May23 Wentworthbits
Published: Last updated:
* Paul McGinley, captain Nick Faldo’s assistant along with Jose Maria Olazabal for next year’s Ryder Cup, has his sights on becoming the main man himself in the future.
* It was good to see Justin Rose back on the range at Wentworth yesterday. The Englishman has been struggling to shrug off a niggling back problem which has sidelined him since his brave bid for US Masters glory at Augusta National.
Rose is understandably raring to go and is confident of giving a good account of himself in the BMW PGA Championship. He played a full 18 holes on Monday and showed no ill effects, saying: “I’ve had a lot of treatment since I returned to the UK and it seems to have done the trick. Hopefully everything will be fine. I’m really hungry for action and to carry on where I left off.”
* Actor Hugh Grant was on the Wentworth range last night and is clearly determined to give a good account of himself in today’s star-studded Pro-Am which also includes model Jodie Kidd, former motor racing champion Nigel Mansell and soccer legend Andriy Shevchenko.
The Hollywood star was seen getting some last-minute swing tips from top coach Robert Baker who backed-up his verbal advice by also capturing Grant’s swing. The lesson seemed to be paying handsome dividends – Grant was hitting a mean ball which should give him much-needed confidence to take into the biggest off-screen test of his life…
* The Wentworth driving range was pretty chockablock by late morning yesterday which prompted the likes of Ernie Els to move on to nearby – and the considerably quieter – Queenwood to prepare for the European Tour’s flagship tournament. Click here to see more from Els…
* Lee Westwood may have recently won the Andalucian Open in Spain but he certainly wasn’t a winner at Windsor Races on Monday night. ‘Westy’ didn’t have the best of starts to Wentworth week and lost a substantial lump of cash. “I bombed,” he conceded. No doubt he’ll be looking to recoup the loss this week, specially after celebrating his first European Tour success for four years.
* It was entertaining – and a golfing education – to see Jose Maria Olazabal work on some amazing sky high shots with his lob wedge on the practice putting green late yesterday afternoon.
‘Ollie’ of course has a terrific short game but conceded: “I play second fiddle to Phil Mickelson when it comes to this particular shot. I wasn’t doing it for anything specific really, it was just a bit different, a bit of fun.”
To check out the swing sequences of these three players just click on their names: Paul Lawrie, Robert Rock, Angel Cabrera.
