Rory / Horizon .

Really struggle to warm to this kid.

Only 1 reason for switch, skimming!

9/2 in a 21 man field(includes Westwood,Harrington) at the Shanghai Masters this week looks a bit big to me,hoping horizon/Rory get off to a flyer.

Reading the article / interview in ST , cant say I am filled with great expectations for Padraig in the short term .  Anyone who admits they are basically scared to stand up and hit driver is not filling me with confidence ( and I knew this from reportage before I read it in print on Sunday ) . Think Padraig should revert to 3 wood or similar for a while , just to get confident off the tee for a while .

Padraigs putting also has not been as good as in the past , but that partly comes from not producing  good scores .  Hope he does perform better , signs have been better in last few tournaments , but still does not look like he used to when he was the best scrambler in the world ( and one of the best putters ) .

Quote from the article " Do I think I am a better player than I was ?  Yes. "

Sorry Padraig , minority of 1 , unless timeframes are being manipulated .

I always liked Padraig , magnificent ambassador for Ireland and our golf .  But I think he has lost his way , and needs to go back to simple basics .  This might include modifying his club selection off the tee , get the ball back in play every hole , the birdies will come , but not from the rough . Has been slightly better since he moved coaches , but still shaky off the tee . Dont know what this course is like , would help Padraig if it was fairly wide fairways .

Odds of 20/1 are better than available on here , how do Monty and Daly qualify ?

well done lapsy he managed to scrape home , beating Anthony Kim in a play off closing with a 72 letting his 3 shot lead slip away . Really glad he won not just because you collect lapsy but also for McIlroy as if he hadn t gone through with it , it wouldn t have looked good again .

I really fancy him now to do back to back this weeek at the HSBC Champions on a course he has said is one of his favourites on tour and always plays well on ..

well done again

didn t hear that norn ? when was that yesterday ?? ......2 million dollars first prize for Rory plus whatever the apperance money was . If you were a trainer you mightn t mind getting him into the yard as an owner

good stuff ....good idea norn always a good card .....won t be up ... only drove all the way up to   Down Royal once  and that was at this meeting a few years back i think 05 or 06  when it had to be abandonned due to a hoax bomb scare .... will get back up there some day soon

Didnt see a shot of it,pity as it was a good tournament.
Scraped home as you say Dingle,and after round 1 was hoping he could run away with it(laid off my stakes after r2 at 5/4/11/8 ish)
Suppose 5 shots back to third place and up against an onfire Kim puts it in a better light.Pod mediocre again.
Agree Norn Irish forum not bad at the moment,brains to burn on this place at times on every subject.(i,ve to keep quiet at times)
Gl today

Just checked the golf forum , not one anti Rory post this morning .  Best way to silence the critics . And its 100% with Horizon  , best of luck to them both for the future .

Good show from Shane,another consistent week from Peter Lawrie,Gmac +25 last time i seen his score,don,t know whats wrong there,this time last year wasn,t out of the places for about 8 weeks in a row.
Rory this week is again in Shanghai and confidence should be high,last year finished 5th(however 11 shots behind Molinari) and the previous year 4th.Donald not playing is a help but in the circa 80 field there are a lot of dangers;
Garcia.
Off the back of two wins in Spain,this previous winner here seems to have solved his putting problems.
Westwood.
Runner-up last year,beaten in a play-off in 07,played well enough last week.
Add Molinari,Watney,Els,Quiros,Casey,Hanson,Kaymer,Ogilivy and Scott who all had high finishes here in previous years(though current form may be a bit weak with some) i think the current 5,s on Rory is a little stingy.
If first 5 places and around 10/1 i,ll probably have a little ew on Westwood.
Hope to see Micheal Hoey have a good WGC here as well.

Surprised with Garcia,bit of an advantage to Rory and Westwood that they are over there already and aclimatised,Can,t dispute you Mick that it looks very hard to see Rory not making top 5 at least,know westwood doesn,t win too often like his record here though(think he is a shoe in for a tournament he won in South Africa last year,should be coming up in the next few weeks)
Good golf but the timing of them in Asia makes them hard to follow fully(don,t know whether its Sunday or Monday at the moment,i need a slap of a wet tea-towel)
Gl for the week.