IT’S EUROPE v USA IN WORLD RANKINGS ROW

TWO PGA Tour journeymen have played the role of the ugly American to perfection by claiming the world rankings are biased towards competitors on the European Tour. As if having three of the four majors, two of the four WGCs and a clear majority of the 20 best tournaments in golf on home soil was not enough of an advantage, Kelly Kraft and Grayson Murray have been whining on Twitter about the rankings. Clearly riled their own positions are not good enough to get them into WGCs or majors, the 178th-ranked Kraft sparked a social media row by sarcastically tweeting: ‘It’s amazing to me how fast some of the Asian Tour/Euro Tour guys rise in the world rankings.’ That was enough for Murray, ranked 155th, to pipe up: ‘Let’s go play over there and then we will be in every major and WGC event the rest of our lives.’ Erudite Englishman Eddie Pepperell let Kraft have it with both barrels, tweeting back: ‘Some fall pretty fast too. Maybe come out and play in Europe before displaying your ignorance for us all to realise what a (insulting emoji) looks like.’ Two European Tour loyalists who have effortlessly made the transition to PGA Tour life joined in. Korean Ben An posted: ‘Before Twitter and social media, some people were dumb privately, but not any more,’ while Thomas Pieters came up with a witty response to the American pair: ‘Maybe you two guys could just text that to each other, and not make fools of yourselves for tweeting nonsense.’ In fairness, it should be said worldly American Justin Thomas also took issue with Kraft and Murray, tweeting to the latter: ‘Do less. Not your best.’ Murray, whose claim to fame so far is that a Playboy model has promised to caddy for him in the Masters Par Three tournament if he gets there by winning the Houston Open, at least began on the right track with a useful 68. But Kraft bombed out with a 75. The lead was held after day one by Rickie Fowler with a 64. England’s Justin Rose shot 67.