Stenson support for home rule

Newly-crowned European number one Henrik Stenson has given a guarded welcome to a new European Tour regulation requiring players to support their home events or be forced to play an extra two tournaments.

Players currently have to play a minimum of 13 tournaments for European Tour membership, but that will be increased to 15 for the 2014 season if they do not contest their national open or equivalent.

The move was approved by the European Tour's Tournament Committee last month, but comes in the wake of strong criticism from former Open champion Ernie Els over the demands placed on players.

Els was annoyed at the regulation which requires players to compete in two of the first three events of this year's inaugural Final Series to be eligible for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, won by Stenson on Sunday.

The South African did not fulfil that criteria - along with Sergio Garcia and Charl Schwartzel - and was therefore not in Dubai as European Tour chief executive George O'Grady admitted that the amount of golf played by its star names had been "underestimated" and promised a comprehensive review of the format.

Stenson was planning on playing the Nordea Masters in Malmo next year anyway, but admits the clash with the Memorial Tournament hosted by Jack Nicklaus on the PGA Tour could pose problems in the future.

"I was scheduled to play regardless. I am going to play Wentworth (the BMW PGA Championship) as well next year so am making a trip back and playing two weeks in a row," Stenson said.

"It's obviously the tough thing with playing both in America and Europe that you can't travel however many times back and forth, but given the success I've had I would really want to come and play in front of my home crowds next year.

"Whether we need to have the rule or not, that could be debated, but I think to support the European Tour and your home tournaments it's definitely a good thing to do.

"At times it could be hard with the schedules. Sweden goes up against the Memorial so I can't play in Jack's tournament, one of the big ones on the PGA Tour, so we will see how it works out in the future."

Leading manager and tournament promoter Chubby Chandler feels the regulation is unnecessary and that the European Tour should do away with membership criteria, rather than adding to them.

Chandler, who also described the Final Series as a "cock-up" recently, said: "I think they just make it difficult to be a member.

"They put all these things in to try to protect tournaments. I think enough golfers respect their home Open or home tournament to not need something like that. They seem to try and make rules to prevent people being a member and I don't get it."

If a country stages more than three tournaments, players of that nationality will be required to play in at least two and Chandler added: "Fortunately it doesn't make a lot of difference for us (his management company ISM).

"Lee (Westwood) is always going to play the BMW, Charl (Schwartzel) and Louis (Oosthuizen) are always going to play two in South Africa; Joost Luiten is always going to play in Holland. But I don't know why they make rules to make it difficult.

"I would do away with everything, I think they would have more members if they do away with stuff. Who are they protecting? I am not sure who they are running the Tour for. If they are going to run the Tour for the bottom 50 golfers then fine.

"The Tour has to be run for the top 25 golfers because that's where the sponsorship is. They have to make it easier for people to be a member, not more difficult.

"I'd go to Adam Scott and say 'How can we make you a member?' If he said 'I can play this, this and this' then I'd do that for the rules."

Tournament committee member Gonzalo Ferndandez-Castano believes the rule is a "fantastic idea", saying: "It was very nice to see this year at the Spanish Open all the Spanish players there, including Sergio Garcia.

"The crowds were fantastic and that's exactly what the Spanish Open and every national Open should be about. Having their local heroes is the way to attract the crowds and the sponsors and the media.

"We hate to tell the players which tournaments they have to play. Golfers, we are funny individuals and we don't like to be told what we have to do but I think this was the right move.

"Ernie (Els) has been here for a long time, he has been a big supporter of the European Tour but I think he understands. It's a bit of a hassle when you live overseas but I think deep inside he knows it's the best thing for the Tour."

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Stenson ruled out

Race To Dubai winner Henrik Stenson has withdrawn from this week's South African Open due to an ongoing wrist injury.

Stenson, who clinched the 2012/13 European Tour season-long title by winning the DP World Tour Championship on Sunday, won the South African event last season.

"Despite my performance in Dubai, I am still having concerns about my wrist, and it really needs to rest," Stenson said.

"I realise this is disappointing to the organisers and my fans, but this decision was extremely difficult for me. I love this tournament and was always looking forward to coming back to defend my title.

"Unfortunately, in our line of business, we have to be very mindful of injuries and be careful not to make matters worse. I wish everyone participating in this year's SA Open a fantastic tournament."

Tournament chairman Khaya Ngqula said he understood Stenson's decision.

"I am disappointed that the South African Open supporters will not have the chance to see the European number one in action, but we have to respect Henrik's decision and we wish him a speedy recovery," Ngqula said.

The tournament, the first of the 2013/14 European Tour season, gets under way on Thursday.

It will still feature former major winners Charl Schwartzel and Retief Goosen, as well as European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley.

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Uihlein named top rookie

American Peter Uihlein has been named the European Tour's rookie of the year.

Uihlein's first season on the tour saw him win his maiden title at the Madeira Islands Open and finish 14th in the season-long Race To Dubai.

The 24-year-old is the first American to win the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award. He joins the likes of Nick Faldo, José María Olazábal, Colin Montgomerie and Martin Kaymer as a recipient.

He said: "It's an honour to win the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award.

"I wasn't expecting it, but it's been a great year and I'm very pleased. I think I'm the first non-European to win it, so that's a great honour. Any time you're the first of anything, it's neat.

"The win in Madeira was great and I had a lot of top-10s. I played well all week in Madeira and handled myself well in the wind, and it was nice to get the job done. The win opened a few doors for me and I was able to play at Wentworth (the BMW PGA Championship) the following week.

"I was supposed to start the year on the Challenge Tour, but instead I was 11th in the Race to Dubai heading into the final event, so it wasn't what I'd planned on but obviously it's fantastic the way it has worked out."

Uihlein's season also saw him finish runner-up at the ISPS Handa Wales Open and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, coming within a whisker of the tour's first round of 59 at the latter event.

George O'Grady, chief executive of the European Tour, said: "We heartily congratulate Peter on an outstanding season, during which he has thrilled golf fans and challenged for several titles. He is a worthy winner of the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year.

"His incredible 60 at Kingsbarns, which ended with his eagle putt for a 59 missing by a fraction, will go down as one of the finest displays on the European Tour."

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Back injury sidelines Oosthuizen

Louis Oosthuizen will miss next week's Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek after having painkilling cortisone injections in his back.

The South African has struggled with a lower back problem this year and missed two months of action after withdrawing from the Open Championship - a tournament he won in 2010.

A course of injections to reduce pain and inflammation in the affected area has now ruled him out for 14 days.

"I was really excited to play in the tournament so it is very disappointing to miss out," the 31-year-old said in a statement.

"My back has been sore during the last few tournaments and it has been frustrating. I'm hopeful the injections will free up the problem and enable it to go away completely."

Oosthuizen, whose last victory came on home soil at the Volvo Golf Champions in January, aims to return at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in December.

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Outsiders given Royal approval

David John has gone with some big-priced selections for the ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf at Royal Melbourne.

This week's ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf is a bit of a curate's egg.

We have a team competition, an individual prize and some of the runners having played - and won - at the course in the Talisker Masters.

The splendid Royal Melbourne layout gets its second airing in as many weeks and hosts Australia are the hot favourites at 6/4 with the currently unbeatable Adam Scott and Jason Day carrying the hopes of the nation.

Scott is two from two in his bid for the Australian golfing Triple Crown while this will be an emotional week for Day after tragically losing members of his family in the typhoon that devastated the Philippines.

I am going to swerve the market leaders along with the United States (6/1), who have won this event 24 times and finished runner-up on nine further occasions.

They are led by Matt Kuchar, who blew his chance of beating Scott last week with a costly double bogey on the final hole and he will team up with the relatively unsung Kevin Streelman.

So it is further down the list we head and Japan look to have a sporting shot at glory at 40/1.

Hideto Tanihara and Ryo Ishikawa tee it up for them and the pair could not arrive in better form having finished first and second in their homeland at the Taiheiyo Masters.

That is fairly strong selling point in itself but a couple of other factors added into the mix do make them interesting at the price.

Firstly, Ishikawa has shown winning form on the course when playing in the 2011 Presidents Cup where he took the scalp of Bubba Watson in convincing fashion in the singles.

He should be on extremely good terms with himself in general as well having secured his PGA Tour card for 2014 and the made an excellent start to the campaign with a second place already on the board in Las Vegas.

He is 50/1 for the individual prize but I might just take a chance on his partner Tanihara at 175s in that market.

He has played in this event before back in 2007 at Mission Hills but the link that I particular like was his impressive T5 in the Open Championship at Hoylake in 2006.

That shows he will be able to cope on a sandbelt course and looks worth a punt that he can make his presence felt on the leaderboard.

Japan won this back in 2002 when it was staged in Mexico and funnily enough their next best effort came in 1988 - at no other than Royal Melbourne - which may or may be nothing more than a huge coincidence.

Whatever the relevance, I am keen on their prospects.

My other pick for the team event is Spain at 22s as Miguel Angel Jimenez and Rafa Cabrera-Bello go for glory.

The redoubtable Jimenez will turn 50 on January 5 but remains a legend on the main European circuit as he claimed another top 10 in the Dubai Tour World Championship.

He knows what it takes to contend in this as well having finished runner-up twice with Pablo Larrazabal and Sergio Garcia and I fully expect him and Cabrera-Bello to give it a really decent shot.

The latter has good memories from Melbourne having played his first event as a rookie on the European Tour in 2007 in the city (at Huntingdale) and spoke in the build-up of how much he is looking forward to going back.

He has finished the 2013 season in decent form and I expect the pair to be thereabouts.

My final bets on the tournament involve New Zealand and firstly Tim Wilkinson at a big price for individual glory at 200/1.

The left-hander caught the eye last week in Mexico at the OHL Classic with a T10 and is just the sort of player to potentially fly under the radar.

A delve back into the archives reveals a solid record in Australia with a couple top 20s already in Melbourne so it does not take a great stretch of the imagination to see him potentially going well in familiar surroundings.

The Kiwis' line-up is completed by Mike Hendry and at 150/1, the duo could outplay those odds on a course where their countrymen have done quite well previously in events like the Heineken Classic.

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Romain set to conquer Glendower

The South African Open returns to Glendower Golf Club this week and our Ben Coley expects Romain Wattel to relish the test.

Glendower Golf Club makes its return to the South African Open rota this week, the first time the Gauteng course has hosted the event since Vijay Singh won the title in 1997.

Much has changed since then, with the course undergoing serious renovations in 2008. Given the 16-year gap and said changes, which include a complete overhaul of all bunkers and greens, the only worthwhile course form we have comes courtesy of the BMG Classic, a regular Sunshine Tour event.

The first edition of the BMG to be staged here was won by Canada's Graham DeLaet, who gave a ringing endorsement of Glendower. "It's a real gem," he said. "I've played a lot in different parts of the world and this is one of the top courses I've come across."

George Coetzee isn't in the field this week, but he too has taken time out to praise the course, describing it as "a proper golf course, as good as you'll see anywhere in Europe", and with slick greens and tight fairways it really should serve up a decent test as has been the case in the 54-hole BMG.

That being said, time and time again we see European Tour professionals tear up these traditional South African layouts and even at just under 7,000 metres, Glendower does not have length as a great defence given that the course is a few hundred metres above sea level and the ball therefore flies further.

At the head of the betting would've been defending champion Henrik Stenson, for whom this event acted as a springboard to the best year of his life. Stenson's Race To Dubai heroics really can be traced back to this event, albeit at Serengeti, and at peak fitness he'd have been extremely hard to beat.

However, he's understandably withdrawn from the event as he works out how to spend his winnings and, more likely, to enjoy some family time after a hectic schedule since mid-summer which has seen him pick up a niggling wrist injury.

With Stenson absent I'm turning to Romain Wattel to spearhead my attack on the tournament.

There's absolutely no denying that this has been an incredible year for French golf. Triggered by Raphael Jacquelin's Open de Espana victory, Julien Quesne, Gregory Bourdy and Victor Dubuisson have stepped up and delivered big, winning performances in big events, while even Wattel's former Eisenhower Trophy team-mate Alexander Levy went close in Germany.

With two of that quintet representing their country in the World Cup at Royal Melbourne this week, I've no doubt whatsoever that Wattel will be both inspired by their performances and the rewards they've brought, as well as desperate to join them in the winners' circle.

While Dubuisson rightly is regarded as the future torch-carrier of golf in France as the nation builds towards the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National, let's not forget that Wattel is a formerly top-class amateur who actually won on the Challenge Tour while still among the unpaid ranks.

Having safely navigated a course through Q School, he then made his debut in this very event in 2010, and a glance at the scoring shows that he did as well as anyone close to him could've dared to dream, let alone expect. On a leaderboard which saw Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel fill the first four places, Wattel tied for fifth with Robert Rock.

So here we have a player with all the motivation in the world and some very positive memories of his only start in the event, and I'm encouraged enough by recent form which includes a top-10 finish in Italy and a share of 26th in Portugal, where he drove the ball particularly well.

It's hard to know exactly what this course will demand but from what I've read whoever tops the total driving stats will go well, and Wattel is likely to be up there if maintaining the form he showed in Portugal.

Wattel's light schedule doesn't look at all dissimilar to that of Dubuisson prior to his victory in Turkey and, just like Dubuisson, Wattel could upstage the bigger names here on a course which should play to his strengths.

Charl Schwartzel is rightly favourite for a tournament he's desperate to win and, unlike most of the world's best, he's had a light schedule lately and won a low-key event in Asia two starts ago.

If he turns up and produces his best at a course he played as a junior he will of course take all the beating, but I'm put off by the fact you have to go back almost a decade for the only time he was even second in the event and for a player of his calibre his record is not great; certainly not enough to take 5/1.

History does show that the top five should contain at least two or three of the home contingent but only a select few look really good enough to go through with their effort, with so many flattering to deceive in the face of what would be a life-changing win.

With that in mind it's probably best to focus on those who are both experienced and proven at this level and I wouldn't put anyone off Hennie Otto at 33/1, given how well he's playing at present and the fact that he's actually won this event before.

However, at bigger prices the case for Garth Mulroy and Darren Fichardt looks equally as strong and I'll narrowly side with the latter.

Mulroy would probably have been a bet at 66/1 but at 50s I can just pass him over, particularly given that he was some way detached in last place in Dubai, some 22 shots behind Fichardt.

My selection showed his game to be in good order with an opening 64 a couple of weeks ago and commented after that round on how it'd been coming together for a while, he just needed to make some putts.

The concern would be that he struck the ball well last week - Fichardt ranked 14th for greens hit and fourth in driving accuracy - but struggled somewhat on the greens statistically.

However, I'm inclined to think positively about a share of 21st at a course which is probably a shade long for him; it's perfectly possible that with long-iron approaches he simply couldn't get the ball close enough to the hole.

Here, at a venue which is not especially long and is well defined by trees, my instinct is to favour those who strike it well, particularly off the tee, and that certainly is the case with Fichardt.

"It's always nice to get back home and it's good to have four in a row," he said earlier this week.

"Glendower is a very old, traditional golf course. I've played there a lot since I was very young, competing in amateur tournaments and such like. It's a great course.

"The past four weeks have been unbelievably awesome tournaments, but there has been a lot of travelling and I can't wait to get back to South Africa.

"My game's very good and a couple of things I've been working on have come to pass, so it's all good."

Earlier this year Fichardt won the Africa Open by a couple of shots - ironically thanks to a red-hot putter - and a week later was second in the Tshwane Open.

In this event last year he finished sixth and that's six times in his last 14 SA Open starts that Fichardt has been inside the top six. He probably should've won it at nearby Randpark Club in 2000 but has come a long way since and, with four European Tour victories to his name, local favourite Fichardt should go well.

Finally for the outright staking plan, I'm compelled to back Scott Jamieson at the prices available as he has plenty in his favour.

The Scot has enjoyed a superb year and it all stems from his performances in South Africa, where he got a first European Tour title in the Nelson Mandela Championship, followed it up with a third in the Alfred Dunhill and then finished second in the Volvo Golf Champions.

So, form figures of 1-3-2 for his last three starts in South Africa give reason for hope and it's only a month or so ago that he came within millimetres of the European Tour's first ever 59, which offers evidence that his game is in decent shape.

More recently he putted nicely and closed out with a birdie-eagle finish to climb inside the top 30 in the DP World Tour Championship and with that momentum behind him I wouldn't be at all surprised were he to win again in South Africa.

Often, these events throw up a fine opportunity to snare a first-round leader at a huge price. As ever, there are plenty you could make a case for but perhaps none more so than Neil Schietekat.

Schietekat lives in nearby Johannesburg and will have plenty of support, but I'm not sure that will carry him all the way through the event, even if he remains a player of some potential.

But having won for the first time earlier this season and finished sixth last time out he's full of confidence right now and his closing 66 in last year's BMG Classic was the round of the day in tough conditions.

He opened with a round of 69 there a few weeks ago, again in poor weather, and when winning the Platinum Classic shot 65 in round one. Indeed, he's been starting well for some time now and at the price he's worth a small bet.

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Race is on and value available

David John is backing Rory McIlroy to rediscover his best and join Ian Poulter in challenging for the 2014 Race To Dubai.

Another compelling Race To Dubai has come to a conclusion and a bit like the National Hunt season in horse racing, we barely have time to draw breath before we are under way once more for 2014 in South Africa.

Five of the first six events take place there with big pots in particular at the Nedbank Challenge and Volvo Golf Champions on offer for those hoping to make a fast start in the year long dash for the cash in a bid to be crowned Europe's top performer.

I have to admit I am finding this an increasingly difficult preview to write.

The big names spend their time playing what is now truly a global game - gone are the days when the top stars from Europe would only cross the pond to play in major championships.

So trying to assess how a schedule will accurately play out for the market leaders is tricky while the lucrative Final Series on the European Tour has highlighted how you can make giant strides up the standings very quickly if hitting form at exactly the right time.

Throw in as well the extra element of 2014 being a Ryder Cup year.

So rather than trying to tie myself in knots second guessing who will be where and when, lets establish some clear criteria.

We need a player in the top 50 of the world rankings who gets into all the biggest and best events with the potential to win or at very least closely contend multiple times in the majors and WGC events before the final push to the summit in the aforementioned Finals Series.

So to some contenders and the betting is headed by Rory McIlroy at what could be a generous 6/1 in 12 months time.

Rory has a couple more events to play this calendar year - in Australia and at Tiger's invite-only tournament in California - and I have finally started to believe he could go very close to a victory.

That potentially would see his odds change pretty dramatically for the Race To Dubai and salvage a year that has fallen well short of expectations.

There is no need to revisit old ground as to the reasons why but it seems that McIlroy is finally moving in the right direction - and importantly, believes that himself.

He finished the last two tournaments in the Race To Dubai this year T6-T5 and said after the latter in the Middle East: "For the most part I'm just really happy that my game is back where I want it to be and that's all I really care about."

Very few, if any, golfers go through a career without a bump in the road and with what he has accomplished in the game so far, it is sometimes easy to forget that Rory is still some months shy of his 25th birthday.

So that means he is frighteningly still not at his peak and has plenty of improvement still in him. When he does get his game back, we know that he will be contending for majors and WGC events.

Bear in mind as well that he is only a season removed from winning the Race To Dubai with a total of €5,519,118 which was almost €2,000,000 clear of his nearest rival and although I am not a huge fan of the phrase, the sky really does remain the limit for the Ulsterman.

A discussion with a very shrewd judge the other day led us to the conclusion that Ian Poulter was overpriced at 12/1 so it would be remiss not to suggest backing him at 14s.

Poulter produced a gung-ho finish to the 2013 season in his bid to try and catch Henrik Stenson down the stretch and his odds look generous in terms of him going one place better this time around.

He spoke during the final week in Dubai of how much a European Tour Order Of Merit would mean to him at some stage while also talking about how he felt he was swinging the club as well as at any time in his career.

He heads into a Ryder Cup year at the top of his game then and with that event in mind, it was interesting to see captain Paul McGinley say that he would not be an automatic selection for his side and would have to prove himself as much as the next man.

With the start he has made to qualification, it seems unthinkable that Poulter will not be at Gleneagles considering as well his heroics in the last renewal in the United States but it is another little piece of extra motivation that the Englishman seems to thrive on.

It can sit alongside his quest for that elusive first major while Poulter also really seemed to embrace the Final Series as he worked out his schedule to play all four events with a sparkling run of T15-2-T5-2.

It showed his determination to go all out with the big prizes on the line and it might be case of the pack chasing him in the closing stages if he has the kind of year I think he is capable of producing.

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R&A: Slow-motion and HD replays to have reduced role in rules

The R&A and USGA have ruled that players will no longer be penalised if slow-motion video or high-definition replays show a ball moved when at rest but was not obvious to the naked eye.

It is one of several changes golf's governing bodies made to the Decisions on the Rules of Golf on Tuesday.

The rule will limit the role of the kind of "enhanced technological evidence" that saw Tiger Woods penalised at the BMW Championship.

The ruling takes effect from 1 January.

According to the R&A and USGA, the Decision 18/4 rule was debated before the incident involving Woods in the BMW Championship in September, where the world number one tried to remove a twig from beside his ball before playing his third shot on the first hole at Conway Farms.

Decision 18/4 states:

"Where enhanced technological evidence shows that a ball has left its position and come to rest in another location, the ball will not be deemed to have moved if that movement was not reasonably discernible to the naked eye at the time. The decision ensures that a player is not penalised under Rule 18-2 in circumstances where the fact that the ball had changed location could not reasonably have been seen without the use of enhanced technology."

Woods felt his ball had only oscillated before he ran up a double-bogey six, but high-definition video footage showed that it had slightly shifted its position and his score was amended to a quadruple-bogey eight.

A USGA official advised Woods to watch a video of the incident before signing his card, but the player refused.

David Rickman, the R&A's executive director of rules and equipment standards, said "We think it's not right to disregard any evidence, but we are particularly concerned that the likes of high-definition and super slow-mo cameras does mean that TV may show a version of events that the player has no opportunity to see."

As part of the 2016 review of the Rules of Golf themselves, the R&A and USGA are also examining the effect of video technology on the necessary precision in marking, lifting and replacing a ball, the estimation of a reference point for taking relief and the question of the appropriate penalty for returning an incorrect score card where the player was unaware that a penalty had been incurred.

Among changes for 2014, players will now be able to access weather reports on a smartphone during a round without breaching the rules.

Other new rule changes coming in from next year include a revised decision 25-2/0.5 that helps to clarify when a golf ball is considered to be embedded in the ground and revised decision 27-2a/1.5 allows a player to go forward up to approximately 50 yards without forfeiting their right to go back and play a provisional ball.

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Guan set to start at Hong Kong Open

Chinese golfing sensation Guan Tian-lang is set to star in the Hong Kong Open from December 5-8.

The youngster may have only turned 15 a couple of weeks ago, but his appearance at the Hong Kong Golf Club will bring down the curtain on a year that not even Hollywood’s finest writers could have scripted.

Having qualified for this year’s Masters Tournament by winning the 2012 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, Guan took the golfing world by storm at Augusta National as he became the youngest player in history to make the cut in a Major Championship, finishing in 58th position.

That performance captured the imagination of the golfing world and ensured Guan a level of celebrity that most professionals would be proud of as he secured invitations to play in a further four PGA Tour events before returning to China in August to resume his studies and practice schedule.

He will, however, make a welcome return to the world stage at the Hong Kong Golf Club at the beginning of December, when Miguel Angel Jiménez will defend his title.

Before the US$ 1.3 million tournament gets underway, Guan will be the star attraction at a special golf skills clinic at the Hong Kong Golf Club on November 20, when he will meet children from four local schools and offer tips and advice on the game he has mastered at such a young age.

“I am thrilled to have been invited to play in as prestigious an event as the Hong Kong Open,” said Guan, who set a then record as the youngest man to play in a European Tour event at the 2012 Volvo China Open aged just 13 years old.

“This year has just been an incredible journey for me. Making the cut at The Masters was a very special achievement for me and I hope to be able to produce a similar performance at the Hong Kong Golf Club in December.

“When you get the opportunity to play against world class players you cannot refuse because it is the best environment to learn and gain experience and I would love to play all four rounds at the Hong Kong Golf Club.”

Joining Guan at the Hong Kong Open will be another of China’s most promising young talents, Jason Hak.

It was in November 2008, aged 14 years and 304 days, that Hak made history as the youngest player to make the cut in a European Tour event at the Hong Kong Open.

That record has since been reset by Guan’s cut-making performance at the Masters (aged 14 years and 169 days), but Hak’s performance five years ago will live long in the memory.

Hak was part of the Hong Kong Men’s Team which claimed a silver medal in China’s National Games (also known as China’s ‘Olympics’) this September, and he will be hoping to continue that form at Fanling in the first week of December.

Co-sanctioned by The European and Asian Tours, the Hong Kong Open will be the third tournament in The 2014 Race to Dubai and will be the 13th staging since it became part of The European Tour in 2002.

The Hong Kong Open was first played in 1959 and has a star-studded list of past champions, including Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Colin Montgomerie, José María Olazábal, Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy.

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Big Three dominate LPGA tour in 2013

NAPLES, Fla. – World No. 1 Inbee Park has won six tournaments this season, including three consecutive major championships, notched 10 top-10 finishes and has led the money list for most of the season.

In most any other year, she would have wrapped up the Player of the Year award in July. Yet Park only secured the Rolex Player of the Year honors last week with a tie for fourth place in the LPGA tour's penultimate tournament of the season, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.

That it took Park so long to earn enough points to become the first player from South Korea to win LPGA player of the year honors surprised many in the golf world. Unfathomable earlier in the year that there would even be a race to the finish, Park struggled to maintain her edge.

Thanks to Suzann Pettersen and Stacy Lewis.

In forming the Big 3 in women's golf in 2013, Park, Pettersen and Lewis, the Nos. 1-2-3 in the world, respectively, may have laid to rest the days of a single player dominating the LPGA tour, the way Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Lorena Ochoa and Yani Tseng did over the last 20 years.

Between them, Park, Pettersen and Lewis have won 13 of the 27 events this year and accumulated 43 top-10s heading into this week's season-ending CME Titleholders at Tiburon Golf Club. The three combined to win all five majors. They are the top three on the money list and in the race for the Vare Trophy, given to the tour's lowest scorer.

But Park dominated the first half of the season. She won the first three major championships, a feat equaled only by Babe Zaharias in 1950. And she won six of the first 13 events.

"I played better than last year and I've achieved what I wanted to achieve," Park said Sunday in Mexico at the end of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. "From now on, at least the race for the next Rolex Player of the Year is over. It is a good thing. There is just nothing to complain about this season. It's hard to believe that I actually had to play for the Rolex Player of the Year award until the second to last tournament after having six wins, including three majors. That just tells you how competitive it is out there. So it wasn't easy, nothing was given to me free."

After Park won the U.S. Women's Open, Pettersen and Lewis started making things difficult. Since missing the cut in the U.S. Women's Open, Pettersen has three wins, (including a major at the Evian championship, and finished in the top 10 in each of her last nine events. During that time, Lewis won a major, the Ricoh Women's British Open, and had eight of her tour-leading 18 top-10s in nine starts.

"With Inbee winning three majors early in the year, nobody thought it was even going to be a question of who was going to be Player of the Year," Pettersen said Tuesday. "From that aspect I thought it was quite neat to get into a position where I actually had a chance, even though it was very, very slim, at least had a chance with a miracle to become the Player of the Year. But winning three majors, you should be the Player of the Year."

So will the three remain the Big 3 in 2014? Pettersen's not buying into that kind of talk. The tour's depth continues to expand and now includes two teenagers – Lexi Thompson, 18, who has won two of the last four tournaments and moved to No. 10 in the world, and Lydia Ko, 16, who makes her professional debut this week as the No. 5 player in the world.

"I think the LPGA has a lot of great rivalries," Pettersen said. "I guess the three of us is one good one, but I think also the depth on this tour is now deeper than it's ever been. It takes a lot more to win week in and week out.

"If you look at majors won, it kind of represents the three of us, so from that aspect you can kind of call us the Big 3. But I think it's great to see new young girls coming out doing really well. Great to see Lexi win twice, great to have Lydia joining the tour. They're all great athletes; they bring the youth and the childish mentality out on this tour, especially for the older ones like me."

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Rule change could have meant no penalty for Tiger Woods

The U.S. Golf Association and the R&A announced Tuesday four noteworthy revisions to the "Decisions on the Rules of Golf," most notably the use of high definition recordings to determine infractions. The change most likely would have saved Tiger Woods two strokes in this year's BMW Championship.

The governing bodies have determined that "where enhanced technological evidence shows that a ball has left its position and come to rest in another location, the ball will not be deemed to have moved if that movement was not reasonably discernible to the naked eye at the time."

The revisions are effective Jan. 1.

At the BMW Championship during the FedExCup Playoffs at Conway Farms north of Chicago, Woods was assessed a two-shot penalty in the scoring trailer at the end of the second round when HD quality tape filmed by a PGA Tour Entertainment crew showed the world's No. 1 player's ball had moved while he was removing debris around his ball in back of the first green.

Woods was not pleased and had a heated discussion with rules officials when told of the infraction. Woods insisted the ball just oscillated and did not move even after seeing the video evidence "again and again and again." Rules officials disagreed and docked him two shots. Woods was still simmering 24 hours later.

The USGA and R&A said the rapid development of video technology has brought a new level of scrutiny to the game and led to an increasing number of inquiries to rules officials from people outside the field of competition. In April 2011, the USGA and the R&A adopted decision 33-7/4.5, which authorizes committees to waive the disqualification penalty for a breach of Rule 6-6d in narrow circumstances in which the player could not reasonably have been aware of a breach of the rules that later was identified through video evidence.

After continuing to monitor the situation, and with input and assistance from representatives of the professional tours who serve as consulting members of the Rules of Golf Committees, the USGA and R&A further addressed the situation and arrived at a revision of the rules.

"The decision ensures that a player is not penalized under Rule 18-2 in circumstances where the fact that the ball had changed location could not reasonably have been seen without the use of enhanced technology," the USGA and R&A said in a joint statement. " … As is true of the rules in many other televised sports, adapting to developments in technology and video evidence is an important ongoing topic in making and applying the Rules of Golf."

"The Rules of Golf are constantly evolving," said Thomas Pagel, USGA senior director of the Rules of Golf. "The decisions review process is an opportunity for The R&A and the USGA to continue to help make the game more understandable and accessible for players, officials and others who participate in the game."

Among other changes:

• Decision 14-3/18 confirms that players can access reports on weather conditions on a Smartphone during a round without breaching the rules. Importantly, this new decision also clarifies that players are permitted to access information on the threat of an impending storm in order to protect their own safety.
• A revised decision helps to clarify when a golf ball is considered to be embedded in the ground through the use of illustrations.
• A revised decision allows a player to go forward up to approximately 50 yards without forfeiting his or her right to go back and play a provisional ball.

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Golf governing bodies tweak rules over 'trial by television'

Golf's governing bodies have made a total of 87 changes to the 2014-2015 version of their 'Decisions on the Rules of Golf', among them one allowing players to make more use of modern technology during the course of their round.

The changes also reduce the ability of TV viewers to report what they perceive as breaches of the rules when players' balls appear to move without being touched, despite the movement being undetectable by the naked eye.

The availability of instant replay facilities at home has seen this trend rise in recent years with a number of armchair 'judges' phoning TV stations to flag up the alleged indiscretions.

The new Decision makes it clear that 'where enhanced technological evidence, eg digital recording or online visual media etc, shows that a ball has left its position and come to rest in another location, the ball will not be deemed to have moved if that movement was not reasonably discernible to the naked eye at the time'.

The Royal and Ancient and the US Golf Association, who meet every two years to review their rules, have added three new Decisions to their 'bible', revised 59 and have re-numbered one.

A total of 24 have also been withdrawn from the book, which contains more than 1,200 entries designed to address specific situations under the Rules of Golf.

Thomas Pagel, the USGA's senior director of the Rules of Golf, said: "The rules are constantly evolving and this review process is an opportunity for the R&A and the USGA to continue to help make the game more understandable and accessible for players, officials and others who participate in the game."

Other notworthy changes are:

1. New Decision 14-3/18 confirms that players can access reports on weather conditions on a smartphone during a round without breaching the Rules. Importantly, this new Decision also clarifies that players are permitted to access information on the threat of an impending storm in order to protect their own safety.

2. Revised Decision 25-2/0.5 helps to clarify when a golf ball is considered to be embedded in the ground through the use of illustrations.

3. Revised Decision 27-2a/1.5 allows a player to go forward up to approximately 50 yards without forfeiting his or her right to go back and play a provisional ball.

David Rickman, The R&A's executive director (Rules and Equipment Standards), said: "It is important to consider carefully new developments in the game and that is reflected in the new Decisions on the Rules which give greater clarity on the use of smart phones and advanced video technology."

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Louis Oosthuizen forced to miss Alfred Dunhill Championship

Louis Oosthuizen has been forced to pull out of next week's Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek after having painkilling cortisone injections in his back.

The South African has struggled with a lower back problem this year and missed two months of action after withdrawing from the Open Championship - a tournament he won in 2010.

A course of injections to reduce pain and inflammation in the affected area has now ruled him out for two weeks.

"I was really excited to play in the tournament so it is very disappointing to miss out," the 31-year-old said.

"My back has been sore during the last few tournaments and it has been frustrating. I'm hopeful the injections will free up the problem and enable it to go away completely."

Oosthuizen, whose last victory came on home soil at the Volvo Golf Champions in January, aims to return at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in December.

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American Peter Uihlein has been named rookie of the year by the European Tour

Peter Uihlein has been named Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year on the European Tour, the first American to receive the award.

The 24-year-old, who turned professional in December 2011 after a successful amateur career, won his maiden title at the Madeira Islands Open in May before finishing second at both the Wales Open and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in September.

Uihlein also had several other top-10 finishes and ended up in 14th spot in The Race to Dubai.

"It's an honour to win the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award," said Uihlein.

"I wasn't expecting it, but it's been a great year and I'm very pleased. I think I'm the first non-European to win it, so that's a great honour. Any time you're the first of anything, it's neat.

"The win in Madeira was great and I had a lot of top 10s. The win opened a few doors for me and I was able to play at Wentworth (the BMW PGA Championship) the following week."

European Tour chief executive George O'Grady added: "We heartily congratulate Peter on an outstanding season, during which he has thrilled golf fans and challenged for several titles.

"His incredible 60 at Kingsbarns (at Alfred Dunhill Links Championship), which ended with his eagle putt for a 59 missing by a fraction, will go down as one of the finest displays on The European Tour."

Previous winners of the award, which was launched in 1960, include Sir Nick Faldo (1977), Jose Maria Olazabal (1986), Colin Montgomerie (1988), Ian Poulter (2000) and Martin Kaymer (2007).

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Chinese teen sensation Guan to star in Hong Kong Open

Hong Kong - Chinese golf prodigy Guan Tianlang will star in December's Hong Kong Open, organisers announced Tuesday, just weeks after he celebrated his 15th birthday.

The Guangzhou schoolboy sent shockwaves through the sport at the US Masters in April when, aged just 14 years, five months and 18 days, he became the youngest golfer to make the cut at a major tournament.

He will return to the world stage at the beginning of December at the Hong Kong Golf Club, where Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez will defend his title.

"This year has just been an incredible journey for me. Making the cut at the Masters was a very special achievement for me and I hope to be able to produce a similar performance at the Hong Kong Golf Club in December," Guan said.

"When you get the opportunity to play against world class players you cannot refuse because it is the best environment to learn and gain experience."

Before he tees off at the US$1.3 million tournament, the teenager will take part in a special golf skills clinic Wednesday, where he will meet children from four local schools.

Hong Kong golfer Jason Hak will join Guan in the tournament. In November 2008, aged 14, Hak made history as the youngest player to make the cut in a European Tour event at the Hong Kong Open.

Guan will be hoping to make up for failing to defend his title at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championships in October, where South Korea's Lee Chang-Woo, 19, claimed victory and a place in the US Masters.

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Have driver, will travel: Peter Uihlein's path

NAPLES, Fla. -- The road less traveled brought Peter Uihlein back to a familiar place. He was home in South Florida, finally, after a remarkable golf season that took some unexpected turns while covering six tours in 18 countries, three U.S. states and Puerto Rico.

In the hours before the New England Patriots kicked off on Monday night - his kind of football - he kept busy by replying to messages on Twitter congratulating him for being the first American to win European Tour rookie of the year in the 53-year history of the Sir Henry Cotton Award.

''Pretty good start,'' Uihlein said.

He might not be the last American to win the award.

As Uihlein (YOO'-line) was wrapping up his season with three more stamps in his passport - Shanghai, Turkey, Dubai - four Americans earned European Tour cards at Q-school in Spain. Uihlein knows them all. One is John Hahn, whom Uihlein beat in 19 holes to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2010 U.S. Amateur that he won at Chambers Bay.

''Looks like I'll have some company next year,'' Uihlein tweeted last week.

While this doesn't constitute a mass exodus to Europe, it's at least a trickle. One reason behind more Americans trying to get European Tour cards is because the PGA Tour now only awards Web.com Tour cards at its Q-school.

For those who want to try, Uihlein and Brooks Koepka left a global trail to follow.

''We're an option for American guys, especially now that Q-school works a little strange,'' Matteo Manassero of Italy said. ''They can come here and get a full card. I'm happy to see Peter making the effort here. He deserved all the success he got. It's a different tour. But if you make an experience here as an American, I think it can help.''

Uihlein and Koepka, his roommate whenever they both make it back to Florida, both started the year on the Challenge Tour. Uihlein won the Madeira Islands Open in Portugal to get his card. He had a pair of runner-up finishes in September and ended the year at No. 14 on the money list.

Koepka won three times on the Challenge Tour for an instant promotion.

''Peter and Brooks have both come over and taken very well to the lifestyle,'' Thomas Bjorn said. ''They're two very good kids. Peter, first of all, is a brilliant golfer. I think he realized when he started playing in Europe that, 'Hang on here, I can compete.' It's always a tricky thing when you're a young guy. You might think you're good and you find out you're not that good. Or they find out they're better than they think they are.''

Uihlein didn't set out to make a name for himself, but that's what happened.

Even as one of the top amateurs in America, he invariably was referred to as the son of Wally Uihlein, the longtime chief executive of Acushnet, makers of Titleist equipment and FootJoy shoes. He developed his own identity as a two-time Walker Cup player and U.S. Amateur champion.

And now? Mention ''Peter Uihlein'' to the general golfing public and he's known as the American who's cutting his teeth on the European Tour.

''Nothing wrong with that,'' he said. ''It's sweet.''

Uihlein might not be traveling to all corners of the globe if he had made it through the second stage of Q-school. And the quicker path to the PGA Tour still might be to toil on the Web.com Tour for one year. Good players shouldn't need longer than that.

Then again, that's assuming the sole purpose is to get to the PGA Tour as quickly as possible.

''I think it's more than that,'' Uihlein said. ''It's being a global player. It's being able to play golf all around the world. Take Ernie Els. He plays in every country. You see his name everywhere. He's received in different parts of the world. It's a good experience.''

The trail created by Uihlein and Koepka is not for everyone, and both have said as much.

American players can go home on Sunday and stay for a few days before heading back out to the grind. Uihlein went from India to Johannesburg at the start of the year. In one stretch this summer, he went from Germany to Ireland to France to Scotland. That's a lot of time in strange hotels that don't carry the Boston Red Sox network.

''It can get lonely,'' he said.

But looked what it has produced - rookie of the year, a European Tour winner, a player tested in different conditions and different countries. Uihlein is 24.

''He's been an absolute star the whole year,'' European Tour chief George O'Grady said. ''He's enormously popular with all the other players. It must be tough for him playing all these different countries. He's learned from the cultures, the food, the frustrations of travel. And he's a hell of a good player. I imagine he'll graduate to the PGA Tour one day. Hopefully, this will stand him in good stead.''

His work is not over. Uihlein started the year at No. 384 and is up to No. 64. Even if he gets in a majority of the majors and World Golf Championships, he still has to perform in them to make headway toward a PGA Tour card.

But odds are he'll be better off when he gets there.

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5 Things to Know about the World Cup of Golf

MELBOURNE, Australia -- The World Cup of Golf begins Thursday at Royal Melbourne with 25 two-man teams and eight to 10 individual golfers vying for $8 million in prize money.

Here are five things to know about the tournament that celebrates its 60th year in 2013:

LEADING TO RIO: The format has been substantially changed this year to make it primarily a stroke-play competition and, in essence, a very early ''test event'' for the 2016 Olympics, where golf will make its return to the program. The World Golf Ranking was used as the deciding factor in who plays this week at Royal Melbourne, and that and eligibility for numbers of players allowed from each country will also be used at Rio in three years. Rio won't feature a team competition, which is being retained here as part of the original World Cup format. Critics say the event has been hijacked as a result, and the prize money only accentuates the disparity - $7 million in purse money for the individual competition, including $1.2 million to the winner, and just $1 million overall for the team event.

ONE DIFFERENCE: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compete as Britain at the Olympics. However, at the World Cup, England, Scotland and Wales compete as separate countries and Northern Ireland and Ireland play as one team - Ireland. Rory McIlroy, who played for Ireland as an amateur, will have a choice to make if he plays in 2016 at Rio - either for Britain because of his Northern Ireland roots, or for Ireland. McIlroy, who is not playing the World Cup this year, has not said who he would play for and suggested he might not play at all if forced to play for one country or the other.

SOME HISTORY: The critics who say the team component is being watered down point to the historical significance of the World Cup which was first held in Montreal in 1953 when Roberto De Vicenzo and Antonio Cerda won for Argentina. The tournament was known as the Canada Cup until 1967. It has attracted its share of top golfers over the years, and they kept coming back. Ian Woosnam played 17 times for Wales, Gary Player 16 times for South Africa, Bernard Langer 12 for Germany and Colin Montgomerie 10 times for Scotland. Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Fred Couples, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods have also won World Cup titles for their countries.

THE DEFENDERS: The United States has won the World Cup a record 24 times, and they are the defending champions. In 2011, Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland finished two strokes ahead of England's Ian Poulter and Justin Rose at Hainan Island in China. The format then was two days of four-ball and two of foursomes. Kuchar is back for the Americans, this time partnered by Kevin Streelman.

Kuchar has a way to go to catch four Americans who have won the title four times each - the teams of Fred Couples and Davis Love III and Nicklaus and Palmer.

THE HOME SIDE: Adam Scott, ranked No. 2, and No. 18 Jason Day are a formidable team and also have the advantage of playing before the home crowds at Royal Melbourne, which is hosting the World Cup for the fourth time and first since 1988 when Australia celebrated its Bicentennial. Scott has played three times at the World Cup, while this will be Day's debut. It's been a dry time for Australia in the World Cup recently, with the last win coming in 1989 in Spain when Peter Fowler and 1990 U.S. PGA champion Wayne Grady won for Australia. The closest Australia has come since was in 1995 at Mission Hills in China when Robert Allenby and Brett Ogle finished second to Couples and Love when that American pair won it for the fourth time. Scott, Kuchar and Vijay Singh, who is competing in the individual competition, have the advantage of having played Royal Melbourne in the Australian Masters last week where Scott won, Kuchar was second and Singh third.

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Olympics-Rio Games golf course progress "reasonably good" - Finchem

Progress on the troubled golf course hosting the sport's Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio Games is "reasonably good", PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said on Wednesday.

Construction at the Venue Reserva de Marapendi course, being controversially built in an environmental reservation, was held up for months by legal wrangling over land ownership.

"I was told yesterday that the irrigation system for the golf course had been boarded on a ship in Los Angeles that was headed for the Panama Canal," Finchem told reporters at Royal Melbourne golf club in the leadup to the World Cup of Golf.

"So, hooray, we will now have some water on the property.

"Actually the progress is reasonably good. We think the timeline is in order. We were really concerned there, as you know, for a good period of time.

"But I am going to go down here in spring and look at it."

The Gilbert Hanse-designed course was originally scheduled to be finished by 2014 to give organisers two years to iron out kinks, but it may not be finished until the second half of 2015 due to the construction delay.

Players at the revamped $8 million World Cup of Golf will compete in individual stroke-play according to the Olympic format, though a team-based component has been retained from the previous editions of the biennial event.

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Oosthuizen sidelined after recurrence of back injury

Former British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen will be out for two weeks after suffering a recurrence of a long-standing back problem, his management company said on Tuesday.

The 31-year-old South African has been told to rest after having cortisone injections.

"My back has been sore during the last few tournaments and it has been frustrating," Oosthuizen said in a news release.

"I'm hopeful the injections will free up the problem and enable it to go away completely."

The injury also kept 2010 Open champion Oosthuizen on the sidelines for two months earlier this season.

He is planning to return to the European Tour at the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City starting on Dec. 5.

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Golf-New ball movement rule would have spared Woods' blushes

Eighty seven changes have been made to the 2013-14 edition of the "Decisions on the Rules of Golf" manual but one in particular will be of interest to world number oneTiger Woods.

New Decision 18/4, agreed by the Royal and Ancient and the United States Golf Association (USGA), aims to clarify when a ball has been inadvertently moved by a player - a scenario that left Woods fuming at the BMW Championship in September.

Woods suffered a two-stroke penalty at the first hole in his second round after he tried to remove a twig from behind his ball.

The American 14-times major winner insisted his ball had merely "oscillated" although detailed video footage of the incident suggested the ball had rolled slightly away from its original resting place.

However, under new guidelines announced on Tuesday, Woods would probably have escaped punishment.

"New Decision 18/4 provides that, where enhanced technological evidence (e.g. HDTV, digital recording or online visual media, etc.) shows that a ball has left its position and come to rest in another location, the ball will not be deemed to have moved if that movement was not reasonably discernible to the naked eye at the time," the new rule states.

A joint statement from the R&A and USGA explained the decision, saying it was made to counter the increased level of scrutiny players are under at elite tournaments owing to the rapid developments in video technology.

"This has led to an increasing number of inquiries to officials from television viewers and others about whether a breach of the Rules has occurred, sometimes resulting in breaches of the Rules being identified (and penalties being applied) after the incident itself has occurred.

"Occasionally, the identification of the breach has been after the player has returned his or her scorecard, which has therefore resulted in disqualification under Rule 6-6d.

"These developments have generated considerable discussion concerning whether, how and when such video evidence should be used."

Woods also fell foul of rules officials at the Masters after taking an illegal drop during the second round when his wedge approach at the 15th struck the flagstick before ricocheting backwards off the green and down the slope into Rae's Creek.

In another change, players will now be allowed to access weather conditions on smatphones during their round without breaching Rules.

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