Weekend Preview 8th June
A relatively quiet week, with no Japan Tour event and Lydia
Ko not playing, as part of her planned break.
A miscalculation by the LPGA administration sees her still at 1# going
into this week, but with Ariya Jutanugarn starting in the Manulife LPGA Classic
in Canada, that must surely change.
The focus will however be on Ryan Fox in Austria for the
latest European Tour event, and the NZ PGA Tour contingent in Memphis for the
FedEx St Jude Classic.
We also update the official World Golf rankings for our leading
players, which has Danny Lee moving back into the World Top 100, and Michael
Hendry also within striking distance of a similar ranking.
European Tour
Ryan Fox gets an excellent chance to build on his good
performance in the Nordea Masters last week, when he tees it up tonight in the
Lyoness Open, being played at the Diamond Country Club near Vienna,
Austria. The field is not especially
strong, but does feature Ryder Cup player Chris Wood and Austria’s own Bernd
Wiesberger, both of whom are playing in next week’s US Open at Erin Hills.
Another player bound to draw a big gallery is Miguel-Angel
Jimenez, who had a hand in the redesign of some of the holes at Diamond
CC. Traditionally a score of around -20
is needed to win this event, although with the rough grown in and the fairways
and greens hard and fast that may be problematical this week.
It would be great if Ryan could finish up in the same group
as the old matador at some stage….
FedEx St Jude Classic
The Tour moves to Memphis, Tennessee, for the final event
before the US Open, and the final chance to get a New Zealand player into the
field for 2017’s 2nd Major.
Danny Lee and Tim Wilkinson both missed out in regional
qualifying earlier in the week, but are both in the field at TPC Southwind,
along with Steven Alker.
At 6,500 metres (par 70), the course is not long by Tour
standards, but features plenty of water, with lakes or creeks in front of many
greens.
The back nine is likely to be key, and watch out for the 146
metre par 3 11th, which has an island green Sawgrass-style, the 215
metre par 3 14th, which
requires a carry all the way over water,
and the 450 metre par 4 17th.
World Golf Rankings
The latest rankings for New Zealand players currently
sitting inside the Top 1,000 are:
96# Danny Lee
114# Michael
Hendry
168# Ryan Fox
355# Tim Wilkinson
463# Daniel Pearce
469# Ben Campbell
641# Steven Alker
677# Josh Geary
884# Gareth
Paddison
885# Michael Long
948# Brad Shilton