golfweloveit

Rudyard Kipling wrote “If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same”.

Justin Rose had reason to contemplate this yesterday at the BMW Championship when an outrageous lip out meant he missed winning the tournament outright and then went on to lose a playoff, what he called a stinging defeat for the second week in a row. Then while feeling this misery, he had the elation of learning that the same time he reached the pinacle of his sport becoming World No 1. Emotion overload.

He was asked how he felt about this achievement while still smarting from losing the tournament. In a way the unfortunate timing of the precious moment happening took the edge off things until he seemed to oull  himself together and realise the enormity of what he had achieved.

“It’s boyhood dreams stuff. It’s something I’m incredibly proud of. These three things, winning the US Open, the Olympic Gold medal and becoming world number one define my career at this moment. It’s taken 20 years to get here”.

Today, when he had time to get over the acuteness of the loss and let it settle, he began to dwell on his achievement instead. In a tribute to his late father Ken he wrote on twitter

We did it Dad.

Jordan Spieth currently lies T39 in the FedEx Cup standings on Sunday and needs an exceptional final round to avert an embarassing situation. Only the top 30 players will progress to the Tour Championship at East Lake in two weeks time. If Spieth fails to get into the field he will break a tour rule which states that players must play 24 PGA Tour starts (he has played 22 and the Ryder Cup will count as another).If not the player must have played in an event he had not played in the previous four years, which he has not. If Spieth does not make the Tour Championship he will break that rule and face a fine and suspension. Having made $2.4 million this year he can afford the fine, but more embarassing is that he is currently Chairman of the PGA Tour advisory Council. Heavy rain is forecast for today, leading to a possible Monday finish.

The final member of the US Ryder Cup team will also be announced by US Captain Jim Furyk tomorrow.

The part of my family who live in Sussex near Tilgate Forest GC will be trying to get down there this Friday for the Footgolf English Open, part of the UK tour. Spectators welcome.

Wishing all the competitors in the British Minigolf Open September 14-16 a successful event. To be played at Strokes Adventure acourse, Westbrook Bay, Margate, Kent. Spectators welcome.

Since buying Wentworth Club in 2014 Dr Chanchai Ruayrungruang has not only brought about changes to the membership he has invested hugely in upgrading the West Course to a really superior level of Championship golf. The putting surfaces look to be the best they’ve ever been and the condition of the course and the overall presentation received wide praise from competitors during the BMW PGA Championship.

Having recently been into the clubhouse, it was quite a culture shock. Gone was the cosy warm feel, the familiarity and it was replaced by something else. Italian marble, chrome and glass and steel, the finest carpets from China.This was something else. A dazzling display of clubs and memorabilia glistening in glass cases under spotlights. It looked like a fancy shop in Bond Street that set out to impress but not to make you feel welcome. It was look but dont touch. Where had Wentworth gone? It looked cold. £20million had been spent on the total refurbishment of clubhouse and golf course.

It’s recently been reported that Wentworth Club have lost £13 million in the past financial year. Dr Ruayrungruang’s Reignwood Group now appears to have the club heavily in debt. A new loan of £37 million has been taken out from the Agricultural Bank of China and previous debts of £135 million to Reignwood Global Investment have had payments deferred. There’s also a business dispute going on within Reignwood. Another twist in the ongoing saga.

Last October I was in Iceland which might be the most golf obsessed country on earth. There are more courses per people 65 to just over 300,000 inhabitants with 60,000 occasional golfers. This is because the season is so short mainly from May to September, but for two or three weeks around the 20th of June it’s possible to play 24 hours a day under the midnight sun.

There were other things to do, to see the Northern lights, the whales and the John Lennon tribute, so the golf season was mainly finished but an important club , Oddur GC near Reykjavik was still open. It was interesting to seemthe lava round the greens, volcanic rock, the spectacular scenery near the Atlantic Ocean. It was unbelievably windy and challenging. A ferry across to Vestman Island to see Vestmannhayeir GC, which has hosted the National Matchplay Championship played over only 13 holes. I thought that this was a creative idea, not sticking to the 18 hole format. It also appealed to me as a female player, being short at only 5,400 metres long.

Interesting to see that the Icelandic team won the European Tour’s first Mixed Team European Championships last month. For a country with a female Prime Minister which does much to promote equality, they were suitable winners of what I hope is a new trend of integrating men and women in professional events.

It is amazing to know that golf is even played in Iceland’s neighbour, Greenland, at a place called Uummannaq. There are no greens, just snow and ice.

Pass came today, very excited!

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.