BlackStar Golf News

Draw announced for Qualifying Round for Bridgestone Challenge 2016

Redditch_Qualifier_Draw_Sheet.pdf

Marcus Faser, Michael Hoey and Stuart Manley are all in action at the BMW International Open. Marcus Fraser returns to action in Cologne after a 3 week break, then heads to the US for the Bridgestone Invitational the following week.

The Challenge Tour comes to Britain for the first time this year for the SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge, where Ollie Farr, Chris Selfridge, Jimmy Mullen and Brian Casey are all in the field.

Follow all the progress through the live scoring at www.europeantour.com

Following his 5th place finish last week Ollie Farr joins Jimmy Mullen and Chris Selfridge  at the Najeti Open in St Omer, France this week on the PGA European Challenge Tour.

The golf season is really now well and truly under way, this week 8 out 10 BlackStar golfers are playing.

Stuart Manley and Micheal Hoey are again playing on the main tour, this week it is the Lyoness Open in Austria, where Chris Wood who recently won the BMW PGA Championship returns to defend his title, that he won last year in such dramatic fashion.

BlackStar are represented on the Challenge Tour by 6 players, Chris Selfridge, Ollie Farr, Brian Casey, Rhys Enoch, Ben Robinson and Devon's Jimmy Mullen.

Follow the progress of BlackStar's players on Twitter and via live scoring on www.europeantour.com

Michael Hoey and Stuart Manley both play this week in the Nordea Masters in Sweden, while BlackStar Golf have Rhys Enoch, Jimmy Mullen, and Ben Robinson, who makes his Professional debut on the Challenge Tour playing in Switzerland.

Next week BlackStar Golf have 2 players at the PGA Championship at Wentworth, 2 players at the Challenge Tour event in the Czech Republic and 2 players at the PGA EuroPro Tour event at Burhill Valley.

Marcus Fraser and Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey are both playing in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, the event is one of the biggest events on the European Tour, where  Byeong Hun An from Korea returns to defend his title he won in such dramatic fashion last year.

Chris Selfridge and Oliver Farr both go to the Czech Republic to play in the D+D Real Czech Challenge.

Jimmy Mullen and Rhys Enoch, both who finished in the top 10 in the EuroPro's opening event at Frilford Heath last week are both playing at Burhill Golf Club in the IFX International.

Michael Hoey and 2016 Asian Order Of Merit leader and world ranked number 66, Marcus Fraser are both playing in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open supported by the Rory Foundation at the K Club this week. 

The Irish Open has always been one of the biggest events on the European Tour and this year will be no exception, as the field includes Rory McIIroy, and 2016 Masters Champion Danny Willett.

Michael Hoey will be making his 16th consecutive appearance in the Irish Open, while Fraser returns to action after a mid season break following his 2nd place finish at the Panasonic Open in Japan.

Follow the players progress on www.europeantour.com or on @blackstarsports on twitter from Thursday onwards.

Jimmy Mullen and Oliver Farr both finished on 11 under par and finished tied 12th in the Turkish Airlines Challenge on the European Challenge Tour.

Michael Hoey and Stuart Manley both are playing in the Trophee Hassan 11 in Rabat, Morocco this week at the stunning Royal Golf Dar Es Salam.

Michael Hoey, who represents Galgorm Golf Club won the event in 2012, posting a brilliant 19 under par in the last 3 rounds after an opening round of 74.

Chris Selfridge got his 2016 campaign on the European Challenge Tour underway with a 4th place finish at the Challenge De Madrid. Chris shot rounds of 66,70,70,70 to finish on 4 under par. The event was won by Scotland's Duncan Stewart on 8 under par.

With this been only the third event of the year on the Challenge Tour Chris moves up to 20th position on the Race To Oman rankings, the top 15 players at the end of the season automatically qualify for the 2017 Race To Dubai.

Oliver Farr finished T23 on level par, Rhys Enoch T46 and Ireland's Brian Casey T58. This week the Challenge Tour moves on to Turkey at the Turkish Airlines Challenge, where Oliver Farr will be looking to win the title he won in 2015, which helped him finish 10th on the final ranking list. Ollie is joined by Brian Casey, Rhys Enoch and 2016 Walker Cup player Jimmy Mullen.

Australia’s Marcus Fraser continued his stranglehold on the Asian Tour Order of Merit despite having to settle for a runner-up finish at the Panasonic Open Golf Championship over the weekend. Fraser carded rounds of 71,68,67,68 for a 10 under par total of 274.

With a close eye on the hectic schedule ahead, the 37-year-old is pleased his comfortable lead of more than US$300,000 over second-placed Miguel Tabuena of the Philippines will help strengthen his bid of becoming the first Australian to lift the prestigious Order of Merit title at the end of the year.

“The Order of Merit is always on the back of your mind and to come out here to finish tied second is a great confidence booster.

“I wasn’t expecting much when I came here but I just wanted to put another number up for the Order of Merit,” said Fraser.

This week the Euroepan Tour moves to China for the Shenzhen International, where Michael Hoey returns to action.

Jimmy Mullen, Chris Selfridge, Oliver Farr and Brian Casey are all playing in the Red Sea Egypt Challenge on the European Challenge Tour.

Marcus Fraser, who currently leads the Asian Order of Merit plays in Japan on the Asian Tour in the Panasonic Open Golf Championship.

Brian Casey,25 from Ireland has signed with BlackStar Golf. Jeremy Robinson said " We are delighted to sign another very promising young player in Brian Casey, I have watched Brian over the past couple of years and am very pleased that we have come to an agreement for him to join BlackStar."

Brian added, " I am delighted to have signed with BlackStar, and with their help I hope to be able to progress up the ladder of Professional Golf "

Brian's next event will be the  Red Sea Egyptian Challenge on the European Challenge Tour starting on April 20th.

Rhys Enoch, who represents The Celtic Manor Resort in Wales has signed with BlackStar Golf.

Jeremy Robinson, of BlackStar Golf said, " We are delighted that Rhys has signed with us, I have no doubts that Rhys has got massive potential, and hopefully over the next few few years everyone will start to see the potential turning in to world class results "

Rhys added by saying " I am very please to have joined BlackStar Golf, the guys already have a couple of other Welsh golfers, so hopefully we can all move forward in the future. " 

Marcus Fraser was voted Player Of The Month on the Asian Tour following his stunning victory at the Maybank Championship in February. Fraser, who currently tops the Asian Order Of Merit is currently playing in Texas at the WGC Dell World Match Play Championship.

http://www.asiantour.com/2016/03/23/fraser-wins-hilton-golfer-of-the-month-feb/

Marcus Fraser, the current leader of 2016 Asian Tour Order of Merit returns to America next week to play in the second WGC event of the year, at the Dell World Match Play event in Austin Texas. The top 64 ranked players in the world have qualified to play in the event.

The 64-player Dell Match Play field will be divided into 16 four-player groups. Each group will play round-robin matches within their group on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (March 23, 24 and 25). The player with the best record in each of the four player groups advances to the Round of 16 for single-elimination match play (in the event of a two-way tie in a group, head-to-head match results will be used as the tiebreaker; a three-way tie will require a sudden-death stroke play hole by hole playoff).  

The European Challenge Tour starts its 25th season next week at the Barclays Kenya Open at Karen Golf Club, just outside Nairobi. The tour consists of 28 events, finishing at the Road To Oman, where the top 15 players will graduate on to the 2017 Race To Dubai.

BlackStar Golf will have 3 players on the tour in 2016.

Oliver Farr returns to the Challenge Tour, having finished 10th on the rankings in 2014, Ollie hopes his experiances of 2015 on the main tour, will help him make an immediate return to the 2017 race To Dubai.

Chris Selfridge from Northern Ireland played a limited schedule on the Challenge Tour last year, having turned professional in May 2015 after graduating from the University of Toledo, he played 12 events, and didnt miss a cut eventually finishing 52 on the rankings. With last years experiance of playing some events, Chris is very much looking forward to his first full season as a professional.

BlackStar's 3rd player is 22 year old Jimmy Mullen who was part of the 2015 victorious Walker Cup team, Jimmy joined BlackStar in October last year, and finished a very creditable tied 30th at the Dunhill Links Trophy. Jimmy eventually got to the Final Q School where he missed out on his full tour card, but became a full member of the Challenge Tour. Like Chris he is very much looking forward to his first full season as a Professional.

Follow the fortunes of the players on www.blackstargolf.net

March 9: Current Asian Tour Order of Merit leader Marcus Fraser of Australia will be among the star-studded names at the Hero Indian Open next week.

He will be joined by Joost Luiten of the Netherlands and South Africa’s George Coetzee, who are among six players ranked inside the top-100 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the US$1.66 million event sanctioned by the Asian Tour and European Tour.

Title holder Anirban Lahiri, Tommy Fleetwood, and Marc Warren, are the other players in the top-100. Padraig Harrington of Ireland, a three-time Major champion, is also in the elite field.

A whole host of past winners and defending champion Lahiri will also be seen in action. The presence of all leading Indian and Asian stars will ensure the 2016 edition of the Hero Indian Open will be the strongest ever in history.

Michael Hoey who plays out of Galgorm Castle in Northern Ireland, returns to action at the True Thailand Classic Presented by Chang Black Mountain GC this week. Hoey who  represents Sphere Global on the tour, plays the next 2 weeks on the Race To Dubai, this week at Black Mountain, he then moves on to India for the Hero Indian Open.

Chris Selfridge continued his build up to start of the 2016 PGA European Challenge Tour in Spain at the recent Evolve Tour event in Spain. The 3 day event was played at the La Serena Golf Club, Chris shot rounds of 65-67-71 ( 13 under par ) to finish 2nd, two shots behind Liam Murray, the eventual winner.

Chris has been out in Spain for 3 weeks practising ahead of the Kenya Open, which is the season opening event on the Challenge Tour, he said " I have been out here now for 3 weeks and have been working very hard on all aspects of my game, my game seems pretty good at the moment, but I am now just really looking forward to getting going on the Challenge Tour, this will be my first full season as a Pro " 

The Kenya Open starts on March 17th, and Chris will be joined by fellow BlackStar golfers Oliver Farr from Burghill Valley GC and 22 year old Jimmy Mullen.