Greed hits Europe’s hopes of retaining Ryder Cup
Warm-up event’s demise denies players chance to experience team format, writes James Corrigan
‘Others didn’t share my view of succession and blooding captains and players’
Why change a winning formula? That has been the bemused reaction in a few corners of the European Tour locker room with the revelation that, for the first time this century, there will be no Ryder Cup dress rehearsal.
Of course, this void went unhighlighted when the new Tour schedule was released last week; no golf authority worthy of its inflated marketing budget is in the habit of signalling negative news. Yet the silent demise of the Eurasia Cup is very negative, as was the shameless passing of the Seve Trophy in 2013, and also the inconspicuous death of the Royal Trophy in the same year.
All of these matches handed Europe’s future heroes a flavour of the team room prior to the Ryder Cup, with only five of the 47 professionals who have played against America since 2000 failing to have appeared in at least one of those biennial prep events. Paris last year was a fine example. Jon Rahm was alone in not having previously turned out for Europe, with the other four rookies all having played under Thomas Bjorn in the Eurasia Cup eight months before.
“Someone like Tyrrell [Hatton] found the Eurasia an invaluable experience,” Bjorn said. “It gave him a taste of being part of a unit playing foursomes and fourballs and gelling with partners. No, nothing can ready you for a Ryder Cup, because it is unlike anything else. But that week in Malaysia did act as a really useful primer.”
Not just for the players, either. Bjorn is adamant that this warm-up was vital to his victorious march at Le Golf National – as was leading the Continentals in the Seve Trophy against Great Britain and Ireland in 2009 – and it is interesting to note that each of the last six Europe captains had already experienced the leadership hot seat.
At Whistling Straits next September, Padraig Harrington will be the first virgin commander of the blue-and-gold brigade since Ian Woosnam 13 years ago. It is difficult enough to win on US soil anyway (twice in the past 20 years), so why deny Harrington the benefit of a workout with the buggy and the headset?
Paul Mcginley is just one expert who is disappointed and, as one of the most lauded captains in the Cup’s 92-year history, his opinion must be respected and should really have been acted upon. “Let’s face it, I wouldn’t have been captain without the ability to prove myself in the Seve Trophy,” Mcginley told The Daily Telegraph this week.
Indeed, without those GB&I triumphs in 2009 and 2011 Mcginley would not even have entered the conversation for 2014 and, as it turned out, it was only the intervention of Rory Mcilroy, who had played under his fellow Irishman, that swayed it his way. That is why Mcginley was so vocal in trying to persuade the Tour to continue with the match named in honour of Severiano Ballesteros.
“Others didn’t share my view of succession planning and blooding captains and players,” he said. “America have the Presidents Cup to do the same thing and we have put ourselves at what could be considered a disadvantage. Still, it’s all a matter of opinion.”
Well, it is a matter of economics, actually, as it always is on those finance-obsessed fairways. “It’s a bugbear of mine that we made it too much about money,” Mcginley said. When the Malaysians came calling with their Eurasia millions, the memory of Ballesteros was ditched and suddenly Europe received almost £250,000 per man when they triumphed. Inevitably, they proved too strong for their Asian rivals, who just as inevitably lost a degree of interest and looked to the European Tour to fulfil their end of the bargain and stage the encounter in 2020.
Except they could not find sponsors willing to put up the £3 millionplus for the winners and the £1 million-plus for the losers. So it is not happening this time and, despite murmurings, probably not next time either. All because of greed. Meanwhile, the European Tour will continue to rely on Ryder Cup success to fund its survival. Oh, the irony.