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Justin Rose has just won the Volvo Masters at Valderrama in Spain, and with the victory he also wins the European Tour’s Order of Merit. I think Rose is great to watch, he’s got the game that Adam Scott would like to have, and they both don’t win easily. But I thought Justin Rose was on the US Tour, he missed the first six months of the European Tour.
The European Tour Championship title was up for grabs at Valderrama, with Harrington, Els and Rose all trying for the Colin Montgomery title. But Els went to Singapore instead of Spain “Valderamma is a great course and it’s a great end of the year event but, you know, how can I say it? The end of the year we’ve got the wheelbarrow out too, you want to cash in a little bit more. It just happened this tournament in Singapore is the same week, I’m entered for three years, and you know, they changed the Valderamma date. It’s unfortunate. Somebody missed the ball, they screwed up the dates, you know it’s as simple as that”
“It does surprise me, because you know the Volvo Order of Merit meant a lot to me and it obviously doesn’t mean as much to others” said Colin Montgomery (eight times the winner). Monty has had a good year in 2007, his problem is mostly putting. Big wedding plans may take the pressure off, he’s marrying “up”.
Justin Rose on Friday “Obviously from the Tournaments point of view, it’s not ideal, but from my point of view, it’s great! It’s just a shame that there’s a conflict on the dates.” He won 666,000 Euros today, so he’s very happy.
Harrington on Els decision “I also had an offer to play in Singapore. Els rarely plays at Valderrama, it’s a course that doesn’t reward big hitters. There’s nowhere out there really that he can take advantage of that power. In Ernies plans at the start of the year I could see that he never planned on coming.” The 2008 European Tour starts (does it ever end?) in a week in Shanghai, Ernie’s already in the hood, probably with a new wheel barrow.
2008 should be great to watch – the Asian and European tours will both be throwing so much money at the players that competition should be fierce and I love watching people like Rose who play everywhere, unlike many who only play on courses that suit their games (or offer bonus money equal to the whole purse). Padraig Harrington is the Open Champion, Sergio was in contention again, the Canadian Open seems to be healthy again, I hear the Red Sox won, our dog Marley gets to Scotland in December, it’s glate to be alive!
