Has the PGA Tour found its new hero? For over a year, US professional golf has been searching for something exciting to talk about that didn’t involve waitresses at Perkins. Unfortunately for the PGA, a bunch of rich guys walking around and swinging sticks isn’t that interesting unless one of them is either doing it really well or doing it at Perkins. On Sunday, golf might have found a new hero in Rory McIlroy. The brazen 22 year old from Northern Ireland broke the US Open scoring record (previously set by Tiger) by shooting 16 under and winning by 8 shots. That’s the golfing equivalent of, well…getting 1st and 2nd at Rolex. Maybe, just maybe I’ll start paying attention to golf again, but I doubt it.
Now for some eventing news and notes with some major international flavor…
–It was German Eventing’s weekend to shine, and shine they did. After the WEG Saturday meltdown, Germany’s best riders regrouped, set their sights on Luhmuhlen, and delivered in a big way. If you’re going to host a 4*, you might as well dominate it. New Zealand, Great Britain, and Germany have the three 4* wins this year and I feel like those nations are a cut above the rest in terms of the status of their international teams. Scroll down for a busy weekend of Luhmuhlen coverage on EN. [Show Jumping Photos]
–Some people have emailed EN saying that the fact the US didn’t have a great time at Luhmuhlen means that the trip was a waste of money. My first reaction on that account is that I think we all might be standing in one giant glass house. We’ll have a report from Will shortly where he talks about what he learned from XC with Pawlow and their stop in the show jumping, and Tiana wrote about what she learned in her great blog yesterday. The fact is that you have to make mistakes to learn something. There are going to be lots of other trips overseas this year for US horses, including Boekelo, as many as 10 horses going to Burghley, and the Pan American Games, and I am sure US High Performance will be better for it. Will and Tiana are staying in England and they will both improve a ton this summer.
–There were 7 USEA events this past weekend, which actually feels like a slow weekend. [Lost Hounds Scores], [BCHP Results].
—Jan Byyny won the Open Intermediate A at Seneca on Inmidair with a 28.4. Sally Cousins won the OI B on Troy. The Jan comeback story is over folks–she’s back. [Seneca Results]
—Seattle Slew learned dressage when he was young, which is one more thing my first pony had in common with Seattle Slew. [The Pilot]
–The PRO auction rolls on over at eBay to raise money for the TPF fire relief. There are still tons of great items up for auction and some new ones have been added since we last linked to it. A west coast fantasy weekend? Autographed Jimmy Wofford books? An Ecogold Pad? Christmas is December 25th folks. [PRO Auction]
–In your daily German high performance update, the German long list for the European Championships has been released. I’m not sure of a better way to present it than a…long list, so here goes:
Sandra Auffarth on Opgun Louvo, Andreas Dibowski on Euroridings Butts Leon and FRH Fantasia, Michael Jung on La Biosthetique Sam and Leopin, Ingrid Klimke on FRH Butts Abraxxas, Marina Köhncke on Calma Schelly, Julia Krajewski on After the Battle, Julia Mestern on FRH Schorsch, Andreas Ostholt on Franco Jeas, Frank Ostholt on Little Paint, Kai Rüder on Leprince des Bois and Saaten Unions Charlie Weld, Dirk Schrade on Hop and Skip and King Artus, Peter Thomsen on Horseware’s Barny and Horseware’s Parko. Reserves: Simone Deitermann on Free Easy NRW, Beeke Kaack on Judy, Kai-Steffen Meier on Karascada TSF and Benjamin Winter on Wild Thing Z.
A lot of those names will look familiar from Luhmuhlen. The European Championships are the same weekend as Richland and they are being held at Luhmuhlen this year. As Mark is the course designer for the Europeans (as well as Luhmuhlen), he will be at the Europeans that weekend. I have been pretty critical of Mark’s courses before, but everything I have heard from Luhmuhlen is that the courses were challenging but sensible and safe.
–Luhmuhlen wasn’t the only big international event this weekend. The Lochore family played host to the world famous Burgie two-star in Scotland. Truth be told, the first time I heard about Burgie I thought it was a Scottish accent’s version of “Burghley”. Button Clover and Mr. Wills Oakden, as the British Eventing site likes to say, won the 2* finishing on their dressage score. [Results, Website, Irish Recap]
–If you are signed up for a Pony Club rally in Virginia next weekend, Coren will be there instructing. She really likes to be woken up at 2am by lots of Pony Clubbers singing Bad Romance outside her trailer. I’m just saying.
—Best of the Blogs: Rebecca Howard gives a check mark to Bromont and it’s onto the next
—Doug’s quick Bucks Country Horse Park HT recap
—Today’s TOTD item is a bridle for half price, only available until noon
–Today’s bonus photo is one approach to frangible fences, courtesy of Monty White. Don’t worry, apparently no one was injured, but that must have been one heck of a long or one heck of a short distance.
–Video of the Houghton three-day in May from Uptowneventing:
That’s all for now. Someone emailed EN last night offering to be our proofreader because there are so many tipos in my posts. So, I’ll be around throughout the day with your typo laden eventing news, information, and ridiculousness. At any rate, as always, wherever you might be, thanks for making EN a part of your day. Go eventing.
