What's in the Bag - Michael Hoey

Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey continued his country’s golfing success on Sunday at the Trophée Hassan II and we go inside his bag to find out just how he managed it.

Hoey found top form over the weekend to put together back to back rounds of 65 for a 14 under par total over the final two days, a surge that saw the Ballymoney born man come from eight back after round two to eventually win by three from Damien McGrane, the second round leader, come Sunday afternoon.

The win may be Hoey’s fourth on The European Tour, with three now having come in the past 11 months, but his play so far in 2012 certainly did not suggest he was someone to look out for at the start of the week.

So far this season he had only managed a best finish of tied 12th at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy, and aside from that it had been a series of mid-field finishes for the man who won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship so impressively last September.

His statistical displays have also been a little lacklustre so far in 2012, ranking in the top 100 on Tour in only one of the categories – Driving Distance – where he is still only 95th with an average of 288.4 yards. However, this is no great surprise as in a season that proffered two wins for the Belfast boy, last year saw him only rank in the top 100 on two categories – Driving Distance and Greens in Regulation – ranking 68th and 47th respectively.

With those numbers in mind it is not unusual that Hoey does not rank statistically well on the face of it, but there is only one number that matters in this game, and he has finished there on three occasions in less than 12 months – top of the leader board.

Consistency is therefore something Hoey will need to look at if he is to go from a sporadic champion to a consistent performer on The Tour, a goal that if achieved in the coming months could see him on the plane to Medinah in September for a maiden Ryder Cup berth. He currently ranks ninth on the European list – 271,567 Euros behind Paul Lawrie in fifth – and 12th on the World points list – some 16.47 short of Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño in tenth.

The stats therefore don’t lie, Hoey needs to improve his all round game if he is to compete on a more consistent level, and if he were to do that his case for Ryder Cup selection and his overall standing in the game could really sky rocket as a result. Until then, he can take solace in four European Tour victories and a reputation as a proven winner on The European Tour.

Here is what he had in his bag:

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