US Open champion Rory McIlroy by little over $1.8 million. In total, Donald earned just over $6.6 million for his exploits on the PGA Tour in 2011.

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