Golf Central

Aha! Here's the classic clash of raw youth versus veteran experience! ...: I was just going to say it's a classic clash of rich golfers enjoying another big payday in a beautiful place like southern Spain, but maybe I'm jaded ...
Look can we just concentrate on the golf please?: OK, if you want to go with your boring old saw about the clash of youth versus experience, I'm game. Sounds easy enough to me. Anyway, Danny Willett isn't rich. He's an amateur.
Thanks for patronising me. Tell me about the grizzled veteran then ...: Well, I'm not sure I'd call Lee Westwood a grizzled veteran to his face. Have you seen the kind of shape that big fella is in these days? But yes, on the one hand you've got big Lee, leading by one stroke after a 7-under 65, with - as he says - "one eye on the Masters".
How can you hit the golf ball with one eye on the Masters?: Not sure, but it will probably find it's way into one of those confusing golf tips you find in all the glossy mags.
I can see it now. "Keep your head down ...": Right. And "Keep one eye on the Masters ..."
... "And I guarantee this will lower your golf scores" ... Right. Tell me about this Danny Willett kid then ...: Well, he's a 20-year-old from Sheffield, making his Euro Tour debut, and he's the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world. So if Willett keeps playing like this he'll soon be the one dishing out the tips.
Does he have a chance?: It has happened before. Amateurs win occasionally on the PGA Tour, more so on the European. The Spanish wonderkid Pablo Martin did it last year in Portugal, and now he's a 20-year-pro with a full exemption.
Is Willett really that good?: You've got to be to be No. 1 in the world at anything. He's 6-under, tied with Norwegian Jan-Are Laresen, after a round that featured a couple of nifty eagles. Willett eagled the first hole which settled his nerves and away he went.
He'd better hope he eagles the first hole every day then ... Hey, I've got a joke for you.: Fire away.
What do you call it when Jan-Are Larsen hits his driver?: What?
Norwegian wood! ...: Oh God, I think I need another week off ...

OK, here's nine things you might, or might not know about the heritage of the tournament now played at the TPC Louisiana...

1. Lee Trevino won in 1974 without recording a single bogey - the last player to achieve that feat on The PGA Tour.
2. It's the 11th oldest event on the PGA Tour, including the co-sanctioned Open Championship, which is the oldest by 35 years and is still called the 'British' by American golf fans who really should know better. Sorry, but it's still really annoying...
3. David Toms became the first Native Louisianan to win in 2001 with a weekend that few could ever dream of - a 63 on Saturday and a 64 on Sunday. He will be missing his first event in 13 years, having pulled out with a bad back.
4. Davis Love III had to win in 1995 to make the field for The Masters. He did just that and came second at Augusta to Ben Crenshaw.
5. 14 members of golf's Hall Of Fame have won the Zurich Classic, including Harry Cooper, Byron Nelson, Jimmy Demaret, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson, among others.
6. PGA Tour players Kelly Gibson and Steve Elkington had a hand in helping Pete Dye design the TPC course, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  
7. The last three big cheques have been written out to first-time winners on tour - Tim Petrovic, Chris Couch and Nick Watney.
8. Steve Stricker, Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk and Retief Goosen head the list of favourites this week.
9. Zurich Financial Services is an insurance-based financial services provider founded in 1872. Its headquarters are in Zurich, Switzerland (quit now, before you start going on about Leadbelly and Jelly Roll Morton... Ed).

 

However staid and predictable it may seem, golf is never short of odd little curios that conveniently help us learn a little more about life in general. This week alone, Iestyn George realises that even men of enormous ego have honour, that you're only as good as your last tour win and that he already needs another holiday - preferably in Wisconsin...