golfrewind.com

So then how about Wie at the Omega Masters.

Bit of info:
Course is a par 71.
It has 5 par 3 holes and 4 par 5 holes.

I checked out some drawings of the holes and it looks like a really tough course.

It is short, real short. It's about 6,900 yards, and when altitude comes into play, it's more like a 6,300 lpga length course. However don't be fooled by that. There are plenty of horrendous doglegs and alot of tee offs are very difficult.
It is my opinion that someone who played the course in previous tournaments would have a massive advantage, there is so much to learn about where not to hit the ball.

Also, a big point is that the greens are shaped like upside down saucers. Wie faired very well on straightforward greens recently, but she hadn't been so good on tricky greens, and the greens at the Omega are supposed to be really tricky and fast as well.

Something around par has made the cut in the previous few events.

As regards the field, there isn't many top players, but it is a strong european tour field, with plenty of experienced players.
There are 32 guys in the field who have won since the start of the 2004 season, and plenty more talent.

By the way, perhaps Wie's new caddie will be good. Johnston was a good lpga caddie alledgedly, but her new caddie has so much experience on mens tours that he should be a real help for this event.

One other important thing, there are alot of elevation changes on the course.

So how will Wie do?
My opinion is it would be a huge achievement to make the cut, and I'm not overly optimistic, because there are so many tricky parts to the course.

If she brings her A game, she makes the cut, I'll back her to do it, out of loyalty, not out of analysis.

Sergio and Michelle meet and greet at the Omega Masters.

Given that Sergio won the event in 2005, his tips should be very valuable.

Is it a strong field?

I really enjoy watching Michelle play but if it is an easy course I don't believe she has much chance. She is a great player but she just doesn't seem to have those really low rounds. I think in time when she gets out of school and can devote more time to her game she will start shooting some really low numbers.

The cut line was +1 the last 2 years, so it isn't easy.

The best way to answer that is give the odds.
There isn't a host of big names like there was at the BMW, which would make a difference if Michelle were a contender for the title.
However without the big name players the cut line will probably be much the same anyway, cause most of the rest of the field is the same.

Edfors who won 3 times on the European Tour this season so far is 50/1 which is interesting.

S Garcia *4/1
M-A Jimenez *14/1
A Hansen *25/1
B Dredge *25/1
S Dyson *25/1
A Romero *33/1
D Lynn *33/1
G McDowell *33/1
M Brier *33/1
R Gonzalez *33/1
R Jacquelin *33/1
S Hansen *33/1
A Wall *40/1
Alejandro Canizares *40/1
E Canonica *40/1
E Romero *40/1
P Broadhurst *40/1
C Cevaer *50/1
J Edfors *50/1
P Gustafsson *50/1
P Hanson *50/1
S Khan *50/1
J Sandelin *66/1
M Siem *66/1
P Archer *66/1
P Hedblom *66/1
P O'Malley *66/1
S Kjeldsen *66/1
D McGrane *80/1
G Storm *80/1
J M Lara *80/1
L Slattery *80/1
M Warren *80/1
Peter Lawrie *80/1
S Gallacher *80/1
S O'Hara *80/1
S Wakefield *80/1
A Rocha *100/1
B Rumford *100/1
C Nilsson *100/1
D Fichardt *100/1
F Aguilar *100/1
F Molinari *100/1
G Houston *100/1
G Murphy *100/1
G Orr *100/1
H Nystrom *100/1
I Garbutt *100/1
J Kingston *100/1
J Van De Velde *100/1
M Eliasson *100/1
M Erlandsson *100/1
M Lafeber *100/1
M Millar *100/1
M Ruiz *100/1
N Dougherty *100/1
R-J Derksen *100/1
Steve Webster *100/1
A Forsyth *125/1
A McLardy *125/1
B Barham *125/1
D Carter *125/1
E Molinari *125/1
G Fernandez-Castano *125/1
G Havret *125/1
J F Lucquin *125/1
J Spence *125/1
L Westerberg *125/1
M Cayeux *125/1
M Tunnicliff *125/1
N Colsaerts *125/1
P Price *125/1
R Rock *125/1
S Browne *125/1
T Whitehouse *125/1
A Coltart *150/1
A Marshall *150/1
A Tadini *150/1
C Monasterio *150/1
D Bransdon *150/1
D Dixon *150/1
D Griffiths *150/1
D Park *150/1
D Vancsik *150/1
F Widmark *150/1
J Haeggman *150/1
J Lomas *150/1
J Remesy *150/1
L Oosthuizen *150/1
M Foster *150/1
M Fraser *150/1
M Lundberg *150/1
M Roe *150/1
O Whiteley *150/1
O Wilson *150/1
Pu Johansson *150/1
R Fisher *150/1
R McEvoy *150/1
S Jeppesen *150/1
S Luna *150/1
Sam Little *150/1
Shaun P Webster *150/1
W Ormsby *150/1
W Schauman *150/1
A Butterfield *200/1
A Canete *200/1
B Teilleria *200/1
C Suneson *200/1
D Higgins *200/1
F Delamontagne *200/1
F Valera *200/1
G Emerson *200/1
G Evans *200/1
I Pyman *200/1
J Backstrom *200/1
J Donaldson *200/1
M Carballo *200/1
M Farry *200/1
M Wie *200/1
P Fowler *200/1
P Golding *200/1
R Coles *200/1
R Finch *200/1
R Gomez *200/1
S Scahill *200/1
S Struver *200/1
Stuart Little *200/1
T Karjalainen *200/1
W Abery *200/1
A Bossert *250/1
G Clark *250/1
I Garrido *250/1
K Staunton *250/1
M A Martin *250/1
M Hoey *250/1
M Olander *250/1
A Oldcorn *300/1
C Rocca *300/1
M Kirk *300/1
M Reale *300/1
P Dwyer *300/1
S Drummond *300/1
S Lyle *300/1
T Schuster *300/1

Or the World Rankings. This field can be generously described as not strong...

No, that means the cut line will be much lower. With better players in the field, more players shoot low rounds = cut line is lower. So this cut will be higher due to the weak field.

The cut line last year was 146 = +4.

My prediction: 75 - 78 = MC.

That's just an American point of view. There are many strong European players in the field.

Actually the cut line was 141, that's +1. 142 missed the cut. So it ain't that easy.

I have to agree with Rodney on this one, the field is pretty solid.
Here's tournaments website with course layout, pictures from last year, etc :http://www.omegaeuropeanmasters.com/en/.

I didn't say there weren't, I just said the field wasn't very strong. There are what, maybe 4 or 5 players in the world top 50? It's not an Siberian Tour event, but it's certainly not a stellar, world-class field.

The lowest cut score I could find from last year was 144, making the cut +2, but it's irrelevant whether it was 2 or 3 or 1.

http://www.thegolfchannel.com/core.a...s=2793&h.pos=0

Anyway, I've given my prediction. We'll just wait and see...



Oooh - look down there! It's Sergio's ball

Well, may the best player win! I'll be watching for sure.

You are right, but apart from the big names it is much the same as the BMW championship.
If you removed the top 10 from the BMW championship, the cut line would have stayed the exact same. If you removed the top 20, players the cut line would have went up by 1.
So if Michelle's task is to make the cut, it isn't much easier. If her task is to get a top 20 place, it is much easier, but how likely is that!

Yah, that's Michelle taking her 2nd shot in that picture though, whereas it took Sergio 2 to get there.
Of course Sergio is the longer hitter, ahead of Phil, Vijay, Appleby, Adam Scott etc at 10th in driving distance in 2005 stats. He is a great driver.

To be honest, I'm real excited about the european coverage, because the us feeds we get have so many ad breaks.
Also I wonder if they will try to be more balanced in their coverage or go Wiemania like the American channels do.

Do you mean if you removed the top 20-ranked players, or the top 20 finishers at the end of round 2?

I always watch it on the Golf Channel - I don't know if there's another feed in the U.S. of European Tour coverage. As to whether they'll be showing Michelle all the time, I'll only be able to watch it on the weekend, so you'll have to tell me whether they did or not.

(just having a little fun with you, Rodney)

i think she can do it, infact for the first time i think she has a good chance of doing it. she wont make the cut by a large number of strokes but im guessing she won't miss the cut by a large number of strokes (if she does miss the cut ofcourse).
i look no further than a good showing from the Spanish Fella's (Garcia, Jimenez, Canizares and Castano etc..) this week, with Andres Romero and Simon Khan close.

The top 20 finishers at the end of the 2nd round.

I wonder if she doesn't win if she will fire sergio