Ryder Cup captaincy should return to Ian Woosnam

Passion doesn’t necessarily win you a Ryder Cup, but it goes a long way.

America had it at Valhalla, had it in bucketfulls, embodied by the energised rookies Boo Weekley, Anthony Kim and JB Holmes.

Europe used to have exclusive rights to Ryder Cup passion - it’s what drove them to three successive victories from 2002 to 2006.

That was stripped of them at Valhalla, and now it must be restored, not on the first tee at Celtic Manor in two years time - but now.

The decision of who will succeed Nick Faldo, as captain and hopefully as a more inspired leader, will occupy the agenda when stalwarts like Colin Montgomerie and Darren Clarke join 13 other Tour officials at St Andrews to begin discussions over the new captain.

The sooner the better.

Three names top the list - Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle and Jose Maria Olazabal.

For me, the man to do it is Woosnam.

I know the days of a player captaining the side more than once are over, consigned to history after Bernard Gallagher’s victory over the States in 1995.

But Woosnam engendered a real passion in the European team at the K Club two years ago, building on the platform of unity begun by Sam Torrance at the Belfry and by the quiet authority of Bernhard Langer two years later.

He showed great leadership, inspired his rookies, leant on his elder players and utilised the huge well of sympathy for Clarke, whose wife Heather had passes away just three weeks before the match.

Clarke responded with three points from three as Ireland adopted Woosnam as one of its own.

One other factor is that Woosnam is Welsh and with the competition in his homeland, the former Masters champion and World No 1 will generate huge support in the valleys.

The Welsh will help whip up a storm of passion on the undulating fairways of Celtic Manor.

Lyle is Woosnam’s likely challenger to the crown, and Woosnam may yet withdraw himself from the race.

The amiable Scot won major championships at home and across the pond, and would bring the same degree of quiet authority Langer commanded at Oakland Hills.

If Lyle misses out again though, he will rightly consider himself to have been overlooked harshly by the Tour committee who looked favourably on the other members of Europe’s big five who transformed the Ryder Cup in the 80s and were rewarded with their shot at captaining the team - Seve Ballesteros (1997), Langer (2004), Woosnam (2006) and Faldo just last week.

Olazabal continued Europe’s renaissance in the 90s and with his two major wins coming in America and making much of his living on the PGA Tour, he would be a better choice to lead the team at Medinah in 2012.

Olazabal’s playing days may be numbered as fatigue ravages his body, but reports coming out of the team room at Valhalla in the aftermath of Europe’s defeat cast a new light on the quiet Spaniard.

As Faldo’s only assistant, it was according to rookie Oliver Wilson, Olazabal who led the passionate rallying calls in the team room.

With Montgomerie almost certain to captain the side at Gleneagles in 2014, Europe can at least be confident that passion will be restored with the next men to take the hotseat, particularly if Woosnam retakes the mantle in two years time.

Americans running scared

Reading American golf websites, you would be forgiven for thinking the Ryder Cup was not happening at all next week.

The biennial match is supposedly the biggest golf tournament in the world, certainly from a team perspective, and the Americans should be hell-bent on revenge after three morale-destroying defeats at the hands of the unheralded Europeans.

One would expect the furore whipped up over the ensuing battle to be full of George W Bush style war rhetoric from columnists on partisan American sports websites like PGA Tour.com and ESPN.

While these two websites are always informative, entertaining and often controversial, the only Cup they are focussing on this week is the FedEx Cup, not the Ryder Cup.

Vijay Singh and Camillo Villegas dominate the golf news agenda Stateside, despite there being only eight days until the first tee shot at Valhalla, Kentucky.

The Fijian and the Columbian, along with Kenny Perry and Antony Kim who will make their Ryder Cup debuts next week, are chasing the enormous pot of gold at the end of the FedEx Cup rainbow, four tournaments that offer prize money of $10m.

Money talks in sport, and with only pride on offer in the Ryder Cup, the American media are licking their lips at race for millions.

But it is not just the FedEx Cup’s scheduling just days before the Ryder Cup, that has knocked the Ryder Cup out of the headlines.

It is also because the Americans are running scared.

There’s no Tiger Woods this year because of injury, and for the first time in living memory they go into the Ryder Cup without a reigning major champion.

Here in Europe, after a major drought spanning eight years, we now have the best golfer in the world on present form, Padraig Harrington, winner of three out of the last six majors.

The American media are also embarrassed by their form over the last decade of Ryder Cups, and have sought to smear the good name of the famous old trophy.

Following a record equalling 18.5-9.5 win at the K Club, concerns began to emerge over here that Europe’s dominance in recent years - winning five of the last six matches - could be a double-edged sword.

As well as Europe plays, as united as they become in the face of such overwhelming favourites they share the first tee with, it only serves to diminish the interest shown in the competition by the American galleries, and the people who fuel their conspiracies, namely the American media.

After losing a third straight Ryder Cup 24 months ago at the K Club, certain sections of the American media suggested the President’s Cup, where the US team take on a Rest of the World team packed with major winners like Singh, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Mike Weir, had overtaken the Ryder Cup as the principle team golf game.

Team Europe, with no major winners from 1999 to 2006, no longer held the right to be considered worthy opponents for the mights USA.

No doubt the players themselves did not feel that about Samuel Ryder’s trophy, steeped in tradition.

What those three consecutive defeats did prompted a change in attitude from the American golfing authorities, with 2008 captain Paul Azinger immediately announcing on taking office that he would increase his wild card picks from two to four.

Not the biggest of alterations to the format, but a revolutionary move nonetheless, and one that showed the America team, regardless of the media, are serious about winning back the Ryder Cup and restoring faith to their own game.

Nick Faldo’s team Europe go to Valhalla in unknown territory, as favourites. The Americans, who declare winners of their own sports like baseball and football as world champions, aren’t used to being the underdogs.

No doubt next week, after Villegas, Singh or some other fortunate walks off with enough money to feed a small country, the American media will shift focus to the Ryder Cup, but it won't be with the same inspirational rhetoric as before.

That's because Team Europe have earned the right to dictate the golf headlines.

Wildcard race reaches boiling point

Paul Casey, Darren Clarke or Ian Poulter?

Those three names will have Nick Faldo’s head spinning this week as he tries to determine which two he should make wildcard selections to complete the European team for the Ryder Cup match at Valhalla, Kentucky next month.

They are three big names, all with their merits for being selected, who have left their Ryder Cup fates in the hands of Faldo, the six-time major winner, and no slouch in the Ryder Cup neither having won 11 caps against the United States.

Seven players are already assured of selection through either the world or European points lists.

They are: Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Graeme McDowell and Padraig Harrington, the Irishman who has elevated his game to such an extent that with three major titles out of the last six contested, he is now the leading contender to Tiger Woods’ dominance.

Those at Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles seeking to still play their way into the three remaining spots are Justin Rose, Soren Hansen, Oliver Wilson, Martin Kaymer, Ross Fisher and Nick Dougherty.

Only a catastrophe can prevent Rose making a belated Ryder Cup debut, and it is to be hoped that this fierce competitor finally gets a chance to get stuck into the Americans.

It would also be good to see Martin Kaymer join the party after two wins this year that have shown what a promising talent this young German is.

That leaves one of Hansen, Wilson, Fisher or Dougherty to make up the qualifying 10, all of them potential rookies but with experienced campaigners like Harrington and Westwood to feed off, that shouldn’t be too much of a concern.

One man who could still have played his way onto the team was Poulter, until he elected to stay in America and play in the second leg of the FedEx Cup play-off series.

That could prove a foolish move even for a man who showed potential Ryder Cup temperament by holing a 15-foot putt on the 72nd green at Royal Birkdale just last month.

Ignoring the chance to play his way in might tip the balance in favour of Clarke, who a month ago was considered a long shot, but now after his runaway victory at the Dutch Open, is considered the man in form.

Casey has shown considerable improvement in recent weeks and while he remains winless, his role in Europe’s record equalling victory at the K Club two year ago was inspirational and passionate.

One name missing of course is Colin Montgomerie, or field marshall Montgomerie as he should be known in the Ryder Cup.

It’s unlikely he will make it onto the slip of paper Nick Faldo issues to the press on Sunday evening.

The proud Scot, whose Ryder Cup record is used as a leveller against those who have won the majors that have so often eluded him, has struggled all season with his game, and not even a win in his native land this week would elevate him into the top 10.

It might make Faldo think though. Let’s hope so, because no-one encapsulates the Ryder Cup spirit better than Monty, Europe’s on-course general, who has led from the front in past Ryder Cups, notably in 2002 when his resounding victory over Scott Hoch at the top of the singles order set the tone for Sam Torrance’s side’s narrow victory and the subsequent years of unprecedented dominance for Team Europe.

So who would my picks be, and who do I think Faldo will go with?

For me, it should be CASEY and CLARKE, but I think the captain will go with CASEY and POULTER.

Fond farewell to World Matchplay

The decision to move the World Matchplay to Spain and end a 44-year association at Wentworth is a huge blow to English golf fans.

One of the country’s most popular tournaments has been revamped after losing HSBC as the sponsor after five years.

No other company came forward to bail it out - perhaps one of the biggest prize funds in golf putting off prospective sponsors - so England loses it’s richest tournament.

After a one-year break, the tournament will return to the European Tour schedule at the end of the 2009 season under the new benefactor of Volvo.

It has been a tournament on the decline for a number of years with a large contingent of the leading players from America not bothering to cross the pond, even for the vast sums of money on offer.

Tiger Woods only played in the tournament twice.

Jeff Maggert contested the event a couple of years ago, took a sound hammering from Retief Goosen in the first round and hopped on a flight later that day with $60,000 in his back pocket.

Not bad for half a day’s work, and yet the World Matchplay has consistently failed to attract the big names.
An entry system centred around the top four players in the majors became confusing when major winnners dropped out, leaving wildcards and former champions to get late invites to the tournament.

But despite this muddled strategy, the World Matchplay has always had a big named winner.

Ernie Els, who won what will be the final World Matchplay to be staged at Wentworth when he defeated Angel Cabrera last autumn, has made the championship his own in recent years.

It helps that he lives just a lob wedge away from the 14th hole on the Wentworth estate, but winning the tournament a record seven times is still a remarkable achievement.

Over the past 20 years the World Matchplay at Wentworth has been one of the biggest titles to win, it’s roll call of champions illustrating the high esteem in which it is regarded by players of this continent.

Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood have all claimed one of the European Tour’s grandest honours.

They have honed their Ryder Cup skills in the fierce matchplay environment at Wentworth.
From personal memory, I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon strolling the magnificent Surrey course in 2003.

Thomas Bjorn was in the middle of a character-defining spell having two months earlier thrown away the chance to win the Open Championship.

I watched him defeat Mike Weir in an early round, the Canadian who had won the Masters at the start of the year, having no idea how to stop a European marching to yet another matchplay triumph.

Bjorn reached the final, scored a hole-in-one on the back nine, but lost out to great friend and Wentworth neighbour Els.

It was a memorable duel, one of many to be contested at Wentworth, and one that we will look back on fondly in years to come when the World Matchplay has established its new home in Spain.