Fisher can now repeat my feat with Irish win
FOUR great tournaments, four tremendous finishes, what a weekend of golf it’s been both here and across the pond.
Ross Fisher may have lifted the Irish Open trophy and taken home the £415,000 first prize, but the big winner at Killarney over the weekend was Colin Montgomerie, who saw Fisher move up to sixth and runner-up Padraig Harrington to tenth in the standings as the race for places stepped up another notch.
I’ve known Ross for many years and seen him develop into a top-class player. I earned my first place on the Ryder Cup team after winning the Irish Open in 1981 – it’ll be great if he could do the same 19 years on.
Perhaps the biggest achievement of the weekend belonged to my old mate Bernhard Langer, who claimed back-to-back Major titles with victory in the US Seniors Open.
Just eight days after winning the British Seniors Open and flying across eight time zones, Langer took on Fred Couples in his home state and came out on top. A fantastic performance.
Staying in America, Stuart Appleby became the fifth PGA Tour player to join the 59 club after his record final round helped him win the Greenbrier Classic. But spare a thought for Jeff Overton, who started the day seven shots clear of Appleby, shot a final round 67 and still didn’t win!
It was also a tremendous weekend for Taiwan’s Yani Tseng, who became the youngest woman, at 21, to win three Majors after holding the lead from day one to win the British Women’s Open at Royal Birkdale.