Big names take French leave
THERE should be plenty of excitement and expectation in the air of Versailles when the first tee shots are played on Thursday in this year’s French Open.
Continental Europe’s oldest Open championship has a new sponsor in the Chinese Airline HNA and with its £6.1million prize fund, it is the second tournament in the European Tour’s new big-money Rolex Series.
Furthermore, it will give Ryder Cup hopefuls a chance to experience the many changes made to Le Golf National in preparation for its hosting of the match against the Americans next year.
Yet one look at the entry list when it was published on the European Tour’s website 10 days ago suggests the air may also be filled with questions and worries.
Chief executive Keith Pelley has built a vastly stronger European Tour itinerary in the two years since he moved into his office at Wentworth – but it is still struggling to attract all the world’s biggest golfers.
Any player ranked in the top 50 can enter a Rolex tournament even if they are not members of his Tour, but the list of absentees from the French Open is huge.
American golfers occupy 24 of those ranking slots this week and not a single one of them has booked their private jets into Orly Airport, which lies beside Le Golf National. Neither have Justin Rose and Rory McIroy, who live in America, or last year’s Open champion Henrik Stenson.
That trio may be saving their firepower and energies for the next three weeks that are filled with two more Rolex events, the Irish and Scottish Opens, followed by the Open at Royal Birkdale.
The Americans, however, are also giving the Irish Open a miss and there could be two very debatable reasons for the decisions they have taken.
Under their old Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, Americans had to get permission to play in an
overseas tournament if it meant they would be missing a US Tour event in the same week.
Finchem’s successor, Jay Monahan, is known to have the same views, which may have become even more dogmatic now that the Rolex Series is attempting to challenge American domination on the world golf scene.
More worrying, however, is the fact that American Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk has not put pressure on his potential team members to get to know Le Golf National’s layout before their defence next year.
That may stem from a chat he had with Tony Jacklin recently, in which he stated the Americans are very wary of playing in France because they fear the Ryder Cup could be devastated by a terrorist incident similar to those that have targeted the French capital in recent years.
Aware of Furyk’s concerns, the European Tour did admit several months ago that contingency plans are being drawn up to switch the Ryder Cup to Gleneagles, which hosted Europe’s victory in 2014. And that is a story that could run further than a wellhit Dustin Johnson tee shot. ❑ AT THE tender age of 23 years and 10 months, Jordan Spieth won his 10th US Tour title by holing a bunker shot at the final green in a play-off for the Travelers Championship.
Tiger Woods reached that landmark when he was four months younger but Jack Nicklaus was 24 when he did it. And the victory was not lost on Spieth, as he celebrated wildly with his caddie Michael Greller. Spieth threw his club in the air as Greller did likewise with the bunker rake and then braced himself as Spieth ran at him.
Presumably it was meant to be a flying chest bump but Spieth turned his back on Greller before launching himself off the ground. It must be a favourite for golf celebration of the year. ❑ RICHARD BLAND’S fortunes on Sunday at the BMW in Munich were in stark contrast to those of Spieth.
At the age of 44 and looking for his first victory in his 411th European Tour event, he stood on the par-three 17th in a share of the lead but made bogey. Needing an eagle at the last to force a play-off, he missed a putt from 12 feet. ❑ MISSING vital putts has been a chronic headache for Rory McIlroy but he hopes he may have solved the problem at the Travelers.
McIlroy used three different putters but, using one with a more traditional head in the final round, he shot a 64 and said he would probably keep it for next week’s Irish Open.