Reasons to motivate for upcoming European golf

Amazing how 31 days can lift the mood. Yet after just one month of the year there is much to be positive about the state of golf on this side of the Atlantic. Here are five reasons for European golf fans to be cheerful for the rest of 2018:

5. Kemp shows it’s not too late.

Finally, the good-news story of the month goes to England’s John Kemp. For 30 years he was happy to be a proper amateur in every sense of the word. Unlike the vast majority of players in the amateur ranks funded by golf associations – professional amateurs – Kemp held down a full-time job but still managed to play amateur golf at the highest level.

The Woburn Golf Club member qualified for and played in two British Opens, won three British Mid-Amateur Championships, the English Mid-Amateur, the Sunningdale Foursomes and many other tournaments. He decided to enter the 2018 European Senior Tour Qualifying School on a whim to see if his game was good enough to play with Europe’s over-50s. It is.

Kemp took the second of five cards and will play this year’s European senior circuit, now called the Staysure Tour. One of those events will be on his home course. The Travis Perkins Masters is held over Woburn’s Dukes course. Don’t be surprised if the quiet, unassuming Englishman makes some noise this year.

4. Chinese and Indian players excelling

Ernie Els predicted back in 2008 that Indian and Chinese golfers would be major influencers on golf’s world stage. Wins for 22-year-old Li Haotong and Shubhankar Sharma, 21, in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and Maybank Championship prove The Big Easy is a pretty good soothsayer. Haotong took down McIlroy to win in Dubai. Sharma stormed home with a closing 62. Each man has won twice on the European Tour. Haotong will play in this year’s Masters while Sharma is in the British Open. Will they lead the vanguard in their home countries by becoming future major winners? It’s going to be fun to find out.

3. Tommy Fleetwood is the real deal.

Despite Fleetwood ending the 2017 European Tour as European No. 1, there were small doubts that he might be a flash in the pan. Other players have followed up banner years by dropping off the radar. Not Fleetwood. He proved he’s the real deal with his Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship victory. To outscore McIlroy and Dustin Johnson on Day One, and then shoot 30 on the back nine on Sunday to defend his title, shows Fleetwood has the game to contend for major titles.

2. European Tour golf is quicker than the PGA Tour.

The conclusion of the Farmers Insurance Open proved yet again that pace of play in Europe is quicker than the PGA Tour. Six hours for Alex Noren, Ryan Palmer and J.B. Holmes to complete the final round, punctuated by Holmes’ disgraceful 4 minutes, 10 seconds to play his second to the 18th, was a poor advert for the game.

While play could be a lot quicker in Europe, it never reaches the Farmers Insurance nadir. That’s not just my take, but the opinion of players who play both tours. Ask the PGA Tour-based Europeans and they’ll tell you European Tour officials are more strident on pace of play than PGA Tour officials. If the Holmes incident wasn’t final proof that professional golf needs a shot clock – something I’ve been promoting for 20 years – then I don’t know what is.

1. Rory’s definitely back.

Fears Rory McIlory would continue to suffer from a poor 2017 season didn’t take long to evaporate. Third in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and second in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic proved the former World No. 1 made the right move to take a three-month break following last October’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

McIlroy looked like he’d never been away. More importantly, he’s noticeably fitter than at any point in his life. That was obvious from the moment he walked into the interview room for his pre-tournament press conference in Abu Dhabi. I’ve been watching McIlroy compete since he was 14, playing in the 2004 British Boys’ Championship at Royal Liverpool. I did a double take when he walked into the room. He’s more athletic looking than I’ve ever seen him. Seems he’s really serious about making the next 10 years of his career better than the previous decade. That’s fantastic news. (source: Golfweek)

PGA Tour rookie came close to matching that feeling as he charged into contention at the Sony Open in Hawaii

Shooting a magical 59 on the Web.com Tour last year was a career highlight for American Will Wilcox, and the PGA Tour rookie came close to matching that feeling as he charged into contention at the Sony Open in Hawaii on Saturday.

Competing for the third time in a PGA Tour event, Wilcox piled up seven birdies and a lone bogey to card a joint best-of-the-day six-under-par 64 in the third round at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.

Birdies on the last two holes earned him an 11-under total of 199 and he will tee off in Sunday's final round a shot behind pacesetting American Chris Kirk.

"I felt pretty good coming down 18," Wilcox told Golf Channel after climbing from a share of 17th place overnight into a tie for second with compatriot Harris English.

"It's nice to play well here and make the first cut in a season that I get to play. Walking down 18, me and my caddie looked at each other and I was kind of having to pinch myself," said the 27-year-old from Birmingham, Alabama.

Wilcox secured his card for the 2013-14 PGA Tour via the lower-tier Web.com Tour last year, having won his first title on that circuit in April at the South Georgia Classic in Valdosta.

Three months later he became the fourth player on that tour to shoot a 59, dipping under 60 in the final round of the Utah Championship where he tied for third.

Asked how that experience compared with his impressive title bid so far as a PGA Tour rookie at the Sony Open, Wilcox replied: "The 59 was a special day.

"I had some family in town and the course was set up for me. But I feel like this one does too. I am playing on Bermuda (grass) again and feel like I am back home in Alabama.

"Both are special days but this is a dream come true to be able to play out here. It's pretty cool," smiled Wilcox, whose mother Kim is in her 13th year as the golf coach at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Wilcox, whose previous PGA Tour starts ended with missed cuts at the 2010 Canadian Open and 2011 U.S. Open, effectively launched his birdie surge on Saturday with an unexpected chip-in at the par-three seventh.

"It came out super-hot," Wilcox said of his chip from greenside rough. "Two days ago I could not hit that shot but I've been working really hard on the chipping green.

"It came out a little bit left, then it spun right and went in right in the middle. If it didn't hit the centre of the flag it was going to ricochet maybe eight, 10 feet but it went in."

Following that chip-in, Wilcox went on to record further birdies at the 10th, 12th and 13th, bogeyed the 15th, then picked up further shots at 17 and the par-five last to cap a very special day.