Champion’s Breakfast :: Dec 7 Bubba, heated Henrik, Clarke adds experience

Bahamas win for Bubba

Bubba Watson coasted to a three-shot win at the Hero World Challenge – before setting himself a target of being in contention at tournaments a lot more.

“I want my name to be close to that leaderboard every tournament, every year, so people are always talking about Bubba Watson, about how consistent he is and good he is,” said the world No.4, who saw off the challenge of Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth at Albany GC. “That’s my whole focus right now, every year getting better and better.”

And, as usual, Bubba provided his own funny moment during his opening round when he shouted ‘mud ball’ after hitting this iron shot…

Leishman grabs first European Tour win

The Aussie, who was agonisingly close to winning the Open at St Andrews, stormed to a six-shot victory at the Nedbank Golf Challenge to end his tough year on a high.

Back in April, Leishman was forced to miss the Masters when his wife fell seriously ill with toxic shock syndrome and spent days in an induced coma, while an uncle he was close to also passed away.

“It’s amazing, I’m so happy,” said Leishman. “It’s not very often you can walk up 18 with a good cushion and enjoy it. I’m pretty happy to have this year over, to be honest. Audrey got very sick and I lost an uncle who I was very close to. This tops off what was otherwise not a great year. Three weeks ago we moved into a new house, so this will help pay for that.”

Stenson’s fit of rage

The Swede started his final round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge just one shot off the lead but ended up six back of winner Leishman. And after a frustrating day, he was unhappy with how a fairway bunker had been raked on the 18th and took his anger out on his tour bag, slamming it to the ground…

Clarke adds experience

Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood are the two players Darren Clarke has called upon for his team for the EurAsia Cup in January.

Speaking about his selections, Clarke said: “We have a very young and exciting team heading to Malaysia in January, and to add the vast experience of Ian and Lee into the mix gives us a very strong and balanced side.

“Having played in a total of 14 Ryder Cups, Ian and Lee have proven themselves two of the most fearsome match players in the game, and their presence in the team room and their ability to share their vast knowledge of the European team environment will be hugely important for us in Malaysia.”

The pair join Chris Wood, Andy Sullivan, Danny Willett, Shane Lowry, Andy Sullivan, Soren Kjeldsen, Ross Fisher, Kristoffer Broberg, Victor Dubuisson and Matthew Fitzpatrick in European team.

Woods gains LPGA Tour card

While Tiger continues his lengthy lay-off through injury, niece Cheyenne made sure a Woods was still succeeding out on the course after clinching her LPGA Tour card in qualifying.

“It feels great to have a round like this to finish off the year,” she said. “I feel great with how I played today and I feel like I gave it my all.”

And uncle Tiger was straight on Twitter to congratulate her…