Ross Fisher eyes the Race to Dubai
Ross Fisher is planning to take full benefit of Lee Westwood not being there to defend his title at the Portugal Masters that starts today.
The Portugal Masters is part of the European Tour and will tee off today at the Victoria Course at Vilamoura in Portugal. Last year, Westwood won the tournament by two shots ahead of Ryder Cup team-mates Padraig Harrington and Francesco Molinari. Westwood’s
title last year in Portugal ended his winless two years and really meant a lot to Westwood.
Padraig will not be participating in the Masters either since he is currently playing in the Johar Open in Malaysia.
Still, seven Irish players will tee off in Vilamoura today. Westwood will be absent due to a recurrence of his calf injury that happened during the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Even though Lee’s calf was fine in the Ryder Cup and Westwood had a good
comeback in Wales, things got messy in Scotland.
Westwood is currently taking some time off and will make his next appearance at the HSBC Championship in Shanghai in November.
All this is good news for Fisher, who will finally now play in warmer conditions after teeing off in the frigid cold of Scotland and Wales. Fisher hopes that it would be sunny in Portugal and he can definitely make use of the good weather.”It has been very
nice in the past. I’ve had enough rain in the last week and a half to last me a lifetime so a bit of sunshine will be very nice”, said Fisher.
Ross said he really likes playing at this golf course and enjoyed playing at Oceanico Victoria last year. He praised it and said that it is a beautiful course. Lucky for Fisher, this course is a place where he seems to perform well.
The player has become well accustomed after his team’s Ryder Cup success. Ross affirmed that this course isn’t very difficult and he just needs to continue his form. Hopefully, this year the field won’t seem very hard as well and allows Fisher to post his
best.
Reminiscing on his amazing time in Wales, Fisher said that the Ryder Cup was a great week and that his game is of good quality at the moment. Since his performance has remained consistent throughout the week, Race to Dubai has been one of his major interests
right now.
Currently on the number 13 position, Fisher is very excited for the Championship. Since he finished fourth last year, Fisher thinks it would be very disappointing to not finish better this season.
In order to achieve better than fourth, Ross doesn’t need to work on his game. He has gone up this week and with all the tournaments lined up for him, only time will tell if Fisher achieves what he desires.
Fellow Ryder Cup members, Edoardo and Francesco Molinari and Miguel Angel Jimenez will also be competing in Portugal along with vice captains Thomas Bjorn and Paul McGinley.
The Portugal Masters will be the first event Miguel is competing in after this year’s Ryder Cup. Good things are expected from him since Jimenez gave a really good performance in Wales when he won a significant point by defeating Bubba Watson.
Looking at the way he is playing, the Spanish player is set to go even more in The Race to Dubai since he is really on top of his game. Currently, he is on the number eight position.
As for the defending champion of the Portugal Masters, even though he isn’t playing in the tournament, there are a lot of chances of him replacing Tiger Woods as World Number one on October 31st. Lucky for Lee, the way the World rankings are calculated,
he can overcome Woods without even winning anything. The only threat for Westwood is fellow European player, Martin Kaymer, who can leap to number one if he happens to finish in the top two in the Andalucía Masters.
Overall, the whole situation is complicated yet thrilling at the same time. Right now, all eyes are on how the players perform in the Portugal Masters and where they will end up in The Race to Dubai standings.
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