Europe pin their hopes on a touch of Sheffield steel
Three of Darren Clarke’s side come from within 20 miles of the Yorkshire city – Jonathan Liew discovers the area’s secret
Somewhere in the middle of Sheffield, there is a wall that Pete Cowen built. Decades before he became one of the world’s leading golf coaches and opened his multimillion pound academy just outside the city, he was a simple builder’s son, learning the family trade. “I was about 12,” he remembers. “It’s a c--- wall, but it’s still standing.”
It stands as a reminder of Cowen’s humble upbringing and the life that could have awaited him in a place where, as he puts it, “you either get out, or you don’t”.
Cowen got out: he got a job caddying at the local golf course for 25p a round and went on to become a moderately successful golfer and a much more successful coach, boasting the likes of Henrik Stenson and Danny Willett on his CV. Many like him, however, did not.
You associate many things with Sheffield – steel, hills, football, music, an unshakeable affection for the word ‘mardy’. Golf, not so much. Until recently, at least. For if you draw a 20-mile circle around the city, you will find within that circle not only Cowen and his world-famous academy, but three of this year’s Europe Ryder Cup team: Worksop’s Lee Westwood, Rotherham’s Willett and Hallamshire’s Matt Fitzpatrick.
Or, to put it another way, in a continent of 750 million people, a quarter of its best golfers come from within a 40-minute drive of each other.
It is a remarkable feat and, on the face of things, it is tempting to blame coincidence, or a quirk of geography. But Cowen, who has worked with all three players, has his own theory as to how it has all come about. “People from around here have a determination to change their circumstances,” he says. “They’re prepared to work that much harder, and seek out the best advice.”
Whether it is distance runners in the Great Rift Valley, footballers in the
banlieues of Paris or darts players in the pubs of Stoke-on-Trent, sporting talent often tends to cluster. Westwood, Willett and Fitzpatrick all benefited from Cowen’s expertise, all cut their teeth in the fiercely competitive Sheffield leagues, and even though they now spend most of the year elsewhere, they maintain strong links with their home clubs.
“It started with Lee, obviously,” says Graham Needham, secretary of the Sheffield Union of Golf Clubs. “Every August Bank Holiday Monday, we used to have the interclub finals at Lindrick, and Lee used to do a juniors clinic. Then, every year at Worksop, the secretaries of all the unions would meet up, and more often than not his mum and dad would be there.” Trish Westwood still turns up at Rotherham every August to award the amateur trophy named after her son. “One thing leads to another,” says Geoff Tickell, the club pro at Hallamshire. “If you talk to Lee Westwood now, he always remembers Barry Downing beating him in the league match here, 7 & 6. If you mention Hallamshire to him, he’ll instantly reply ‘Barry Downing’. It must have been 20 years ago. He’s never forgotten it.”
People from here have a determination to change their circumstances
The young Westwood, who came through the ranks at Worksop, was supremely talented, cruising through junior tournaments and immediately marking himself out as a star of the future.
Willett was different. He had ability, but not outstanding ability. What distinguished him was an unshakeable belief and a ruthless desire for self-improvement.
It was a thirst for stronger, higher-quality competition that eventually lured him away from the homely, council-owned course at Birley Wood where he grew up, to the lush gothic parkland of Rotherham, half an hour up the road.
Within two years, he was the club champion. Within another two, he was the No1-ranked amateur in the world.
And when he won the Masters this year, it was to Rotherham that he returned for his homecoming press conference.
“Whenever we interview anybody to join this club as a member,” explains Chris Allen, the chairman at Rotherham, “I make the point that we don’t tolerate junior members, we actively encourage them.
“Last month, Danny turned up at the Westwood Trophy with his family, walked a few holes with some of the winners and had his picture taken with the junior members. It obviously inspires them.”
A short drive, through Sheffield and out the other side of the city, takes you to the rolling hills of Hallamshire, a little pocket of paradise at the gateway of the Peak District. When the sun shines, it is like a living postcard; when the wind blows, it is one the most treacherous tests
Willett has true confidence – the North produces kids with that instinct
Yorkshire has to offer. It was on these fairways that Fitzpatrick honed the craft that has earned him a first Ryder Cup appearance at the age of just 22. A glass cabinet in the clubhouse holds the enormous US Amateur trophy that Fitzpatrick won in 2013.
“I remember playing with him when he was about 12,” says Charles Coldrey Mobbs, the club chairman. “And you could always tell he had great focus. He would join in all the fun, the chat, the banter, but he was always thinking about what his next shot was going to be. There was always a golfing mind in there.”
“You’d never have played with him and said: this is the one,” remembers Tickell. “He was always good, but it’s not just about that. You watch him when he comes off the green. He’s always making notes. Always has done.”
Fitzpatrick was working with Cowen from an early age, and the coach quickly sensed he was built of the right stuff to make it to the very top.
“He doesn’t get stage fright,” he says. “After he won the US Amateur, he played in the Masters with Adam Scott and Jason Dufner in the first two rounds. And he was only 19, but it was unbelievable. You’d think he was playing a four-ball at Hallamshire.
“Then he played the US Open with Mickelson and Justin Rose. Again, you watch him and he clearly enjoyed every minute of it. Made the cut. He thinks he can do anything, and that’s something you can’t teach, no matter who you are. This is my 11th Ryder Cup, and every player, without exception, says it’s the only time in their life when they ever think they’re going to miss the ball on the first tee. The pressure does affect them all.
“But Matt doesn’t worry me. He’s a real street fighter. Willett’s the same. He’s got an inner confidence that you can’t believe. You’re asking about the North, and we produce a lot of kids with that instinct.”
The big question is where the next clutch of Westwoods, Willetts and Fitzpatricks is going to come from. The council scheme that first allowed Willett to swing a club for free was closed in 2011 as a result of Government cuts; elsewhere, the sport is in recession at junior level.
“We’re losing a generation of young players,” says Cowen. “People aren’t interested in getting out in the fresh air and walking for five miles with a bag on their backs any more. The sport is in decline, there’s no doubt about that.”
But the hope is that seeing local heroes bestriding the world stage, including at Hazeltine this weekend, can act as a sort of catalyst. And there is some evidence that it may be working. At Hallamshire, they are turning away prospective new members for the first time in decades. And Needham says that when he visits local clubs, the junior ranks are abuzz with youngsters keen to emulate Willett and Fitzpatrick.
Nobody would deny the sport has problems, of course. But the lush and lively fairways of Sheffield seem as good a place as any to look for solutions.