TELFER’S TAKE 7.7.26

Zilch, nichts, nada, rien - yes it doesn’t matter which language you choose, last weekend, financially, was a decidedly unremarkable weekend for our leading five golfers.

Among them - Ryan Fox, Lydia Ko, Daniel Hillier, Kazuma Kobori and Steve Allker – not one won as much as a single cent in prize money.

Sure, Lydia and Ryan had weeks off, having played recent Major Championships, but both Hillier and Kobori missed the cut in the DP World Tour event in Munich and possibly most surprising of all, Steve Alker missed the cut in the Seniors’ US Open.

It was pretty much an unforgettable week for the two Kiwis in Munich at the BMW International. Kazuma Kobori shot rounds of 72 and 74 to lie in 132 nd place after 36 holes, missing the cut by 6 shots.

Daniel Hillier fared a little better with rounds of 69 and 74 but still missed the cut by 3 shots and was in a tie for 90th place at the halfway stage. His fate was largely sealed by his closing holes on Day 2 when he bogeyed 3 of the last 5 holes. He’s slipped further down the Race to Dubai points list, now sitting in 15th place, 5 places worse than he needs to be to gain an automatic qualifying spot for next year’s USPGA Tour.

The Munich course gave up a veritable tonne of birdies. Making the most of this course was 39-year-old South African golfer Michael Hollick who recorded his first win on this Tour with a final score of 18 under par, helped by a birdie eagle finish on the last day. The cut was made at 4 under, the lowest of any tournament on the DP Tour this year.

Things I imagine will be a lot harder this week when the DP Tour moves to the rugged stretches of the Scottish coast for the Scottish Open, which actually forms part of both the USPGA Tour and the DP World Tour. It is a co-sanctioned event and therefore attracts a large number of top golfers from the American Tour as well as the best from the DP World Tour. It acts effectively as a dress rehearsal for the Open the following week. There’ll be a three-strong Kiwi presence - Hillier and Kobori along with Ryan Fox. All three have also qualified for the Open Championship, the year’s final Major starting next week.

Kazuma Kobori is a late edition to the field thanks to a flying visit he made at the start of last week from mainland Europe to the Lancashire coast to compete in a final qualifying event for the Open. Playing in this 36-hole West Lancashire event, Kobori finished tied for 2 nd place thanks to a second round of 65.

It was a pretty tough assignment Kobori had given himself because included in this strong field were two past Masters winners, Sergio Garcia and Danny Willett. Only the top five finishers got invites to the Open, so Kobori’s showing was superb given the wet conditions which prevailed, breaking the heat drought that had seen Britian sweltering in the days prior.

Apparently Kobori hadn’t given himself much chance of finishing in the top 5 but afterwards said both his driving and his putting had held up well and noted, “that when those aspects of your game are working, life’s pretty good as a golfer”.

Let’s hope the so-called good life for this golfer continues for the next two weeks at least.