The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Long haul ends in Dubai
Falling towards the tape like a fast-expiring marathon runner, the European Tour finally reaches the end of its season this week with the DP World (pause) Championship at (of course) Dubai this week.
Of course, the end of the season is merely a staging point, because the new season starts up in Hong Kong exactly four days after the final putt falls at Jumeriah.
And it’ll be just a week after Q School has finished this Thursday.
Professional golf doesn’t leave much time for idle contemplation of one’s place in the world. “You’ve qualified for the Tour, congratulations! Your next tee-time is in seven days on the other side of the world.”
The end of season beanfeast seems a little light on drama this year, not just because Francesco Molinari is so far in front of Tommy Fleetwood in the Race for the Scary Mace that there’s virtually no chance the Englishman can make up the gap.
The rest is simply a money grab, with the battle to get into the top 10 and share the bonus pool money. Justin Rose can’t even be bothered to get involved in that.
The erstwhile World No 1 lost that lofty position to Brooks Koepka last week, despite neither of them hitting a ball in anger. And they wonder why we still shrug at the OWGR at times.
It certainly doesn’t reflect well on Rose nor Paul Casey that they haven’t entered when all but one of the other 60 qualifiers has made the effort. This is the tour’s flagship event, after all.
Scotland has one sole representative in Russell Knox. It hasn’t been a vintage year for the Scots on tour, no question, but it is what it is.
We have a serious amount of good talent starting to come through the ranks and I still refuse to believe that the likes of Richie Ramsay, Marc Warren and Scott Jamieson should be struggling to retain their playing rights.
2019 should be better. Really, it has to be.
Westwood restored
Not a dry eye in the house of Gary Player at the Nedbank Challenge this week as Lee Westwood ended a five-year win drought with a frankly astonishing final round 64.
It’s his first Rolex Series event win, and Westwood remarked that of course he’d wondered through his long winless streak whether he’d ever get to neck a bottle of champagne again.
To be honest, I don’t see why. I know all golfers always say “it’s close” and “I’ve a feeling it could be my week” but I’d be surprised if Westwood hasn’t felt a win was coming.
Since he returned to play in Europe from playing the PGA Tour full-time, he’s missed something like eight cuts in five years. He’s always been around, he’s never remotely looked like his game was falling off a cliff towards an irrelevant middle age.
For a player who has had more than one epochal slump during his time, that must have at least been a sign that he was still competitive and could win on any given week.
Westwood has apparently declined consideration for the next Ryder Cup captain post and will go for Italy instead. This is wise in legacy terms – you’d fancy your chances over here much more than you would in the US – but apparently it’s because he thinks he can play in 2020 at Whistling Straits.
If you’d asked me after Hazeltine I’d have greeted this with derisive laughter. But why not? If he plays his way on – I’m not sure a wildcard will ever be available for him again – there’s no-one with more experience and we saw at Golf National how much that counts.
Perhaps Hazeltine, instead of a sign of impending decline, was just a blip.
A moral vaccuum
Tiger Woods has reportedly turned down a $2.5 million appearance fee to play in next Spring’s inaugural Saudi International, which immediately begs a couple of thoughts.
The first is; since the comeback, his asking price has actually gone up to more than what it was when he was in his prime. Then, a mere $1m would get you Tiger’s presence.
The second is that this new event on the European Tour is going to have a difficult gestation. There seems to be a sudden attack of moral conscience among golfers who have never really cared previously where they played.
Dictators? Corrupt dictators? Countries or organisations or companies with incredibly dodgy reputations?
“Sorry, we’re just golfers, we don’t know anything about politics”, they say as they line their pockets.
Golf has long been a moral vacuum. The game happily goes to Turkey, or Kazakhstan, or China or various places in South East Asia, many of whom with far from spotless human rights records.
The European Tour of course is tied tight to the UAE, which is hardly known for how well it treats its many migrant workers. Saudi Arabia seems to be beyond the pale.
It’s definitely dreadful in terms of human rights, but hardly much worse than some places golf has happily visited.
Golf has long been a moral vacuum
For more sports opinion visit Steve’s blog at thecourier.co.uk/ sport/blogs/steve-scott