ON POINT TO THE RYDER CUP

The Ryder Cup has not even begun but the controversy has.  It’s not the usual culprits of Team USA and Team Europe having a bit of boy banter.  Oh no, it’s much more complex than that.  

Captain Darren Clarke of Team Europe has made his final selections and the twelve- man team is now complete – but it did not include the long anticipated inclusion of Russell Knox.  Captain Clarke says it was one of the toughest calls he has had to make in his golfing career; Knox says it lasted twenty seconds.  So I time it because I’m made like that: “Hi Russell; Hello, Darren; I’m afraid you’ve not made it this time; That’s okay, Darren; Better luck next time.  It really is a shame you hadn’t joined the European tour before you won last November; Bye, Darren”.  Of course I’m making it up but it must have had a glinting of those words in the conversation and I may be wrong here but that wasn’t difficult.  Short and to the point, yes.  Awkward, yes.  The agony only begins when you have protracted salutations and exchanges of conversation that require discussion.  I should imagine there was none to very little.  

(Sorry, Darren, but the point goes to Russell.)

The lovely Darren, in his lilting Irish accent that would probably charm the creamy head off a pint of Guinness, went on to say that team is more important than “the playing bit” and team ethos was the enabler of past successes.  He sure is right in that observation.  

(Take a point, Captain.)

Things got a little bit more hairy at this point, however, with Tom English of BBC Scotland, wading in with the astute comment that Knox had two ranking events left to play following his early August Travelers tournament win, and the playing therein would show his commitment and intent to qualify for the team.  He did neither, choosing instead to play on the cash cow that is The Barclays FedEx - which carries no Ryder Cup points – and doing so in spite of Clarke asking him to play at Wyndham.  

(Disregarding this genuine request is not your best move, Russell, so Darren scores the point here.) 

Knox appeared to become more obnoxious when he recounted in an interview with Golf Digest a couple of weeks earlier that there was a “moral obligation” to pick him and that he should be first pick of the Captain’s three wildcards.  We will never know if Clarke was swayed by that Knox-on-Knox egotistical remark but it certainly jars with Clarke’s statement of the importance of team ethos.  

(Not-nice- narcissism is null and dull so the point goes unreservedly to Captain Clarke.)

Team Europe were bewitched by all of this but the Americans loved it and so did Davis Love III, Captain of Team USA.  Stirring the Ryder Cup cauldron to fever pitch, he claimed he would pick Russell, pointing out that he’s the highest ranked player not on Team Europe.  And he’s right.  Knox is ranked at 20, ahead of automatic qualifiers Cabrera Bello 27, Wood 28, Sullivan 42 and Fitzpatrick 48.  The Captain’s wildcard picks of Westwood, Kaymer and Pieters show rankings of 46, 50 and 41 respectively.  (But you’re not getting any points here, Davis.  Sorry, you’re the opposition and it’s hard enough amassing points for our own side even if they are points scored from in-house fighting.)

Love is currently lumbered with a post-op recovery from a hip replacement – a sincere and unfettered return to rude health, sir - and is doing so under a copious mound of spreadsheet statistics and a mahoosive menagerie of advice from all and sundry, and Phil Mickelson (who wants another Gleneagles speech of that calibre?), on who should be his Captain’s picks.  All sides of the Atlantic are eagerly awaiting the names of those who will fill the shoes of the four vacant spots on Team USA and, inclusive or exclusive, this Ryder Cup match promises to be like none other before with a team of veteran golfers from the US desperate for a win against a disproportioned European side that sports six raw rookies.  

(Oh Darren, you may have easily won the PR exchanges with Russell but the portends for bringing home the Ryder Cup are not awarding you much by way of points here.)

It does not take long to figure that I am batting for Darren and his golfing dozen.  I have nothing against the US but I happen to live “over here” on the edge of Europe, right up close to the home of golf.  It comes naturally that I should want to hold on to the Ryder Cup - along with the throng of European supporters - but I can’t see it happening at Hazeltine.  Masters champion Willett is wilting and his form is not even smouldering given his recent exit from the FedEx Cup.  Fitzpatrick has the troughs and peaks of a Big Dipper beguiling his play with his top ten finish in the Masters cancelled out by his failing to make the cut at the Open.  The lovely Kaymer has left his best form sitting back on the wire-to-wire victory of 2014.  That’s two years ago, Martin.  It seems our great hopes lie in the stratospheric Stenson and the golden Rose, the solid playing of Westwood and perhaps the recent hot shot play of Rory who seems to have found a smattering of form at last.  

(There are more points to be scored here for form - or lack thereof -but I'm doing my best to refrain.)

Musings like these brought me to the idea that maybe it was time to introduce another Captain’s wildcard – one that would allow the captain to de-select at least one automatically qualifying player if his playing was lacklustre on the run-up to the Ryder Cup.  Now that would put the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons and keep them on red alert and, if that wildcard was available to Clarke right now, there might have been a late shoo-in reprieve for Knox.  

(But that is only conjecture and a pointless exercise to parry.)

To Hazeltine and beyond…