Last three appointments for the European Golf Championship. It starts this morning in Turkey, with the Turkish Airlines Open, which takes place on the Regnum Carya Golf & Spa Resort, in Antalya. The first 70 players of the Race To Dubai (order of merit) are admitted to the competition, net of defections, as well as eight invited by the organization. Among them the Italians Edoardo Molinari, Renato Paratore and Nino Bertasio, chasing a qualification in the top 60 of the continental order of merit, with the aim of reaching the last stage of the tour.
The news of the week, however, is the return of Toger Woods to the American scene, to the tournament he himself organized: the Hero World Challenge, scheduled from November 30 to December 3 in Albany, in the Bahamas. In truth, the script has already been seen: Tiger says he's back on the field, the media are alerted, the fans talk about it, the spotlights come on and the target is hit. It doesn't matter if Tiger will actually be there, as long as we talk about it, especially since it is a charity tournament of the American champion's foundation.
However, it is hard to believe or at least to believe that he will play at the level of his rivals. Tiger is 41 years old, hasn't won victories for 4 years and has played only 2013 times since 19, while he underwent 4 back operations. As if that weren't enough, he was arrested for abuse of painkillers and drugs. It's hard. However, since it's nice to dream, while it's difficult to give up your heroes, let's wait for Tiger in this new test.
For now let's enjoy these three great races on the European tour. In Turkey, Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen defends his title in a context that includes the British Tommy Fleetwood, leader of the money list, Tyrrell Hatton, winner of the Italian Open, Justin Rose, who scored last Sunday in the WGC HSBC Champions, Ian Poulter, the Swede Henrik Stenson, the German Martin Kaymer, the Belgian Thomas Pieters, the Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal, the German Bernd Wiesberger. Among the possible protagonists also the South African Haydn Porteous, the Americans Peter Uihlein and Julian Suri, the Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat, the Korean Jeunghun Wang and the Chinese Haotong Li.
The three blues have an opportunity to enter the top 60 of the order of merit, admitted to the DP World Tour (November 16-19) which will close the season in Dubai, or at least among the top 64 (along with eight guests), who will play the next Nedbank Golf Challenge (November 9-12), and get another opportunity.
The tournament has a prize pool of $7 million and a first coin of approximately one million.
