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Damian McGrane Is Not A Journeyman

European Tour
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I hope that sportswriters will avoid that lazy, well-worn cliche "journeyman" when talking about Damian McGrane's victory in the China Open.

McGrane, like any other golfer who wins a European Tour event, deserves huge credit.

He's 37, which might be regarded as old in terms of some of his colleagues on the tour, but he has the talent and the dedication to push on and become a major force in world golf.

From a European point of view, it's also good to have a European winner in a Ryder Cup year as it increases competition for places.

McGrane will have his work cut out to make the team but if he does, he will be a major asset to the European side.

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posted Apr 21, 2008

Was it a week field? Yes, nobody would argue that.

Were all of those players useless, overrated
idiots? No.

You will find about 10,000 very good golfers in Europe working their balls off to take these 'useless idiots' place on tour.

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posted Apr 21, 2008

donnyb63 what is your problem with the European Tour? What's up with the put downs and mugging the players off? It's not on buddy!

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comment by Spoff (U3042225)

posted Apr 21, 2008

You can only beat the people that are there to play, it's not McGranes fault it is the week after the Masters and higher ranked players are having a week off or still in America.

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posted Apr 21, 2008

donnyb: You're at the top of yr game donny.

My points were:
1).Boo shouldn't get credit for beating the likes of Els and Rose (who with Furyk were chiefly responsible for the (over) weighting of the Heritage).

2).O'Grady has a responsibility to everyone associated with the Tour to elevate the quality of its fields - 20 points is a joke. The pompous, arrogant Damron earned 14 pts for his Nationwide win. Come on. Please.

McGrane deserves much more credit for his victory, hopefully the first of many.

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comment by U11583052

posted Apr 21, 2008

he wont win on the tour again!!

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comment by kellypk (U5537018)

posted Apr 21, 2008

It was probably OK to call McGrane a journeyman before he won the China open. He had never won an event before, and was no household name among golfing fans. However it is not OK to call him a journeyman anymore. He has earned the right to be called something more. At a minumum he will be referred to the former China Open winner. If he progresses further, who knows, in 12 months time, we will be calling him the former Ryder Cup player. A lot of very good golfers have never won a European Tour event, McGrane has, and to call him a journey man from now on would be completely stupid.

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posted Apr 21, 2008

It wasn't the strongest field of the year but there were numerous former tour winners. A couple of them missed the cut and others (Howell, Siem etc.) couldn't hack the conditions and finished well down. McGrane shot 73 on a day when the average score was over 78 and won by 9. He can only beat those he plays against. Unfair donnyb63 to label the field as you have done. By the way he is now 6th on the money list something he did not achieve on the basis of yesterday alone. If you look at his record he has shot 8 scores in the 60s in his last 4 touraments. A good solid tour player - no need to insult him. And yes - he will win again - you only needed to see the determination yesterday to know that. (So there!!)

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comment by RuariJM (U2175204)

posted Apr 22, 2008

Donny, you remind me of someone with the moniker 'r7 425' on The Sandtrap.com. If you are he, I'm sorry you got sin-binned but it's a shame to see you persist with adolescent aggressiveness and chauvinism. If you are not he, then it's a worry that there are more than one who combine loudness with lack of knowledge.
Having said that, you allude to a point that should cause concern, related to OGWR points. Not so much how many Weekly got for winning the Verizon Heritage, rather the difference between the China Open and the Nationwide event the same week.
The China Open had several top-100 OGWR players in the field; I doubt the Nationwide event had anyone in the top 200, yet its winner (whoever he was) got more than half the points McGrane did, while he, in his turn, got less than half of Weekly's. That differential doesn't seem right.
Mr O'Grady and his peoplpe at the European Tour need to pay some attention to this and be sure they don;t take their eyes off an important ball while they're building the Race to Dubai. There are people in teh US who are convinced that the PGA Tour is the number one (which it is) and the Number 2 tour is the Nationwide - or if it isn't now, it will be. They're probably too late, with the new-look European Tour from next year, but it's as well to be alert and active, to ensure the relative statuses (stati?) are clearly maintained.

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posted Apr 22, 2008

RuariJM You could have saved yourself some time by just writing WHO GIVES A S##T
Cos I dont!!!!!!

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posted Apr 22, 2008

Ruari: You are spot on. See my comments earlier.

Do you think ranking points should be calculated on the basis of ALL the starters, or just those who make the cut? Which was the big differentiator at the Heritage with Justin, Ernie, Zach etc making an appearance just to get the tournament counting towards their fifteen. Or so it seemed.

As it turned out, two golfers from Nottinghamshire illustrate the imbalance perfectly:

Greg Owen and Oliver Wilson got almost exactly the same owgr points for coming second - on the N'wide and Euro Tours respectively. I know there were ties involved, but how absurd.

O'Grady needs to be doing something to support his members.

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