Charlie Mulqueen
Another Northern Ireland golfing talent was helping to make headlines on the PGA Tour on Sunday night.
Portrush native Ricky Elliott, a former Irish boys and youths international, was bagman for Ben Curtis en route to his Texas Open victory at San Antonio. Elliott, nicknamed ‘Rocket Ricky’, was regarded as one of the finest prospects in Irish golf in the late 1990s. He was a member of a team that competed in the European Youths Championships that also included Michael Hoey, Colm Moriarty, Tim Rice and Danny Sugrue.
Elliott and Rice later went on a golfing scholarship to the University of Toledo where the Ulster man enjoyed his first taste of life in the USA. He went caddying subsequently and worked with Holland’s Maarten Lafeber before turning professional and plying his trade in the exclusive Lake Nona area of South Florida.
Elliott returned to the role of caddy when teaming up with 2003 British Open champion Curtis in August 2010. They were introduced during their college days when rivals on the Mid-American Conference and Sunday’s triumph in Texas was the first for Curtis in six long years.
He was 285th in the world going into the event and had qualified for only four of twenty tournaments on the PGA Tour prior to San Antonio but he is now exempt for the next two and a half years.
Curtis and Elliott will be a lot busier over the coming weeks and months with the Portrush man already working hard on convincing his boss to play the Irish Open over his home links in June!
The other big winner at the weekend was South African Branden Grace, a little known 23 year-old at the beginning of the year. But after landing his third title of the season in the Volvo China Open at the weekend, he has improved from 271st to 66th in the world rankings. And Curtis has jumped from 310th at the start of 2012 to a current status of 156th.
All eyes this coming week will be on Bubba Watson who makes his first appearance since his spectacular triumph in the Masters in the Zurich Classic in New Orleans. Watson defends the title from a field that also includes Luke Donald, who will be attempting to reclaim his world number one spot from Rory McIlroy who remains competitively inactive for the sixth week in seven. Also in New Orleans, though, will be Justin Rose, Peter Hanson and Graeme McDowell.
Like Watson, McDowell has taken things easy since Augusta but now plans to take in five successive events — New Orleans, Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow, Tournament Players Championship at Sawgrass; the Volvo World Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesin, Spain and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
The European Tour remains in Asia with the fifth staging of the 2.205m Ballantines Championship in Seoul, South Korea. The recently married Darren Clarke returns to the fold in an event that has attracted top Australian, Adam Scott, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Miguel-Angel Jimenez along with four other Irish golfers, Shane Lowry, Damien McGrane, Gareth Maybin and Paul McGinley.
However defending champion Lee Westwood is not competing. The Englishman captured the Indonesian Masters on the Asian Tour at the weekend but remains third in the world rankings behind Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/l0QyyoJr7AE/post.aspx
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