Fox continues good form

Ryan Fox looked like he was in line to capture his second European Challenge Tour title of 2016 when he led by 4 shots after 36 holes. A third round of 72 on moving day saw several of his pursuers go past him, and although Ryan recovered with a final round 67, he pulled up two shorts short on -17 overall, for a T4 result. Still, the cheque of around $NZ 40,000 has built his earnings in Europe to around $250k this year, of which $200k has come from the Challenge Tour. He remains 4th in the Race to Oman order, with two tournaments left in the 2016 season.

Isuzu Queensland Open

Victorian amateur Brett Coletta recorded a 3 shot victory in this week’s Tier II Australasian Tour event’ played on a testing Brisbane GC layout. Ben Campbell came from right on the cut line (+5) to shoot 6 under for the weekend, finishing T5 for a cheque of just over $A 4,000. Mark Brown played consistently throughout to finish T11 on even par; other New Zealanders making the cut were Gareth Paddison (T18 on +3) and Nick Gillespie (T46 on +10).

Conditions were even tougher further south at Ballarat in the annual Futures Championship, played for by PGA of Australia trainees, plus some international invites. New Zealand’s John Bae was right in contention after two rounds, but gales and heavy rain in the final round saw him slip to an 84, but nevertheless a commendable T18 result on +16. The winner on +5 was the UK trainee professional Matthew Webb, who may have had more experience in these conditions than most of the field. Our other representative Ben Guilford also found final round conditions too tough, finishing T45.

CIMB Classic

Justin Thomas successfully defended his title at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club, cruising to victory at -23 with a closing round of 64. Danny Lee was well adrift after opening rounds of 72 & 77, which would normally have seen him miss the cut had there been one in this event. However with no cut in place he closed with a 66 & 69 to finish T51 on -4. That is not good enough to take him forward to the WGC/HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai this weekend, which again has a restricted field.

Instead, Danny will be heading back to the USA to play in the Sanderson Farms Championship in Missouri, where he is likely to be joined by Tim Wilkinson and Steven Alker.

Japan Tour

Michael Hendry started strongly in the Bridgestone Open, but couldn’t kick on and finished T18 on -6, 8 shots behind winner Satoshi Kodaira. He will still bank around $25k for his efforts, taking his total official JGT earnings this year to just on $650,000.

European Senior Tour

Peter Fowler has had another productive year in Europe, where he currently lies 4th with earnings of around $200k. The Senior Italian Open was perhaps not one of Chook’s better events, finishing mid field, but he will be looking to regroup in some of the upcoming Australasian Tour events before heading to Mauritius in December for the MCB Senior Tour Championship.

Lydia Ko – a correction!

The LPGA Tour has several ranking races going on at the same time during the year: the Race to the CME Globe, the Rolex Player of the Year, and official money earned. Lydia scooped the pool in all three categories last year, but lately she has been pressed hard by Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn. With Lydia sitting out last week’s Blue Bay LPGA on Hainan Island, Ariya’s 3rd placing (and earnings of $US 139,000) saw her overtake Lydia in official money and the Race to the CME Globe, and stay ahead in Rolex points for the Player of the Year award.

However, Lydia still remains the 1# World ranked female golfer, as the official rankings are calculated on a sliding scale over a two year period. Ariya is still some distance behind her, so there is every chance Lydia Ko will still be sitting on top by the end of the year, despite her indifferent recent form.

My thanks to Will Rutherford for pointing this out……

Lydia and Ariya will clash again this week at the Sime Darby LPGA in Malaysia, being played again at the KL Golf and Country Club – but using a different course to the men’s CIMB Classic PGA event.