Chasing Pars Golf Podcast

(Ep 102) Cazoo Open de France with Mike Miller

It was a dramatic win by the vastly improving Ryan Fox to become the 1st Kiwi to win BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in this becoming a Rolex Series winner! Fox showed great grim & determination from a triple bogey on Sunday at the 3rd to birdieing 8 of last 13 holes to become champion. On the PGA in the 1st regulation season event at Fortinet Championship it was a maiden PGA Tour win for the popular Sahith Theegala who played brilliantly throughout to win by 2 from S.H. Kim! This week Craig is joined by the popular figure of Mike Miller @SmartGolfBets who has built a reputation over the past decade for being a dedicated form addict and provide you with form sheets from around the tours. Craig & Mike go over this week's Open de France which was the scene last year of one of the best approach shots at 18 you will ever see from Guido Migliozzi to win by 1 to Rasmus Hojgaard! This track in Guyancourt is notoriously one of the toughest courses on the DP World Tour schedule with accurate irons and good scrambling the key to success in Paris! The host of 2018 Ryder Cup won by Europe and the 1994 Eisenhower Trophy as well as the host course next year for the 2024 Olympics Le Golf National has well known reputation & is multiple players favourite golf course on tour including previous podcast guest Jorge Campillo!
Thanks to Mike for coming on, enjoy the show

(Ep 101) BMW PGA Championship preview with Bryan DeCorte (Axis)

It's the flagship event on the DP World Tour where all the top European players of the world including every single member of the 12 for Team Europe for Marco Simone flock to the well renowned Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, Surrey for the next edition of BMW PGA Championship where Shane Lowry held off Rory McIlroy & Jon Rahm last year to add a Rolex Series crown alongside his Claret Jug! Who will win this epic event? Craig is joined for the first time by Bryan Decorte also known as Axis DFS on Twitter calling in from Michigan! Craig & Axis go over Vincent Normann's victory at Irish Open what the future holds for Swedish Golf (Aberg & Normann winning back to back weeks) as well as talking Rory McIlroy before going into BMW PGA Championship where it's such a stellar field event this week!
The PGA Tour also returns for the first event of the new fall season in Napa, California at Silverado for Fortinet Championship which last couple of years has been dominated by Max Homa who is in the field again to try win it for 3rd time in a row!
Be sure to like, subscribe via Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts, review and give a 5 star rating helps the show massively moving forward!
Enjoy!

Chasing Pars turns 100!! (Irish Open preview)

It's been a long time coming some great times, some good times and some really tough times but Chasing Pars Golf Podcast has finally reached 100 episodes! In this 100th EP special back to where it all started out Craig is joined by former co-host Jamie Broadhurst @Js_GolfingTips to celebrate this landmark as well as going in depth into this week's Irish Open on the DP World Tour at the beautiful Palmer North Course at K Club in Straffan, County Kildare. This Arnold Palmer design was designed for 2006 Ryder Cup which Ian Woosnam's European side demolished USA and also host to 12 years of the European Open until 2007 & the venue for the 2016 Irish Open which was won by Rory McIlroy at -12. This week is a really good field with Ryder Cuppers coming over as well as interesting players such as the extra motivated Adrian Meronk after his brutal Ryder Cup rejection! It should be a great event but want to say to make it to 100 episodes is something I never thought I'd get to so I am remarkably proud of myself and Jamie/Ryan/Tom for getting us there!
Enjoy it everyone!

Omega European Masters & US Ryder Cup team reaction with Ryan Baroff (RB)

It's one of the most wonderful times of the year in the calendar and that is Crans-sur-Sierre GC in Crans Montana for the yearly stop at Omega European Masters a course and location of such prestige & beauty! Every golfer's dream! In this episode Craig is joined by well known member of the Golf Twitter Community Ryan Baroff often known to followers as RB. In this bumper episode Craig & RB discuss Hovland's wonderful 2 weeks, Clements win at Czech Masters while we also dive into today's finalised 12 picks by Zach Johnson for the American Ryder Cup team with a lengthy discussion about a few players in the team as well as a few surprised omissions! We go into this week super event in Switzerland as we have 3 consensus picks together including 2 we absolutely love for this week. A good variety of players picked between both of us and everyone that has either good iron play, short game or Greens in Reg percentage this season for this quirky sub 7,000 yard gem of a course that we know is played at Altitude.
Thanks to RB for coming on for the first time, was great to have your expertise on to discuss all things Golf
Enjoy!

D+D Real Czech Masters with Nigel (GolfNutter)

In the return of the DP World Tour it was a comprehensive runaway victory for Englishman Daniel Brown who went wire to wire to win ISPS Handa World Invitational by 5 shots after having a 6 shot lead in both R3 & R4 it was a first win as a pro for Brown while on the PGA Tour at BMW Championship it was an incredible 61 from Viktor Hovland that including a back 9 of 28 shots to win by 2 heading into East Lake. It was a naff week with only Marcus Helligkilde sharing a place at 40/1 in T4th alongside 4 others while Rasmus Neergaard Petersen challenged after 36 holes then faded away slightly over the weekend!
Moving onto this week where it's a good field for D+D Real Czech Masters with big permutations for the Ryder Cup seeing the likes of Lowry, Aberg, The Hojgaard's, MacIntyre & Yannik Paul all playing as they look to impressive captain Luke Donald this week at Albatross Golf Resort. Albatross is a long golf course mainly focused on Driving Distance which is massively advantageous while other shorter hitters with amazing short game can also compete. I am again joined by Nigel @GolfNutter3 to go over this week's event in Prague as we go over the top of the market which includes an invitation for the Belgian sensation that is Adrien Dumont Du Chassart. Listen in to see what we think this week!
Enjoy

Brandon Robinson Thompson (BRT)

In another player interview today I Craig am joined by this year's winner of the Irish Challenge on the Challenge Tour Brandon Robinson Thompson who calls in from the site of this week's ISPS Handa World Invitational event from Galgorm Castle where Brandon would win The Country Garage BMW Northern Irish Open at Galgorm Castle defeating Mitch Waite to secure an invite into the ISPS Handa World Invitational. It's been a monumental rise in the summer this year for Robinson Thompson having finished 2nd in Open Qualifying at Royal Porthcawl to qualify for the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool where he would make the weekend and finish T59th a memory that still leaves good memories for Brandon the week before winning the Irish Challenge with his fiancée on the bag!
While actively searching for invites this year Brandon would start this year on the MENA Tour where in his 2nd start there he would win Egyptian Swing No.2 at Madinaty Golf Club followed by successful trips T8/T5 in Malaysia Swing at Els Club then a T7th in Thailand! Then would earn 8 starts on the Clutch Tour winning 3 times in 8 events winning at Tandridge, County Garage BMW NI Open at Galgorm & at Machynys in Wales. In this short episode we speak about his last 2 events at Newmachar for Scottish Challenge (T3rd, 64 on Sunday) and the challenges of British Challenge at St Mellion (T30th, 78 on Sunday) as well as how he is feeling ahead of this week event in Northern Ireland where Brandon is in bullish mood quietly fancying his chances.
Let's show some support for BRT & I wish him all the best for the rest of the season!
Enjoy!

ISPS Handa World Invitational (with GolfNutter3)

The DP World Tour returns this week after it's 4 week layoff after The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool and the Barracuda at Tahoe. While I've been busy with player interviews it's good to have the main reason we do this back and that is chat DP World Tour golf! This week I am joined for the first time by Nigel who is better known on Twitter as @GolfNutter3 calling in all the way from Brisbane, Australia to chat this week's ISPS Handa World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics in co-sanction with the Ladies European Tour at Galgorm Castle in Antrim, Ballymena 30 mins outside of Belfast! This 7,200 yard Simon Gidman design opened in 1997 & has played host to Galgorm Open on Challenge Tour in 2018 won by Calum Hill and has been a mixture of Challenge Tour & more recently DP World Tour host to the ISPS Handa World Invitational since 2019 with its initial inception on the CT in 2019 where Jack Senior won, John Catlin won the 2020 Irish Open here at Galgorm Castle, while Dan Gavins & Ewen Ferguson have won the last 2 editions at both -13 & -12 respectively so expect more of the same a tougher test!
Check out who Craig & Nigel fancy for this week's tournament at Galgorm where we both have a consensus pick & agree on a couple of other longer shots! I want to thank Nigel for taking the time out (night time in Aus) to chat with me for the first time on Chasing Pars!
Enjoy!

Chasing Pars Golf Podcast (Trailer)

Marcus Helligkilde

In this episode Craig is joined by 3x Challenge Tour winner in the calendar year of 2021 & 3x Nordic Golf League winner Marcus Helligkilde. Marcus joins us en route to do some work before the DP World Tour returns in Northern Ireland next week at Galgorm! A Turkish Amateur Champion at 19 years of age Marcus would also play as part of Team Denmark with John Axelsen at El Camaleon in Cancun which is the home of the Mayakoba (Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland, Bob MacIntyre, Grant Forrest & Maverick McNealy were part of the 2016 Eisenhower Trophy). Marcus is also a 2 time European Amateur Team Championship participant!
Marcus would turn pro in 2017 and would make limited starts on Nordic Golf League before finding his feet in 2018 with a whole host of top 10 finishes finally resulting in winning his first title as a pro at 2018 Ekerum Oland Open on the Nordic Golf League. In 2019 Marcus would gain a Challenge Tour card but would struggle throughout the season dropping back down to Nordic Golf League in 2020 where it wouldn't take him long to gain a 2nd title on the NGL at Lumine Hills Open just before COVID hit. During COVID Marcus would keep fresh and plugging away winning Danish National Open then returning with a 4th in Sweden which would help him gain Challenge Tour Card for 2021. Season 2021 would start off with a win at ECCO Spanish Masters on NGL (3rd title) then make the weekend at both Africa events on the Challenge Tour followed up by a 2nd placed finish at Range Servant Open then a good finish of T25th at Made in Himmerland on the DP World Tour would lead up to a first win on the Challenge Tour in August of 2021 at Vierumaki Finnish Challenge defeating Jesper Svensson to clinch his maiden title. Another 2nd at B-NL Trophy would follow before his 2nd win at Swiss Challenge winning at an impressive -25, another 2nd would occur at Costa Brava Challenge before the Grand Finals in Mallorca would see Marcus win Grand Tour Final & Challenge Tour player of the year becoming the first player to win 3 times in a Challenge Tour season & gaining a DP World Tour card for the first time! Marcus would start off 2022 season slow before finding something in Qatar finishing T12th at Qatar Masters. An injury layoff for 2 months would halt his season before returning at Irish Open then finishing T8th at Barbasol & T13th at Barracuda in the States! A 4th place finish at Galgorm in Northern Ireland would be his best finish on the DPWT which would help Marcus keep his tour card for 2023. 2023 has been consistent season for Marcus currently 57th in R2D Ranking at time of recording with a 2nd placed finish at Korea Championship helping his cause.
With DP World Tour season resuming next week I ask Marcus how he feels coming into next week's Northern Ireland event.
A talented and upcoming player from Denmark, Marcus has a big future ahead!
Thanks Marcus for coming on & wish you the best!
Enjoy!

Jorge Campillo

In this episode Craig is joined by 3x DP World Tour winner & winner of the Triple Crown at the University of Indiana, Jorge Campillo! We go through his time as an amateur participating in the Palmer Cup for Europe 3 consecutive years in 07, 08 + 09 even playing Dustin Johnson in the singles in 07. Jorge was also a participant in the 2008 Eisenhower Trophy with Team Spain. Jorge would turn professional in 2009 competing on the Challenge Tour from 2009-11 as well as a few limited European Tour starts. Jorge would finish 2nd twice at the Acaya Open + The Rolex Trophy to make it to the finals in San Domenico where a 6th place finish would put him into 9th overall to gain his European Tour card! Jorge would keep his card for the first 3 seasons then would play some super golf in 2016 to cement himself as a tour regular. In 2018 finishes of 2nd at Maybank in Malaysia, 4th in Oman, 3rd in China + 3rd in Ireland would fill Campillo's game with confidence before in 2019 at the 229th time of asking Jorge would gain an emotional victory at the Trophee Hassan II in Morocco to win his first European Tour title. Another 2 wins would come at the 2020 Qatar Masters (21 events after his first win) defeating David Drysdale in a thrilling play off with an unbelievable putting display then would win his 3rd DP World Tour title at Magical Kenya Open this year!
A consistent & steady player that has now kept his card on the DP World Tour for 12 straight years deserves respect for that.
Thank you Jorge!
I hope you all enjoy!