European Ryder Cup captain chose experience over, in some cases, form when he announced the remaining players in his team for Le Golf National. He chose Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson over more in form players such as Russell Knox, Matthew Wallace and Matt Fitzpatrick. With five rookies on his team he chose to shore up the squad with players who are vastly experienced in Ryder Cup matches.
He said he wanted people who wanted to play in the Ryder Cup rather than just be in it. He also said it’s a lot about the atmosphere in the team room and he specifically mentioned Garcia in that respect. Sergio admits he has had a tough year, missing the cut in all four majors and not making the FedEx Cup play offs. But Bjorn referred to him as “the heartbeat of the team. I’ve seen him make other players better. He brings so much both on and off the course. He is everything the European Team is all anout. There is just something about him, I trust him to deliver on the golf course”. Sergio’s Ryder Cup record is good, winning 22.5 points from 37 matches.
Paul Casey makes a return to the team for the first time in 10 years. Bjorn says he is anworld class player with pedigree and the experience of seeing him be part of the European team in the EurAsia Cup earlier this year convinced him of his commitment, especially when he rejoined the European Tour despite having his family based in America. Casey says he knows he can contribute, “We’ve got to win. I’m really up for this challenge and will give it 100%”.
Ian Poulter being chosen was really no surprise after his huge win at Houston and the way he kept on playing afterwards, He knew what he wanted to achieve, plaaying in this team was his sole focus. Poulter said that he had goosebumps just thinking about the match. When I was 208 in the World Rankings two years ago the Ryder Cup kept my heart beating and kept me going”.
Henrik Stenson was the one Bjorn had the niggling doubt about because of his injury to his left elbow, which caused inflamation and weakness so he withdrew from the Scottihs Open before the Open Championship. It’s possible that the injury may have been sustained last year during a pre-tournament photo shoot in Shanghai when he did this:
Bjorn says his stature as a major champion will strengthen the team and his calmness and good temperament will be useful around the younger players. Justin Rose and he have built a strong partnership in previous matches and he has the accuracy off the tee and precision with his iron shots that Paris National demands. The 2016 Open Champion currently leads the PGA tour statistics in two categories. He says he is “super excited and all set for the greatest Ryder Cup battle ever”.
An hour ago I was watching Sky Sports News and seeing American Captain Jim Furyk announce Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bryson De Chambeau as three of his four Ryder Cup picks. As Tiger is now playing, he was stepped down from Vice Captain duties which were given to David Duval, Zach Johnson and Matt Kuchar.
I was enjoying the press conference a lot. This was a huge moment Tiger returning to the Ryder Cup as a player. I was enjoying Phil’s expression when he was only asked one question then the questions went back to Bryson who was clearly more interesting to the press. His irritated expression said “what about me, I’ve got lots to say”
And then just as Tiger had spoken and given his reaction to being picked, abruptly the cameras moved away from the press conference and on to Andrew Coltart and two news anchors who said absolutely nothing we didnt know. Agh. So frustrating! This was a big moment and we wanted to hear from the players, especially Tiger, not people in the studio who seemed to be explaining things about the Ryder Cup to people who had never watched golf in their lives. It seemed Andrew Coltart had to say something because he had to earn tonight’s fee.
At 10pm people watching this broadcast wanted to watch the full press conference, not this! So I tried to watch the Golf Channel feed from America, and couldnt access it through any of the providers because they didnt accept a UK cell phone number. Is there a transcript anywhere? As much as I appreciate everything Sky Sports gives us as a broadcaster, usually over and above expectations, this is the Ryder Cup. As a world sporting event is comes narowly behind the Olympic Games and the World Cup in worldwide viewer interest. This press conference was really significant.
Venting of frustration over, and I hope they dont link to anchors saying nothing that we dont already know when Thomas Bjorn makes his announcement tomorrow afternoon, because it’s a waste of air time. This is what I think about the picks. Tiger has built a strong friendship with Bryson De Chambeau who turned to him for advice after a few losses, notably his implosion at the European Open. Bryson’s very impressive back to back Fedex Cup wins over the past two weeks made him an almost certainty for the pick, but it is the meeting of minds of him and Woods contributing to the American team that seems to have been the thing that made him a certainty. You wouldn’t call Woods a team player, and pairing him in four balls or foursomes would have been tricky, but he has been fullsome in his admiration of Bryson De Chambeau’s personality.
Tiger calls Bryson “Quirky, intelligent and very fiery”. “We are going overseas into a pretty hostile environment. We want guys who are fiery and tough”. Their curious, what I would call not obvious, friendship has evolved since January this year when Bryson approached Tiger and asked to play a practice round with him, something they now seem to do nearly every time they play in the same tournament. Bryson said “I think that if we pair up in the Ryder Cup maybe we can intimidate a few people”. Tiger, who has played with 12 different partners in his Ryder Cup career says of their friendship “it’s one of the weird ones. It just kind of evolved”.
I think Tiger is over estimating the hostile environment. That’s certainly what the European team encounter when they play the Ryder Cup overseas, but not over here. Our fans are too knowledgeable and respectful, we dont indulge in abuse.
Now Tiger has made the team he is going to be cautious about what he calls “playing around my spine”. He’s in the middle of playing five events in six weeks and will sit out this week’s pro am at the Fedex Cup event at Aronmink Golf Club. Players have the option to do this on the PGA Tour twice a year if they do other sponsor related activity.
The final US player will be chosen on the 10th of September after the Wyndhams Championship. At the moment many are pointing to Tony Finau, because he is the highrst ranked olayer on the FedEx Cup standings not yet in the team. But if I had a pick I would go for Keven Kisner, the heart of a lion and a gutsy competitor, over current form.
Having family in Denmark I have made the trip to join them at the Silkeborg Ry Club, near Aarhus. The atmosphere at this tournament is something else, such enthusiastic galleries, children climbing trees to get a better look and the Danish players are greeted onto every green with the rhythmic clapping that is special to this country. They had something to cheer about today when Thorbjorn Olesen made the automatic 8th place on the European Ryder Cup team. A thoroughly deserved place after his -22 win in Italy and a great season leaving him 6th in the Race To Dubai. Thorbjorn grinned broadly and said he was very relieved, it had been a lot of pressure but fun. Ryder Cup Captain Thomas Bjorn was quick to reply that it wasn’t just about making the team. He still had to “get out there, play in it and win as many points as possible”. More cigarettes to calm Thorbjorn’s nerves then…
So the European Team top eight looks like this, with the four wild card picks announced at 2pm on Wednesday. This is presumably so that Thomas Bjorn can have a look at the PGA Fedex Cup tournament in Boston before he finally makes up his mind. Apparently he is fixed on three but the fourth place he is undecided about.
Francesco Molinari, Justin Rose, Tyrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Alex Noren and Thorbjorn Olesen
The climax to the Made In Denmark tournament may give Bjorn yet another contender to think about. What a tournament, the quality of golf was exceptional. Massive crowds, an electric atmosphere. Bjorn’s home club produced a fantastic layout of tight fairways inviting real shotmaking prowess into the greens. A four play off with Westwood, Thompson, Brown and Wallace took place with the first two players eliminated the first time the 18th was played. The winner, for the third time this year, was Matt Wallace.
He had started his final round nervily and then birdied five of the last six holes to get into the play off and then birdied 18 twice to win. The way he played the final playoff hole was so impressive. A huge drive and then I overheard him tell his caddie Dave McNeilly – after he told us all to stand very still – that he was going to take the spin off the approach. He gripped down the club and then with a soft flight he stopped the ball on the green with a biting accuracy.
It was a really gutsy performance which showed how badly he wanted to win. You could see the determination in his eyes. When he was presented with the trophy he said that “the way he won this tournament shows who I am. I’m a gritty performer. I don’t shy away from big occasions”. When asked what getting a call to play in the Ryder Cup would mean to him, he replied “everything”.
With three wins under his belt this year, in India and Germany and Denmark, a top 20 in the USPGA and tied 3rd in the Volvo Open he is looking to have a very strong case for a pick. If it were up to me, having looked at all the permutations thoroughly week after week, I would pick Matt Wallace. It’s his demeanour, his confidence, he really, really wants to win, and at 28 he is young and fresh. His pace of play is so similar to Tyrrell Hatton’s that I can see they could meld into a winning team. As for the others, looking at form, stats and reputation I would definitely choose Stenson. And for sheer guts, the way he won at Houston, Ian Poulter. And this time Russell Knox in my opinion, deserves to play in the team. Paul Casey looked to be in there for a long time after his wonderful win at the Valspar Championship, but I just can’t see past the other four guys. Garcia, though he would probably have partnered well with Jon Rahm, is just too below his best form. Let’s see the way Bjorn goes on Wednesday.
Made In Denmark has been such a success for the European Tour that it has been awarded the plum end of May slot on next season’s schedule, which used to be occupied by the BMW PGA at Wentworth. The sponsors have renewed for another five years. Another reason for the Danes to be proud, waving the flag for Thorbjorn and Thomas Bjorn.
A new golf film is being made to be released this year called The Phantom of The Open. It is about the legendary Maurice Flitcroft, pictured with Seve.
Long before Eddie The Eagle Edwards and the Jamaican Olympic Bobsleigh team this man led the way, In 1976 Flitcroft, a chain smoking crane driver from Barrow-In-Furness, decided to enter the qualifier for the Open Championship. He had bought a mail order half set of clubs and plastic shoes and taught himself to play from a Peter Alliss instruction book borrowed from the library. He got himself banned from several local clubs for sneaking on to practice without paying. Having seen The Open on television, he applied to enter the Qualifier only to find out as an amateur he needed to present an official handicap. So he declared himself professional.
He shot a 49 over par 121 and caught the interest not only of the R&A but the world’s media who contacted his mother. When she asked reporters if he had won the Open she was told his score and replied “well, everyone’s got to start somewhere”.
The R &A changed the entry rules but this didn’t deter him. He continued with a cat and mouse game of disguises and false identities. One of his previous employments had been in showbusiness and his theatrical inclinations found an outlet trying to outwit the golf officials. He returned in 1984 as Gerald Hoppy, a pro from Switzerland – and was chased off after two holes, another year as James Beau Jolly before his entry was queried and in 1990 as a professional called Paychecki. He managed to shoot 63 – for nine holes – before he was escorted off and banned from the sport.
He told reporters “I was looking to find fame and fortune, but only achieved one of the two”.
The great golf writer and broadcaster Henry Longhurst wrote in his newspaper column:
“Every instinct tells me that Bobby Jones was the most popular golfer to visit our shores in my lifetime. We all, I suppose, lift our hats to the professionals for their skills, their prowess and their millions but reserve the warmest spot in our hearts for the gifted amateur par excellence.
How good was he? How would he stand beside the heroes of today? Well, it does not seem to matter at this moment and anyway Jones himself settled this old locker room argument when he said:
“all a man can do is beat those who are around when he is around, He cannot beat those who went before him or those who are yet to come”.
It is a matter of history that he retired in 1930 after conquering all worlds by the age of 28. Six years later, his game now rusty, he crossed the Atlantic to visit the Olympic Games in Berlin and, having met some friends on the boat, accompanied them to Gleneagles for some golf. Being near to St Andrews, where he had won both the Open and the Amateur, he went to the town on a sentimental pilgrimage to play a round on his last morning.
He arrived, unheralded, just before lunch. By the time he reached the first tee, the word had spread round the town “Bobby’s back!” and no fewer than 2,000 people were assembled to greet him.
“I shall never forget that round” he wrote later “It was not anything like a serious golf match, but it was a wonderful experience. There was a sort of holiday mood in the crowd. It seemed, or they made it appear at least, that they were just glad to see me back, and however I chose to play golf was all right with them, they only wanted to see it”.
So he did the first nine holes in 32 and on the eighth tee he was paid “the most sincere compliment I can ever remember” one which he did not reveal until 25 years later. As he put his club back in the bag his young caddie looked up at him and said “My, but you’re a wonder sir”.
In 1958 Bobby, now in the throes of that crippling ailment which took so tragically long to end his life, was back at St Andrews, mainly to Captain the United States Eisenhower Trophy team but partly to receive the freedom of the city, only the second American to do so. The first had been Benjamin Franklin 199 years previously. Already, though, the people had accorded him the freedom of their hearts. “It is a wonderful experience” he wrote ” to be able to go about a town and have people wave at you and call you by name, often your first name and where a simple and direct courtesy is the outstanding characteristic”.
The ceremony at which he received the Freedom of the City from the Provost of St Andrews (thus becoming entitled to “take divots and hang out washing on the first and last fairways”) was one of he most moving occasions in the memory of those of us who were lucky to be there. The great golf writer Herbert Waren Wind summed up: “Bobby spoke for about 10 minutes, beautifully and movingly and he said “I could take out of my life everything except my experiences at St Andrews and still have a rich, full life”.
He left the stage and went off in his electric golf cart and the whole audience burst into the old Scottish song “will ye no come back again?” so honestly heartfelt was this reunion for Bobby Jones and the people of St Andrews that it was a full 10 minutes before any of them could speak.”
The Jehovahs Witnesses knocked at the door today. And while the erstwhile young man was trying to sell me a magazine which promised the key to eternal happiness I suddenly thought about a rainbow afro wig that we used to see on TV all the time at American golf tournaments when I was young, What had happened to Rollen Stewart? After I had shooed the JW team politely away, I decided to find out. And what a sorry tale it was.
Rollen Stewart is still alive aged 74. He once owned a ranch where he farmed marujana but bored with it he set off to Hollywood to become an actor. He starred in a few Budweiser commercials but then had the bright idea of raising his profile by getting his face on TV at sporting events. In order to get the camera’s attention he just wore a fur loin cloth and a rainbow wig and danced badly.
His act changed in 1979 when he saw a tele evangelist who convinced him that the end of the world was nigh and he decided to use his rainbow man persona to preach the gospel visually. He wore a T shirt saying either Repent or John 3:16. He said he had just a few seconds to reach the TV audience and give them a brief visual soundbite. He had a portable TV which he would watch where the TV cameras were and would position himself to get into their shot.
He became more and more obsessed with this mission, selling the ranch and living in his car. He lived off repeat fees from the commercial and from donations from evangelical organisations. He was at the PGA Tour stops nearly every week causing a nuisance to broadcasters who didn’t want him distracting the viewers eyes from the golf tournament. He even came over to London and got on TV outside Buckingham Palace during the 1981 Royal Wedding.
His behaviour became more desparate setting off stink bombs to give off the message “the Lord thinks this stinks” and he let off an air horn during Jack Nicklaus’ backswing during The Masters, Getting into Augusta National was an accomplishment itself as the tournament at that time was completely closed to spectators except for patrons who had their passes passed down through family generations.
His desperation about the end of the world came to a head in 1992 when he locked himself into a hotel room and took a maid hostage. When police eventially stormed the building he had a loaded .45 revolver and had been threatening to shoot down planes at nearby Los Angeles airport.
He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for hostage taking. He is still an inmate at California State prison having turned down a plea bargain which would have had him out on parole after 12 years. He speaks regretfully of his actions and says of his outings on the PGA Tour “I despised sports really”.
But his message has been taken up by other commercial sponsors. The fashion chain Forever 21 have the John 3:16 message on their shopping bags and burger chain In n Out Burger disposable coffee cups have it printed on them. And a Canadian fan , Bill King, is doing what Rollen Stewart used to do, raising the John 3:16 sign, though hopefully he’s a bit more restrained than Rollen Stewart was when he had the eyes of the world on him.
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