Considering its size and geographical position, Sweden seems to produce more than its fair share of top flight golfers. But then who would have once imagined it would hand us one of the world’s greatest tennis players? I know those that show talent often gravitate to the welcoming warmth of America, but plenty of Brits have done the same and I don’t see a single home country flag on this year’s Tour roll of honour. Sweden have Henrik Stenson and now Daniel Chopra. Chopra won despite wayward driving: he was barely able to make half his fairways. Even Shigeki Maruyama ...

They’re still at it I see. I’ve heard all the excuses, but I still think a bit more urgency and better organisation could have got this done in regulation. At least the finishing post is finally in sight. The market is clear that this is still Daniel Chopra’s to lose, for all that he’s done his best to throw it away already. I’m sure he’s been hit by nerves, but some of his decision-making has been rank. The biggest thing in his favour, which explains his price of just under evens, is that he has the extra hole to play, the ...

From Mallorca to Miami and beyond, the weather is playing havoc with golf. Hardly surprising - it’s almost November for goodness sake and I’m already writing up my Christmas list. There’s no way the climate gods are going to take a weekend break either, which poses a minor dilemma at Port St Lucie. Are they actually going to finish this thing? I appreciate the problems they’ve had, but I’ve been none too impressed either by the organiser’s reaction or the speed of the players. It’s all been too damn slow. There’s more stormy stuff on the horizon we are told, so ...

What’s surprising in conditions as taxing as those at Port St Lucie is that it’s the old ‘uns who are still leaders of the pack: three players over 40 in the top five. If nothing else, you’d think the distances involved would tire them out a little, and the way Bob Estes talks fatigue does indeed seem to lurk on every tee. But fate has played to their advantage Saturday as they are in the clubhouse with a good chance to rest while those unfortunate to be have been on the Friday afternoon roster still have to get their second ...

How many times heave we read of a golfer losing patience with his putter, finding a new one on the fly and blazing his way to the top of the leaderboard? Latest in line is first round leader Bob Estes, who tried four or five putters out at the start of the week before finding one that suited him. Result: nine birdies, including six on the trot on the return stretch. By his own admission, though, he also had a bit of luck because the wind conditions were slightly more favourable when he went out in the morning. Later it shifted ...

There’s not much danger of wildfires at Port St Lucie this week; quite the reverse. While dry winds have been fanning the flames over in California, it’s been a soggy time in Florida, to the point where officials are considering allowing players to lift, clean and place for the first two rounds. The conditions have made the fairways gluey and the rough gripping. The players don’t seem at all happy with the course, complaining that it’s a very long and muddy walk. They should just concentrate on not spoiling it, and to do that it looks like they’ll need a pretty ...

Before the tournament started Mike Weir’s caddy, Brennan Little, described playing desert golf as “a little monotonous and dull". He may choose to revise that opinion after Sunday’s nail-biting wind-blown victory. The irony of the result is that the winner did indeed turn out to be someone who knows the Grayhawk golf club very well, yet is also someone who has never actually played the course before. When he has been in Scottsdale previously, Weir has stayed in one of the homes on the Grayhawk property. But his focus was on the competition a mile down the road at TPC Scottsdale, ...

Sunday is red flag day in lower Arizona, and that looks like being bad news for our merry band of golfers. It’s the way the National Weather Service warns that it’s going to be a trying day - high winds, low humidity, big fire risk. Actually, I fear the reverse effect at Scottsdale, with the wind putting a dampener on the aspirations of a number of Sunday’s challengers. The forecasts suggest Scottsdale will escape the worst of the weather, but life could be tricky enough, especially as the afternoon progresses. Leader Carl Pettersson summed it up best: “If it blows 30 ...

Ryan Moore has been a frustrating player to follow this season. His talent has been obvious, but only now is he starting to show the all-round consistency that suggests the problem with his injured hand is behind him. No one comes close to his figures for the first two rounds: he’s missed just three fairways and four greens, is fifth for putting and 16th for distance off the tee. Small wonder he’s now a firm favourite at just under 4. If only life were that simple. I suspect Moore will come to regret falling back to a three-shot lead with ...

Be careful if you’re thinking of walking round the Raptor course in Scottsdale - the place is covered in rust. Strikes me a combination of a long layoff and general end-of-seasonitis are the main factors behind the lacklustre openings of Phil Mickelson, Aaron Baddeley et al. In Lefty’s case, maybe it’s also the fact that he is trying out new irons. Of course, it had to be the Scottsdale resident I left off my list that came good on day one. But Michael Allen would not have been leading if Nick Watney hadn’t quadruple-bogeyed the seventh - 11 birdies on a ...

It might not have quite the same ring with Scottsdale instead of Chicago, but that needn’t stop Lefty sailing round Grayhawk golf club this week humming ‘My Kind of Town’. Trouble is, it could turn into a noisy chorus. Half the golfing world seems to have some association with this desert community and a few actually live here, as Mickelson once did. So although this is a new tournament on a new course to the PGA Tour, there’s plenty of local form to consider. Quite a few others will be familiar with TPC Scottsdale a mile or two to the south ...

So which is to be? Will George McNeill go on to be a big golfing name like Tiger Woods or Jim Furyk, or is he going to end up another one-shot wonder like Wes Short Jr or Phil Tataurangi? These are all guys who won their first (and, in the case of the latter pair, only) PGA event at Las Vegas, Tiger famously in his rookie year. There are a few straws to suggest McNeill might also be a coming man. His two big weaknesses have been hitting fairways and greens. The first is less of a concern than the second ...

Into the unknown Sunday, with a player who’s such a novice we have no way of knowing how he’ll handle defending his first PGA Tour Sunday lead. George McNeill is certainly capable of playing as well on wobbly Sunday as any other day, but things are much different when you’re the hunted rather than the hunter. What a difference a windy day makes. Maybe not the 10-shot swing some had been suggesting, but Saturday’s round averaged 73.5 compared with a little over 68 for the same players over the first two days. Only a select few managed to break par and ...

Las Vegas’s roulette wheels and one-armed bandits have nothing on this competition. Only half way round and the defending champion and top two favourites have already packed their bags - poor Charley Hoffman, the wind hardly came to make his day. The top of the table is like going into your front room to find it full of strangers. Two of the top three have never led at the half-way stage before and Garrett Willis hasn’t been top 10 since 2002. So he goes and shoots 10 under in a round that included one bogey. Oh, and big John Daly sank ...

Local knowledge looked the clear winner Thursday whichever course was being played. Being a local boy, leader Bob May lives and breathes these courses and so found TPC Summerlin pretty easy even if the greens were playing faster than he is used to. At the Canyons Jason Gore did the next best thing and hired local knowledge in the form of Mike Messner, a caddie who knows the courses like the back of his hand. “I’d just basically stand over to the side of the green, scratch my head and wait for him to tell me where to hit it.” ...

So far the Fall Series has been dominated by PGA veterans, and it’s old hands like Scott Verplank and Mark Calcavecchia who are catching tipsters’ eyes again this week. But in a thin market most cash so far has gone on the head of Charley Hoffman, winner of the Bob Hope Classic at the start of the year. And a reasonably close second is the Swede Daniel Chopra, who finished second here last year and was third at San Antonio last week. The lesson of the last two weeks of course is that in fields as weak as these proven winners ...

“Give the credit to Justin. He didn’t do too much wrong today.” That might be Jesper Parnevik’s view, gracious as ever in defeat. I beg to differ. If you were in the live betting market Justin Leonard did a whole lot wrong. He looked so sure of victory so many times, only to hand the initiative back to Parnevik, I was beginning to think this was a charity event in aid of sartorially challenged Swedes. Certainly any prizes for scrambling should be directed my way for repeatedly recovering from overconfidence in Leonard’s short putting skills. Not to detract from Parnevik’s work - ...

After looking pretty locked on all week, I’m not so sure about Jesper Parnevik coming into the final round. It’s not so much the gradual decline in his game over the three rounds, but the way he seems to be talking himself into losing before he’s stepped up to the first tee. He didn’t have to spell out that he was already nervy on Saturday - the figures speak for themselves. Interesting that in his interviews both he and his questioners seemed to think his putter and slightly errant driver were to blame, while he had a good day with his ...

Wonder what language the leading threesome will be using during Saturday’s round? Can’t be many times four Swedes have defied gravity to head a PGA Tour leaderboard. Jesper Parnevik doesn’t look as if he’s ready anytime soon to give up his commanding position, the lowest half-way score this season and in competition history. Was it a Freudian slip or a declaration of intent when he expressed the earnest hope that Richard S Johnson would be able to come second? Parnevik has a bit of history on his side: this tournament has a habit of rewarding second-round leaders and last had a wire-to-wire ...

Where’s all those solid Australian golfers when you need them? It’s very odd to see a PGA Tour leaderboard that’s not peppered with dark blue flags at the top. Instead its a flag of a decidedly lighter blue taking up the cudgels against the Americans, with no less than five Swedes in the top 20. That’s some achievement for a small and very cold country! The only other non-American up there is Shigeki Maruyama, one of the many who’s just remembered he needs a bob or two to stay in the PGA game. But he’s been outdone by the man in ...

Just how greedy is Steve Flesch? Two wins in two months should be more than enough for most golfers, unless they’re you-know-who. He’s comfortably in the top 30 on the money list with all its attendant playing privileges next year, although now that Tour winners get a berth in the Masters anyway that lure has dimmed. But Flesch has proved himself more than adept at picking off these second tier events and there’s no reason on paper why he shouldn’t bag a third at San Antonio this week. He has the kind of all round game this course seems to favour ...

I would be surprised if the Americans don’t end up strong favourites to get revenge at last over Europe at Valhalla next year. Even the stars we may once have thought could not acclimatise to this format seem to have done so with gusto and no small amount of panache this last week. And chief among them is not Tiger Woods, for all that he played a key part in the proceedings. Phil Mickelson has been a revelation. Remember Phil who used to go down with endofseasonitis? Phil who couldn’t win a Presidents Cup singles match to save his life? Phil ...