GOLF NEWS SEPTEMBER 2021 (RYDER CUP ISSUE)

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EDITOR'S LETTER

NICK BAYLY

PICK US A WINNER

it comes to 18-hole match play compared to 72-hole stroke play. Just ask Ian Poulter, aka Postman Pick.

The Ryder Cup once served as a juicy carrot to dangle in front of Europe’s elite players to convince them to spend more time playing in Europe, but with the criteria for European Tour qualification now reached by the Whatever the result of this month’s Ryder Cup, I odd appearance in a Major, a handful of WGCs and a sincerely hope that the European Tour revisits its couple of Rolex Series events, that carrot has long since qualification process for the 2023 renewal. withered and died. With most of our top players now The finalising of the team, just 12 days before the playing almost all their golf in America, it would make matches, seemed woefully insufficient time to allow the far more sense to select the team by simply taking the players to get into the match play frame of mind, and all top 12 names off the world rankings and be done with the ‘will they, won’t they’ machinations that went on at it, or do what some commentators are suggesting and the BMW PGA Championship not only detracted from allow the captain to have free rein with a dozen picks. the tournament itself, but gave the players fighting for The argument for the latter goes along the lines those last few places a headache that they could all of asking what team manager in other sports would have done well without. allow someone else to pick their team for them? Would Lee Westwood, who shot a final round 77 at Gareth Southgate be happy to have his England squad Wentworth, was not backward in coming forward with chosen for him on the basis of statistics gathered from his views on the situation, calling it an ‘unnecessary Fantasy Football distraction’ and League? Would I’m sure Shane the England Lowry and Bernd cricket selectors Wiesberger’s have the test performances on match team Sunday – they picked by who shot 71 and 72 has scored the on a day of low most runs and scoring – were taken the most heavily impacted wickets on the by thoughts of county circuit? whether they No, they pick the were in or out of ■ HARRINGTON'S TEAM FEATURES JUST THREE ROOKIES team on a far the team. Justin more subtle set of Rose returned criteria, factoring to his sparkling in styles of play, team balance, suitability for the best form with a closing 65 and a share of sixth, and was prevailing conditions and their current form, not on the promptly left out of the team, after what was, by his own percentages of tackles made in the last third or runs admission, an indifferent season by his high standards. conceded per over.

It was all very unsatisfactory and very much Of course, the ‘12 picks' plan could give rise to old reminded me of those toe-curling judge’s houses boy cliques and might reduce the potential for rookies episodes on the X Factor, where dozens of wannabee to break into the team, but modern-day professionals pop stars were told by Pete Waterman ‘you weren’t are born ready to compete at the highest level – just very good…. you were absolutely brilliant, and you’re look at the likes of Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland. through to the live shows!’

‘If you’re good enough, you’re old enough’ is very Only those poor contestants will understand what much the current way of thinking when it comes to those kind of mind games does to your long-term professional sport these days. mental wellbeing, but the European Tour needs to rise But all that, as they say, is for another day. Europe's above the need for dramatic reveals and be a bit more team for the 2020 Ryder Cup team face a tremendous grown up about the whole thing. task in holding on to the cup in the face of a younger You can be sure that Westwood, should he get the and far higher ranked US team that, on paper, looks nod to captain Europe in Rome in two years’ time, will every bit as good as the one that thrashed GB&I at have no truck with ‘double your money’ tournaments Walton Heath back in 1981. I say 'on paper', as recent the week ahead of the matches. Yes, it’s important to Ryder Cup results suggest that paper form bares no have a decent percentage of your team coming into the resemblance to real form when it comes to holing sixRyder Cup in some sort of touch, but past results have footers for a team point, and long may that continue. shown that you can virtually rip up the form book when

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SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEWS GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

BILLY BAGS THE PGA! Florida’s Billy Horschel became only the second ever American to win the BMW PGA Championship title after shooting a final 65 in front of packed galleries at Wentworth Club

I

t was more than a little ironic that in a week where the Ryder Cup dominated so much of the proceedings at Wentworth, that an American who had been overlooked for a captain’s pick for Team USA should carry off Europe’s most coveted title in front of grandstand’s packed with British fans hoping to celebrate a hone-grown winner.

As so often turns out on such drama-filled days, the actors rarely, if ever, follow the script. Horschel, for his part, certainly hadn’t read it, and the 34-year-old from Jacksonville Beach more than covered the cost of his trip from America’s east coast when snatching the £960,000 first prize, and the coveted BMW PGA Championship trophy, from under European noses.

Stung by not even have received so much as a courtesy call from US Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker to say that he hadn’t made the team, Horschel fired rounds of 70, 65, 69 and 65 to top the leaderboard on 19 under par, and finish a shot clear of the unheralded trio of Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Laurie Canter and Jamie Donaldson.

In doing so Horschel became only the second America to win the PGA Championship since the great Arnold Palmer way back in 1975. Not many have tried, admittedly, but Horschel certainly won a new legion of fans for having not only made the effort to travel,

■ BILLY HORSCHEL PLAYS AN EXQUISITE WEDGE TO THE 18TH GREEN TO SET UP WHAT PROVED TO BE A TOURNAMENTWINNING BIRDIE

but for having embraced the tournament, its history and the galleries. Having West Ham Football Club’s logo on his bag may have endeared him to a certain section of the crowd, but by the time he holed his birdie putt on the 18th green on Sunday afternoon he was treated to a reception that is usually only dished out to one of our own.

“To add my name to that of Arnold Palmer’s as a winner of this great tournament is legendary stuff,” Horschel said. “If it wasn’t for Arnie, we wouldn’t have this modern era of golf, where we get to play in front of thousands of fans and have all these big sponsors.

Tiger Woods took it to another level, but Arnie is the one who started it all, so to have my name on that trophy next to is pretty special.

“After playing here in 2019, I left feeling that this was a tournament that I wanted to win before I finished my career.

I put it on a similar level to the PGA Tour’s Players Championship in terms of importance, although the PGA has greater historical significance. The winners of this event are some of greatest legends of the game.”

Of those who finished behind him, Aphibarnrat and Canter both probably signed their scorecards wondering what might have been. The former was 10-under par for his round, and 18 under for the tournament, when playing the 17th hole, but the Thai player, who started the week ranked 516th in the world after a season that has included 11 missed cuts from 21 events, hit his second shot to penultimate hole into someone’s back garden before ending up with a bogey six, and then was only able to par the last after finding trouble off the tee.

Canter, out in the last group with Italy’s Francesco Laporta, also harboured hopes of a life-changing victory when birdies at 10 and 12 took him to 18 under for the tournament. But while others were pouring in birdies on a windless afternoon on the

West Course, Canter’s back-nine charge turned into more of a Sunday stroll back from the pub as six consecutive pars from the 13th left him stranded agonisingly one shot back from Horschel’s clubhouse target, with his 20-foot birdie putt at the last, which would have forced a play-off, missing by six inches.

Further down the leaderboard, Justin Rose’s final round 65, which lifted him into a share of sixth, sadly, for him, didn’t do quite enough to jog Padraig Harrington’s mind that the 2013 US Open champion was still good enough to be considered for one of his captain’s picks, while Andrew Johnston, gave his fans enough reason to shout ‘Beef!’ a few hundred times when rediscovering some of his lost form with a closing 65 to join Rose and Laporta on 16 under for the week.

Even further down the leaderboard, one of the most important tied 20th finishes in recent European Tour history went to Bernd Weisberger, with the Austrian’s final round 72, to go with earlier rounds of 71, 67 and 67, doing all that was required to squeak into the ninth automatic qualifying spot for the Ryder Cup team.

Weisberger’s heroics knocked Shane Lowry out of automatic qualification, but the 2019 Open Champion took one of the three captain’s picks on offer, with the other two going to Ian Poulter, who missed the cut on Friday, and Sergio Garcia, who missed the tournament entirely, having seemingly done enough to earn his call up having finished fourteenth in the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship just the week before.

While the Ryder Cup sideshow brought a bit of added excitement to the tournament, it was the fans – a Covid-restricted capacity of 25,000 for all four tournament days – and the majesty of Wentworth’s West Course, which really ramped up the atmosphere at what remains the European Tour’s most eagerly anticipated and best-attended event.

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SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEWS GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

InBrief SLATER CELEBRATES TREBLE TOP AT KENT GIRLS’ CHAMPIONSHIP ★ Ellena Slater won the Kent Junior Girls Championship for the third year running after shooting rounds of 73 and 75 at Langley Park for a level-par total of 148. The plusthree handicapper from Kings Hill finished three shots clear of Millie Thompson (Sittingbourne & Milton Regis), with Ellie Burdis (West Kent) a further two shots back. Anouk Woodhouse (Sene Valley) prevailed in the net aggregate competition, Elsie Miller (Canterbury) won the 18-hole Medal competition and Olive Urquhart (Sittingbourne & Milton Regis) captured the Stableford event.

REIGATE HILL RETAINS SURREY FOURSOMES CHAMPIONSHIP

R&A to allow re-entry to Open Championship after local backlash

Surrey golfer completes life-saving marathon challenge

The R&A is to scrap its controversial ‘no-readmission’ policy for those attending The Open Championship, starting at next year’s renewal in St Andrews.

Since 2017 at Royal Birkdale, Open ticket holders have had no scope to leave and return to the tournament venue on any given day. This has caused considerable resentment in towns which stage the championship due to local businesses believing they cannot benefit from the rare staging of the world’s oldest major in their area.

Spectators have been angered by the sense they are locked in to purchasing the Open’s typically expensive food and drink offerings on top of ticket costs. An adult daily ticket from Thursday to Sunday at

Twelve weeks, over 1,100 miles, a quarter of a million golf shots, more than 920 lost golf balls and an estimated 30,000 people trained in life-saving CPR skills.

This is what former Armed Forces trainer David Sullivan, 58, from Oxted, has accomplished after setting off from John O’Groats in June on a mammoth mission to walk across the UK while hitting a golf ball and teaching people life-saving CPR skills along the way. David arrived at his destination of Land’s End on August 22.

Sullivan set himself this extraordinary task, which involved walking between 14 and 30 miles every day and camping overnight, to raise awareness of the importance of knowing CPR, and to raise funds that would enable more towns and villages across the country to install life-saving defibrillators.

At every one of Sullivan’s stops on his mammoth journey, he trained people how to perform CPR. His passion for teaching CPR came about in 2016 when, while playing golf, he was faced with a life-or-death situation. When a young man experienced a cardiac arrest in front of him, Sullivan luckily knew what to do.

He gave CPR for 17 minutes until the man could be treated with a defibrillator.

“It was thanks to my training, and a defibrillator being nearby, that I was able to help save the man, who luckily made a full recovery,” said Sullivan. “When something like that happens right in front of you, it makes you realise how precious life is and how important it is to know what to do in that kind of emergency. It was an experience which profoundly affected me, and now it’s my mission to create an army of life savers all over the country.”

Sullivan had hoped to raise £60,000, which would mean that 60 locations in Britain could be kitted out with a defibrillator, but at just over £9,000, he is hoping that completing his challenge will encourage more people to donate.

“I’m imploring individuals and businesses all over the country to support this endeavour. Until a cardiac arrest happens to you, or someone you know, it’s impossible to truly understand how critical defibrillators are.

Being treated with a defibrillator can literally mean the difference between life and death. We saw this recently when Danish footballer Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch. It can happen to anyone at any age at any time. Being treated with a defibrillator increases someone’s chance of survival by up to 70%.”

Donations can be made by visiting www. justgiving.com/crowdfunding/david-sullivan-77. For more information visit www.creatinglifesavers.com.

St Andrews next year will cost £95.

The R&A previously insisted that the rule was necessary to crack down on the sale of non-official hospitality, which is often latched on to Open branding. The next playing of the championship will see a return to the pre-2017 approach, meaning freedom for spectators attending the 150th Open at St Andrew’s in 2022.

The news will come as a welcome relief to businesses around Royal Liverpool, which will stage the 2023 Open, Royal Troon, the venue for 2024, and Royal Portrush, which has just been named as the Open’s venue for 2025, after the successful return of the competition to Northern Ireland in 2019.

★ Ben Palmer and Mike Ducker teamed up to help Reigate Hill retain the Surrey Club Foursomes Champiosnhip after beating the Wentworth pairing of Leyton Hardwick and Harry HobdayUzzell in a closely fought final.

Making the most of their home advantage, the Reigate pair won their semi-final against Bramley’s

■ FANS WILL NOW BE ABLE TO USE THEIR TICKETS FOR RE-ENTRY ON THE SAME DAY

Archie Wells and Sam Wood, while the Wentworth team progressed to the final at the expense of Banstead Downs’ Graham Powell and Neil Whyte. Thirteen teams

Sunningdale to stage Curtis Cup in 2024

took part in the 36-hole strokeplay qualifier, with the top four pairs going through to the knockout matchplay rounds.

DENNISON DOUBLES UP AT PRINCE’S ★ Lucas Dennison won the Kent U18 and U16 Junior Championships after firing rounds of 74 and 72 around the Shore/Dunes layout at Prince’s Golf Club. The Rochester & Cobham player’s two-over-par total saw him finish three shots in front of Lee Carew (Chesfield Lakes), with William Partner a further two shots back in third. The handicap event was won by Jack Mayer (Royal Blackheath) with a nett 69, while nett 36-hole championship was won by Martin Taylor (Redlibbets).

CROCKETT CLAIMS SURREY COLTS TITLE ★ Charlie Crockett captured the 2021 Surrey Colts Championship after shooting rounds of 69 and 68 for a five-under-par total of 137 around a rain-lashed Cuddington Golf Club. The Addington Palace player finished two shots clear of Jack Kurzberg (Wentworth), with Killian McGinley (Sunningdale) three shots further back in third.

Sunningdale Golf Club has been chosen to host the Curtis Cup in 2024.

The leading women’s amateur players from Great Britain and Ireland and the USA will compete over the Old Course at the renowned Berkshire venue as the ■ SUNNINGDALE'S OLD COURSE prestigious biennial match is played there for the first time. receive enthusiastic backing from the Sunningdale’s Old Course is one of fans in Berkshire. It promises to be the world’s finest heathland courses another fantastic occasion in the long and has hosted numerous prestigious and proud history of this match.” championships over the years, Nick Howe, chairman of the including the Women’s British Open, Sunningdale Tournament Committee, the Senior Open and qualifying for The said: ‘’The members of Sunningdale Open, as well as the British Masters, the Golf Club are delighted and honoured European Open and the Seve Trophy. to host the Curtis Cup in 2024 and Sunningdale has also hosted some of look forward to welcoming the best The R&A’s amateur championships and amateurs from Great Britain and Ireland international matches and the Walker and the USA in testing themselves with Cup was played there in 1987. the challenges of our classic heathland Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of course.’’

The R&A, said: “The Curtis Cup is the The precise date of the 2024 match apex of women’s amateur golf in Great has still to be confirmed. The 2022 Britain and Ireland and the USA and Curtis Cup will be played at Merion in we are thrilled to be staging the match Pennsylvania from June 10-12. at Sunningdale. We are determined to USA won last month’s staging of the give the best players the best platforms Curtis Cup at Conwy Golf Club in Wales, on which to compete and that will with the visiting team winning the final certainly be the case at Sunningdale. day’s singles 6.5-1.5 to take the overall “We know that we will be warmly match 12.5-7.5. welcomed and that the teams will

■ DAVID SULLIVAN REACHES JOHN O'GROATS AFTER A 1,100-MILE FUNDRAISING TOUR OF THE UK

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SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEWS GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

InBrief THE HERTFORDSHIRE UNVEILS HOUSEBUILDING PLANS ★ The Hertfordshire Golf and Country Club has applied for planning permission to build 38 new homes in order to fund repairs for Broxbournebury Mansion, as well as keeping the golf club financially viable. The proposals include six three-bed terraced houses and two blocks of 32 two-bed flats to be built on land currently occupied by derelict tennis courts in the grounds of the club, which also has a 72-bed hotel on site. There are also plans for work to be done to upgrade the onsite gym and build an extension to the car park.

MCFADDEN’S BEST OF THE WEST ★ Castle Royle’s Ben McFadden won the West of England U18s Championship after shooting rounds 75, 73 and 76 at a windy Burnham & Berrow Golf Club in Somerset. The BB&O player’s 54-hole total set up a three-way playoff against the host club’s Freddie Turnell and Joshua Millington (The Kendleshire), which McFadden won with a birdie at the first extra hole.

The Girls section was by Isabella Hopkins (Bristol & Clifton) with rounds of 82, 83, 78 for a 54-hole total of 243, with Alice Webb (Parkstone) finishing second on 245.

WIMBLEDON COMMON TO HOST PROSTATE CANCER GOLF DAY ★ Wimbledon Common Golf Club is hosting a charity golf day on October 1 to raise funds for Prostate Cancer Awareness. The event at the south-west London venue is being organised by the club's past chairman and men's captain Martin Finn, who is currently receiving treatment for prostate cancer, and Juliet Willis, the wife of the Bob Willis, the former England cricketer who died from the illness two years ago aged 70. Extra funds will be raised through sponsorship by local estate agent Robert Holmes, challenges on the golf course, as well as post-match raffle and auction. To enter a team or find out more, email office@wcgc. co.uk or call 020 8946 7571.

FOSTER ROMPS TO VICTORY AT SENIOR WOMEN’S CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS ★ Hertfordshire champion Jackie Foster captured the English Senior Women’s County Champion of Champions following an eight-shot victory at Woodhall Spa on September 5. The Bishops Stortford member carded rounds of 73 and 72 for a one-over par 145. Kent’s Kim Morris shot rounds of 76 and 77 to grab second, while Dorset’s Jane Southcombe’s opening round of 74 put her in contention for the title, but a second round 80 saw her finish in third place on 154.

■ HELEN SKELTON (RIGHT) WITH STEPH DAVIES

Skelton earns Wentworth Pro-Am call up after winning Celebrity Golf Academy TV presenter Helen Skelton won a place in the field for the BMW PGA Championship Celebrity Pro-Am after winning the Slingsby Gin Celebrity Golf Academy 2021.

Skelton earned her place in the prestigious event after taking up golf as a complete beginner just six months ago as part of a challenge to get more women into the game.

Skelton was joined by singer Fleur East, Sky Sports presenter Bela Shah and Sky Sports Formula 1 presenter Natalie Pinkham, all of whom were golfing novices and had six months to master golf, working week-on-week with their PGA Professional partner to improve their skills

before taking part in a play-off against each other. Over the course of their training, the four players documented their golfing journey in a six-part series showing the highs, lows and thrill of taking up golf.

After winning a play-off at Wentworth, Skelton was offered a place in the line up at the BMW PGA Championship Celebrity Pro-Am. She also received a £5,000 bonus cheque from Slingsby Gin that she has donated to Eden Valley Hospice.

Skelton said: “I am very grateful for the opportunity to learn how to play golf through the Slingsby Golf Academy initiative and to have had so much top-level support from my partner

PGA Professional Steph Davies.”

She added: “It has been a pleasure to go on this journey with my fellow cadets Fleur, Natalie and Bela, hopefully we have done a bit to inspire more females to take up the game. I can’t get over how irrationally addictive golf is, one minute you want to sell your clubs the next minute you want to play every day of the week.”

All episodes of the Slingsby Golf Academy are available to watch on Slingsby’s social media channels, @slingsbysocial.

Justin Rose wins Payne Stewart Award for charitable work and UK Ladies Series Justin Rose has joined an illustrious group of golfers after being named as the 2021 recipient of the PGA Tour’s Payne Stewart Award.

The accolade, in honour of the World Golf Hall of Fame member and 11-time PGA Tour winner who died in an air disaster in 1999, is awarded to the golfer who exemplifies Stewart’s values of ‘character, charity and sportsmanship’.

Rose, 41, is the 24th recipient of the award, following on from Zach Johnson in 2020, with the former world No.1 recognised for his charity work across the globe.

Rose said: “I am truly humbled and honoured to be associated with the enduring legacy of Payne Stewart through

this award. The Payne Stewart Award has become an annual celebration of Payne’s impact on the PGA Tour and its players.

I am forever grateful to be connected to a man who was the consummate professional on and off the golf course and will cherish being a Payne Stewart Award recipient well after my playing days are over.”

Rose selected the Kate & Justin Rose Foundation as the destination for the $300,000 charity donation allocated to the winner, which has worked to support organisations in South Africa, the US, the Bahamas and in England

since launching in 2009.

The foundation has helped with the rebuilding of the Grand Bahamas Children’s Home, after it had been damaged by Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and has also worked closely with the ‘Blessings in a Backpack’ initiative to help hungry children in Orlando during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Rose family showed their commitment to the sport by launching the Rose Ladies Series in 2020, giving female golfers playing opportunities in the UK for bigger prize funds, while the 2016 Olympic gold medallist has also sponsored the Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship for many years.

Wootton cuts down Woodman to win PGA Kent Open Isle of Purbeck set for major renovation The owners of the Isle of Purbeck Golf Club have commissioned a ‘sympathetic renovation’ of its historic heathland course in order to restore some of its original features and improve its playability.

Based on a peninsula close to Swanage, the club was bought six years ago by Californians David Suruki and Kathy Tatar, who have been investing heavily in the venue, and now have hired Surrey-based golf course design firm Lobb & Partners to carry out a significant overhaul of the 18-hole Purbeck course, with long-term Lobb collaborator David Langheim hired as a course consultant.

Principal designer Tim Lobb believes the course is capable of moving much higher up the ranking of the UK’s top 100 layouts than its current 77th position. He said: “When you first visit Isle of Purbeck, your first thought is the views, which are spectacular. The course is clearly meant to be open heath – of which, of course, there is a lot in the Bournemouth area – but it has become rather overgrown.

We want to bring that environment back to the fore and return the course to national awareness.”

He added: “We also want every hole to take advantage of the fabulous views. The setting is as good as anywhere; we aren’t looking to extend the golf course much, just trying to create the best course that the site can hold.

“We do not plan to make major changes to the routing, which is very good, but there will be some massaging of playing areas to ensure there is enough width for golfers to have fun and not lose too many balls. It is a fragile landscape and we want to enhance it.”

Adam Wootton posted a sparkling five-under-par 67 before defeating Guy Woodman in a play-off to win the PGA Kent Open Championship held at Prince’s Golf Club.

The tournament at the one-time Open Championship venue was played over the Shore and Dunes courses and was the third CK Facilities Management PGA South Order of Merit event of the season.

Wootton, who represents Core Golf Ltd and played in the 2011 Open Championship at nearby Royal St George’s, had begun the second and final round six shots off the lead. However, he ended it level with Woodman and claimed the £2,000 winner s cheque at the first play-off hole.

Atkinson had led the tournament at the start of the final day, his four under par 68 giving him a one-shot advantage over a congested leaderboard. But the 42-year-old, who won the previous Order of Merit event at Cuddington, was unable to replicate that and ended tied-fourth after posting a three over par round of 75.

Wootton, by contrast, fired three birdies in the first five holes to halve the six-shot deficit and go one-under for the tournament. The 34-year-old had teed off almost an hour-and-a-half before the pacemakers and birdies at the 13th and then the par-three 17th made him the clubhouse leader at three-under.

Around 45 minutes later, he would be joined by Woodman, who was also only one of five players to break par on a tough day around the 7,029-yard links layout.

His performance was all the more impressive as he finished with three birdies and an eagle in his last seven holes to move from two over to three under and a sudden death showdown with Wootton.

That took place on the Dunes course and Wootton prevailed at the par-four first courtesy of a classy chip from the edge of the green to set up the par he needed for ■ ADAM WOOTTON victory.

NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2021 GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

Open Championship returns to Royal Portrush in 2025

■ ENGLAND'S BOYS' AND GIRLS' TEAMS

England teams enjoys clean sweep at Home Internationals England made home advantage count to make a clean sweep of the R&A Women’s, Boys’ and Girls’, and Senior Men’s and Women’s Home Internationals at Woodhall Spa. The 106th Women’s Home Internationals couldn’t have provided a more fitting end.

Three matches to determine whether England or Ireland would win the International Shield was appropriate for two evenly matched teams.

England prevailed 6-3 on the day to win for the second straight contest and the 64th time outright since the competition began in 1895 when England won at Royal Portrush.

However, the result could easily have been the other way round. After a 3-3 split in the morning singles, England’s women won all three afternoon foursomes to top the four nations table with three points from three victories and a 21½-5½ match points total for the week. Ireland had two points, while Scotland came third with one point thanks to an 8½-½ final day victory over Wales.

With thunder and lightning threatening the afternoon play, a decision was taken to reverse the order of sessions to play as many points as possible. That decision was justified when a crack of thunder sounded above Woodhall Spa shortly after the pairing of Hannah Screen and Amelia Jane Williamson had defeated Lauren Walsh and Sara Byrne 2&1 to ultimately seal the victory. The lead pairing of Annabell Fuller and Charlotte Heath took care of Beth Coulter and Annabel Wilson 3&2, with Emily Toy and Caley McGinty defeating Aine Donegan and Anna Foster by the same score.

It heralded double joy for England in the space of a month after victory in the European Ladies’ Team Championship, with English captain Jennifer Henderson bringing five members of that winning side to Woodhall Spa. Scotland took third place thanks to a strong closing performance against Wales.

The Scots laid down a statement of intent with a 6-0 morning singles victory, before taking the foursomes session 2½-½. The Welsh pairing of Kath O Connor and Ellen Nicholas helped Wales avoid a final day whitewash by halving with Shannon McWilliam and Hazel MacGarvie.

It turned out to be a clean sweep for England at Woodhall Spa in a year when women and men, boys and girls played together for the first time.

England’s juniors won three points out of three to top the points table, with Scotland finishing second with two points, and Ireland placing third with one and Wales finishing bottom.

The English Senior Men and Women also topped the points table to make it a triple celebration for England.

The Open Championship is to make a swift return to Royal Portrush in 2025, following its successful staging of golf’s oldest major in 2019.

The 2019 Open generated more than £100 million for the economy of Northern Ireland two years ago, attracting a record attendance for the championship outside of St Andrews of 237,750 fans throughout the week as Irishman Shane Lowry captured the famous Claret Jug. The return of the Open Championship to Royal Portrush for only the third time in 74 years has been wholeheartedly supported by

the Northern Ireland Executive and Tourism Northern Ireland, as well as the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.

Martin Slumbers said: “We could not be more thrilled to be bringing The Open back to Royal Portrush in 2025. There will be huge excitement among golf fans around the world to see the best men’s players facing the challenge of this magnificent links once again.”

He added: “The Open in 2019 was a massive success and showed just how much collective enthusiasm, passion

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InBrief ENGLAND ROLL OVER WALES AT SCHOOLS INTERNATIONAL ★ The resumption of Schools Team Internationals following the easing of pandemic restrictions saw England enjoy a comprehensive 16-5 win at against Wales in a full day of matches at Rolls of Monmouth Golf Club. Eleven County Schools’ Associations were represented in England’s team, with the majority of this year’s team coming from the South and South-East regions.

The seven morning foursomes were a one-sided affair, with England winning six of the seven matches, with two games not going beyond the 13th hole.

The visiting team continued its dominance in the afternoon’s 14 singles, with England’s boys winning seven of the eight points on offer, with the sole Welsh point coming from team captain Ioan Rowe on the 18th green. Hertfordshire’s George Wright enjoyed a thumping 8&7 win in the opening match, while Kent’s Jack Lee went one better with a 9&8 triumph in his match against Ben Willis.

LAWSON CLAIMS BBO AMATEUR TITLE ★ Tom Lawson won the BB&O Amateur Championship after shooting two-under-par for 72 holes at Maidenhead Golf Club.

The Stoke Park player fired round of 71, 69, 69 and 69 to win by six shots from Tom Wilde (Lambourne), who fired of a best of the week 65 in the second round, with Maidenhead’s Adam Birdseye a shot further back in third.

ROWE REELS IN RIVALS TO WIN ESSEX AMATEUR ★ Chelmsford’s Carter Rowe battled back from a five-over opening round 77 to win the Essex Amateur Championship by a single stroke from Rory Bennett (Thorndon Park). Rowe recovered from his slow start by adding progressively better rounds of 71, 70 and 67 to finish on three-under for 72 holes.

Brand Meads (Brentwood) took third place on level par.

PATERSON WINS SPIRIT OF GOLF AWARD ★ Kent County player Tom Paterson has become the first winner of the 'Dinah Oxley Spirit of Golf Award' for a young person’s contribution to junior golf in the UK. Tom, who is a member at The Caves Hotel & Golf Resort, was honoured with the award after raising money for the charity Mind during lockdown and teaching golf to kids for free in a local primary school. The award was set up by the Golf Foundation in honour of the late Surrey amateur legend Dinah Oxley. Tom received his trophy from Thomas Bjorn at a ceremony held during the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

London’s public courses under threat from housing needs The long-term future of some of London’s 43 public golf courses could be under threat after a report highlighted that the land which they occupy could provide homes for over 300,000 people.

According to a recent study published by London-based architect Russell Curtis, golf courses on public land could be used ‘in a more creative way’ to ease the current housing crisis and provide accessible green spaces for a wider section of the community. According to Curtis’s report, which is titled ‘Golf Belt’, London’s golf courses make up an area larger than the borough of Brent, which would be enough space to house 300,000 people.

According to the study, nearly half of the capital’s 94 active golf courses are owned by London boroughs or other public bodies, and yet serve ‘a tiny fraction’ of the capital’s nine million residents.

The Golf Belt study calculated that an 18-hole course can only accommodate between 72 players at any one time, allowing a maximum of 216 players a course on a typical summer’s day. “If the 166 hectares of Regent’s Park were to become a golf course, it could only be used by 314 people in a day, while the park received more than 26,000 visitors each day”, the report stated.

Singing Hills pair book place in PGA National Pro-Am Final Don’t miss Le Tiss at London Golf Club charity day!

Former Southampton and England striker Matt LeTissier is set to play a leading role at a celebrity golf day being at the London Golf Club on November 4, with all funds raised going to the Kent Wish Foundation and Red Eagle Foundation.

Golfers are being invited to register a team of four for the day, at a cost of £750 per team, which will include breakfast, a shotgun start on the Heritage Course with buggies included, a two-course dinner followed by a Q&A with Le Tissier hosted by ex-Chelsea player and Sky Sports presenter Scott Minto.

There are plenty of prizes on offer, with competitions on every hole, while there will also be a raffle and auction to raise more money for the day’s two charities, which provide support for children with lifelimiting illnesses.

To register your team, visit email info@ kentwish.co.uk or call 07834 907700.

■ BECKENHAM PLACE PARK'S GOLF COUR SE CLOSED IN 2019 FOLLOWING PRES SURE TO MAKE THE SPACE MORE ACCE SSIBLE TO OTHER LEISURE USER S

Curtis said he was not calling for all London’s public golf courses to be turned into housing, but that some could be made more accessible to local residents if they became ‘allotments, green spaces, sports facilities or even urban farms’. “This is not a war on golf,” said Curtis. “The redevelopment of golf courses is always presented as a binary choice between beautiful green fields or concrete, but there’s a model in the middle where you could provide new homes and infrastructure while achieving biodiversity gain.”

Several publicly-owned courses have closed in London in recent year, including Beckenham Place Park Golf Course in south London, which was shut in 2019 and since been turned into public space with a swimming lake, wildlife habitats and a 5km running and cycle track.

According to England Golf, 40,000 members play at the 94 London clubs and up to 160,000 additional people use the courses on a pay-as-you-play basis.

An amateur who used to caddy for the late six-time Ryder Cup player Brian Barnes, has booked his place in the PGA National Pro-am Championship final in Turkey.

Jon Osborne, a three handicapper, teamed up with Singing Hills Golf Club PGA Professional Marcus Groombridge to win the qualifying event at Foxhills. The pair were involved in a three-way tie for top spot with David Green and Mike Eldridge (Paultons Golf Centre) and Duncan Giblett and Mark Allen (West Surrey Golf Club), but won the event on countback after making six birdies on the back nine. Half of those came on last three holes, which proved to be enough to seal victory and qualification for the final on the PGA Sultan course at Antalya Golf Club in November.

Osborne explained that he and

Oxford Golf Club launches prize draw to boost vaccine uptake Oxford Golf Club is doing its bit to encourage young people to get their COVID-19 vaccinations by offering free membership for a year to one lucky player.

The club will include all its student and Colt members who can prove they have been double vaccinated by Christmas Day into a one-off draw which will entitle the winner to a year of free golf.

The Cowley-based venue is running the competition after NHS England data revealed only 70% of all 18 to 29-year-old’s living in the UK had received their first jab

by August 12. It hopes the prize, worth up to £1,225, will encourage its Student and Colt members, aged up to 35, to get vaccinated.

Steve Greenwood, General Manager at Oxford Golf Club, said: “Oxford has been at the heart of the UK’s vaccine rollout, which is responsible for the freedoms we are so privileged to currently have.

Groombridge had spoken about how they could win the event the night before by playing positively from the start. He said: “We set out to try and win it, so we took the shackles off and maybe that’s why we won.

We’re absolutely delighted to be going to the final now. Our back nine was fantastic. But we still knew we had to birdie the 18th.”

Osborne said his enthusiasm for golf started when Brian Barnes founded a new golf course next to his parents’ house in West Sussex. “I used to caddy for Brian on the European Tour and the Senior Tour ,” he said. “My parents had a house in West Chiltington, but I didn’t play golf then.

Brian built a golf course there which came right up to our back garden. As they were building it, I would keep calling and saying: ‘When’s the club opening Mr Barnes?’ In the end, he asked me to caddy for him at a pro-am and it went from there. That’s where I got my love for golf and I played all my junior golf up there.”

■ OXFORD GOLF CLUB

Being vaccinated means you are not only protecting yourself, but also those around you. We appreciate it is a personal choice and some people have concerns, but as a community-based club we felt it was our duty to help raise awareness of the benefits of getting vaccinated and encourage youngsters to do so.

“The team were talking about what we can do, and we decided to be bold and do something to really help make a difference.

It should appeal to our younger members, but at the same time also help spread this important message.”

Oxford GC’s PGA Professional Joe Pepperell has backed the club’s giveaway.

He said: “The pandemic has truly underlined the importance of taking care of our own physical and mental health. Right now, there is no better way to protect your physical health by getting the jab.”

NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2021

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Longley leaves pro rivals in the shade at Clutch Pro Tour’s Goodwood Classic Sussex amateur Nathan Longley handed out a lesson to his more experienced professional rivals when winning the Clutch Pro Tour’s Golf at Goodwood Classic by two shots.

Longley, who is a member at Worthing Golf Club and plays off a plus-six htandicap, fired rounds of 68 and 71 off the back tees of Goodwood’s challenging Downs Course to finish on five-under-par, two shots ahead of a quarter of professionals.

Longley’s amateur status prevented him from collecting the £3,500 first prize in the Bluespace Media sponsored event, but he had the consolation of winning £250 for bagging the most birdies over 36 holes (12) and another £250 for the best first round score (68). Longley was pipped in the amateur event by seven shots by six-handicapper Fletcher Rees, who fired rounds of 79 and 77 for a nett 144 level-par total.

Locals rally round to revive Bath Approach course

■ SUSSEX AMATEUR NATHAN LONGLEY HAS WON TWICE ON THE CLUTCH PRO TOUR

There was a four-way tie for second place, with Daniel Gaunt, Harry Boyle, David Wicks and Ryan Cahill all finishing on three under par to earn £2,100 each. The prize for the leading female professional was won by Rosie Davies, who fired rounds of 72 and 71 for a one-over-par total.

Longley continued his hot form at the following week’s Clutch Pro Tour event held at Royal Ashdown Forest, with the 23-year-old Worthing man shooting a five-under-par 67 to beat professional Barnes Wallis by a single shot in the 84-player field.

Continental Europe cruises to comfortable win in Jacques Léglise Trophy The Continent of Europe beat Great Britain & Ireland 16½-8½ to win the Jacques Léglise Trophy at Falsterbo Golf Club in Sweden.

Leading GB&I 6½-5½ after the first day s play, the Continent of Europe strengthened its position by winning three and halving one of the four morning foursomes matches to provide the hosts with a four-point advantage ahead of the afternoon’s singles matches.

Joachim Fourquet's side then picked up 6½ points of the nine available in the singles to seal their second win on the bounce in the boys’ international match.

In the morning’s foursomes, Oiha Guillamoundeguy and Riccardo Fantinelli set the tone with a 3&2 win against the Scottish pairing of playing captain Cameron Adam and Ruben Lindsay, while Italian duo Marco Florioli and Flavio

Michetti were in impressive form on ■ THE CONTINENTAL TEAM CELEBRAT E THEIR WIN their way to a 4&3 success against Archie Finnie and Joshua Hill.

Daniel Svard and Tim Wiedemeyer 13-6 lead to ensture it keeps hold of the picked up a third point for Europe after trophy won in England two years ago. beating Daniel Bullen and Harley Smith Smith pulled a point back for GB&I 2&1, but GB&I salvaged a halve from the shortly after with a narrow 1up win over session after Jack Bigham and Josh Hill Malik, but Guillamoundeguy restored the shared the spoils with German double act seven-point cushion after beating Josh Hill Tiger Christensen and Yannick Malik. by the same score to make it 14-7. GB&I Christensen kicked off the singles in playing captain Cameron Adam managed style with a thumping 7&6 defeat of Boys’ to win a point in his match against Svard, Amateur champion Bigham to make it only for Wiedemeyer to return a 2&1 victory 11-6. Fantinelli, runner-up to the English against his compatriot Archie Finnie. international at Royal Cinque Ports earlier Jaime Montojo and Joshua Hill's match this month, edged his side closer to victory finished all-square, which left Marco by comfortably beating Lindsay 3&2 to Florioli to round off a very successful two claim another point. days for the Continent of Europe with a Michetti’s comprehensive 5&4 win over 2&1 win over Bullen, leaving the final score Connor Graham proved to be the clincher, 16½-8½. with the hosts moving into an unassailable

Bigham bags Boys’ Amateur title Hertfordshire’s Jack Bigham won the 94th R&A Boys’ Amateur Championship after beating Italy’s Riccardo Fantinelli on the first extra hole of play off in the matchplay final held at Royal Cinque Ports in Kent.

After the pair could not be separated after the regulation 36 holes, it was the England international Bigham who held his nerve in a sudden death shoot-out to lift the biggest title of his budding amateur career.

Bigham, who is a member at Harpenden Golf Club, capped off a fantastic individual week after progressing through the stroke play stage as the leading qualifier and continued a fine run of form in the match play stages where he went on to claim victory in the championship’s centenary year.

Both players settled into the final quickly, with a pair of pars easing the nerves. Bigham then made the most of a clever approach shot into the par four 2nd with a birdie three to take the early initiative. He remained one-up before seizing control of the contest with a birdie on the 6th.

However, the Italian took the opportunity to mount an early fightback after mistakes by Bigham at the 9th led to a double bogey. A further bogey was to follow two holes later to leave the match all-square after 11, before Fantinelli produced a birdie of his own on the following hole to see him lead the match for the first time. That lead remained intact up until the final hole of the morning’s play, with Bigham rolling in a birdie on the 18th to leave the match all square again.

It was Fantinelli who came out of the blocks after the restart, making birdie on the 19th to regain his advantage.

However, Bigham responded with a birdie of his own two holes later to bring the match level again.

A bogey on the 28th hole for Bigham put the Italian back in front and that lead remained in place throughout the next five holes, where a bogey five from the Englishman on the 33rd hole put Fantinelli two up with just three holes to play. However, a bogey from Fantinelli on the par-5 16th, the 34th of the match, opened the door for Bigham to mount a last ditch fightback. Despite missing a golden birdie opportunity on the 35th hole, he more than made up for it by making a clutch birdie three under pressure to send the match to extra holes.

A topped tee shot from Fantinelli led to a situation from which he couldn’t recover and was unable to match Bigham’s par four to give the Harpenden member the first

A municipal golf course in Bath that has not reopened since the end of the first lockdown in May 2020 could be saved after a fundraiser was launched.

Campaigners have set up a gofundme page to raise £15,000 for Bath Approach Golf Course, which has not been fully maintained for 18 months, when the UK went into the first lockdown. Bath and North-East Somerset Council has so far rejected the only bid to run the facility – but only as a disc golf course.

A statement on the gofundme page said: “A group of residents and golfers have remained in discussion with the council to look at ways to allow golf to be played again, and a low-cost solution is now on the table for the greens and tee areas on the 18-hole course to be restored and maintained by a local charity.

“To fund this work we are aiming to raise an initial £15,000. This would pay for the sprinkler system to be brought back into use, the tee areas to be tidied up, the greens to be cut, repaired and reseeded, plus an initial six months of regular maintenance.

Once the course is up and running again, the intention is to re-establish ongoing funding by encouraging golfers to donate each time they play, and by once again offering club hire on site.’

Before Covid-19 forced its closure the golf course offered an 18-hole and a 12-hole course and cost the council £30,000 a year.

■ BATH APPROACH GOLF COURSE

■ JACK BIGHAM WITH THE COVETED BOYS' AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY

win of his amateur career.

Bigham, who gains exemption into next year's Amateur Championship, the US Junior Amateur Championship and Final Qualifying for the 150th Open at St Andrews, said: “What a moment after holing that putt on 18, particularly after the horseshoe putt on 17. I am over the moon, obviously. I was playing great in the stroke play and just continued all the way through to the final. I was a little bit sloppy in some areas today, but I managed to get the job done. It is my only win and I am so happy do it at it was my last junior event.”

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Gray’s in the pink with Goodwood success

Europe wins first Junior Solheim Cup on US soil Europe’s Junior Solheim Cup team won its first ever match on US soil after staging a dramatic final day singles comeback at Sylvania Country Club in Ohio.

Led by team captain Annika Sörenstam and vice-captain Nora Angehrn, the best U18 girls from Europe overturned an 8-4 deficit to claim nine out of the 12 points on offer in the singles matches and win 13-11.

After leading at the end of day one, USA could not keep up with what Europe had in store for the twelve singles matches. Needing at least 8.5 out of 12 points to secure the win, Europe won nine with eight wins and two half points. Germany s Paula Schulz-Hanßen opened the final day for Europe and was the first to bring a point home for the team, with the 18-year-old securin a win of 2&1 over Catherine Rao. Although Spain’s Andrea Revuelta came up short against Anna Davis (5&4), another fellow countrywoman Cayetana Fernández fought until the last hole in her match against Yana Wilson, which ended in a tie when the American holed a 20-foot putt for par on the 18th hole. The Swedish duo in the team brought a point each after incredibly competitive performances. Meja Örtengren made the comeback of the final day after being down by four through nine holes, she managed to turn the score around and won 2&1 over Kaitlyn Schroeder. Örtengren s compatriot Nora Sundberg followed her win on the same hole (3&1) over Bailey Shoemaker as she took the lead at the 7th hole and was never headed.

Another win on the 17th saw France’s Vairana Heck defeat Katie Li 2&1, while Italian Francesca Fiorellini and France’s Constance Foulliet secured early wins on the 15th Fiorellini defeated Kelly Xu 4&3, having lost only one hole and winning five, while Fouillet had an amazing start winning the second hole after holing out for eagle and was 4up through nine. Only a few moments later, on the 15th, Germany’s Helen Briem secured her point after beating Alexa Pano 4&3, which left Europe only one point away from the victory. Czechia’s Denisa Vodičková clinched the winning point after victory on the 17th over Sara Im. With two matches remaining, the European team could start their celebrations and enjoy the final two matches. Amari Avery won the second point for USA as she defeated Belgium’s Savannah De Bock 3&1, while Denmark’s Amalie Leth-Nissen halved her match against Megha Ganne.

Sörenstam said: I feel very proud, there s a lot of emotions going through. It s been such an honour to be the captain for the European Team. I’ve been lucky to have some fun successes in my career and this is certainly one of them. This week, we saw the best the world has to offer in junior girls’ golf. The game is in good hands, and I look forward to seeing all the girls succeed in the coming years.”

Ali Gray rediscovered her golfing mojo to make the long journey from Lancashire worthwhile by winning the OceanTee WPGA Series Ladies Pro-Am held at Golf at Goodwood on August 18.

Gray, the inaugural winner of the WPGA Championship in 2002, showed signs of an upturn in form when she finished third in the previous OceanTee WPGA Series event held at her home club, Ormskirk. And the Assistant PGA Professional was clearly at home at the West Sussex venue as she negotiated the challenging Downs Course with a one-over-par 73 to claim the £600 first prize.

“I’ve struggled a bit and am hopefully getting on the better side of it now,” Gray said, after finishing a shot clear of Ainée O’Connor and Order of Merit leader Maria Tulley. “There were a couple of double bogeys in there, but I’m pleased with one-over. I knew where I was going after having a practice round yesterday and it was definitely worth the six hours in the car to come down.”

The event featured the first ladies pro-am in the new look

OceanTee WPGA Series and Gray teamed up with three Golf at Goodwood members. “I played with three members from here and they were lovely,” she added. “They seemed to have enjoyed the day as well, which is the main thing. They’ve invited me to play again next year, so hopefully I’ll be able to come back.”

Meanwhile, O’Connor, who was making her debut in the Series, was somewhat compensated for her near miss by leading her trio of Sundridge Park Golf Club amateurs to victory in the pro-am. The quartet, which also included Nancy O’Connor, Jude MacKenzie and Anne-Marie Forrester, amassed 87 Stableford points to finish six clear of Tulley’s team from Studley Park Golf Club.

O’Connor said: “We dovetailed really well. If one of us wasn’t having a good hole the others came in and that’s what did it for us.

The amateurs played really well, and I loved the pro-am aspect of the event. It was a nice and relaxed way of playing and it was fun to get some of the ladies out who support you.”

Dame Laura’s ‘not ready’ to retire After making the cut at last month’s AIG Women’s Open Championship, Laura Davies has said that retirement from the professional game is ‘the furthest thing from her mind’ and that she is not ready to put away her clubs just yet.

Dame Laura, who will be 58 in October, rolled back the years when making the cut at the final women’s major championship of the season after shooting rounds of 74 and 72 at Carnoustie. Weekend rounds of 78 and 82 saw the five-time major champion finish plumb last of those who played for all four days, and some 28 shots behind the winner, Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist, who is almost half Davies’ age.

An errant driver, so often a strength during the height of her powers, was the main reason for her disappointing Saturday and Sunday efforts, but there were also enough highlights during the championship for Davies to bat away any thoughts that she should call it a day.

“I have nothing else to do,” Davies said in her typically blunt style when asked if she thought the time had come to hang up her spikes. “I still want to play golf at the top level. I still think I’m

good enough. I’m still a decent player.

But if I want to do really well, I have to consistently make cuts and start waking up on the weekend raring to go rather than thinking ‘job done.’ The job isn’t done when I make the cut.”

She added: “I’m not going to say I can win again. That’s not possible at this level, but I do think I can have top-10s on the LPGA Tour though. The way I hit the ball the first two days in Carnoustie was really quite good. I hit a couple of 2-irons that only maybe four or five players in this field could hit, but that doesn’t make you a world beater.”

Always her own biggest critic, Davies was delighted with all the positive reactions she received at Carnoustie, but she knows deep down that it was borne out of respect for what she has achieved in her long and successful career and what she has given back to the game.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “I was delighted to hear what people were saying about me. It was very nice. But when you are as old as I am you become a bit of a novelty. It’s ‘look at old Laura over there, she’s doing well this week.’ But I have higher expectations of myself than

others do. Maybe I need to work on that.

I tried too hard over the weekend and got in my own way. My brain is cashing checks that my body can’t keep up with anymore.”

One upside of early tee times for the final two rounds at Carnoustie was that it enabled Davies to slip seamlessly into the Sky Sports commentary booth and serve up her unique brand of no-nonsense insight into the players competing at the top end of the leaderboard. With her expert knowledge combined with a dry wit, Davies looks certain to take on a more permanent role in TV and radio commentary when she does finally look to the next chapter of her career.

There’s also the old issue of the Solheim Cup captaincy, one that she has consistently rejected while there was still an ounce of a chance that she could play herself onto the team or earn a captain’s pick. Those days are long gone, and it seems only right and proper that Davies should lead Europe’s leading ladies into battle at some point soon, perhaps for the 2023 renewal at Finca Cortesin in Spain.

NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2021 GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

Wiltshire pals triumph at PGA Super 60s Championship Wiltshire golfers Graham Laing and Steve Cook crowned a 45-year friendship by winning the PGA Super 60s Championship in dramatic circumstances at Tewkesbury Park Golf Club in Gloucestershire.

Laing, the Head PGA Professional at North Wiltshire Golf Club, was blissfully unaware of the significance of the 20-foot putt his amateur partner faced on the final hole on the Deerpark Course at the Gloucestershire resort. Neither was Cook.

“That was just as well,” said the 13-handicapper after coolly propelling the ball into its target for a tournament-clinching nett birdie. “If I’d known what holing or missing the putt meant I would have been a bag of nerves and probably missed it!”

In the event, Cook’s successful putt meant the duo amassed 87 points from two rounds

Farleigh flies the flag for female golfers Farleigh Golf Club is reinforcing its commitment to women’s golf with a busy year of events and coaching sessions to tap into a new generation of female golfers of all ages and abilities.

With a central focus of attracting more women into the sport from a young age and breaking down any barriers to participation, Farleigh has been officially named a Girls Golf Rocks venue through England Golf.

Aimed at girls between the ages of five and 18, the objective of the initiative is to teach aspiring golfers the basics of the game in a fun and friendly way, with pathways for continued engagement and progression put in place for those who

in the Stableford betterball format event to win by a single point and claim the £1,250 first prize.

Moreover, according to Laing, it was typical of Cook’s contribution to the partnership during the second round.

“Steve played out of his skin,” he said.

“Like him I didn’t realise what holing that putt meant but, given the way he played, I’m not surprised he did. What is surprising is the fact that we won. We’ve been friends for 45 years and playing golf together all that time, but we’ve never won anything before.”

As well as lauding his partner, Laing, a finalist in the 2019 SkyCaddie Pro-Captain Challenge, was fulsome in his praise for the venue. He added: “The last time I played here was in a pro-am shortly after the course

develop a keen interest in playing the sport.

The programme included running sixweek courses for girls throughout the summer holidays, which comprised of six one-hour sessions with Farleigh’s expert PGA professionals.

The Surrey venue has also put on several successful beginner courses for women of all ages. These five-week courses were free to sign up and included tuition from Farleigh’s PGA Professionals in the form of five one-hour lessons, with an aim of ensuring that the early stages of the players’ golfing journey are grounded with accurate technique and that they are confident with the fundamentals of the game.

As expected, these courses were extremely popular, so much so that the club had to put on additional sessions to cope with the demand.

Farleigh has also made great strides in providing equal competitive playing opportunities by making all its weekend Medals and Stableford club competitions open to all seven-day members, as opposed to having separate competitions

Nizels unveils new practice academy

■ GRAHAM LAING & STEVE COOK

opened in the 1970s. Let’s say I wasn’t tempted to return back then. but I am now.

The course has really matured. It’s also in great condition and it’s clear a huge amount of work has gone into it.”

Cook s pièce de résistance on the 18th signalled disappointment for Nic Gilks, a PGA pro and owner of Bramcote Waters Golf Course in Warwickshire, and his brother Andrew, a member at The Warwickshire Golf Club. They finished on 86 points tied second with the Smiths – Martin, a PGA pro at Hartley Wintney Golf Club in Hampshire, and Brian, a member of Mendip Golf Club in Somerset.

for men and women. The previous makeup of Farleigh’s female membership meant there were limited chances for working women who weren’t able to get out on the golf course as frequently through the week to compete in organised events – something that Farleigh’s management were very keen to change.

James Ibbetson, Farleigh’s general manager, said: “It is a real focus of ours to push the women’s game forward, and we hope that with the continuation of our beginner courses, and the changes we have made to our weekend competitions, that there is far more room for female players to grow and reach their maximum potential whilst at the club."

Back in the swing: Nizels Golf Club in Kent opened a new practice area for junior and beginner golfers last month after benefitting from a Kent Golf Club Development Grant. The new facility comprises four all-weather mats that are being used for individual and group lessons as well as free practice.

Stoneham to open new £1m golf academy European Tour star Richard Bland will be hitting the first ball at the official opening of a new golf academy opening at Stoneham Golf Club later this month.

The 2021 Betfred British Masters champion, who is the Stoneham’s attached touring professional, will strike the first blow on the new driving range and provide attendees with a short demonstration of his short game skills. Trick shot specialist Jeremy Dale will also be in attendance to treat us to a demonstration of his skills, as well as

hosting an interview with Bland.

The Stoneham Academy, which has been more than five years in the planning and construction, offers a state-of-the-art practice facility for members and visitors undertaking the various teaching programmes to be provided by Head PGA Professional Ian Young and his team.

Designed by James Edwards of EDI, and costing more than £1 million, the club hopes that the new academy will become a centre of golf teaching excellence in Hampshire and serve as

an inspiration for future generations of golfers at the club to work at their games.

The Stoneham Academy will also serve as a Trackman Showcase Facility, with Trackman technology being available in all covered bays of the driving range and a mobile version available for the seven outside hitting points.

Delight for Darling with Girls’ Amateur win Hannah Darling fought off a late comeback bid from Beth Coulter to continue her dream summer and win the R&A Girls’ Amateur Championship at Fulford.

The 18-year-old Scot began the week with selection to the Great Britain and Ireland team for the Curtis Cup and ended it in style by defeating Ireland’s Coulter by two holes.

Darling lived up to her status as the highest-ranked player in the field – 27th – and continued a superb spell of golf this year. The Broomieknowe Golf Club member has also won the St Rule Trophy, finished runner-up at the Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open Championship, and reached the semi-finals of The Women’s Amateur and Scottish Women’s Amateur.

While conditions were overcast and breezy, the pair lit up the course after sharing six birdies in the first five holes to sit all square – with Darling single putting four of them.

In front of an appreciative crowd, Coulter’s bunker play kept her level before Darling made a birdie at the par-5 9th to edge ahead at the turn. Darling then holed from eight feet for another birdie at the 12th following a superb approach, before Coulter conceded the long 13th after finding long rough to the right of the green and trail three down. But the 17-year-old hit back by winning the short 14th with a solid par and then holed superbly for a birdie from 20 feet at the 16th to reduce her arrears to one hole.

Kirkistown Castle’s Coulter passed up a good opportunity at the 17th to go all square, before Darling kept her cool to strike two impressive shots onto the par-5 18th. The Scot putted close for birdie, with Coulter unable to better it after finding the trees off the tee.”

Darling said: “It’s amazing to win at Fulford again, I honestly can’t believe it. I felt very nervous before I played today and I holed a really good putt on the 1st to settle me. I’ve putted well all week and knew I had to get off to a strong start. Against Beth, the story couldn’t be better. I really did think it might be her time today after three years ago but I’m obviously very grateful to win it. The names on the trophy are so good.”

Darling also sealed exemptions into the R&A Women’s Amateur Championship, the US Girls’ Junior Championship, AIG Women’s Open Final Qualifying andthe Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

[15]

[16] SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEWS GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

A CAPITAL CHOICE London Golf Club made a welcome return to the European Tour with its staging of the Cazoo Classic, which was captured by first-time winner Calum Hill

T

he eagerly-awaited return of top class international golf to the London Golf Club proved a roaring success, with players and fans alike enjoying four days of superb competitive action over the Kent venue’s renowned International course.

Although boasting a strong field, the Cazoo Classic, which was formerly known as the English Open, also provided an opportunity for many of the tour’s newcomers and lesser lights to challenge for top honours, as well as earn some vital Race to Dubai ranking points as the 2020-21 season moves into its final quarter.

The first round saw Hampshire’s Richard Bland continue his remarkable season, with the winner of this summer’s British Masters at The Belfry opening up with a seven-under-par 65 to take a one-shot lead ahead of fellow Englishmen Jordan Smith and Dale Whitnell and American Sihwan Kim. With the International Course’s rough up and the greens running fast, Jack Nicklaus’s design proved a real challenge, with a generous breeze making scoring far from easy.

Moving onto Friday’s play, Bland dropped back into a share of fifth after a second round 71, with Whitnell adding a 68 to share the half-way lead with Wales’s Rhys Enoch, who fired a best-of-theday 65. Scotland’s Calum Hill, who came close to breaking his tour duck at the previous week’s Hero Open at Fairmont St Andrews, fired a second round 67 to move himself into a share of third on nine under with Smith, who added a 69 to his opening 66.

Saturday’s ‘moving day’ proved just that for Denmark’s Rasmus Højgaard, who fired a course record equalling 62 to move from tied 46th to the very top of the leaderboard with 18 holes to play.

CAZOO CLASSIC LEADERBOARD 1 CALUM HILL

-16

2 ALEX LEVY

-15

3 CALLUM SHINKWIN RASMUS HØJGAARD JAMIE DONALDSON RICHARD BLAND

-14

7 LARS VAN MEIJELA

-13

8 KALLE SAMOOJA

-12

9 RICHIE RAMSAY BEN EVANS

-11

The 20-year-old Dane bagged six birdies in his front nine of 30 and added four more on the back nine to set the clubhouse target on 14 under and take a three-shot lead into Sunday’s final round.

Hill was somewhat becalmed on a day of low scoring, but his third round 70 kept him securely in the hunt, while Smith was left to rue a round that started brightly with five birdies on the bounce from the third to see him out in 31, only to drop four shots coming home. It all added up to a 70, which took him into share of second place on 11 under. The other big mover on Saturday was veteran Welshman Jamie Donaldson, whose 66 saw him move into a share of sixth place, five shots behind the leader.

Højgaard, who already has two European Tour titles to his name since turning pro in 2019, looked a solid bet to add to his tally following Saturday’s fireworks, but he got off to shaky start on Sunday with a bogey at the first inviting the chasing pack to close the gap. Bland fired three birdies in his first five holes to do just that, while Donaldson got off to an even better start, going five under for his first 10 holes to give the 45-year-old hopes of bagging his first win since 2014. Further down the leaderboard, Frenchman Alex Levy was setting light to the International Course, bagging eight birdies en route to a closing 64 to set the clubhouse lead at 15 under.

But it was Calum Hill, bidding to put the disappointment of losing his 54-hole lead in Scotland the previous week, who laid down the biggest challenge to Højgaard. Two shots back as he reached the turn, birdies at 10, 13 and 15 edged him clear of the pack on 16 under. A birdie opportunity at 16 lipped out, but the three-time Challenge Tour winner holed a 10-footer to save

■ LOCAL GOLF FANS TURNED OUT IN THEIR NUMBERS TO SUPPORT THE EUROPEAN TOUR'S RETURN TO LONDON GOLF CLUB

■ HAMPSHIRE'S RICHARD BLAND CONTINUED HIS HOT FORM WITH A THIRD PLACED FINISH

par after a wayward tee shot at the par-three next, and a two-putt par from off the final green was good enough to secure the 26-year-old from Kirkcaldy’s breakthrough title.

Speaking of his first win at Europe’s top level, Hill, who graduated from the Challenge Tour last season, said: “It’s brilliant and I’m delighted. I’m happy with how I managed to play my last 11 or 12 holes and I’m really proud of what I managed to do. I’m also happy I know I can get into Wentworth for the PGA Championship now, as that was in doubt. This is the starting point and if I can take it on from here I’ll see how far I can go.”

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CHAMPIONS Golf News’ Matt Nicholson experiences the full championship challenge set by the Heritage Course when teeing it up there the day after the CAZOO Classic I’ve played at the London Golf Club many times over the years, mostly on the International Course, and experienced the amazing service and attention to detail the club offers, but I’ve never played off the back tees, with Sunday pin positions, on a 7,208-yard course set up to test the game’s very best players.

After a few practice putts that raced six feet past the cup on the decidedly rapid practice green, I stepped, somewhat nervously, on to the first tee, with a starter greeting us with the cheery words that conditions were tougher than any of the players had during the tournament. After a couple of practice swings, the game got under way with a decent drive down the first, a 398-yard par four.

I’m not going to bore you – or myself – with a shot-by-shot analysis, but I can tell you it was incredibly tough. It was the kind of round where every hole felt you were playing like Stroke Index 1 or 2 at your home club. The rough was brutal, the greens firm and very fast, the greenside rough was cut in three different grades, while every greenside bunker was deep enough to obscure your view of the pin.

Without doing too much wrong – OK, I lost four or five balls – I must have shot 20 over my nine handicap. After we retreated to the safety and comfort of the clubhouse, with our tails very much between our legs, I, and the rest of our group, came away with renewed respect for the talent and skill that enables these guys to knock it round under par day in day out.

I’ve also doff my hat to the course managers and greenkeeping staff who produce these incredible course conditions and superb playing surfaces on which the game’s best players can show their skills.

NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2021 GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

Shaw-Radford birdies last two holes to win Boys’ Champion of Champions Yorkshire’s Dylan Shaw-Radford conjured up back-to-back birdies on his final two holes to seal victory in the English Boys’ County Champion of Champions at Woodhall Spa. The 16-year-old carded rounds of 70 and 71 on the Hotchkin Course was good enough to fend off 29 fellow champions from rival counties around England, with his five under par total giving him a two-shot margin of victory over nearest challenger, Warwickshire’s Seb Cave.

Shaw-Radford, who is a members at Huddersfield Golf Club, becomes the third player from Yorkshire to win the title, following in the footsteps of current European Tour star Matt Fitzpatrick and 2021 Walker Cup player Ben Schmidt.

On a perfect day for scoring, Shaw-Radford held a

two-shot lead after 18 holes thanks to a three-under par round featuring 13 pars, four birdies and just a solitary bogey. Cave threatened to peg him back in the afternoon, but consecutive birdies on the 35th and 36th holes from Shaw-Radford meant his rival needed to eagle the par-five 18th to force a play-off. Despite finding a greenside bunker in two, Cave was unable to produce the miracle shot from the sand made heavy by torrential Friday afternoon rain and the title went the way of the Yorkshireman.

Lancashire’s Andrew Haswell finished in third place after bouncing back from a three over par 76 in the morning to shoot a best-of-the-day round of 68 in the afternoon.

Ifield pair capture PING Women’s Fourball title Ifield Golf Club’s Clair Milton and Sally Brown won the 2021 PING Women’s Fourball Betterball trophy after combining to rack up 46 points in the final held at Thonock Park in Gainsborough.

The Sussex pair, who scored 23 points for each nine holes, edged out Wallasey’s Karen Voas and Sue Robinson by single point, with the Merseyside pairing landing second on countback ahead of Nizel’s Jane Vail and Luisa Makepeace and Dorking’s Debbie Gale and Jackie Hughes.

■ CL AIR MILTON AN

D SALLY BROW N

The PING Mixed Fourball Betterball trophy, which was also played at Thonock Park, was won by Anne Lowrey and Paul Gabriel from Peterborough Milton Golf Club with a combined score of 47 stableford points. In another extremely tight finish, the Cambridgeshire duo finished a shot ahead of Southsea’s Davina and Matthew Sheath, with Lincoln’s Ray and Susan Brown finishing a further shot back in third.

■ MAIDENHEAD GC HAS BEEN SOLD TO MAKE WAY FOR 2,000 NEW HOMES

Maidenhead Golf Club accepts £16m bid to give up lease for housing development The members of Maidenhead Golf Club have voted to accept a £15.95 million offer from the Royal Borough of Berkshire Council to relinquish the lease for its land and find a new home for the club.

After an extraordinary general meeting, which was held on September 9, members of club voted 246-46 in favour of the new deal, paving the way for more than 2,000 homes to be built on the 32-acre golf course under the Borough Local Plan.

The offer, which is a revised bid from one that was rejected by the club in 2018, includes a new surrender date of December 2025 –

two-and-a-half years later than the previous submission. The club, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, has previously said that any money generated from a sale would be used to help it find a new home.

The club’s lease still had 19 years left to run, but it is understood that the Conservative-run council was prepared to use a compulsory purchase order to secure the site so that it can push ahead with its house building plans.

Over 4,500 people signed a petition for the golf course to be converted into a public park, but this was rejected in March.

[17]

[18] SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEWS GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

POPERT EYES GOLF’S BIGGEST PRIZES

Born with cerebral palsy of the lower body, Kent amateur Kipp Popert is making big waves at every level of the game, but the 23-year-old is determined not to be defined by his condition and is leading the battle to break down barriers for golfers with a disability

G

etting your handicap down to plus-three would be a tall order for 99.9% of the golfing population, without factoring in the challenges that are faced on a daily basis by Kipp Popert, a supremely talented youngster from Kent who is enjoying a rapid rise up the rankings for golfers with a disability following a run of hot form this summer.

Having been born 10 weeks premature, Popert was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy that affects his lower body.

Throughout his teenage years a successful summer on the golf course would be followed by another operation – the lengthening of compacted muscles and foot reconstruction among them – plus protracted recuperation time as routine.

“The free health care in this country means I have been able to undergo procedures that I wouldn’t have been able to go in for in other countries,” says Popert, who is a member at Wildernesse Golf Club and Royal Cinque Ports. “It would have been easier if I didn’t want to go into professional sport, but I wanted a chance to be able to use my feet as best I could.

There were times when I missed a whole year of golf.”

Now 23, and having recently graduated from Birmingham University, Popert is now eyeing up some of next year’s top amateur events, including the Amateur Championship and ■ KIPP POPERT IS HOPING TO COMPETE IN NEXT YEAR'S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

I KNOW THAT IF I WORK HARD I CAN IMPROVE MY CONDITION AND MY ABILITY TO LIVE WITH IT. I DO EVERTHING I CAN TO DO AS MUCH AS I CAN Lytham Trophy, before he thinks about the next stage of his golfing career, which may ultimately lie in the professional ranks should his upward trajectory remain on course.

Having competed in both able-bodied and disabled competitions throughout his career, the pro ranks certainly look within the realms of possibility judged on Popert’s recent victory at the English Open for Golfers with a Disability, where rounds of 72 and 71 saw him finish seven shots clear of his nearest challenger at Whittlebury Park in June. His stunning 36-hole total showed just why he harbours ambitions of pushing for tour status now that he has finished his studies.

This summer has seen Popert excel on the world stage, competing in a series of 36-hole tournaments jointly organised by the European Tour and the European Disabled Golf Association that run alongside main European Tour events. His most recent triumph came at last month’s EDGA Hero Open at Fairmont St Andrews, where he shot rounds of 77 and 66 to finish ten strokes ahead of his rivals.

His aggregate scores have qualified him to take part in the EDGA Dubai Finale, which is being staged at the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in November, giving another opportunity for Popert to showcase his talents to a wider audience.

“My ultimate ambition is higher than anyone would say, so I’ll keep that to myself, but my long-term goal is to have a professional career on the European Tour,” he says. “It’s a real challenge, but I have the backing of my parents, who are both doctors, and my clubs at Wildernesse and Royal Cinque Ports, and I’m determined to give it everything. I’ve finished university now and can dedicate more time to golf.”

Popert has no cause to underplay the hurdles before him. Golf is a game of physical rotation and, especially in the modern era, power. The Kent player’s limitations in that respect seem obvious. “My disability is not progressive, so it will not get worse other than the things that happen to your muscles as you get older anyway,” Popert says. “That has always helped me mentally; I know that if I work hard I can improve my condition and ability to live with it. I do everything I can to be able to do as much as I can.

“I have added clubhead speed over the last year and think I

■ KIPP WON THE EDGA HERO OPEN TROPHY AT FAIRMONT ST ANDREWS

can add more. The beautiful thing about golf and what gives me a chance is that 70% of shots are hit from 120 yards and in.

An elite player from 120 yards in will score well. The modern game is going a certain way because of distance, but I can still work extremely hard at the other parts of my game. It’s in my nature to keep pressing on because of all the setbacks and operations I have had from a young age.”

Yet despite all the hurdles that have been jumped for disability sport in recent years, one domain continues to preclude Kipp and his fellow disabled golfers with participating. Despite the Olympic Games having a golf element since 2016, the Paralympics has not yet followed suit – although not for want of trying. The International Golf Federation, which has overseen the sport’s Olympic return, is desperate for Paralympic inclusion and has tabled multiple bids to be admitted, with the most recent one, for Paris 2024, already having been turned down by the IOC. Popert, like many disabled golfers, is frustrated at the IOC’s ponderous decision making, but remains confident that his time will come. “As golfers we play for ourselves a lot of the time, but the biggest honour is to represent your country.

I watched cerebral palsy football at London 2012 and was blown away. I would be amazing to represent Team GB at the Paralympics one day. Hopefully it will happen, and I will be ready. If I can set a high bar and people look up to me, that would be a great honour.”

FEATURE | SEPTEMBER 2021 GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

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[19]

WIN THE ULTIMATE GOLF & FOOTBALL EXPERIENCE! We’ve teamed up with The Grove, London’s inspiring country escape, to give one Golf News reader the opportunity to win a truly special sporting day of a lifetime for themselves and three friends.

The four lucky winners will start their golf experience on Monday, October 18 with a morning game on The Grove’s 18-hole championship golf course – consistently ranked among the UK’s Top 100 – and host venue of the 2016 British Masters and the 2006 WGC American Express Championship won by Tiger Woods.

The Kyle Phillips-designed course is famed for its exceptional year-round conditioning and navigates its way through beautiful rolling Hertfordshire countryside within the five-star, luxury estate.

Our lucky foursome will then conclude their day of sporting experiences at the Emirates Stadium in North London, where they will have tickets to watch Arsenal v Crystal Palace (8pm kick-off) from the comfort of an Executive Box.

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GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

STORY BEHIND THE PIC EUROPEAN RYDER CUP TEAM • WALTON HEATH, 1981

I

f ever you wanted a who’s who of European golf over the last 30 years then this picture just about captures it. It features no fewer than five future Ryder Cup captains, and players who have experienced some of the most pivotal moments in Ryder Cup history.

Although the players have their names written on their bags, it is worth repeating them in print. From left to right we have Bernard Gallagher, Des Smyth, Jose Maria Canizares, Mark James, Eammon Darcy, Nick Faldo, captain John Jacobs, Peter Oosterhuis, Sandy Lyle, Sam Torrance, Howard Clarke, Bernhard Langer and Manuel Pinero.

One glaring absence from the European line-up was Seve Ballesteros, who was controversially left out in a row over appearance money. Seve was also considered to have been playing too much golf in America, and had not supported the European Tour.

How times don’t change.

Although the likes of Langer and Faldo may be the stuff of Ryder Cup legend now, back in 1981 they were just boys, with barely a major among them. Despite enjoying a hefty home advantage, this youthful side suffered the worst defeat by a European team in the history of the Ryder Cup, going down 18.5-9.5 at Walton Heath – which was a late replacement for The Belfry, which was still being built – to a mighty American team led by the late Dave Marr.

The US dream team included some of the biggest names in the history of the game, who were all at the height of their powers, including Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Hale Irwin, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite and Johnny Miller. Between them they has amassed no fewer than 36 majors and looked every inch the winners in waiting.

Despite the seemingly one-sided nature of the contest, the first day’s foursomes and four ball matches saw the teams enjoy a closely fought battle, with the European team taking a slender 4.5-3.5 advantage thanks in large part to two wins from the team of Lyle and James, although Watson and Nicklaus handed out 4&3 drubbing to Faldo and Oosterhuis.

And the match still looked like going either way after the second day’s opening four balls, which USA won 3-1 to take the match to 5.5-6.5. However, the rest of the encouter was almost unwatchable for fans of the home

team, as the visitors swept to a 4-0 whitewash in the afternoon foursomes to take a 10-5-5.5 lead. Needing just four points to win the Cup from the Sundays’ singles, the US team racked up the required results in the opening five matches, with convincing wins from Trevino, Kite, Nelson and Crenshaw. The final tally of 4-8 made for miserable reading for European supporters, with Nicklaus adding insult to injury by winning the final match 5&3 against Darcy.

'The Massacre at Walton Heath' was the America’s 12th consecutive win in the biannual event, and led to calls from many quarters for the event to be scrapped. Just four years later, at the newly-built Belfry, Europe won its first Ryder Cup, and the balance of power has never been quite the same since.

THE US DREAM TEAM INCLUDED SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN THE HISTORY OF THE GAME NICKLAUS, WATSON, TREVINO, IRWIN, KITE, CRENSHAW AND MILLER

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a possible 8, including a 3-1 win in the fourballs, to close the gap to just two points at 9-7, but leaving Europe needing ‘just’ five points in Monday’s singles to retain the coveted trophy.

In a day of high drama, Europe started the headto-head matches brightly and got on the board early when Leona Maguire, playing in the third match out, kept up her phenomenal form with a 5&4 thrashing of Jennifer Kupcho. Another point soon went on the board for the blue and yellows when Sagstrom recorded a 3&2 victory over Ewing. Minutes later Boutier clinched a 5&4 win over Mina Harigae to leave Europe needing only two more points to retain the trophy.

On a week when 16 of the 28 many matches made it to the 18th green, the final day was no exception and the first match saw Anna Nordqvist and Lexi Thompson share the points.

The start of a USA fightback then began as Nelly Korda pulled a point back with a 1up win over Georgia Hall, while Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Austin Ernst halved their match. The Americans gained two more points when Megan Khang and Brittany Altomare beat Sophia Popov and Carlota Ciganda to bring the scores to 13-11.

THE BALL OVERHANGING INCIDENT ADDED A BIT OF SPICE TO A MATCH THAT WASN'T SHORT ON TENSION

BE ANY ’S BAT TLERS DO IT AGAIN! Team Europe secured only its second victory on US soil with a thrilling 15-13 win over USA in the 2021 Solheim Cup at the Inverness Club in Ohio

R

ecords tumbled at the 17th renewal of the inter-continental match play battle between Europe and America’s best golfers, with Europe retaining the cup they won in Scotland three years ago with a battling display against an American team packed with higher ranked and more experienced players.

Scotland’s Catriona Matthew became the first European captain to lead the team to consecutive victories in the matches, while Ireland’s Leona Maguire became the most successful rookie in the history of the matches, bagging 4.5 points from a possible five. The 26-year-old from Cavan formed a brilliant partnership with Mel Reid and Georgia Hall in the foursomes and fourballs, and then destroyed Jennifer Kupcho 5&4 in the singles to get some early points on the board for Europe on Monday.

Despite having almost no fans to cheer them

on, Europe led the matches from start to finish, ensuring the chants of ‘U-S-A, U-S-A’ were kept to the bare minimum. American captain Pat Hurst’s decision to start the matches with the foursomes backfired badly on Saturday morning, with only Celine Boutier and Georgia Hall’s halved match with Ally Ewing and Megan Khang denying Europe a clean sweep and enabling the visitors to take a 3.5-0.5 lead. The much-hyped Korda sisters, Nelly and Jessica, were taken down by Maguire and Reid with a 1up win that went down to the final hole.

Europe held their three-point after the first set of fourball matches on Saturday afternoon, which were tied 2-2, with the visitor’s points coming from the pairings of Anna Nordqvist and Matilda Castren, and Georgia Hall and Leona Maguire.

The afternoon’s action was overshadowed by a rules incident in the opening match between Nelly Korda and Ally Ewing and Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Madelene Sagstrom. With the match all-square after 12 holes, Korda had a putt for birdie that came to rest on the very edge of the cup. Conceding the tap-in par, Sagstrom picked up Korda’s ball and threw it back to her with the hole seemingly halved in pars. However, moments later a US rules official deemed the ball to have been overhanging the cup and Sagstrom had not given the ball enough time to potentially drop – seven seconds rather than the allotted ten – and the birdie putt was judged to have been holed and the hole won by Korda to take the American duo one up - which was the eventual margin of victory. After much debate between players and captains, and studying of slow-motion TV footage, the decision stood and the matches moved on, but it added a bit of spice to a competition that is never short on tension.

Sunday’s matches saw a Team USA fightback of sorts, with the home side taking 4.5 points out of

■ LEFT: IRELAND'S LEONA MAGUIRE WENT UNDEFEATED IN HER FIVE MATCHES ■ BELOW: EUROPEAN CAPTAIN CATRIONA MATTHEW ENJOYS THE SWEET TASTE OF VICTORY

Retaining the trophy came down to rookie Matilda Castren, with the Finn heading down the 18th fairway 1up in her match against Lizette Salas. Castren made an excellent up-and-down from the bunker to seal that all-important 14th point and ensure Europe retained the cup, while Emily Kristine Pedersen, in the final match of the day, sealed the outright victory with a 1up win over Danielle Kang, holing a 10-foot birdie putt to start of the celebrations in earnest.

“It was so cool having the whole team there and just seeing those blue and yellow colours on the sidelines and people cheering,” said Castren. “I knew that putt was important, but I didn’t exactly know what the score was at that time. I just knew I had to make it. I picked the right line, gave it the right pace, and it went straight in.”

Winning captain Catriona Matthew was unsurprisingly full of praise for her young team, which had come into the matches as big outsiders. “I’m so proud of this team. It is really up to them, they are the ones that won it. They deserve all the credit, so thank you, team. You made me look good It was really nerve-wracking watching those final matches. Matilda made a fantastic up-and-down from a plugged lie in the bunker and then holed an 18-footer to win her match. That tide had been kind of turning towards the Americans, and I think it just turned it back towards us, and then Emily finished it off with her victory on the last hole.”

RYDER CUP 2020 special 16-page supplement

MEET THE TEAMS

AWAY THE LADS!

All 24 players in profile

Can Europe win on US soil again?

+ exclusive interviews with Lee Westwood, Tyrrell Hatton & Tony Finau

WHISTLING STRAITS Your hole-by-hole guide to the Ryder Cup course

CAPTAIN'S CALL Padraig Harrington in the spotlight

RYDER CUP SPECIAL IN ASSOCIATION WITH

AWAY THE L ADS! Happy to play the perennial role of underdogs, Padraig Harrington’s European team will have to draw on all of its battling instincts if they are to pull off an away win against a US team packed with proven winners at the 43rd Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, writes Golf News Editor Nick Bayly

■ SEVEN OF THE 12 PLAYERS FROM EUROPE'S BIG MARGIN WIN IN PARIS ARE BACK FOR 2021, INCLUDING IAN 'THE POSTMAN' POULTER, WHO IS ONE OF SIX ENGLISHMEN IN THE TEAM

A

lthough Europe has won four out of the last eight Ryder Cup matches played on US soil since 1987, the American team’s collective might and the absence of travelling support make the odds of Padraig Harrington’s band of brothers bagging an away win look increasingly long.

While Europe has only lost a home Ryder Cup twice since 1981, it’s fair to say that ‘our’ away form hasn’t been quite so stellar, although a 50% per cent win record since 1987 still makes for good reading for those that enjoy sporting statistics.

Most bookmakers have Team USA as 8/15 favourites and Europe at 2/1, but for a two-horse race that has only ever had two draws in its entire history, Europe represents some excellent value for those who bet on raw stats rather than heartfelt sentiment.

But the mood music is very much in the host team’s favour, with the US team stacked with major champions, Olympic gold medallists and recent PGA Tour winners, while Padraig Harrington’s team, barring world No.1 Jon Rahm,

is looking a little lean when it comes to recent winning form of any kind.

Should Harrington lead Europe to glory at Whistling Straits, his career will have an outstanding team achievement alongside his epic personal highs. The role of a Ryder Cup captain can sometimes be wildly overplayed, but should Europe upset Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson et al on their own patch, the Irishman might not to have to buy a beer, or a Guinness, in bars at home and across the entire continent of Europe for the rest of his life.

Lost, but not entirely forgotten, in the build-up to the 43rd staging of the Ryder Cup is the dynamic that will shift things heavily in favour of the United States. With travellers from Europe still currently barred from entering US borders, the likelihood is that the only support that Harrington’s men can expect will

come from those hardcore European golf fans already living and working in the States who can be bothered to take a week’s holiday in Wisconsin.

With no Barmy Army, or golf’s equivalent, to cheer every European shot or boo Bryson DeChambeau’s every move, the atmosphere will be like no Ryder Cup there has ever been.

Well, certainly in the modern era of almost constant chanting and Mexican Waves.

With Joe Biden unlikely to loosen restrictions on UK arrivals any time soon, TV viewers can expect the Stars & Stripes to dominate the backdrop at Whistling Straits, with any renditions of ‘Olé, Olé, Olé’ likely to be drowned out by the repetitive strains of “U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A!” While there’s no doubt that the absence of the verbally combative rival crowds will rob the

RYDER CUP SPECIAL IN ASSOCIATION WITH

matches of much of their spectacle, there is also a danger that the matches themselves could be one-sided affairs if the current form of the US and European teams plays out.

So full was Steve Stricker’s hand that he had the luxury of being able to overlook a handful of Ryder Cup stalwarts for his team, including Patrick ‘Captain America’ Reed, who had his end-of-season push for Ryder Cup points curtailed by a bout of pneumonia that apparently had him at death’s door. Webb Simpson was also swerved in favour of rookies such as Daniel Berger and Scottie Scheffler, who boast much better recent good form, and whose memory banks aren’t quite so full of past Ryder Cup defeats.

With questions arising over the US team’s dynamics – i.e. can Koepka and DeChambeau keep out of each other’s way for a week? – there remains the feeling that the US squad has enough raw firepower to overcome whatever Europe has to throw at them. With six captain’s picks over Harrington’s three, Stricker has been able to strengthen his team still further with the addition of his choices, opting for players like Tony Finau and Xander Schuaffele who are bang in form and have recent wins to their names.

Without ‘Uncle’ Phil Mickelson in the squad – ‘Lefty’ was handed the poisoned chalice of being drafted in as a late vice-captain – the US team has an exceptionally youthful look about it, and there don’t look to be too many natural born leaders amongst them. You know, the types to stand up in the team room and deliver a Churchillian rallying cry should heads begin to drop. Then perhaps that’s where the vicecaptains will earn their stripes (and stars), as all of them have been there and got the t-shirt, even though it has often been the loser’s t-shirt.

Stricker’s decision for half of his team to earn automatic qualification may well prove a masterstroke, and one that may ultimately lead to both sides going further down that route in years to come. With so many top Europeans playing an almost exclusively PGA Tour-based schedule these days, it feels like it can only be a matter

43RD RYDER CUP TIMETABLE

LAST 10 RYDER CUP RESULTS 2018 EUROPE WON 17½-10½ - Le Golf National 2016 USA WON 17-11 - Hazeltine 2014 EUROPE WON 16½-11½ - Gleneagles

WITH NO BARMY ARMY, OR GOLF’S EQUIVALENT, TO CHEER EVERY EUROPEAN SHOT OR BOO BRYSON DECHAMBEAU’S EVERY MOVE, THE ATMOSPHERE WILL BE LIKE NO RYDER CUP THERE HAS EVER BEEN of time before the European team is selected entirely on world rankings, rather than on points gathered from playing in European Tour events whose fields are often less than stellar.

But that debate is for another time. Right now, Harrington has to coax his team into doing what Europe does best – ignoring world rankings, tour wins and major victories and focus on the detail of what it will take to unsettle a home team that will not only be expected to win, but to win big. Do that, and they stand a good chance of completing a rare double-away win following the European Solheim Cup team’s stunning win earlier this month. Now that would really give fans of the blue and yellow something to cheer about. Olé, Olé, Olé….

FRIDAY SEPT 24 4 Foursomes and 4 Fourballs

■ "NO, IT'S MINE!" RYDER CUP VETERANS STEVE STRICKER AND PADRAIG HARRINGTON WILL BE LEADING THEIR TEAMS AT WHISTLING STRAITS

SATURDAY SEPT 25 4 Foursomes and 4 Fourballs

2012 EUROPE WON 14½-13½ - Medinah 2010 EUROPE WON 14½-13½ - Celtic Manor 2008 USA WON 16½-11½ - Valhalla 2006 EUROPE WON 18½-9½ - K Club 2004 EUROPE WON 18½-9½ - Oakland Hills 2002 EUROPE WON 15½-12½ - The Belfry 1999 USA WON 14½-13½ - Brookline

SUNDAY SEPT 26 12 Singles

F I N AU KEEPS THE FAITH

this grip and with this putter. I actually changed putter heads. I’ve been using a new PING putter for a couple of months and it’s played a big part in my recent improvement.

■ Did you feel like you needed a big

performance to get you into the Ryder Cup team and validate your selection? Yeah, no question about it. Starting the year, and every week that has gone by since, I told myself that if I didn’t win, I wasn’t going to make the team. Simple as that.

Although I’ve always been high in the rankings, I wanted to be on the team as a winner and playing good golf going into the Ryder Cup, rather than having just accrued some points along the way.

■ You switched to playing PING clubs in 2017

One of the most consistent performers on the global tours over the last five years, Tony Finau finally captured his second PGA Tour title when winning last month’s Northern Trust. An automatic qualifier for this year’s US Ryder Cup team, the 31-year-old from Utah looks destined for further glory ■ Although you got your first win in only your

can beat them, man, it’s just an uphill battle. That’s why I believe in myself and I believe in my team. second full season on the PGA Tour, how tough has it been to have to grind it out for another five years to win your second?

■ Given that most of your near misses have not There’s no doubt about it, it has been tough, come because of losing a lead or shooting a high especially for those around me who know how hard final round score, do you think the criticism of I’ve been working to get to this point. But I never your five-year winless run was a bit unfair? stopped believing in myself, and that’s the bottom Yeah, no question. But that’s how it is in sports, line. I’ve worked extremely hard, not only on my when you don’t seal the deal, as time goes by nogame, but on my body and my mind one is prepared to give you the to put myself into contention, and benefit of the doubt. So I knew I eventually I knew it was going to needed to prove people wrong by WHAT’S happen. It’s hard losing and it’s hard winning. That’s the bottom line and IN TONY losing under such intense scrutiny. that’s what sport is all about.

FINAU’S BAG? I’ve done it already a couple of times I knew that I was a closer; the this year, including in play-offs. It way that I play on Sundays tells me DRIVER: could discourage some people, I that I’m a closer and when I look PING G425 LST (7°) know that, but, if anything, it made at my scores, I’ve made plenty of me even hungrier to win. Having clutch putts. Just sometimes this FAIRWAY WOOD: PING G400 STRETCH said that, I hope I don’t have to wait game is funny. I feel like I’ve got 3 (12.5°) another five years for the next one! the short end of the stick for the most part coming down the stretch IRONS: PING and having a chance to win a golf ■ Do you feel like now that the BLUEPRINT (4-PW) tournament. In the Northern Trust pressure has been lifted you WEDGES: PING things went my way for a change can go out a win a lot more GLIDE FORGED and I was able to capitalise when tournaments? I’ve played really (50°, 56°), TITLEIST I needed to and I got the breaks well in a lot of big tournaments, but VOKEY DESIGN SM8 (60) when I needed them, so I ended up to chase down the world No.1 [Jon on top.

Rahm]on the final round of a FedEx PUTTER: PING But as far as a little bit of Cup play-off event, under those PLD ANSER 2 unfairness goes, I feel like when conditions, will certainly go into the PROTOTYPE it comes to looking at my record, old memory bank and hopefully I’ll BALL: I’ve played really nicely on Sundays continue moving forward and have TITLEIST PRO V1 for the most part. We don’t have more successes. to look too far from other than my last playoff. I shot 64 at Riviera. Say ■ You’ve had several close calls what you want, but that sounds like a pretty good in recent seasons, but what was the hardest player to me. defeat to take? I would say the toughest loss I had was against Webb Simpson at the 2020 Waste Management. I played beautifully all week. I had ■ You’ve been experimenting with a few the lead with a couple of holes to go, but Webb different putting styles this season. Have you birdied the last two in regulation and then birdied settled on one now? I actually changed my grip a the playoff hole to win it. Only a few weeks later couple of months ago. I had some success early in the pandemic struck and I had a long time to the year putting conventionally, but I went away think about that loss and what I could have done from it for a few months and now I’m back to it. differently.

Obviously, there’s something there, and I was able I have an extreme belief in myself – I have to. This to make some clutch putts at the Northern Trust, so game is hard enough as it is. If you can’t believe you that’s going to give me some great confidence with

after Nike exited the club business. How did you find the transition and how are you getting on with your current set up?

Funnily enough, prior to 2017, I had never even hit a Ping club, not even when I was an amateur, and now I’m on its tour staff. I’m now kicking myself that I didn’t try their clubs before, as I attribute a lot of my recent success to making the move to PING. I had the opportunity to try a lot of different brands of clubs, but PING’s gear was the best fit my game. There is so much great equipment out there, but their clubs performed at a high level, and I really didn’t skip a beat as soon as I put them in play.

The launch window is everything for me. I’m more of a feel player, and to be honest, I don’t really know a whole lot about TrackMan or Flightscope, because I don’t really use those things. I know enough to know where I need my numbers to be. For me, PING clubs come out in a high window, with not a lot of spin, which is what a lot of guys on tour are looking for.

I’m using Ping’s G425 LST driver. It comes out in a nice, high window with low spin. I currently averaging 305 yards off the tee, which is down five or six yards what I was in 2018, but I'm working on my ‘fairways hit’ stats, which still aren't quite where I want them to be. As far as spin is concerned, I’m right in the 2,2002,700rpm range. Anything lower than that and I know I’m not launching it high enough.

I put PING’s Blueprint forged irons in the bag at the end of 2018 and they feel great through the ground and at impact. They have the feel and workability of a normal blade, with even more forgiveness. My irons are a half-inch longer than standard and one-degree upright. I’m a little bit taller than most guys, and benefit from them being a bit more upright for consistent contact.

THE FINAU FACTFILE AGE: 31 HEIGHT: 6ft 4 WEIGHT: 14 St BORN: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA LIVES: Scottsdale, Arizona TURNED PRO: 2007 WORLD RANKING: 9 PGA TOUR APPEARANCES: 190 PGA TOUR WINS: 2016 Puerto Rico Open, 2021 Northern Trust CAREER TOP 10S 47 (8 2nds) BEST MAJOR FINISHES: Masters – 5th, 2019; PGA Championship – 4th, 2020;

US Open – 5th, 2018), The Open – 3rd, 2019.

CAREER PRIZE MONEY: $25.3m AVERAGE SCORING (2021): 69.9 (9th) AVERAGE DRIVING DISTANCE: 305 Yards (31st) DRIVING ACCURACY: 56.8% (160th) GREENS IN REGULATION: 67.1% (65th) PUTTS PER ROUND: 28.41 (19th)

RYDER CUP SPECIAL IN ASSOCIATION WITH

PADDY POWER Padraig Harrington has played in six Ryder Cups and been vice-captain three times. This year, he captains Europe for the first time. Here are his thoughts on the challenges that lie ahead at Whistling Straits, how he likes the shape of his team and what he has learned along the way

ON THE MAKE-UP OF HIS TEAM….

I'm really pleased with the whole balance of the team and I couldn't really have wished for a better group of players, whom I geninuely believe are best collection of ball strikers the Europe has had in a long time. I'm delighted Bernd Wiesberger played his way in. He's a great player and anybody who makes it into the team fully deserves it. He’s great ball striker, a great person for the golf course and he’ll be a great asset for the team.

ON THE DIFFICULTY OF CHOOSING HIS CAPTAIN’S PICKS…

It's given me a few sleepless nights and I even forgot to have lunch on the final day at Wentworth as I was all over the place trying to keep up with what was going on; but yes, I'm very happy with my picks.

Sergio was always going to get my vote after his season and his history with the Ryder Cup, while Ian [Poutler] was another 'must have.' He's undefeated in singles, and he brings an unbelievable passion to the team room and to the matches. He lifts himself, he lifts his playing partners, and he lifts the team, but you can’t pick a player just because of that.

He has played great all year. His stats are great, he has had the best ball striking year of his life, I’m thrilled because not only am I getting a player like Poulter who delivers, but also a player who is probably the best form of his life. I’m looking forward to having him there, and having him bring the heart and passion to the team.

Shane [Lowry] has been the name right on the edge and he has performed well over the summer under that pressure. He is well suited to the golf course and the conditions. His stats are great and they show he is one of the leading players. He is well suited to the team environment, there’s plenty of players in the team who are looking to play with Shane. Good consistent form has brought him to this position.

ON LEAVING JUSTIN ROSE OUT...

The fact of the matter is, with the quality of players Justin was going up against, the consistency of Shane Lowry, what Ian and Sergio have brought

over the years, somebody had to lose out and it really is as close as that. Ultimately somebody has to lose out. If you don't play your way in, it's a tough place to be and it easily could have been JR [Rose], He came to Wentworth under pressure and he performed, but maybe he needed a couple of more weeks like that, but it was just a step too far.

ON LIMITING HIS NUMBER OF CAPTAIN’S PICKS TO JUST THREE...

I didn’t want any more than three. I believe players should be given the right to qualify. Those who qualify deserve to be there. I think that’s another reason we’ve been so successful, because of the system. We give everybody a chance. You’ve got to give rookies a chance to qualify. That’s very important for the morale of the team, everybody feels they’re part of it. Plus, giving me six picks would have given me a huge headache.

ON THE PRESSURE TO WIN...

We’ve had so much success in recent times, it’s tough to be a captain now because there are expectations – years ago it wasn’t so bad, but that’s all changed now. There’s nothing like it.

There’s unbelievable pressure, tension, excitement.

It’s very much them against us and we’re the country cousins with a point to prove and chip on our shoulder. It’s tough playing away matches, especially to typical US-style venues like Hazeltine and Valhalla. Thankfully, Whistling Straits is a bit different; it’s a tough golf course, but it can be neutralised and our players should feel pretty comfortable with the set up.

ON EUROPE’S RECENT RYDER CUP DOMINANCE....

I think there are two reasons why we have done so well in recent years. Firstly, the players are good, and secondly, we are exceptionally motivated. It’s a big deal for Europe to win the Ryder Cup, it really is. The greatest achievement the European team can take is that we’ve made the Americans care about the Ryder Cup. They’re

■ PADRAIG HARRINGTON BELIEVES HE HAS ONE OF THE STRONGEST SET OF BALL STRIKERS THAT EUROPE HAS EVER ASSEMBLED

trying really hard to win it now, whereas during their years of dominance it didn’t grab their attention in quite the same way as it does now.

ON PICKING THE RIGHT FOURBALL AND FOURSOMES COMBINATIONS...

The statistics show that certain players are great when they’re paired with young rookies, and that certain players can’t carry anyone – they need somebody to carry them. There are all sorts of egos going on, and that’s what a good captain has to figure out – how can he get his players to play their best whenever they take to the course. Getting the pairings right is going to play a huge part in the outcome, as well the order of the Sunday singles.

ON THE ROLE OF VICE-CAPTAINS...

The vice-captains have the best seat in the house.

The captain is under pressure, the team and players are under pressure, but the vice-captains can just take it all in.

ON SWAPPING A MAJOR WIN FOR A WIN AS A RYDER CUP CAPTAIN...

I can only assume that the experience of winning a Ryder Cup as a captain will be up there with winning a Major as a player, but I’ll just have to wait to find out. If I go become a losing captain, I’ll endeavour to bury the experience somewhere.

That’s just human nature. I want to be a winning captain.

ON WINNING HIS FIRST RYDER CUP POINT IN 1999....

I’ll never forget winning my first full point against Mark O’Meara at Brookline. I hit a driver down the fairway on the last, hit a wedge on to the green and two-putted. It doesn’t sound that much now, but I had 152 yards to the flag – I normally hit a wedge 132 – and I put it two yards past the flag. That’s how pumped up I was. I two-putted from about 12 feet; the relief as the first putt stopped a foot by the hole was absolutely immense.

TEAM USA CAPTAIN: Steve Stricker VICE-CAPTAINS: Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson, Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson AVERAGE AGE OF TEAM: 29 AVERAGE WORLD RANKING: 8.6

COLLIN MORIKAWA

JUSTIN THOMAS

AGE: 24 WORLD RANKING: 3

AGE: 28 WORLD RANKING: 6

Ryder Cup appearances: Rookie Morikawa shined at Royal St George’s, winning his second major title at The Open to go along with his PGA Championship breakthrough last summer.

It’s hard to believe that he was still in college when the last Ryder Cup was played, but now he’ll bring perhaps the best iron game in the world with him to Whistling Straits for his debut.

DUSTIN JOHNSON AGE: 37 WORLD RANKING: 2 Ryder Cup appearances: 4 (‘10, ‘12, ‘16, ‘18) Ryder Cup record: P16 W7 L 9 D0 Johnson started the year as the top-ranked player in the world, fresh off a Masters win in November, and he added to that margin with a European Tour victory in February. He hasn’t quite been himself since, with no top-5 finishes in the last eight months. But his form has shown signs of a turnaround in recent weeks, notably a T8 finish at The Open, and given his Ryder Cup experience Johnson will likely play a significant role in Stricker’s squad.

Ryder Cup appearances: 1 Ryder Cup record: P5 W4 L1 D0 Thomas was a standout performer three years ago in Paris, leading the team in points won as a rookie. The high point for Thomas this season came at The Players Championship, where he shot 64, 68 over the weekend to win. His recent form has been solid, but not spectacular, with just one missed cut, but a tied fourth at the Northern Trust is his best result since his triumph at Sawgrass.

TONY FINAU AGE: 31 WORLD RANKING: 10 Ryder Cup appearances: 1 Ryder Cup record: P3 W2 L1 D0

Finau returns to the US team for the second time after Jim Furyk made him a captain’s pick in 2018, when he went 2-1-0 in Paris. Finau joins Stricker’s team in top form, having won the Northern Trust last month in a playoff, ending a five-year wait for a second PGA Tour win. Long off the tee - although not always the straightest – he will make an ideal four ball partner with a stunning

PATRICK CANTLAY

XANDER SCHAUFFELE

AGE: 29 WORLD RANKING: 4

AGE: 27 WORLD RANKING: 5

Ryder Cup appearances: Rookie Needing to win the final qualifying event to have a chance at bagging the last automatic spot, Cantlay did just that by beating Bryson DeChambeau in a play-off at the BMW Championship. He then went on to win the following week’s Tour Championship and comes into the Ryder Cup as arguably the most in-form player on the planet. His brilliant putting will be a major asset in all formats, as will his laserlike irons play.

Ryder Cup appearances: Rookie Another Ryder Cup rookie who seems like an old hand, the current Olympic champion went 3-2-0 in the 2019 Presidents Cup, when his singles victory over Adam Scott helped fuel America’s comeback victory in Australia. With three runnerup places this season and a third in the Tour Championship, he arrives in terrific form and has the all-round game to make an impact in all match play formats.

BROOKS KOEPKA

DANIEL BERGER

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER

AGE: 31 WORLD RANKING: 9

AGE: 28 WORLD RANKING: 16

AGE: 25 WORLD RANKING: 21

Ryder Cup appearances: 2 (‘16, ‘18) Ryder Cup record: P8 W4 L3 D1 Koepka missed six weeks of action this spring while recovering from a knee injury, but the four-time major champion got back into the winner’s circle in Phoenix and added a runner-up finish at the year’s first WGC event. Koepka saves his best golf for the biggest stages, finishing T6 or better in each of the last three majors, including runner-up at the PGA Championship.

Ryder Cup appearances: Rookie Berger will also be making his Ryder Cup debut, yet he will lean on valuable match play experiences gained in 2017, when he went 2-1 for the victorious US Presidents Cup team. One of the PGA Tour’s most consistent performers this season, he is coming off top-10 finishes in the US Open (7th) and Open Championship (8th), and was 8th in this month’s Tour Championship.

Ryder Cup appearances: Rookie Another Ryder Cup debutant, and the lowest ranked player in the team at a still impressive 21, Scheffler has been one of the most consistent performers in the top events during the qualifying period, finishing top eight or better in four of his five Major starts dating back to 2020. He represented the victorious US squad in the 2017 Walker Cup so is not stranger to match play..

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU

HARRIS ENGLISH

JORDAN SPIETH

AGE: 27 WORLD RANKING: 7

AGE: 32 WORLD RANKING: 11

AGE: 28 WORLD RANKING: 15

Ryder Cup appearances: 1 Ryder Cup record: P3 W0 L3 D0 DeChambeau has had a turbulent summer, including near misses at the BMW Championship and Torrey Pines, and went nearly three months without a top-10 finish, but his performance at the BMW showed just how explosive his game can be, and now the Tour’s longest hitter will have a chance to turn some heads in front of a home crowd – providing he doesn’t have a punch up with Brooks Koepka at the first team meeting...

Ryder Cup appearances: Rookie Another rookie, English has earned the nod from Steve Stricker with a strong 2021 campaign, during which he won twice (Sentry Tournament of Champions and Travelers Championship) to double his career victory total., while he also enjoyed a third place finish at the US Open. He will be playing in his first team competition since the 2011 Walker Cup, but doesn't lack for match play experience.

Ryder Cup appearances: 3 Ryder Cup record: P14 W7 L5 D2 Spieth will be playing in his fourth consecutive Ryder Cup when he tees it up at Whislting Straits, the longest current streak among the American contingent. After a period in the doldrums, the three-time Major champion’s resurgent 2021 season featured a victory at the Valero Texas Open. His career Ryder Cup stats make for good reading and he has only lost once in six outings in fourballs.

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TEAM EUROPE CAPTAIN: Padraig Harrington VICE-CAPTAINS: Luke Donald, Robert Karlsson, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell AVERAGE AGE OF TEAM:34.5 AVERAGE WORLD RANKING: 30

JON RAHM AGE: 26 WORLD RANKING: 1 Ryder Cup appearances: 1 Record: P3 W1 L2 D0 With 15 top-10s from 21 cuts made in 2021, Jon Rahm has arguably been the best golfer on the planet over the last nine months, as his ranking suggests. Amazingly, he only has one win to show for it, but it was a pretty big one – the US Open at Torrey Pines. A fiery competitor, JR could pair up with everyone and anyone and bring home the points, but Sergio Garcia would seem an obvious choice in the foursomes.

RORY MCILROY AGE: 32 WORLD RANKING: 15 Ryder Cup appearances: 5 (’10-’18) Record: P24 W11 L9 D4 Rory has experienced an inconsistent year. After missing the cut at the Masters, he came back to win the Wells Fargo for the third time in his very next start. He has shown better form at the end of the PGA Tour season, including a recent 4th at the BMW Championship.

A Ryder Cup veteran, Rory will be something of a leader for the European side and may well play in all five matches if early results go his way.

MATT FITZPATRICK

BERND WIESBERGER

AGE: 27 WORLD RANKING: 27

AGE: 35 WORLD RANKING: 61

Ryder Cup Appearances: 1 Ryder Cup record: P2 W0 L2 D0 After winning the Dubai World Championship in 2020, Fitzpatrick has produced a mixed bag of results either side of the Atlantic in 2021, with five top-10 finishes and five missed cuts from 19 events. A sole Ryder Cup appearance at Hazeltine in 2016 resulted in two defeats from two matches. A much more experienced campaigner now, the Yorkshireman looks sure to do better this time around,.

PAUL CASEY AGE: 44 WORLD RANKING: 23 Ryder Cup appearances: 4 (04, 06, 08, 18) Ryder Cup record: P12 W4 L3 D5 Casey has been back to his consistent best in 2021. He played in 20 events on the PGA Tour, making the cut in all but two, and finishing in the top 25 in over half of those. He won the Dubai Desert Classic in March and finished fourth in the US PGA. He was paired up with Tyrrell Hatton twice in Paris in 2018, winning one and losing one, and may well be paired with his fellow Englishman again.

TOMMY FLEETWOOD

LEE WESTWOOD

AGE: 30 WORLD RANK: 36

AGE: 48 WORLD RANKING: 34

Ryder Cup Appearances: 1 (’18) Ryder Cup record: P5 W4 L1 D0 Fleetwood was a force of nature at the 2018 Ryder Cup. Playing alongside Francesco Molinari, the pair won all four of their matches through the first two days. His form this season has been patchy, with only three top-10s, however, he’s shown how he embraces the Ryder Cup atmosphere and saves his best form for this format of the game.

Ryder Cup Appearances: 10 (‘97-‘16, ‘18) Ryder Cup record: P12 W4 L3 D5 Back for a recordequalling 11th time, Westy will be bidding to add to his 23-point tally after enjoying a stellar season saw him return to the world’s top 20 for a time following back-to-back runner’s up finishes on the PGA Tour. His form has tailed off a bit since, but he won’t be lacking in motivation to round off his Ryder Cup playing career in winning style.

VIKTOR HOVLAND

TYRRELL HATTON

AGE: 23 WORLD RANK: 13

AGE: 29 WORLD RANKING: 19

Ryder Cup record: Rookie Norway’s first Ryder Cup player, Hovland is one of the most exciting talents to emerge in the pro game. He won the Mayakoba Classic in December and the BMW International in Germany this summer, and added six more top-five finishes, including a T4 at the Tour Championship.

With so much expectation being put on his young shoulders, expect Captain Harrington to pair him up with an old hand rather than a fellow rookie, but he will get plenty of game time.

Ryder Cup appearances: 1 Ryder Cup record: P3 W1 L2 D0 Hatton gave his chances of following up his debut appearance in Paris a jump start when winning in Abu Dhabi back in January, but since then things have gone a bit quiet for the Englishman, barring a tied second in the PGA Tour’s Palmetto Championship in June. He played well in Paris three years, earning a point on day two when paired with Paul Casey, but he got rolled over by Patrick Reed in the singles.

Ryder Cup Appearances: Rookie The main beneficiary of the decision to include the BMW PGA Championship in the qualification process, Wiesberger battled his way into the team with a 20th place finish at Wentworth. A win in Denmark and a second place in Switzerland earned him vital qualifying points, but missed cuts in the US Open, The Players and the US PGA point to a player who might not be quite up to mixing it in elite company Stateside just yet.

SERGIO GARCIA AGE: 41 WORLD RANKING: 41 Ryder Cup Appearances: 9 Ryder Cup record: P49 W22 L12 D7 Teeing it up for his 10th time in the blue and yellow colours of Europe, Sergio lives and breathes the Ryder Cup and will be buzzing to add to his tally of 25.5 points. He has run into some form at just the right time for a captain’s pick, with T6th and a 10th in the last two FedEx Cup events showing Padraig that he can still mix it with the best. Could form a dream Spanish foursomes team with Rahm. Vamos!

SHANE LOWRY AGE: 34 WORLD RANKING: 40 Ryder Cup Appearances: Rookie Riding on the coattails of his Open win in 2019, Lowry will be one of the most experienced Ryder Cup rookies ever, with the Irishman being a seasoned campaigner on both tours. He has been in consistent form in 2021, with his best result coming at the US PGA where he finished fourth, with further top-ten finishes coming at The Players, the RBC Heritage and the Memorial. He hasn’t missed a cut since March.

IAN POULTER AGE: 45 WORLD RANKING: 49 Ryder Cup Apps: 6 Ryder Cup record: P22 W14 L6 D2 It’s hard for any captain to leave out ‘The Postman’, but surely his selection has been based mainly on past performances for the blue and yellow, rather than anything he has achieved this season, which includes just three top-10s. He’s been very consistent inside the top 30 (11 times), but a lack of winning form leaves a question mark over his ability to take on America’s might. But then again, he constantly defies the odds in these matches.

WESTY’S LAST HURRAH After enjoying a renaissance in the twilight of his impressive career, LEE WESTWOOD is hoping to go out swinging in what looks likely to be his last appearance as a Ryder Cup player before his thoughts turn to the captaincy

■ LEE HAS CUT A MUCH HAPPIER FIGURE ON AND OFF THE GOLF COURSE FOLLOWING HIS MARRIAGE TO HELEN STOREY EARLIER THIS YEAR

S

ix months ago, Lee Westwood stood on the 18th green at The Players Championship knowing that the biggest victory of his 30-year career had just slipped agonisingly through his fingers. He smiled, laughed and lifted his arms in the air. Ten years ago, he might have snapped his putter over his knee or tossed it in the lake, but the 48-year-old former world No.1 has a much more carefree air about him these days, and one that has helped breathe new life into his nigh on 30-year career as a tour pro.

To watch him play now is like night and day compared to the gloomy cloud that seemed to follow him around a few years ago when, after hundreds of events and dozens of victories, Westwood began to lose sight of what he was chasing. Although his ambition hadn’t wavered, his happiness hinged on results and such a way of thinking can have a tendency to leave come back and bite you. The key to his finding his way back, he says, was a near-total restructuring of his outlook on life and golf, breaking down the burdens of pressure to unearth the foundations

that spurred so much of his early success.

“I don’t know whether you can quantify happiness, but I’m able to view the game as it should be viewed now,” he says. “I was treating golf too seriously, I needed more perspective and clarity, and to look at golf for what it is again. It makes me laugh when I listen to people and read stuff. At the end of the day you’re just trying to put a little white ball into a hole, I mean it’s stupid really the seriousness people put on it. I get to do something I enjoy every day, travel the world doing it and earn a lot of money, and I’m lucky to be in that position. I’m still doing all the preparation but, after that, I’m just having fun.”

Westwood’s renaissance can be traced back to 2017, the year he split from his long-time manager, Chubby Chandler, and his caddie of ten years, Billy Foster, shortly afterwards, and settled his protracted divorce. After sinking to No.125 in the world rankings and admitting ‘golf doesn’t mean as much’, he found a way to hit the reset button. The results have been immediate and impressive in equal measure.

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At the Nedbank Challenge in 2018, Westwood won his first event in over four years, with his then-girlfriend, Helen Storey, carrying his bag.

Since then, he has won again in Abu Dhabi, was crowned the European Tour’s best player in 2019 - and the oldest at 47 – and now secured his place in the Ryder Cup team five years after his last appearance. Storey has remained his caddie – although the role is occasionally rotated with Westwood’s son, Sam – and they were married in a Las Vegas ceremony in June.

“I’m in exactly the place I want to be and surrounded by the people I want to be surrounded by,” he says. “I enjoy being able to spend more time with my family and share what I do with them on the big stage. They get to experience that and I get to learn more about them as they learn about me. I wouldn’t change anything. That’s probably the definition of being in a comfort zone.”

The last few years have also led Westwood to re-evaluate what success means. At the heights of his powers in 2011, when he toppled Tiger Woods to become the world No.1, Westwood admitted he’d harbour some form of regret if he failed to win a major in his career. He has endured some agonising near-misses,

IN MY HEAD I STILL THINK I’M 25. IT’LL COME TO A POINT WHEN I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH, BUT RIGHT NOW I FEEL LIKE IF I PLAY MY BEST I CAN STILL CONTEND with nineteen top-10 finishes since he turned professional in 1993, but has never been more adamant that such a record will not define him.

“You know what, if you walk around a graveyard and look at the tombstones, I don’t see many people where it says, ‘Oh yeah, he won six majors, he won 10 majors or whatever’,” he says. “They put down what kind of person you were and what kind of dad and husband you were. Golf results and finishes and tournament wins won’t dictate how I’m remembered.

Whether I win majors or not, in 20 years’ time, that’ll definitely not bother me. It won’t change my life.”

But if winning is far from a necessity, then what does success look like? “Just to keep enjoying what I’m doing and having the fortitude to keep working hard at it,” he says.

“I’m proud that I’ve always put the work in and I’m bearing the fruits of the hard work I put in 10 or 15 years ago. I’m still committed mentally to go out and practice hard, I still hit the gym to stay on top of my fitness and work on my strength. I’ve not sat back in later life. In my head I still think I’m 25. It’ll come to a point when I’m not good enough, I’ll be too old, but right now I feel like if I play my best I can still contend. But whether I am or not, I’ll enjoy what I’m doing.”

Right now, there is no doubting that Westwood still has what it takes to win more tournaments, and he certainly has the ability to add to his impressive tally of Ryder Cup points, which currently stands at 23 from ten appearances stretching back all the way to 1997.

After failing to qualify for the team in 2018, and failing to get on the scoreboard during Europe’s heavy defeat at Hazeltine in 2016, an in-form Westwood, with all his experience, will be a welcome addition to Padraig Harrington’s team in this month’s delayed matches.

Although he has given his all to the yellow

LEE WESTWOOD'S FAVOURITE RYDER CUP MEMORIES

"My debut came at Valderrama in 1997 and I was playing with Nick Faldo, who was competing for the 11th time. That calmed my nerves to a point, but then I realised Seve [Ballesteros] was looking on and I was playing against Brad Faxon and Fred Couples, players I’d admired for years, not to mention the massive crowds. I think my opening drive went down the middle, but I honestly can’t remember – I was just so pleased to make contact with the ball."

■ LEE WESTWOOD'S RYDER CUP CAREER STRETCHES BACK TO 1997 AND INCLUDES SEVEN WINS FROM 10 APPEARANCES AND 23 POINTS. HE SERVED AS A VICE-CAPTAIN UNDER THOMAS BJORN IN 2018

INSIDE LEE WESTWOOD’S BAG DRIVER: PING G425 LST (10.5°) FAIRWAY WOOD: PING G425 MAX 3 (14.5°) HYBRID: PING G425 (19°) UTILITY: PING G CROSSOVER IRONS: PING I210 (4-UW) WEDGES: PING GLIDE FORGED (60°) PUTTER: PING SIGMA 2 FETCH

and blue, Westwood has some unfinished business when it comes to his long and storied relationship with the biennial match play event, and he would dearly love to end his playing career by making a significant contribution to an away win, especially in front of what is expected to be heavily partisan crowd with European fans kept from travelling due to Covid restrictions.

An 11th Ryder Cup cap will also see him tie Nick Faldo’s record of appearances.

Once the action is wrapped up at Whistling Straits, the conversation will no doubt turn to the 2023 matches in Rome, for which Westwood has already thrown his hat into the ring as a potential captain - a role that he looks like he was born to fulfil.

“I’d love to have it [the captaincy] in Italy. I’ll not lie to you,” he says. “Although I’ll be 50, I still feel that I will have a good idea what’s going on on the tour and know a lot of the players.

I’ve played in 10 Ryder Cups under 10 different captains, shortly to be 11, and I was vice-captain to Thomas (Bjorn) in 2018, so I’ve seen how the captaincy has been done, and I’ve seen a lot of good captaincies and things that I like. A lot of those captains are friends who I can get the opinion of. So, yeah it would be a massive honour to a Ryder Cup captain and there’s no doubt that it’s a job I would love to do.”

But before he has to start worrying about wildcards and team outfits, Westwood is focusing his attentions on bringing the cup back from America.

"I’ve been involved in a lot of good matches over the years. One that stands out is when Darren Clarke and I beat Tiger and Phil at Oakland Hills in 2004. We were three down after three holes and right up against it, but we fought back and secured a 1up victory on the final green."

"Another one that springs to mind was playing with Nicolas Colsaerts in the Friday afternoon four-balls at Medinah in 2012 against Tiger and Steve Stricker. That was a 'sit, watch and admire' job, It was Nicolas’ first ever Ryder Cup match and he shot ten-under away from home. It was remarkable."

"The best I’ve played in would have to be Medinah in 2012. Coming back from that far behind is probably never going to be repeated. When Poulter holed that putt late on Saturday afternoon, we went from thinking were out of it to believing we had a genuine chance.

It switched the momentum completely in our favour."

43RD RYDER CUP PREVIEW

Whistling Straits course guide A

three-time host venue of the US PGA Championship, the Straits Course is also ideally set up to stage match play golf, with the 7,790-yard Pete Dye design offering plenty of risk-and-reward holes that will sort out the men from the boys Carved out along a two-mile stretch of rugged Lake Michigan shoreline, the links-style Straits Course at Whistling Straits is wide open to the elements and has a reputation for causing merry havoc off the tee when the wind picks up. So, what more could you want from a venue for an intercontinental team match play event held at the end of September?

Although the Pete Dye-designed course has plenty of stroke play pedigree, having hosted the PGA Championship in 2004, 2010 and 2015, the Straits course has yet to be tested as a match play venue, but with so many risk-and-reward holes, some heart-in-mouth par threes, some reachable par fours and some reachable and unreachable par fives, its look sure to prove a superb venue to sort out the merely good from the brilliant.

Eight holes hug the lake, while vast rolling greens, deep pot bunkers, grass-topped dunes

and lake-sweeping winds encompass the entire course. Plenty of holes are sure to be won with pars, maybe even bogeys, but there are also a decent number of birdie and eagle opportunities out there, even more so when the wind is helping.

As ever, bombers will be at distinct advantage on some holes, but only if they find the fairways.

Anything offline is either in a bunker, of which there are over a thousand, deep rough, or in the lake. Take your pick.

As ever, combining the right mix of players and settling on a strategy for each hole will be key to deciding the outcome in the foursomes and fourballs, but the US team having a history of doing better when they’re in control of their own ball, Harrington’s men will have to hope that the US squad has a major meltdown in the alternate shot format if they are to have a hope of retaining the cup.

2nd PAR 5 | 593 YARDS

1st PAR 4 | 364 YARDS

4th PAR 4 | 489 YARDS

Something of a gentle opener, and a chance to register an early birdie, many will chose to hit a long iron or a hybrid off the tee to leave themselves with a wedge into a green which is protected short left and long by deep bunkers.

Only reachable in two for the biggest hitters, and with a favourable wind, the second hole represents another decent early birdie opportunity, although deep pot bunkers some 35 yards short of the green presents an obstacle for players going for it with their second shot. The approach is slightly uphill to a narrow green guarded by deep bunkers to the left and a large run-off swale to the right.

3rd PAR 3 | 181 YARDS

The first of the four par threes plays slightly downhill to a large green with two different sections and a big mound on the right side that feeds the ball left. Sitting right on the shore of Lake Michigan, anything hit left will either catch a bunker or get wet.

A demanding par four that features a fairway landing area that narrows to about 20 yards. Anything off the short stuff will make it hard to reach the green in two. Par might often be good enough to win the hole here.

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5th PAR 5 | 603 YARDS

The second par five boasts a double dogleg and can be played two ways. The aggressive approach will require the drive to carry a pond - but come up short of a second pond – to potentially leave a long-iron in. The safer route is to play it as a three-shotter that will leave a short approach to a long, narrow green that is designed to accept a more lofted club.

6th

PAR 4 | 355 YARDS

A classic match play hole, and even more so in the four-ball format, the sixth is reachable with a big drive providing the wind is helping and you avoid the big pot bunker that bisects the green to the right. If the wind is in the players’ faces then it’s just an iron and a simple wedge in. Either way, a par probably won’t be winning the hole here.

7th PAR 3 | 221 YARDS

One of Whistling Straits most iconic holes, the 7th is a long par three with an enormous green and Lake Michigan on the right. Players will hit a hybrid, utility or long iron and try to land it a little left of the pin to let it roll down to the hole.

8th PAR 4 | 507 YARDS

One of the toughest par fours on the course, a driver is required off the tee to set up an intimidating long-iron approach to a narrow green that juts out into Lake Michigan.

Several bunkers and a rough will catch shots that go long, but anything right is dead in the water.

9th PAR 4 | 446 YARDS

A decent birdie opportunity closes out the front nine, with a driver to a generous fairway leaving a short iron into the smallest green on the course, which is guarded by

a bunker on the right side and a deep pot bunker front left.

short as 360 yards if they use the forward tee.

If wind conditions allow, the bold shot is a driver right at the green, which will have to carry a series of bunkers, although the sensible play is a 3-wood or hybrid to the fairway and leave a wedge into the green. The 13th and 14th play in opposite directions, so if one is driveable the other won’t be.

10th PAR 4 | 361 YARDS

The back nine opens with a potential driveable par four, but the raised green and small, deep bunkers short left means that most players will hit a driver or fairway wood to leave a 50-75-yard nudge in.

11th

15th PAR 4 | 518 YARDS

One of most demanding holes on the course, the 15th is a long, straight par 4 that offers a narrow landing area off the tee, with a well struck driver leaving a long iron or hybrid into a green which offers no margin for error on the left, but is a little more forgiving on the right.

PAR 4 | 479 YARDS

Another hole where par might be good enough to win, there’s a wide landing area off the tee and if players catch a little down slope it can run down the hill to leave them a shorter shot in.

The shot into the green is uphill, with a huge 100-yard, 16ft deep bunker short of the green and a smaller bunker short-right.

16th PAR 5 | 552 YARDS

Wind behind, and a decent drive and accurate approach will set up the potential for a game-changing eagle or birdie. Wind against and it will be a battle of the wedges with the third shot.

12th PAR 3 | 143 YARDS

The shortest hole on the course is back on the picturesque Lake Michigan. The green features two distinct sections; front-left is the bigger portion with lots of undulations, while back-right features a small flat area where a pin can be tucked away to create a bit of drama. Miss to the right and the ball can kick down into a bunker or the lake.

13th PAR 4 | 404 YARDS

Staying lakeside, big hitters will be able to get close to this green if the wind is helping and the drive finds the downslope.

Otherwise, it’s a long iron or lofted wood off the tee and a 120-yard wedge in to a green that also seems to hang out over the water.

14th PAR 4 | 401 YARDS

With the green hidden from view from the tee, this dogleg hole could play as

17th PAR 3 | 223 YARDS

■ LAKE MICHIGAN PROVIDES A STUNNING BUT DANGEROUS BACKDROP TO MANY OF THE HOLES, INCLUDING THE PAR-3 7TH (TOP) THE PAR-4 13TH (BOTTOM), AND THE PAR-4 4TH (MAIN IMAGE)

The last of the short holes is a downhill number which sits right on Lake Michigan. There’s a huge drop on the left side of the green and a significant drop-off down to a series of bunkers. Anything hit left is virtually dead, with a 25ft high wall of sand 25ft high to overcome, so hitting the green is essential at this late stage in the round.

18th PAR 4 | 515 YARDS

A superb closing hole in all formats the game, with a driver down the right side of the fairway leaving a 220-yard downhill approach to a huge, multi-levelled green that is a guarded by a creek at the front of the green and plenty of bunkers.

“The best week of my life” In an exclusive excerpt from Tony Jacklin’s brilliant new book, ‘My Ryder Cup Journey’, the four-time Ryder Cup captain gives an insight into the 1987 matches at Muirfield Village, which resulted in Europe’s first ever victory on US soil

T

he first thing I think about when I recall the 1987 matches is that we were playing in Jack’s backyard at Muirfield Village — the venue that had hosted his Memorial Tournament for years.

When we arrived, a press man stuck a microphone under my nose and demanded a prediction. “We’ll win,” I said. He asked, “How can you say that with such confidence?” My reply was, “Because… because… because.” Nick Faldo was walking behind the pair of us, and he started to babble the words “because… because… because”.

The vast bulk of the galleries were Memorial patrons, and they weren’t like the partisan crowds that had caused some of the American players to complain at The Belfry two years earlier. On the first day, both teams received polite applause; there was no special atmosphere for the home team. It was like the local decorum you see when the Memorial comes around every year.

My two powerhouse pairings — Ballesteros and Olazabal and Faldo and Woosnam — set the tone for their performances that week with victories in the morning foursomes. Then, remarkably, we hammered the Americans 4-0 in the afternoon fourballs — the first time they had ever been on the receiving end of a clean sweep in any Ryder Cup session — and it was to happen once more on the first day fourballs in 1989.

Seve and Ollie won again, as did Nick and Woosy, who

were absolutely on fire. They gelled brilliantly as they stormed to the turn in 29 shots, leaving Hal Sutton and Dan Pohl struggling to live with them.

It was 6-2 to us at the end of the day. I guess Jack thought he needed to do something drastic at that stage.

He ordered thousands of little Stars and Stripes flags and told the PGA of America to distribute them among the crowd for the second day. Jack urged the fans to be more patriotic and to make more noise, but it was a bit like shutting the gate after the horse had bolted. We were already operating at a steady gallop in our team room.

The Americans wanted the crowd to be more vociferous, but they just wouldn’t go there. The strategy would probably have worked in Boston or New York — it’s not tough getting the New Yorkers excited about their own.

I recall Faldo, who had won The Open at Muirfield a couple of months earlier, calling the second day gathering ‘rent-a-crowd’. He thought it was embarrassing to have 25,000 Americans suddenly waving Stars and Stripes flags.

It had no real effect on the matches because my guys were on a mission to conquer Everest by winning in America for the first time. At the start of the week, everyone thought the super-fast greens would work in the home team’s favour, but it turned out to be completely the opposite.

Lanny Wadkins, typically, tried to stir it up at the start of the week by pointing out that 1985 Masters champion Bernhard Langer and Seve, a four-time Major winner at

that stage, had not won in the States for two years and that they both really needed to play more in the US. I had so many world-class players in my team by then and they lapped it all up. Faldo and Woosnam maintained their unbeaten sequence by halving their morning foursomes against Hal Sutton and 1987 Masters champion Larry Mize.

I’ll never forget the last hole as Seve and Ollie faced Ben Crenshaw and Payne Stewart. Needing to get down in two from 10 feet to clinch victory, Seve sent a curling effort racing six or seven feet past the hole.

“Uh-oh, that could be a mistake,” I thought as I watched from the side of the green. But Ollie showed nerves of steel and rammed the return putt straight into the middle of the hole. Seve’s relief was palpable. Grinning from ear to ear, he strode up to his fellow Spaniard and gave him a great big bear hug, something I repeated seconds later.

What a combination they were turning out to be — three victories from three matches in their first Ryder Cup together.

They had such an indomitable spirit and a feeling of togetherness. Little wonder they would go on to prove one of the greatest partnerships in the history of the competition.

Seve and Ollie suffered a rare defeat in the afternoon fourballs, going down 2&1 to Sutton and Mize, but Faldo and Woosnam made it 3½ points from four matches by romping to a 5&4 victory over Strange and Kite. Theirs was a bit of an unlikely pairing, and I remember Woosie in particular being somewhat surprised when I announced they would be playing together, but they complemented one another so well that week.

Woosie was an up-and-at-’em, attacking type of player, while Faldo could be relied upon to be rock solid. It’s probably fair to say they weren’t exactly bosom buddies off the course, but on it, they dovetailed perfectly. It was a leftfield pairing, and it worked. It was an instinctive decision to play them together. All I did was watch everyone as closely as I could, trying to gauge body language, and I wasn’t afraid to act on a hunch.

Armed with a huge lead at 10-5 going into the singles, the pundits thought it was all over. I never entertained those sorts of thoughts — I’d been in the game too long.

You never think it’s all wrapped up. The Americans have produced several phenomenal last-day performances, and I knew golf far too well to believe that the Fat Lady was clearing her throat just yet.

I certainly felt comfortable with the lead, but you always have to wait and see what happens. That guy Murphy is never far away. Murphy’s Law can take care of a helluva lot — I can vouch for that following my experiences with Trevino in The Open at Muirfield in 1972.

It’s the easiest thing to say and the hardest thing to do but you just have to stay in the present. You’re on a slippery slope to nowhere if you allow your mind to start wandering. That’s the case with all sports, the central thing to being a winner. You have to stay in the moment and avoid going to that make-believe land of the If-ahs, the Would-ahs, the Could-ahs and the Should-ahs.

You might think you deserve it, but sport has nothing to do with deserving. It’s about staying in the now and remaining in your own bubble until you cross the finish line.

Often, as a sportsman, the more you want something, the more difficult it is to stay in the present. I strayed for a moment when I won The Open at Lytham in 1969. I was going down the 14th hole and I said to myself, “I wonder in an hour from now what it’s going to be like”. Instantly, I physically slapped myself around the face. No one knew, ■ THE EUROPEAN TEAM CELEBRATED A LONGED-FOR AWAY WIN WITH THEIR FANS IN THE PUBLIC BAR AT MUIRFIELD VILLAGE

RYDER CUP SPECIAL IN ASSOCIATION WITH

When we got there, all we could hear was the noise of knives and forks clinking on crockery. We walked in with the Ryder Cup trophy and the place absolutely erupted.

my caddie didn’t, the fans didn’t, but I told myself, “Stop that right now! You can’t go there”.

Going into that final day at Muirfield Village in 1987, all it needed was an early momentum surge from the Americans to put us under pressure, and, sure enough, that’s exactly what happened.

We came close to cocking it up when the score got to 12-11 in our favour, but an incident in the Eamonn DarcyBen Crenshaw match would prove pivotal — comparable perhaps to Craig Stadler missing his tiddler of a putt at The Belfry two years earlier.

Crenshaw, furious with his touch on the greens, slammed his putter into the turf at the sixth hole and broke it. Forced to putt with a one-iron the rest of the way, the odds were very firmly on a Darcy victory. Now, Eamonn had never won a full Ryder Cup point in 10 previous attempts, so if he was ever going to break his duck, this was the moment. Crenshaw did wonders to stay with him while using a makeshift putter, but I was ecstatic when my man rolled in a treacherous, downhill six-footer to pull it off at the 18th. It was an extremely difficult putt on those slick greens. The ball could have rolled 10 or 12 feet past the hole if he had missed.

A proud Eamonn punched the air in delight when it disappeared into the cup.

It was then left to Seve to secure overall victory for us by defeating Curtis Strange by a 2&1 margin.

It was time to start another party. We had great team unity again that year and everyone was whooping and hollering as twinkle-toes Olazabal began to show off his dance moves on the green. We were grateful to the couple of thousand European fans who had travelled over and backed us so well all week and Lord Derby spoke highly of us in his speech later. He said to our supporters, “You’ll always be able to say you were here for this historic moment.” I thought that very profound, right on the nose — it was a great thing to tell our merry bunch of golf enthusiasts.

I was quite emotional when it came to my turn to make a speech. I took it upon myself to introduce every player on each team and to thank them for entertaining everyone so much. It was only right to start with Jack Nicklaus. I went all the way down the line, asking for applause for every individual before I suddenly had a mental block when I got to one of the American players.

Faldo was right behind me, and he whispered, “It’s Payne Stewart, Payne Stewart.” I think I was already deaf at that stage, but eventually I got his name out. Payne showed he had taken it all in good heart because when I got back to my hotel room later that night, under my door was a picture of him with the words, “Best wishes, Payne Stewart”.

It was a very special week, in fact, I think it was more

■ SEVE BALLESTEROS AND JOSE MARIA OLAZBAL WON THREE OF THEIR FOUR MATCHES OVER THE FIRST TWO DAYS

SEVE AND OLLIE WERE AN INSPIRATIONAL PARTNERSHIP. NOT ONLY DID THEY PUSH EACH OTHER ON BUT THEY HAD A GALVANISING EFFECT ON THE WHOLE TEAM special than The Belfry had been. It was beyond even that; it was simply the ultimate. There’s only one first time and we did it at Muirfield Village. We went to see our fans in the tented village to thank them for their efforts and ended up having a few beers and celebrating with them.

I felt so strongly about the contribution our supporters had made that, when we got back to the hotel, I felt we should do even more.

I called all the guys together and said, “Look, I know you won’t want to do this, but we’ve got to go and thank the fans again.” _ ‘Oh, bloody hell,’ _was the collective response, but our cars were waiting out at the front, and we drove over to where the supporters were staying.

I TOLD THE PLAYERS that we only needed to spend a short while there to show our appreciation. I recall saying to Seve after 10 or 15 minutes, “OK, we’ve done our duty, shall we go back now?” He said, “No, no, we want to stay.

We’re happy here.” That moment, and Seve’s reply, sticks out in my mind and we continued partying with the fans for quite some time.

My players had been in command all week. Previously, it was always our team that wilted under pressure near the end of matches, but an awful lot of American balls finished up in the stream at the 18th on the final day, showing that it was now happening the other way. Jack’s guys now knew my players were supremely confident.

A different home captain might have struggled to recover from the stigma of losing in America for the first time. Not Jack, though. He was untouchable after all the Major victories he had amassed, including his sensational victory at the Masters the year before. Being beaten on home soil was never going to harm him too much. He had enjoyed such a remarkable career until then, that it would just go down as a blip on his radar screen.

Jack agreed that the 18th hole had proved pivotal to our 15-13 victory, with Crenshaw, Mize and Pohl all succumbing there. “Our guys are not as tough as the Europeans,” I recall him saying, and there was no argument about that.

For us, it seemed like we had gone through a seamless transition from 1983 to 1985 and then to 1987. We hit the ground running from the start and simply picked up where we left off at The Belfry.

I went with instinct a lot of the time when it came to the decision-making process. You can’t necessarily always explain the logic of everything you do — you haven’t got time either. It’s often all about just going with your hunches and, I’ve said this so many times in the past; you pray a lot. You go to bed at night and pray that you get everything right.

A lot goes on in a captain’s mind during a Ryder Cup week and, more than anything, you’ve got to be prepared to make snap decisions, live with them and move on.

Look at the idea to put the six-foot-two Faldo and the five-foot-four Woosie together. I don’t really know how that one evolved; maybe it was a little and large thing. I was just looking for a spark, some magic.

I always liked to keep the Spanish players together if I could, for reasons of patriotism and the simple fact that they spoke the same language. Seve and Ollie were an inspirational partnership. Not only did they push each other on, but they also had the same galvanising effect on the other ten players in our team.

That was undoubtedly the best week of my life. When it comes down to captaining a Ryder Cup team, there’s so much more on the line than when it’s just you and your performance. Winning the 1969 Open and the 1970 US Open were obviously wonderful personal accomplishments but there’s so much more attached to things when you’re leading a team of twelve men.

Hillary and Tenzing famously did it in 1953 and beating the Americans in their own backyard for the first time 34 years later was our version of climbing Everest.

We flew back to the UK on Concorde and there was a great reception for us when we landed at Heathrow Airport — a lot of people turned up to welcome us home, and it was a grand occasion. Our victory had gone down well with the public; it was clear to see. It also did wonders for the European Tour, gave our rank-and-file a lot of momentum and served to inspire many young, aspiring golfers — what more could you ask?

TONY JACKLIN: MY RYDER CUP JOURNEY is available to buy from all good bookshops for £9.99 or online from www.pegasuspublishers.com or by calling 01223 370012

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PING’S RYDER CUP HIGHLIGHTS PING players and PING equipment have played a pivotal role in the Ryder Cup down the years, from Christy O’Connor’s iconic 2-iron to Seve’s magical Anser putter and Lee Westwood’s 11 appearances CHRISTY O’CONNOR JNR, 1989, THE BELFRY After failing to record a point for the team in 1975, and being overlooked for the matches in 1985, Christy O’Connor’s selection for the European team in 1989 was met with surprise from many quarters. Losing his only match before the singles, O’Connor had plenty to prove on that final day at The Belfry.

Paired against Fred Couples, the match was a ding-dong affair, with the scores tied at all-square after 17 holes. Both found the 18th fairway with their tee shots, but O’Connor had 240 yards to the hole, some 100 yards behind Couples. No matter. The 39-year-old Irishman pulled out his trusty PING 2-iron. With European captain Tony Jacklin’s ‘come on Christy, one more good swing for Ireland’ ringing in ears, O’Connor coolly went and hit the shot of his life, with the ball landing on the front of the green and settling some four feet from the cup.

Couples, clearly shaken by his opponent’s magical effort, half-shanked his approach and ultimately conceded O’Connor’s putt, giving Europe the crucial point needed for a 14-14 tie and the trophy was retained.

O’Connor’s PING 2-iron was later auctioned and raised £50,000 for a hospital in Galway.

SEVE BALLESTEROS, MUIRFIELD VILLAGE, 1987

BUBBA WATSON, MEDINAH, 2012

With his trademark forward press and putter head toe slightly raised in the air, Seve was arguably one of the best putters the game has ever seen. The five-time major champion used a PING Scottsdale Anser for most of his career, with the model offering him the perfect combination of sound and feel.

Seve’s highlight with that putter as an individual was undoubtedly the 15-footer he holed for birdie on the 18th hole at St Andrews which brought him victory in the 1984 Open Championship, but the legendary Spaniard also used his Anser to great effect in the Ryder Cup, and none was more significant than in the 1987 matches at Muirfield Village.

With Europe leading 10-6 with the singles to play, Seve was paired in the last match against Curtis Strange, America’s best player. With Team USA staging its traditional Sunday comeback, Seve needed to win his match to secure Europe’s first ever victory in the US. Two up with two to play, Seve hit his 8-iron approach at the 17th green to 20 feet and used his Ping putter to lag it to within gimme distance. Strange could do no better than par, and the match was Seve’s, which took Europe to 14.5 points and history was made.

Bubba started using a pink-shafted and pinkheaded PING driver at the Farmers Insurance Open in January 2012 as part of his Bubba & Friends Drive to a Million campaign which helped the left-hander raise over $1.3m for charity, and by the Ryder Cup came around it was firmly in his bag.

Paired with Webb Simpson in the first afternoon’s four balls, the pair combined to hand out a 5&4 beating to Paul Lawrie and Peter Hanson in a session that the USA won 3-1 to take the first day’s score to 5-3. Teamed up with the Simpson in the following morning’s foursomes, Watson lost out to the Ian Poulter and Justin Rose, with the match going to the final hole. But he came back out in the afternoon and with the help of Steve Stricker dished out another 5&4 win, this time over Rose and Francesco Molinari, to give USA a 10-6 lead going into the singles. Put out first, Watson lost 2&1 to Luke Donald as Europe won the first five matches en route to staging the ‘miracle’ 14.513.5 win.

Watson still uses a pink Ping driver to this day, and it’s still working its magic, with the 42-year-old currently averaging 305 yards off the tee.

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TYRRELL HATTON, PARIS NATIONAL, 2018 Tyrrell Hatton’s rookie role in helping Europe demolish USA 17.5-10.5 in Paris three years ago is certainly worthy of note, if only for the future role that he looks destined to play in the matches to come.

Back in 2018, Hatton was seen as something of a loose cannon as a team match play competitor, given his notoriously fragile temperament, but he harnessed his energies supremely well into the team effort that week.

He twice teamed up with fellow Paul Casey, firstly in a narrow defeat to crack American duo Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, despite being eight under for the round, and then the English pair took down Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler 3&2 on Saturday. Hatton was beaten 3&2 by the unstoppable match play force of nature that is Patrick Reed in the singles, but that defeat did not detract from the overall team success and the part he played in it.

A PING player since his amateur days, Hatton earned one of the nine automatic selections for this year’s Ryder Cup matches and he will be hoping that his extra years of experience on tour, the last few of which has been spent mainly in the States, will stand him in good stead for this second appearance amid the more intimidating atmosphere that will surely face the European team at Whistling Straits.

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ, CELTIC MANOR, 2010 Somewhat bizarrely, MJA started off his Ryder Cup career as a vice-captain to Seve Ballesteros at Valderamma in 1997, but he went on to appear four times as a player between 1999 and 2010, including the recordbreaking win at Oakland Hill in 2004 and the closer affair at Celtic Manor, where Miguel earned two vital points from a possible three, including a pivotal 4&3 win over Bubba Watson in the sixth match out in the singles, which took Europe the score to 13-9. An hour later, Graeme McDowell won the final match against Hunter Mahon to reach the magical 14.5 points, and the celebrations began, with Jimenez firing up his traditional celebratory cigar.

One of the straightest drivers on tour, and with a brilliant fairway wood and long-iron game, Jimenez was a match for anyone in his prime, which has gone on longer than most. The European Tour’s oldest winner (50 and 133 days) and with most tournament appearances (710), Jimenez served as vice-captain in the 2012 and 2014 matches, but it is widely understood that he was overlooked for the Ryder Cup captaincy due to his impenetrable Spanish accent, thus robbing the world of what would surely have been a memorable winning speech.

THE EUROPEAN CROWD AT CELTIC MANOR TOOK DELIGHT IN CHEERING EVERY PRACTICE SWING BUBBA TOOK WITH HIS PINK-SHAFTED PING DRIVER LEE WESTWOOD, 11 RYDER CUPS, 1997-2021

MARK JAMES THE BELFRY, 1993 A PING player throughout his career, Mark James was a key figure in Europe’s transformation from Ryder Cup runner’s up to regular winners, playing in seven matches between 1977 and 1995, and captaining the team at Brookline in 1999 at the age of 46.

The straight-talking Yorkshireman was a doughty competitor and never gave much away on the golf course, but he possessed an iron will to win, racking up 32 professional victories in his career.

Unafraid to make the hard calls as Ryder Cup captain, James controversially left out Faldo and Langer from the team in 1999 at Brookline, and then benched Jean van de Velde, Jarmo Sandelin and Andrew Coltart for the foursomes and fourballs, with all three losing their singles matches in Europe’s 14.5-13.5 defeat.

After moving to the senior tour in 2003, James became the first European player to win a senior major in the States with victory at the 2004 Ford Senior Players Championship.

Alongside Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood is the Ryder Cup personified over the last 20-odd years, with the 48-yearold Englishman preparing for his 11th appearance following his debut at Valderamma in 1997, a figure only matched by Sir Nick Faldo.

His playing record of 20 wins from 48 matches, with 18 losses and six halves, makes for impressive reading, and does his record of being on seven winning teams. He was unbeaten throughout the matches 2004 and 2006, winning seven ties and halving the remaining three.

Although still someway short of Raymond Floyd’s record of being the oldest Ryder Cup player - 51 – Westwood will be twice the age of some of his rivals in 2021.

A lifelong PING staff player, Westwood currently has 49 career wins to his name, including 25 European Tour titles and two PGA Tour titles. He has won the European money list three times, with a 20-year gap between his first order of merit in 2000, and his most recent in 2020.

Following his victory at the Abu Dhabi Championship last year, he also has the distinction of having won in four different decades, with his first professional win coming at the 1996 Scandinavian Masters. During his career, Westwood has spent over seven years in the world’s top 10 and held the world no.1 spot for 22 weeks during the 2010-11 season.

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HITMAN H AT T O N ’ S UP FOR THE CUP With another big win under his belt at the start of the year, 29-year-old Tyrrell Hatton is hoping to round out another successful season by helping Europe to retain the Ryder Cup that he played a part in winning in Paris three years ago ■ How important was winning in Abu Dhabi at

Dhabi? How nice was that to hear? the start of the year in kick starting your push to It’s always nice to be talked about in such positive qualify for the Ryder Cup? terms by anyone, but especially by Padraig. I’m not Getting into the Ryder Cup team is obviously a sure what he meant by it, but I guess he’s looking consequence playing consistently well through the for players to play their way into the team with good qualifying period. Getting a win is always tough, performances over a long period of time, proven and especially in a Rolex Series event, where the winners and those who hopefully can contribute fields are at their strongest, so it was good for my to the team. I hope I tick a few of those boxes and confidence, and my Ryder Cup hopes, to win in Abu I know that I’ll be trying my hardest to win my Dhabi, especially against such world matches. class opposition.

It was a goal of mine right from ■ Your qualification for the WHAT’S IN the start of the qualifying process team went down to the wire, so TYRRELL to make the team this year, and how much of a relief to have it HATTON’S hopefully carry on where we left off finally confirmed at the PGA at BAG? in Paris, and winning in Abu Dhabi Wentworth? certainly did my chances no harm..

Yeah, it was a huge relief to get DRIVER Although my recent run of form over the line. It actually took me PING G425 LST (9.5°) hasn’t been great, I’m hoping I’m a little bit by surprise, but a lot of not too far away now. players have had strong run-ins FAIRWAY WOODS to the qualifying period, so the PING G425 LST 3 competition for those last few ■ How much did you enjoy your (14°), PING G425 places was pretty intense. That Ryder Cup debut in Paris and how MAX 7 (19.5°) was what Padraig [Harrington] had much was that motivation for you UTILITY IRON been hoping for, to get players to try and get back there again?

PING G410 who were in form playing their way Paris was the best golfing CROSSOVER (20.5°) into the team, and that’s got to be experience of my life to date. Having no bad thing. the home fans there, and seeing IRONS that first tee with the grandstand PING I210 (4-PW) packed, was just amazing. I ■ You’ve been around the top 10 WEDGES absolutely loved the whole week. in the world rankings since your PING GLIDE 3.0 (50°) Winning my first point with Paul win at the Arnold Palmer at the TITLEIST VOKEY SM8 [Casey] against Dustin Johnson and beginning of 2020, but do you (54°, 60°) Rickie Fowler was an incredible ever have to pinch yourself experience. I was disappointed not about where you are in the PUTTER to win my singles against Patrick game?

PING VAULT OSLO Reed, but it didn’t detract from the I’ve definitely been doing team result and I was just honoured a little bit of pinching. to be a part of it and for my first Ryder Cup to be a winning one.

I’m sure it will be a very different experience playing away, and without the usual number of European fans, but I’ve spent a lot of time playing in the States without support, so it won’t feel like a totally alien environment.

■ Padraig Harrington described you as a ‘Ryder

Cup captain’s dream’ after you won in Abu

■ HATTON IS HOPING TO ADD TO HIS RYDER CUP POINTS TALLY AT WHISTLING STRAITS

It’s just very surreal to be that high in the world rankings. I’ve been fortunate to win four times in the last 18 months or so, and all four of them were big events, and they carried big ranking points, and outside of those wins, I’ve still had a few topfive and tens, and I’ve just been going about my business. And if you’re able to do that the world rankings take care of themselves.

It’s not something I dwell on too much, whether I’m better or worse than anyone else. I just give it my best shot and see what happens. Yes, it’s very cool to see my name up there alongside some of those players, but you can’t for a minute think your better than anyone else. There’s only one way when you start thinking like that. Having said that, I do feel comfortable playing in the big events now, and although I’m still looking to see some better results in the Majors, I know that on a good day I can mix it with the best.

■ You’ve put a lot of your success down to the

partnership you’ve built with your caddy, Mick Donaghy. What is it specifically that he has brought to your game?

Mick’s brilliant. He’s got so much experience. As a caddy he’s won, what is it, four times the amount that I’ve won. So yeah, the experience he has is great, and we get on really well away from the course, too. We’ve had a fantastic run so far. I love our partnership and hope that it continues for a very long time.

■ You married your long-time girlfriend, Emily,

over the summer. How is life treating you as a married man? Might it change your outlook on the golf course at all?

It’s certainly changed my waistline, because I somewhat overindulged during the honeymoon, so I need to get back in the gym and sort myself out. The wedding day didn’t go quite as planned, what with Covid and everything, but it was still very special.

As far as my outlook on the golf course goes, I’ve certainly got better at managing myself. There have been times in the past where I have probably thrown away tournaments by getting in my own way, but I’m better at dealing with those pressurised situations now. That’s not to say I’m not going to do that again in the future, but I try my best to stay calm. Sometimes that’s not always possible, when you’re tired or you get bad breaks or stuff that’s out of your control, when you’ve done everything you think it right and it doesn’t go your way, obviously it’s frustrating, so I have to learn to deal with it. It’s a work in progress!

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THE GEAR EFFECT INSIDES THE BAGS OF RECENT WINNERS ON TOUR BILLY HORSCHEL

BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

EQUIPMENT NEWS

DRIVER: Titleist TSi3 (9°) FAIRWAY WOODS: Titleist TSi2 (15°, 18°) IRONS: Titleist 620 CB (3), Titleist 620 MB (5-PW) WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (52°, 56°, 60°) PUTTER: Ping Sigma 2 Tyne 4 BALL: Titleist Pro V1

NICOLAI HØJGAARD ITALIAN OPEN

DRIVER: TaylorMade SIM2 (10.5°) FAIRWAY WOODS: TaylorMade SIM2 Max 3 (15°), 7 (22°) IRONS: TaylorMade P7TW (4-PW) WEDGES: TaylorMade Hi-Toe 2 (52°, 56°, 60°) PUTTER: Scotty Cameron Fastback 1.5 Prototype BALL: TaylorMade TP5

PATRICK CANTLAY TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

DRIVER: Titleist TS3 (9.5°) FAIRWAY WOOD: Titleist 915F (15˚) HYBRID: Titleist TS2 (21˚) IRONS: Titleist AP2 (4-9) WEDGES: Titleist Vokey SM7 (47˚, 52˚, 56˚); Titleist Vokey SM8 Proto (61°) PUTTER: Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5 BALL: Titleist Pro V1x

TONY FINAU

NORTHERN TRUST DRIVER: Ping G425 LST (7°) FAIRWAY WOOD: Ping G400 Stretch 3 (12.5°) IRONS: Ping Blueprint (4-PW) WEDGES: Ping Glide Forged (50°, 56°), Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (60) PUTTER: Ping PLD Anser 2 Prototype BALL: Titleist Pro V1

CALUM HILL

CAZOO CLASSIC DRIVER: Ping G425 Max (10.5°) 3-WOOD: Ping G425 Max (14.5°) IRONS: Ping i210 (4-PW) WEDGES: Ping Glide 2.0, (52°, 56°, 60°) PUTTER: Ping Proto PLD Tyne BALL: Titleist Pro V1x

RASMUS HØJGAARD

OMEGA EUROPEAN MASTERS DRIVER: TaylorMade M5 (10.5°) FAIRWAY WOOD: TaylorMade SIM2 Max (15°) HYBRID: TaylorMade SIM2 Rescue IRONS: TaylorMade P7MB (4-PW) WEDGES: TaylorMade Hi-Toe (52°, 56°, 60°) PUTTER: Scotty Cameron SS Masterful TourType BALL: TaylorMade TP5

TESTED

GO WITH THE FLO Golf News equipment editor Dan Owen puts SIK Golf’s range of putters through their paces at the brand's new custom fitting centre at Silvermere Golf & Leisure If you’re unfamiliar with SIK, the name is an acronym for Study In Kinematics, and while the brand is new to the UK, has been making putters since 2009. SIK has been pushed to the forefront with Bryson Dechambeau’s continued success. In fact, every one of DeChambeau’s eight PGA Tour victories has been while using a SIK putter. I visited their new National Performance Centre to try them out for myself.

Silvermere’s resident putting fitter, PGA Professional Colin Iddon, explained the technology built in to the face of every SIK Putter. “To the naked eye, you can’t see that a putt leaves the face and goes airborne for the very first part of its journey” explained Colin. “A golf ball sits in its own depression, a tiny hole. To improve your putting, you need enough loft to get the ball out of the depression, and then start rolling. Too much launch will cause the ball to bounce unpredictably and leads to inconsistency. Not enough loft drives the ball into the ground, and again causes the ball to bounce.

With the Quintic system, and its high-speed cameras we can measure the launch, and how quickly the ball starts rolling.”

Finding the correct loft is key. But then you need to deliver that clubface to the ball the same way every time, and not even the world's best golfers do that”. Right got it. “Descending loft technology means there are four surfaces across the face all milled at a different loft. While you can see this when you are looking for it, it’s not noticeable at address, A putt hit at the bottom of the putter face tends to launch on the higher side, hence less loft, conversely a putt hit higher up on the face will launch lower. By building in the variable loft, you can add a consistency

GOLFSTREAM ROLLS OUT EXPRESS PUSH TROLLEY Golfstream has launched a new push trolley that is designed to offer simple, effective and affordable club transportation.

The Golfstream Express, which is priced at £179, shares many of the same features with the brand’s popular Vision power trolley, including a one-touch mechanism which folds the aluminium frame flat to a height of just 28cm, with the wheels still attached. It also can be fitted with all of the brand’s many accessories also existing accessories, including a new heavyduty trolley carry bag which will help keep mud and grass out of the car.

Other accessories in the range include a wheel cover set, which includes two fully elasticated side wheels and a draw string cover for the front wheel; a full rain cover; large canopy umbrellas in round and square shapes; a pair of winter trolley mitts which attach to the trolley handle; winter hedgehog wheels, bag towels, a caddy pack, and a variety of holders for drinks, mobile phones and GPS units.

to your putting that will help the ball roll true every time.

“Are you left or right eye dominant?” asked Colin. I hadn’t the foggiest.

“Stare at something on the wall, put your hand in a circle, and look through it with one eye shut. Whichever one looks through the hole the same as if you had both eyes open, that’s which eye is more dominant.”

OK, so I was right eye dominant. Why did that matter? Colin had the answer. “SIK putters are available with the alignment line on the top rail, which tends to be preferred by left eye dominant players. Or you can have the alignment on the back of the putter, and that tends to suit right eye dominant players like yourself.”

The Quintic system measured that I was launching my putts too high, and that there was too much backspin on my putts. I was also hitting it consistently too hard. Colin set up the Flo for me, high MOI mallet putter.

And instantly we could see the improvements. The ball was launching more consistently and rolling quicker, however the ball was still launching too high. “Because all the putters are made to order, I’d order you one with less loft,” Colin explained. “And it’s not bent for loft and lie, it’s manufactured at the correct specs.”

The range has two core lines, Standard and Armlock. Within the Standard family are five models ranging from blade-style heads (Pro and Jo), to mid mallets (DW and Sho), to the high MOI mallet - the Flo. The armlock style, favoured by DeChambeau, is available in three head options - Pro, DW and Flo. I can’t say all the putters are lookers, but some of the blade designs look fantastic and there's no questioning the results. So, if you want a putter that’s a little bit different, and comes with tour-proven technology, then a custom-fit SIK could be the answer.

To find out more, visit www.sikgolfglobal.com.

EQUIPMENT & GEAR SEPTEMBER 2021 [43] GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

MICKELSON FUELS DISTANCE DEBATE WITH PUSH BACK ON SHAFT LENGTH There aren’t many golfers using drivers over 46 inches long, and there are very few that should be using drivers even approaching 46 inches. So when rumours leaked that the USGA and R&A were considering limiting the maximum driver length from 48 inches to 46 inches, there were very few golfers that the change would effect.

Phil Mickelson didn’t see it that way. The 50-yearold PGA Champion tweeted: “Word is the USGA is soon rolling back driver length to 46 inches. This is PATHETIC. Firstly, it promotes a shorter, more violent swing (injury prone) and doesn’t allow for length of arc to create speed. And secondly, during our first golf boom in 40 years, our amateur governing body keeps trying to make it less fun.”

While a number of tour players supported Mickelson’s stance, including John Daly and Graeme McDowell, as a player that won the PGA

Championship using a 47.5-inch driver, it’s fair to say the 50-year-old lefthander had some skin in the game.

Refusing to leave it there, Mickelson followed up with a more radical suggestion. In a video posted to his Twitter account he pitched an idea that would change the golf ball, while not rolling it back.

“If you remember when the liquid centre golf ball was the ball of choice 20 years ago, there was more weight on the centre of the ball than there was on the perimeter. Also, the liquid centre did not spin at the same rate as the outer cover at impact. So, at impact, the outer cover was spinning fast, and the liquid was spinning at a slower rate.

When the spin of the liquid and the outer cover matched, the outer covers momentum slowed down, and the liquid centre was faster. What if we just got rid of the perimeter weighting so the golf ball wasn’t as stable and we had more weight in the centre of the golf ball? We are going to get more side spin. Who’s that going to affect? The guy that hits it 300 yards instead of 200 yards.”

While we can’t see the USGA or the R&A going down this route, it’s an interesting idea. It would change the way the game was played. The golf ball would likely move a lot more in the air, giving the advantage to the true shot shapers whose talents have been side-lined with modern equipment and driving accuracy would became far more important than pure distance.

HONMA IN STORE AT SILVERMERE HONMA has been added to the vast array of brands available at Silvermere Golf & Leisure in Surrey, Europe’s busiest golf store.

With a growing popularity in the Cobham-based facility’s custom fitting studios, the brand has had a new display added in store.

The display showcases the latest collection of hand-crafted Honma clubs, highlighting the attention to detail applied by the brand’s Japanese master craftsmen. With waiting times for custom fitting slots skyrocketing due to the pandemic, Honma has been able to keep order lead times to a minimum, delivering their orders swiftly.

TOUR PLAYERS’ EQUIPMENT SET-UPS REVEAL DIFFERING DEMANDS OF MAJORS The make-up of bags at the men’s majors in 2021 shows subtle changes in how players approached the challenges of the different events.

The Masters, where finding the fairway is key, saw the most fairway woods per bag, with players carrying an average of 1.55 fairway woods.

This compares to The Open, at the other end of the spectrum, with 1.15 fairway woods per bag. Played on a dry and sunny Royal St George’s, players were more likely to prefer the lower trajectory of irons, both off the tee or when playing long approach shots. Golf’s oldest major was the most likely to encourage players to put a 2-iron or 3-iron in play.

The US Open at Torrey Pines put a premium on wedge play, resulting in players carrying more wedges on average (3.82) than at any other major in 2021. Players also favoured fairway woods at a course measuring 7,700 yards.

By contrast, hybrid usage was highest at the PGA Championship, although interestingly, golf’s oldest Major champion, Phil Mickelson, did not use a hybrid in his winning bag.

John Whyte, who leads SMS’ Tour Census team, commented: “Players at this level know how important it is to get their bag setup correct. It’s not uncommon early in the week to see players experimenting with different options as they plan how they are going to approach the tournament. Course distance, fairway tightness, rough length, weather and form all play a part in the final choice, which can often be what makes the difference at the crucial moment.”

[44] SEPTEMBER 2021

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PING JOINS THE 59 CLUB Employing a new technology known as ‘A lumiCore’, PING’s new i59 irons are forged blades that deliver the look, feel and trajectory control preferred by better players with an unprecedented level of forgiveness for a blade-style design PING invented cast, cavity-back golf clubs. The i59 is neither of those things. In recent years the company has broadened its horizons, whether that’s producing forged muscle back blades for its tour staff, or hollow oversize irons like the G710 that is designed to maximise forgiveness. The i59 sits somewhere in between, while being a totally new model for the brand.

Replacing the now five-year-old iBlades in the line-up, the i59s feature a very similar profile with slightly narrower soles. They look sensational and lots of golfers are going to want to try these irons on visuals alone. However, because PING have been so clever with its engineering, the i59s irons will work for a lot more players than the iBlades they replace.

ALUMICORE TECHNOLOGY

Many manufacturers have produced hollow irons.

Some, like TaylorMade, fill them with foam. Others, such as PXG, fill them with an elastomer. PING have previously left their hollow irons unfilled. This time they’ve added its own new material, AlumiCore. By removing weight from the centre of the club, Ping have been able to redistribute 30g to the perimeter of the iron. In golf club design, saving 30g is like winning the lottery.

The i210 has been an incredibly popular golf club for Ping. Very forgiving in a midsize package, they have been a mainstay of players worldwide. The i59 has achieved the same MOI by moving that saved mass into weights in the top of the shaft and toe of the clubhead, spreading that weight out as far as possible.

GROOVE IS AT THE HEART

Ping has decided that more grooves means more performance. The new i59 boast all-new MicroMax grooves, which feature four more grooves per face than previous Ping irons. How do more grooves help? With longer irons they help generate more spin to keep the ball airborne longer. With short irons the extra grooves help stop flyers.

TIGHT TOLERANCES

Making a golf club in a way that hasn’t been done for takes some doing. It’s not a case of just going back to what has been done before. A forged body, a stainless steel face, the AlumiCore and the tungsten weights all need to be fitted together. The irons are put together by swaging, a process that applies pressure to the disparate parts of the club before the seams are plasma welded.

At every step of the way the clubs have to be inspected as there are so many steps to make these irons. Each iron has an individually designed AlumiCore, each sole needs shaping, the head has to be polished, the face needs machining, and the body needs forging. This is the most expensive iron in the Ping line up. But it’s the most expensive because it’s the most complicated design, as the engineers have pushed the boundaries beyond the norm.

PING i59 irons are now available for custom fittings at authorised PING retailers. They have an RRP of £239 per iron and feature Project X LS and UST Recoil 760 shafts as standard along with Golf Pride’s New Decade MMM White grips.

EQUIPMENT & GEAR SEPTEMBER 2021 [45] GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

GLIDE TO VICTORY WITH PING’S NEW FORGED PRO WEDGES Designed to offer versatility and improved shot-making around the green, PING’s new Glide Forged Pro Wedges boast a compact look that will be preferred by elite players FEEL FIRST

Forged from carbon steel, the Forged Pro wedges offer super soft feel. Ping’s Glide 3.0 wedges fit the eye of many decent golfers, but PING’s Tour players are a bit better than that, preferring the look of something more compact at address. While it is physically smaller than the 3.0, a different transition shape from the heel into the hosel makes them appear even more compact next to the ball. Plus, the Hydropearl 2.0 chrome finish looks fantastic, but also has a performance benefit, repelling water and improving performance especially from the rough or on a wet day.

Elite players also prefer a wedge with a one-piece design that gives them more feedback, rather than needing the extra forgiveness offfered by the Glide 3.0 wedges. More weight at the top of the clubhead raises the centre of gravity, lowering the launch, and increasing spin – a combination preferred by golfers looking for more control in their short game.

SPIN ON SPIN

As clubs get ever closer to the limits set on them by the game’s governing bodies, the engineers who design clubs have to go to further lengths to improve performance. When PING looked to see what they could do that would increase spin, they added what they are calling an Emery face blast.

Creating more friction between the face and the ball, it’s another detail that adds spin and helps lower launch. The 50° and 52° wedges have grooves designed to optimise spin on full swings, while the 54°-62° models have grooves that are designed to increase spin on partial shots.

LOFTS AND GRINDS

Every golfer needs a specific combination of loft and sole grind to maximise their performance with a wedge. The S Grind, with its moderate bounce and rounded leading edge, will fit the majority of golfers. The T grind has 3° lower bounce, with a narrower sole, and is perfect for golfers who like to open up the face around the greens to cut across the ball. For fans of a high toe wedge, the S grind 59 features a shape reminiscent of the legendary Ping EYE2 sand wedge.

While inspired by it, it features a more traditional sole than the original, with less bounce than the standard S grind wedges.

Available for pre-orders and custom fittings, the PING Pro Glide wedges have an RRP of £199 with a stock steel shaft and £209 with a stock graphite shaft. For more details, visit eu.ping.com.

[46] SEPTEMBER 2021

EQUIPMENT & GEAR GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

ECCO BIOM H4 BOA £200, GOLF.ECCOGOLF.COM The BIOM Hybrid H4 marries a comfortable wider natural motion last that lets your foot move more freely with a more contemporary lifestyle look. The colour blocking on the midsole looks like a pair of nice sneakers rather than golf shoes. Now ECCO has added a BOA closure option to its earlier laced model, which offers the twin advantage of not only making them easier to get on and off, but also enables the wearer to tighten the shoe across the a larger section of the foot, not just at the top eyelets. With your foot being more secure, it helps create a more stable base to swing powerfully from.

BUSHNELL ION EDGE £169, BUSHNELLGOLFGLOBAL.COM A lot of golfers love GPS watches for their simplicity, enabling them to see how far they have left to the green with minimal faff. But occasionally a little extra detail is useful. The ion Edge as well as giving front mide and back distances, also offers green view with movable pin placements, to fine tune that yardage. It also offers Dynamic Green Mapping, so the front and back distances change depending on the angle into the green. The watch also offers siz hazard or layup distances per hole. And if you find yourself at any time needing extra detail, the Bushnell App will offer a fuller GPS experience.

PRO SHOP

YOUR GUIDE TO THE LATEST GEAR

TAYLORMADE MG3 WEDGES

ADIDAS ZG21 MOTION

£149, TAYLORMADEGOLF.EU With heavy use on Tour, including by the likes of Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy, TaylorMade’s Milled Grind wedge range is proving just as popular among club golfers. The new MG3 continues with the raw face, but has added raised ‘Micro Ribs’ between the grooves which will create more friction to enhance spin. Available in three sole grinds, plus a Tiger Woodsinspired grind that be available by special order, the wedges have a revised thick-thin-thick blade profile that moves weight higher in the clubhead, lowering launch, increasing spin, and with the added bonus of improving sound too.

£150, ADIDAS.CO.UK Loved by adidas tour players and flying out of pro shops all summer, the ZG21 was designed to be stable, while also being incredibly lightweight. The new version, the ZG21 Motion, is made from a minimum 50% recycled plastic as adidas looks to entirely stop using first-use polyester by 2024. Losing nothing in the way of performance, the ZG21 is also fully waterproof. A highcut BOA version is also available for the more fashionconscious golfer.

EQUIPMENT & GEAR SEPTEMBER 2021

[47]

GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

MACGREGOR V-FOIL FAIRWAYS AND HYBRIDS £89.99, MACGREGORGOLF.CO.UK With its focus on offering affordable quality, MacGregor’s new V Foil Fairway and Hybrids offer the perfect solution for golfers with slower to average swing speeds who want to get the best from their game without breaking the bank. The fairways are offered in 15° and 18° lofts and feature high MOI and an engineered sole to help the club get the ball airborne from any lie. The hybrid is available in 18°, 21° and 24° lofts and features the same performance profile as fairways, with a shallow face and high MOI design that is perfect for getting optimal launch from any lie and providing extreme forgiveness on miss hits.

TAYLORMADE P790 UDI £229, TAYLORMADEGOLF.EU Super forgiving and super long, while remaining soft and looking great behind the ball, the P790 irons have been such a success that TaylorMade has extended them into driving irons. The third-generation UDI model now features speed foam air, a soft foam that saves weight while still supporting the clubface and giving the club a super-soft feel. This driving iron won’t be for everyone, but if you want to get that ball flying fast and forward this could be the club for you.

CALLAWAY STORMGUARD JACKET

HONMA BERES BLACK COLLECTION

£174.99, CALLAWAYEUROPEAPPAREL.COM Sustainability is the big selling story in golf clothing this year. Everyone is aiming to do better by the environment. The Stormguard waterproof jacket is made from a minimum 50% recycled polyester and is seam sealed to keep water out, while it’s also insulated to keep the warmth in. Callaway’s Swing Tech design makes sure you’re able to swing freely whatever the weather.

HONMAGOLF.COM The Beres Black range of drivers, fairways, hybrids and irons, which are designed for slow to moderate swing speeds, boast high elasticity M40X and T1100G materials in the handrolled ARMRQ shafts for efficient energy transfer and consistent ball-flight.

The 10.5° driver (£1,149) features slots located on the sole close to the leading edge on the heel and toe to enhance the trampoline effect and ensure that distance loss is reduced on off-centre strikes through a corrective gear effect. This design is carried through to the fairways (15°, 18°) and the hybrid (22°), while a low and deep CG delivers high launching ball flight.

The Beres Black irons [5-11, AW, SW, £495 per iron] feature a L-Cup face design that promotes a more rounded leading edge and improved feel, along with a C-Cup structure wrapped around the toe to expand the sweet spot. A thin ellipse face maximises flex on strikes across the clubface to deliver increased ball speed. The irons are fitted with handrolled 47g 3-Star ARMRQ shafts.

[48] SEPTEMBER 2021

EQUIPMENT & GEAR GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

TITLEIST PLAYERS 4PLUS STADRY

BIG MAX DRI LITE HYBRID TOUR

SUN MOUNTAIN H2NO LITE SPEED

£240

£179.99

£279.95

The StaDry’s waterproof construction and the high-grade lightweight aluminium legs make for a practical bag in all conditions. It features four full-length dividers, a new self-balancing double strap and eight pockets, including an expandable full-length apparel pocket, a new pocket exclusively for tees, a larger drinks bottle pocket and a accessories pocket with magnetic closure.

The water-resistant Dri Lite Tour sits square on a trolley thanks to its flat, trolley compatible base, leg lock feature and positioning of the stand mechanism. Its 14-way divider and five spacious water-repellent pockets – including cooler and valuables pocket – give it cart bag capacity, while its ultra-lightweight – 2kg – and practical features, such as padded carry straps, mean it also excels as a stand bag.

Weighing 2kg and featuring a 4-way top, the fully waterproof Lite Speed offers six pockets, including a full-length clothing pocket, several accessory compartments and a drinks pouch.

The adjustable X-Strap Dual Strap guarantees comfort and ease of use, with the carry straps attached to the top of the bag for a more balanced carry. Sturdy aluminium legs add stability and can be locked away when being used on a trolley.

TAYLORMADE FLEXTECH CROSSOVER

CALLAWAY HYPER DRY C

£239

£229.95

The water-resistant Crossover is designed to be carried or fitted onto a trolley. The Strap Slider System keeps the bag stable while carrying and adjusts itself as you move and is easily removeable for trolley use. A 14-way top adds extra weight, but it also ensures there is less clunking of clubs. Ten pockets include a suede-lined valuables pocket, two large apparel pockets and a large insulated cooler pocket.

A lightweight carry bag – 1.8kg – the Hyper Dry C boasts four roomy pockets for your wet weather gear and other bits and bobs, while its seam-sealed construction and waterproof materials will ensure that the contents remain dry in all weathers. It also features a self-balancing X-Act Fit double strap, and a four-way top with full length dividers.

Offered in seven colours, it’s a proper year-round bag.

PING HOOFER MONSOON

MOTOCADDY HYDROFLEX

£219

The HydroFlex is a versatile carry bag that is also designed to fit on any Motocaddy trolley thanks to its Easilock compatibility. Although ideal for those who already have a Motocaddy trolley, the bag fits on most other brands and comes with a removable strap. A waterproof nylon fabric shell ensures everything stays dry inside, while full-length dividers and five spacious pockets make it a practical option whether carrying or pulling/pushing.

STANDS THAT DELIVER Carry your clubs in comfort and style with our pick of the latest stand and hybrid bags

PING HOOFER £190 The latest iteration of the Hoofer boasts 11 pockets, including one for valuables, a magnetic rangefinder pocket, a magnetic slip pocket, a large apparel pocket and a bottle pouch. It boasts a five-way top, while a new back puck simplifies conversion from a double to a single strap. The cart strap channel makes it easy to load onto a trolley and ensures all pockets are still fully accessible with the carry strap still on the bag.

Weighing 2.4kg, the Monsoon features a waterproof construction and four seam-sealed pockets (six altogether) and is designed for use in all weathers. A deployable hood protects the clubs inside a rigid five-way top, while the sliding shoulder pads feature a strap connector that allows the bag to be carried by a single strap or backpack style with optimal weight distribution and balance.

£219.99

TRAVEL & BREAKS SEPTEMBER 2021 [49] GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

SEPTEMBER 2021 | WWW.GOLFNEWS.CO.UK/TRAVEL

TAKE YOUR GAME TO NEW HEIGHTS WITH GOLF TRAVEL TOUR’S GUIDED HOLIDAYS FANCY A LUXURY HOLIDAY? Feel you could add a few yards to your drive or a little more backspin to your chips onto the green? Well, if your answer is an emphatic yes to those questions, you might want to consider booking a trip with Golf Travel Tours.

Set up by parent company Golf Travel Group, Golf Travel Tours is a new and expansive service that matches golf enthusiasts with PGA Professionals to provide an escorted international golf experience that blends blissful recreation with dedicated, professional coaching.

Available in 36 countries and on 365 courses, Golf Travel Tours offer a golfing holiday experience like no other, with a unique global portfolio of worldwide golfing opportunities.

Included in the package is dedicated time with a PGA Professional working on all aspects of your game. Individual lessons are bookable, enabling you to work on your game with someone who knows how to shave shots off your handicap and help you to enjoy your golf more.

Among the roster of PGA Professionals on GTT’s books include renowned trick shot artist David Edwards; Jaques Gous, Head PGA Professional at Sedlescombe Golf Club; and Martin Thompson, the Head PGA Professional at Parkstone Golf Club in Dorset, who boasts over 25 years’ coaching experience.

Tours are booked in groups, who you will get to know over several rounds of golf played every other day of your holiday.

Split up into small groups of four, you will be able to match your skills on the course, working on the tips of the trade learnt every day with your dedicated golf professional. Tours are designed to permit smaller groups to join like-minded golf fanatics on the best courses in world golf, whilst all the fine details are taken care of by the caddy concierge service provided by GTT. While playing golf and honing your skills are the main elements of the GTT package, no holiday would be complete as without a good dose of R&R. It’s lucky then that all tour packages include five-star accommodation options and a myriad of interesting activities to make sure you get the most of your holiday. Designed to aid your experience of unique destinations like Southeast Asia, the South Pacific or South Africa and Europe, guests can enjoy a safari, a Mekong River cruise, or a wine tasting in a French Châteaux, all while experiencing the best courses in world golf.

ATOL protected, all Golf Travel Tour trips are pre-booked with fixed itineraries and dedicated ground teams are there to make sure your trip runs smoothly and deal with any queries.

The packages, which begin from January 2022, all include direct flights from London; private group transfers; luxury accommodation; welcome/farewell dinners; all activities and excursions, and green fees.

For details on the latest Golf Travel Tours packages, visit www.golftravel.tours or call 0800 6889848.

[50] SEPTEMBER 2021

TRAVEL & BREAKS GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

MADEIRA GOLF CLASSIC SET TO BLOSSOM WITH PALHEIRO PACKAGES

GOLF IN MADEIRA has never looked rosier with the launch of the new Palheiro Gardens Golf Classic this autumn and golfers can enjoy outstanding value on accommodation when they take part in the inaugural event – with three-night breaks starting from only €172 per person.

Palheiro Golf is serving up a treat for competitors on and off the course at the new event, which will take place from October 1-5 and is being held in aid of the Make A Wish children’s charity.

Designed by Cabell B. Robinson, Palheiro Golf’s 6,656-yard course is nearly 1,640ft above sea level and enjoys dramatic views of Madeira’s mountainous skyline and the ocean, as well as the island’s capital, Funchal.

Palheiro’s golf course is situated within the magnificent Palheiro Nature Estate, which is more than 200 years old, and players can choose from an array of five-star hotel and selfcatering accommodation.

Bed-and-breakfast breaks in the luxury Casa Velha do Palheiro hotel start from €100 per person per night and

include entry to the famous Palheiro Gardens, complimentary use of the spa and the chance to enjoy the luxury hotel’s numerous sports facilities, including tennis, table tennis, billiards, croquet, badminton and the gym. A daily courtesy bus to Palheiro Golf is also included.

Self-catering accommodation in one of Palheiro Village’s choice of well-equipped apartments and villas is bookable from just €57.50 per person per night. All packages include entry into the 18-hole individual Stableford competition on Palheiro Golf’s a championship course, a pre-tournament sunset welcome party and a prize-giving ceremony with cocktail at the Palheiro Gardens.

A trip to the island’s capital of Funchal to the Madeira Flower Festival follows the day after the tournament with free golf also included in the event package, while on October 4 there will be a special visit to the famous Blandy’s Madeira Wine Lodge in Funchal, including a tutored wine tasting.

For more information, and to book your place in the Palheiro Gardens Golf Classic, visit palheironatureestate.com.

■ ENJOY SEVERAL ROUNDS AT PALHEIRO GOLF BEFORE EXPERIENCING THE DELIGHTS OF FUNCHAL AND ITS ANNUAL FLOWER FESTIVAL

NEW-LOOK SOUTH COURSE RAISES THE BAR AT QUINTA DO LAGO GOLFERS LOOKING TO ENJOY some golf under cloudless skies this winter should head out to Portugal’s Algarve where the dozens of top-class resort courses are ready and waiting for UK golfers to enjoy now that Covid restrictions have been relaxed.

And there is nowhere better to play than Quinta do

■ PLAY QUINTA DO LAGO'S NEWLY RENOVATED SOUTH COURSE AND STAY IN A CHOICE OF LUXURY HOTEL OR VILLA ACCOMODATION

Lago, with the Faro-based resort having recently completed the renovation of its acclaimed South course as part of a €7m investment into the venue.

All 48 bunkers on the course have been renovated to their original size, with new drainage and sand added. Several bunkers within the pine tree canopy were adjusted to give access to the green and two other bunkers have been relocated.

The lakes on the third and 17th holes now have new retaining walls, the eighth fairway has been softened, a number of pine trees have been relocated, and the lake on the 16th has been brought into play behind the green. Extensive drainage work has also been carried out on the 16th hole to capture and divert natural spring water to be reused as irrigation.

Scrub that existed between the trees has been replaced bark scrapings which not only serves to frame the course nicely,

defining what is course and what is not, but it also requires no watering, a crucial factor in this part of the world.

Plenty of work has also been done on the tee boxes, and the fairways have also been dug up and reseeded to ensure they are perfectly manicured for golfers when they return this autumn.

Located just 15 minutes from Faro airport, Quinta do Lago boasts two other championship golf courses – the North and Laranjal – and outstanding practice facilities, while guests can stay in shape at The Campus, a world-class sports hub designed for professionals and amateurs alike to keep fit. Complementing the golf facilities is a choice of 13 bars and restaurants, including the Bovino Steakhouse and Dano’s Sports Bar & Restaurant.

For details on the latest golf breaks to Quinta do Lago, including stay-and-play packages at the Magnolia Hotel, visit www.quintadolago.com.

TRAVEL & BREAKS

SEPTEMBER 2021 [51]

GOLFNEWS.CO.UK

Dan Walker BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker never leaves home without a tee in his pocket, a pitching wedge in his car, and extra pairs of pants in his suitcase

Travel with

me too, because you never know when the opportunity to hit a shot might come about.

■ THE 9TH HOLE ON CLOSE HOUSE'S WESTWOOD COURSE

The best hotel I’ve ever stayed at was…

Celtic Manor. I booked a room to stay there with my wife and three kids, but there was another Danny Walker already checked in and they’d double booked the room. The hotel was full, and the only other room was the presidential suite, so we all stayed there for the entire weekend. That takes some beating.

My first holiday was to… Aberdeen – a family holiday in 1991. I remember driving past many golf clubs, but I didn’t play.

My best ever shot... was a 4-iron I hit to the

I first picked up a golf club.... when I was about nine years old. I played a lot of tennis as a kid, but my mum wanted me to get into other sports, so I was given a 7-iron and played around with it in the back garden. I was hooked from there on.

replied, “don’t be ridiculous – I’ve seen you putt!” The other two players would be Peter Styles, the Director of Golf at Trafford Golf Centre, because he can sort out my comical loose wrists,, and my brother-in-law, as who else would I be able to brag to in the family without him there?

My favourite golf resort is…Turnberry. I love all the Open venues, but Turnberry especially.

I once intentionally snap-hooked one onto the beach at the 10th hole – you can’t play there and not hit a shot from the beach. Of course I made a par.

My ideal holiday fourball would include… Paul McGinley, who was brilliant company in the BMW PGA Pro-am at Wentworth back in 2014. We got to the 12th hole, the longest drive hole, and he said to me, “You’ve got this in the bag”. I annihilated one 332 yards and won it. I turned to Paul and said “Any chance of a Ryder Cup pick?” but he

■ THE LOUNGE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL SUITE AT CELTIC MANOR

My most memorable ever round was at… The Belfry a few years ago. I had a dog of an opening four holes, and then something clicked. It was the only time in my life where everything has fallen together. I shot twounder par for the remaining 14 holes.

9th hole on the Westwood Course at Close House. It was at a charity event called the Have A Heart Million Dollar Challenge, where there was a $1m prize for a hole-in-one at the ninth.

Mine was the final shot of the day. It never left the pin, landed five feet from the pin, skipped forward.... and then stopped a foot shot of the flag. I missed out on the million but holed the birdie putt.

My favourite city in the world is… Sheffield.

I’ve been all round the world, but what I love about Sheffield is that it is my home and it feels like home. It’s the biggest village in the UK. My kids absolutely love it. I’m a member at Hallamshire Golf Club, which I love. The only thing it needs is an airport, so if you could sort that out it’d be perfect.

My top travel tip would be… once you’ve I always travel with… a golf tee in my pocket.

You never want to hit one off the mat, do you?

I always take my TaylorMade wedge with

For all your travel news visit golfnews.co.uk/travel

packed, always take two more pairs of pants.

The number of holidays where I’ve run out is startling!

HIGHER MOMENT OF ENJOYMENT. NEW

2021 PUTTERS FEEL AND FORGIVENESS. Consistency and predictability in both feel and performance ensure these eye-catching 2021 putters improve results on the greens. They achieve new levels of forgiveness relying on multi-material construction and a soft, responsive new dual-durometer insert across 11 blades, mid-mallets and mallets.

© PING 2021

HIGH-DENSITY WEIGHTS TO OPTIMISE MOI DUAL-DUROMETER PEBAX FACE INSERT