In the Rough

The nephew of golf legend Seve Ballesteros has announced that is Uncle would someday love to captain the European team in the 2010 Royal Trophy Event.

The five time major winner is currently recovering in Northern Spain after a 2008, which was filled with health problems.

Seve was taken to a Madrid hospital in October after collapsing. He was later diagnosed with a Brain tumour and has had to undergo three operations.

Seve has captained the European’s on several occasions at the Royal Trophy and has also captained a winning European Ryder Cup team.

The news from his nephew is surely only good news and hopefully means that Seve is slowly on the mend and may one day be seen with a golf club in hand.

With the current top 50 in the latest world rankings all qualifying for this year’s Augusta Championship it proved vital for some good performances at the South African Open and the Chevron World Challenge.

Still leading the way in the current list is World Number one Tiger Woods with an average points worth of 12.27, Spain’s Sergio Garcia is in second with American Phil Mickelson in third. Making up the top five is Padraig Harrington and Vijay Singh. Singh had a good weekend with a win at the Chevron World Challenge, where he beat Steve Stricker by a stroke.

England’s Lee Westwood moves into the top ten after his third place at the South African Open. Also in the top ten is Henrik Stenson, Camillo Villegas, Robert Karlsson and Ernie Els.

Also in the World Top 50 and playing at Augusta are Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Ross Fisher, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Ross Fisher, Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Paul Casey.

McIlroy who only turned pro 15 months ago moved ten places in the latest world rankings from 50th to 40th after another good performance at the South African Open where he narrowly missed out on another play-off.

World number one golfer Tiger Woods is the again the top earner amongst the Sports game for 2008.

Woods who hasn’t played since his injury in the middle of the year earned himself $91 million in 2008 from prize money and endorsements from sponsors such as Nike.

At number two in the money list for 2008 is again a golfer with world number two Phil Mickelson taking the spot with $49.5 million in 2008.

Making up the top three with a big wage from LA Galaxy, endorsements from Pepsi and Adidas and also ranges of perfume / sunglasses is former England captain David Beckham.

Also to make to the top five is boxer Oscar De La Hoya and formula one driver Kimi Raikkonen.

Former racing driver Michael Schumacher is still earning $36 million a year even though he retired a couple years ago from the sport.

Another retired player still earning mega money a year is legend Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan still has plenty of sponsors and clothing ranges out there he is earning money off.

Former world number one tennis player Rodger Federer earns $35 million a year.

Another Basketball player to make it into the top ten is Kobe Bryant who earns a very healthy $33 million a year.

Completing the top ten is Shaquille O’Neal and footballer Ronaldinho who both made $32 million in 2008.

Tiger Woods $91 Million

Phil Mickelson $49.5 Million

David Beckham $47.5 Million

Oscar De La Hoya $43 Million

Kimi Raikkonen $40 Million

Michael Schumacher $36 Million

Michael Jordan $35.5 Million

Roger Federer $35 Million

Kobe Bryant $33 Million

Shaquille O’Neal and Ronaldinho $32 Million

Buick have announced today that they are to part company with World Number One Tiger Woods even though their is still a year to run on the current deal.

Buick announced on Tuesday that they had mutually agreed to cut short the contract so Tiger Woods could spend more time with his family and other key ideas. The agreement also allows Buick to save on roughly about $7 Million dollars, which they would of paid Tiger for endorsements in 2009.

Buick have taken a hit in the current financial crisis and also are cutting back on providing courtesy cars for PGA events, advertising at the Oscar’s and Emmy’s and also some advertising at the NFL Superbowl. Buick though are thought to be still keen on some advertising in the Golf and American Football 2009 season.

The nominations have been made today by the Professional Golf Association the 2008 tour player of the year.

The five name list consists of Tiger Woods, Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh, Camilo Villegas and Kenny Perry.

World number one Tiger Woods is on the list even though he hasn’t played for six months of 2008. In his six starts in 2008 Tiger won four events and but for his injury would of surely added to that comfortably. Tiger also won what turned out to be his final event of the 2008 season the US Open.

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington has had his best year yet with two major titles to his name. Padraig won the British Open and PGA Championship in 2008.

American Kenny Perry won three PGA tour titles in less than two months during 2008 and also helped the US to win the Ryder Cup at Valhalla with some impressive golf.

Fijian Vijay Singh who didn’t start to well in 2008 certainly made up for it during the year. Vijay won the Fed Ex Cup and also picked up $10 Million dollars prize fund for the privilege, not bad hey!

Camilo Villegas creeped into the nominations with two wins at the end of 2008. Villegas won two Fed Ex play-off events during the end of 2008.

Who will win???????? The results are expected mid December by the PGA.

The final 32 golf players to secure a European Tour card have been decided after the completion of the 108 hole Qualifying school.

Back on the tour are former Ryder Cup players Andrew Coltart and Joakin Haeggman after missing the tour last year. Winner of the qualifying school was Sweden’s Oskar Henningsson. Henningsson led for five out of the six rounds of golf and was a deserved winner after also coming through the three previous qualifying rounds before Q-school.

The full list of the 32 golf players with European Tour Cards for 2009 is -

Oskar Henningsson (Swe)

Wade Ormsby (Aus), Carlos Del Moral (Spa)

Danny Willett (Eng)

Chris Wood (Eng), Joakim Haeggman (Swe)

Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor)

Michael Hoey (NIrl)

Ake Nilsson (Swe), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)

Gary Clark (Eng)

Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha), Anthony Snobeck (Fra), Andrew Coltart (Sco)

Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Chris Doak (Sco), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), David Drysdale (Sco), Matthew Millar (Aus)

Michael Curtain (Aus), Inder Van Weerelt (Ned), Marco Ruiz (Par), Callum Macaulay (Sco)

John Mellor (Eng), Marc Cayeux (Zim), Henrik Nystrom (Swe), Stuart Manley (Wal), Branden Grace (Rsa)

Federico Colombo (Ita), Santiago Luna (Spa), Jonathan Caldwell (NIrl), Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa)

Computer boffin Alan Deakins, 40 has decided to take fellow golfer Humphrey Leung Kwong-Wai to the Hong Kong High Court for 5.6 Million pounds. Mr Deakins who was employed by International Bank before the accident is taking the Chief Executive of the Microchip Company Solomon Systech to the court for loss of earnings and also for medical expenses.

The incident, which has caused all the controversy occurred on Christmas Eve 2006 at the Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club. Mr Deakins was walking down the 13th fairway when a wayward shot from the 14th tee struck him on the forehead.

Mr Leung himself is denying the charges of negligence and will fight the battle in court with his lawyers.

Mr Deakins is very unlikely to win this court case, however a court case similar has been heard in the past.

A female caddie back in 1999 won £7,700 in damages when the gentleman who she was caddying for hit a shot that struck her in the mouth. This incident occurred at The Hong Kong Golf Club.

The body of a 45 year old man was found on a private country club in Mission, Texas on Saturday morning. Club officials reporting for work at 7am found the male body half submerged in a lake on one of the holes.

The male bodies bottom half was under water with his top half out of the water resting on some rocks. The man had a gunshot wound to his head and a mobile phone to his side. The death is being treated as suicide by Lt. Martin Garza who is leading the case from the Mission Police Department.

The club have refused to name the gentleman but have said he is a member at the golf club and a local resident.

Police officials are interviewing local neighbours to try and find out if anyone had seen anything suspicious.

After the start of the European Tour began in Singapore over the weekend the latest World Rankings have been released -

World Number One is still American Tiger Woods, who despite his injury is still comfortably holding on to his number one status from Spain’s Sergio Garcia. Currently third in golf world rankings is American left hander Phil Mickelson.

After two major wins this year Irelands Padraig Harrington is  ranked number four. Making up the top five is  Vijay Singh.

After winning the European Order Of Merit this year Sweden’s Robert Karlsson is sixth in the golf world rankings closely followed by Camilo Villegas who has a brilliant season both sides of the Atlantic. South African Ernie Els is still in the top ten at number eight with Ryder Cup hero Anthony Kim at number nine in the world rankings. Making up the top ten is Englands Lee Westwood.

You may have noticed the last couple weeks have been very quiet on www.intherough.co.uk, however I am back and I am going to be bringing you all the latest news stories from the world of golf again from new golf courses, golf players and tournament results.

The last 10 days I have been enjoying a holiday in Bulgaria, which yes i did fit a few games of golf in. This was my first visit to Bulgaria and I must admit it is a place that I will be visiting again. The country is certainly under development but is growing in popularity and I feel will become a very popular place for Britain’s moving abroad very soon as well as holidaymakers like myself.

I stayed in Varna, which is on the Black Sea coast for the majority of my stay in Bulgaria. I did though make an overnight trip to Sofia where I managed to fit in two rounds of golf at the St Sofia Golf Club and Spa.

The course itself was in very good condition and to my surprise was quite busy, for future reference booking in advance is recommended. The course itself is your standard 18 hole course where proof of handicap is required to play. The facilities include a Pro Shop, Clubhouse, Putting Green and Driving Range. The course itself is a par 72.

After completing my round I started to talk to a gentleman called Ravno, his English was brilliant and his local knowledge was fantastic, I also decided he was a very good golfer after it emerged he played off 6. Ravno was explaining Bulgaria to me and recommending areas to visit and places of interest.

During our conversation Ravno detailed to me that now was the perfect time to purchase property in Bulgaria and recommended to me plenty of Property For Sale in Bulgaria. Ravno stated that for investment terms I should look at property in Varna and Burgas (these are both resorts of the Black Sea Coast). Personally I would recommend Varna to anybody but maybe you would be best visiting in 12 Month’s time when most of the building work is completed.