Dunne remains on course to play his way onto Cup team
AS A 13-YEAR-OLD, Paul Dunne headed for The K Club on practice day for the 2006 Ryder Cup, eager to track one player above the rest: Tiger Woods.
‘Like every kid of my age, I just wanted to follow Tiger,’ he recalled.
Come September in Paris, Dunne could find himself in opposing team rooms with the game’s biggest name.
Such has been the Woods renaissance, he is pushing for a return to the United States team. If not automatically, then he could make it as one of Jim Furyk’s wild cards.
Furyk’s opposite number, Thomas Bjorn, has three picks and is likely to keep a couple in reserve for more experienced Ryder Cup warriors, such as Ian Poulter or Paul Casey than Dunne, although that could change.
While Dunne is on the bubble for selection through both lists – European and World – realistically his best way to make the team is to play his way on to it. That will require something special between now and the final counting event, Made In Denmark (Aug 30- Sept 2).
‘It (Ryder Cup) is not on my mind and I’ll continue to do my own thing. I know I’m outside but not by a huge amount,’ he said.
‘Look at all the names on the table, they are so good. With the schedule coming up you can see those players winning between now and the end of qualification.
‘So, if every one of them is going to win, to keep up with them you’ll have to win too, and the golf you have to play has to be so good. Really, you need to win once, probably twice to make the team. That kind of takes my mind off it.’
Yet if Dunne is still knocking on the door after the US PGA Championship in Bellerive, St Louis (August 9-12), he’d consider a late push for the team.
‘It’s quite busy up to then. I’ll see if I need a rest. If I feel mentally fresh, and I’m close to the team, I’d keep playing on,’ he said.
For Dunne, the Eurasia Cup under Bjorn’s captaincy in January didn’t go as he had hoped.
‘We won as a team, that was brilliant, but I didn’t perform as I probably would have wanted,’ he admitted.
Since then, Dunne has performed. Should he continue to do so, the odds against a Ryder Cup call to arms will diminish.