5 young stars you should watch at the World Cup of Golf
There is some serious young talent gracing the fairways of Royal Melbourne this week.
Victor Dubuisson wins the 2013 Turkish Airlines Open.While some have rightly suggested you would expect a better field at a tournament boasting $8million in prize money, we still think we have a very exciting bunch of golfers at Royal Melbourne for this week’s World Cup of Golf.
We’re particularly looking forward to seeing some of the guys who rarely make the trip to Australia. We can’t wait to see how far Nicolas Colsaerts hits the ball, the swing of Jonas Blixt and the cigar scented, pre-round stretch routine of Miguel Jimenez.
But there are a number of young golfers in the field who come with big wraps and great form. You may see their names on the leaderboards around Royal Melbourne and of many majors to come.
Victor Dubuisson
The 23-year-old Frenchman is just coming off two of the best weeks of his career. Dubuisson surprised everyone with a win at the lucrative Turkish Open beating a field that included Tiger Woods, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson to record his first professional victory. He backed it up with a third-place at the European Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship.
Thorbjorn Olesen
Olesen is a future star and has already felt the pressure of major tournament golf. The 23-year-old from Denmark finished in a tie for sixth at the Masters this year. He looks to be coming back into some form with a decent finish on the European Tour. Depending on which Thomas Bjorn turns up this week, the Danes have a decent chance of causing a surprise upset this week.
Ryo Ishikawa
It feels like Ishikawa has been around forever. His name has been on “next big thing” lists for years and he’s played in 17 majors – it’s easy to forget the Japanese superstar is just 22-years-old.
Ishikawa played on the International Team at the 2011 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne. After regaining his PGA Tour card at the Web.com finals, he has posted two second-place finishes and will be confident of a good showing this week.
Matteo Manassero
At just 20-years-old Mannesaero also has plenty of experience under his belt. Mannessero has four European Tour victories to his name including the 2013 BMW PGA Championship and has played in plenty of majors but without any decent result. The young Italian has played consistent golf without any great results – he’s due.
Maximilian Kieffer
The advantage that Keiffer has over the rest of these young guys is that he played Royal Melbourne last week. In his first look at the course, the 23-year-old German fired a 4-under par 67 to be among the leaders after the first round. He cooled off as the week progressed but he must know where the trouble is now. He too had good form on the European Tour before arriving in Australia and he and Marcel Siem will keep Germany towards the top of the leaderboard this week.
