Three British golfers head up the official world rankings as Germany’s former no.1, Martin Kaymer drops to fourth after failing to finish in the top eight in the BMW International Open in Munich yesterday.

Following his U.S Open victory Rory McIlroy moves up to a career best third place behind Luke Donald (first) and Lee Westwood.

This is great news ahead of the 140th British Open Championship which this year is being held at the Royal St. George’s Golf Course in Sandwich in Kent, the Garden of England on the south-east coast, in two weeks time.

Rory McIlroy will go into the British Open as one of the favourites, and it will be good to see how he copes with the pressure post that fantastic display of golf at The U.S Open when he led from round 1 and never once showed a loss of concentrate or bottle as he had on the final round of the U.S Masters in April at Augusta.

The U.S Open was Rory McIlroy’s first major win after several near misses and five years of dealing with the heavy burden of expectancy and praise from many of his contemporaries and commentators alike.  Unfortunately, I think if anything the pressure is going to be greater as everyone looks to see if Rory McIlroy can begin to pull away from the rest of the field and dominate the next few years of golf in the same way as Tiger Woods had before him.

If anymore incentive was required, it has been announced that the winner’s cheque for the British Open is now £900,000 as prize-fund money increases to £5m.

Some high profile PGA players will be missing the AT&T National in the U.S to play The Scottish Open at Castle Stuart Golf Links in Inverness as a warming up for the Open Championship.  Those PGA players making the trip across the pond include Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker, who join English golfers Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell and Justin Rose.

The Barclays Scottish Open starts on Thursday 7th July with Round 1 of The Open commencing on Thursday on 14th July.

I am really looking forward to this year’s British Open and hope the heat wave continues so the top golfers in the world can do battle with each other, rather than the conditions.

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Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter were mobbed as Hunter Mahan conceded the 17^th hole, giving Graeme McDowell the victory needed to bring the Ryder Cup back to Europe. All the Team Europe players gathered around Captain Colin Montgomerie as champagne and tears began to flow.

Colin Montgomerie told Sky Sports “It’s a proud, proud moment for me.”

Europe needed five points from today’s Singles and got the points they needed with wins from Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Miguel Angel Jiminez & Graeme McDowell; and Rory McIlroy and Edorado Molinari.

Team Europe won four Singles matches today:

Luke Donald beat Jim Furyk (1up)
Ian Poulter beat Matt Kuchar (5&4)
Miguel Angel Jiminez beat Bubba Watson (4&3)
Graeme McDowell beat Hunter Mahan (3&1)

The United States also won six Singles matches today:

Dustin Johnson beat Martin Kaymer
Jeff Overton beat Ross Fisher (4&3)
Tiger Woods beat Francesco Molinari (4&3)
Phil Mickelson beat Peter Hanson (4&2)
Zach Johnson beat Padraig Harrington (3&2)
Steve Stricker beat Lee Westwood (2&1)

Rory McIlroy v Stewart Cink – halved
Edorado Molinari v Rickie Fowler – halved

The golf betting entities still have Tiger Woods standing as the favourite even after Woods’ poor performances, which is the reason the overall ranking between Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Lee Westwood has been reduced.

Woods accumulated 9.47 points, while Mickelson and Westwood have 9.24 and 9.04, respectively.

On his part, Phil Mickelson is one of the most recognized figures in the sport and will return to Northern Ohio to participate for the 18th consecutive year in the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, taking into account that the American golfer has participated in this event since 1992.

In addition, the professional golfer has won four major championships, the last of which was won in April, when Phil Mickelson won the 2010 Masters Tournament.

However, since the Bridgestone Invitational became a World Golf Championship event in 1999, Mickelson has failed in his attempts to win it.

On the other hand, after missing five months and despite the dramatic return, Woods has arrived as a big favourite to this year’s tournaments.

For the 2010 Bridgestone Invitational, Tiger Woods will try to get his first win since he was involved in his infidelity scandals of last November.

However, we can’t expect that much, considering Woods has failed in his attempt to achieve a victory in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and at the British Open this year. But despite all this, he remains ranked as number one in the overall standings.

Finally, this will be a tournament that promises a lot of action, in which Woods will attempt to recover his good level of golf, but in which he will have a major contender that could remove him from the top of the table, Phil Mickelson.

Graeme McDowell will have a boost of confidence after his amazing victory at last month’s US Open at Pebble Beach; and Tiger Woods will be looking to win his third British Open Golf Championship title and become the first golfer to win three British Opens at St Andrews, following his victories in 2000 and 2005.

As with most tournaments he enters, Tiger Woods is favourite to win but it’s a surprise to see Graeme McDowell isn’t heading the European list of contenders.  That goes to Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy, closely followed by Padraig Harrington, along with South African Ernie Els and American left-hander Phil Mickeslon.

Lee Westwood will go to St. Andrews boosted by his own recent victory on the US golf circuit at the St Jude Classic in Memphis Tennessee after a three-way play-off with American Robert Garrigus and Sweden’s Robert Karlsson.

As for Rory McIlroy, he is still looking for his first major title after being touted as a serious contender for the past few years now.  It may be the pressure of such high expectations, but McIlroy has not been able to stay with the leaders over the course of four days, and as a rule fades in the latter part of the big occasions.  But as always I will be hoping the young golfer from Northern Ireland will be lucky this time around.

Due to his low stature in the world rankings these days, Ryder Cup captain, Colin Montgomerie had to qualify for the 2010 Open at St Andrews.  But like Tiger Woods, St. Andrews is a special place for Monty, who has never missed an Open Championship since making his debut in 1990 at St Andrews.

The 139th British Open Golf 2010 will take place at St. Andrews, Scotland between Thursday 15th and Sunday 18th July.

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Over the past few years the British contingent has become ever stronger with the likes of Ian Poulter, Padraig Harrington and Paul Casey leading the charge.  But as critics continue to place high accolades on Northern Ireland’s Rory McIllroy, no one mentioned the name of Northern Ireland’s quiet man, Graeme McDowell.

It was because Tiger Woods was returning from another injury that for the first time in many years Woods was not favourite to win the 2010 US Open, that mantle was placed on the shoulders of Americas’ favourite golfer, Phil Mickelson.

But Mickelson never really got going, and when Graeme McDowell lost the lead to Dustin Johnson going into the fourth and final round, and Tiger Woods had helped boost his chances with a fantastic round of 66 on the third day, I was erring towards another Tiger Woods grandstand finish.  But McDowell kept his nerve to win by one shot over Gregory Havret.  Ernie Els was third and after a late charge by Phil Mickelson, he tied with Tiger Woods in fourth place, three shots behind McDowell.

At just 30 years old, 2010 currently belongs to Graeme McDowell as his amazing US Open Golf Championship victory at Pebble Beach follows his victory in this month’s Wales Open at Celtic Manor.  Next up, the British Open at St. Andrews.

Surprising joint leaders going into Saturday’s third round were Lee Westwood & Ian Poulter.  Both had played some great golf over the first two rounds but Tiger played some amazing shots to show he was back!

From the first round Phil Mickelson was in the leading pack and also playing some top quality golf. By the final day’s play Woods was struggling to keep up with Westwood and Mickelson, the overnight leaders, and Poulter and fallen away.

In the end Westwood was a couple of birdies short and Mickelson was playing a brilliant round.  Nothing was going to distract him from winning his third US Masters green jacket for his wife who last year fell ill with breast cancer.  But almost without notice, Anthony Kim was playing some amazing golf and if there had been another 9 holes may well have clinched a victory.

The Final 2010 US Masters Leaderboard:

Phil Mickelson -16
Lee Westwood -13
Anthony Kim -12
KJ Choi -11
Tiger Woods  -9

The US Masters is one of the best golf tournaments of the year, and 2010 was a perfect accompaniment to the lighter evenings a sunny weather we are currently experiencing in the UK.

Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter showed they can compete with the best in the world, though once again Rory McIlroy failed to deliver in a big tournament.

In an interview shortly after completing his final round Tiger Woods said he will now take a break before deciding whether to compete in the 110th US Open Golf Championship which will be held at the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course in June.

It’s therefore refreshing to see one of the player’s closest rivals, Phil Mickelson, express his desire to see the talented golfer back on the scene sooner rather than later.

Phil Mickelson revealed that he cares “deeply” about the problems currently affecting Tiger Woods and is obviously desperate to see him make a quick return for both personal and professional reasons.

Some might have been betting that those golfers put in the shade by Woods’ obvious talent would be rubbing their hands in glee at his absence from the sport but, according to Mickelson, this simply isn’t the case. Rather, it would seem that everyone is missing Woods, especially since “nobody will be able to fill the shoes that are voided right now”.

Any sportsman who cares about the public image of their sport wants the best players to be competing on a consistent basis and there is no doubt that without Woods, golf has taken something of a knock. It’s now up to players like Mickelson to come together and show the world that they’re capable of stealing the headlines away from the few determined to make them focus upon less savoury topics.

In the run-up to the Northern Trust Open much of the coverage has involved Mickelson’s continuing use of the Ping Eye2 wedges he has in his bag, which contravene the new ruling with regards to the banishment of square grooved clubs.

The Ping Eye2 wedge is currently exempt from the ruling and offers excellent control over short distances, especially from the rough. The difference is so great that Mickelson used it during the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines despite the club being more than 20 years old.

The biggest talking point came after veteran pro Scott McCarron used a word that is not often bandied around in golf – cheat – to condemn those few still using the club, despite the fact they are not breaking the rules.

Of course, the spirit of the game is what McCarron should have been talking about, but to use the ‘C-word’’ was a shock to many, Mickelson included.

After a few days McCarron did apologise, but the row still rumbles on as the PGA Tour is yet to close the loophole in their rulebook. Talks to find a way to outlaw the old clubs without a legal fight are apparently being held with Ping. For now though, the club can still be used.

Whether Mickelson will be satisfied with the apology is another matter – he admitted he felt slandered by the comments and as one of the biggest names on tour, and apparently one of the cleanest, there is a chance he will take a stand.

But the arguments over square-grooved clubs have at least taken some of the spotlight away from Tiger’s indiscretions and brought the focus back to the action on the course, even if it is not for the right reasons.

Phil Mickleson is currently 6/1 favourite in the golf betting for the Northern Open Trust and his nearest priced competitor is Steve Stricker at 12/1.

phil mickelson

Phil Mickelson won the HSBC Champions Tournament in Shanghai by one shot to become the first player to win the tournament twice, his first win was in 2007, and also to end what has been a distracting year for the American, having taken time out to care for both his wife and mother who were both diagnosed with cancer during the year.

South African Ernie Els mounted pressure on Mickelson by hitting a stupendous round of nine under par 63, claiming a course record, but he was unable to unseat the leader and was left to ponder what might have been when he hit his only bogey of the day on the 18th after hitting his approach shot into the water in front of the green.

Tiger Woods had a less than impressive final day ending five shots behind the leader and one behind fifth placed Nick Watney, who had shared the lead at the half way stage.

Ryan Moore finished the tournament in third place, followed by Rory McIlroy in fourth, finishing on 14 under par and boosting his Race to Dubai bid and equalling the course record of 63 in the process.

Phil Mickelson said after the win;

“It feels terrific. It’s my last event of the year and to finish the year like this is just wonderful. Ernie and Rory McIlroy played one of the greatest rounds and I was fortunate to come out on top. It feels good because I had to fight very hard.”

Watney who had led the first days play, struggled a little on the second day hitting a two under 70 to keep a share of the lead with Woods, both now 10 under overall.

The chasing pack sit just one shot behind the leaders and include world number two Phil Mickelson, Ryan Moore and Alvaro Quiros, with Anthony Kim occupying third place on 8 under overall.

German Race to Dubai contender Martin Kaymer fell away with a two-over 74 to drop six shots back, while European money list leader Lee Westwood is tied for 23rd place at three under after two solid but unspectacular rounds.

Englishmen Ross Fisher and Paul Casey join Martin Kaymer on four under and six shots off the lead.

Although Watney could not match his first round score, both he and Woods produced four birdies on the back nine. Woods was frustrated earlier in the day with his putting, but ended in fine form, he said after day two;

“I got off to a good start and birdied the very first hole, but after that, I didn’t really make any putts. I certainly had some looks at them and didn’t really capitalise on anything and made a putt at nine and from then on I hit a lot of good putts and played the last 10 holes in five under.

It was a little bit frustrating not holing the putts, but the guys weren’t really running off and hiding and I knew that if I could play the back nine in three under that would be a pretty good number and I was able to do a couple better than that.”