BlackStar Golf News

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.

Marcus Fraser continued his fantastic 2016 by shooting 66 in the first round of the WGC Cadillac Championship in Miami.

Marcus, who won the Maybank Championship in Malaysia 2 weeks ago had 7 birdies and 1 bogey to be tied for the lead in the first World Golf Championship of the year.

Having risen to 58 in the World Rankings, Fraser is trying to get in to the top 50 by March 30th to gain a place in the 2016 US Masters.

Marcus Fraser finished 15th in the ISPS Perth International with an 8 under par score of 280, with that finish he now moves to 58th in the Official World Rankings. The event was a tri- sanctioned event between the European, Australian and Asian tours, with the points he accumulated he remains 6th on the 2016 Race To Dubai, and he also continues to lead the Asian Tour's ranking list for 2016. http://www.asiantour.com/stats/order-of-merit/

Fraser has qualified to play in the first World Golf Championship, which starts on Thursday ( March 3rd ) at the newly redesigned Blue Monster club in Miami. 

Follow his progress at Doral with live scoring - www.europeantour.com

Twitter @Marcusfraser

Fresh from his stunning victory at the Maybank Championship Marcus Fraser plays in the ISPS Handa Perth International, also playing are fellow BlackStar golfers Stuart Manley and  Michael Hoey.

The event is played at the Lake Karrinyup Country Club in Perth, Western Australia from February 25th- 28th.

Marcus Fraser won the Maybank Malaysia Championship by 2 shots with a 15 under par total of 269. Victory in Kuala Lumpur was Fraser's 3rd career victory on the Euroepan Tour. Fraser moves up to 62nd in the latest World Rankings and he is now 6th on the 2016 race To Dubai.

After victory by 2 shots over Soomin Lee, Fraser said  "The last two putts were pretty unbelievable. I'm gobsmacked at the moment, it feels great."

Marcus 37, from Melbourne has now qualified for the three World Championship events in 2016, the first being next week at Doral in Miami, the Cadillac Championship and also is looking likely to play in the US Open, Open Championship and the US PGA.

Fraser now heads to Perth to play in the ISPS Handa Perth International, this week.

Marcus Fraser shot a final roundd 68 to win the Maybank Championship - Full report to follow.

Marcus Fraser shout a 2nd round 69 to go with his opening round of 66 to be 7 under par, and T7th after 36 holes of the Maybank Championship in Malaysia. Fellow Australian Nathan Holman leads by 2 shots on 13 under par. The evnt concludes on Sunday.

Jimmy Mullen, one of stars of the 2015 winning Walker Cup team starts his first full season as Professional at the Dimension Data Pro Am on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa on Thursday.

Although Mullen made it all the way through to the final stage of the notoriously tough European Q School, his final position only guaranteed a place on the 2016 European Challenge tour. Jimmy, 22 who represents the Royal North Devon GC said 

"I put so much effort into making the Walker Cup team and did great, I then played great at the Dunhill. The year was going absolutely amazing then it all just came crashing down at the end.

But you've got to learn from it and move on. I've got to learn to play professional golf somewhere and the Challenge Tour is going to be a great place for me to start.

A lot of great players started there and I don't see the problem with me starting there and learning my trade there." 

Mullen's next event will be the season opening Barclays Kenya Open on the European Challenge in 3 weeks time, along with fellow BlackStar golfers Oliver Farr and Chris Selfridge

Stuart Manley continued his solid early season form finishing tied 29th in the Tshwane Open in South Africa, rounds of 72,68,72,70 saw him finish with a 4 round total of 282. Manley, who is sponsored by Bank Frick has so far played in 5 events on the 2016 Race To Dubai and currently sits 94th on the rankings having had 3 top 30 finishes.

Stuart returns to the European Tour in 2 weeks time in the ISPS Handa Perth International from February 25th to 28th at the Lake Karrinyup CC.