When Samuel Ryder first donated a gold trophy for a biennial golf competition between players from Great Britain and the United States, the Celtic Manor Resort near Newport was a vast swathe of rolling Monmouthshire countryside with Coldra House placed on the hill which overlooked the Usk Valley. Ryder could never have believed that his golf competition would someday be hosted there.
Not many would have also believed that a golf course which only started being constructed in the early 1990s would be staging any major championship, let alone the sport’s marquee event.
But Sir Terry Matthews is living the dream. Having bought Coldra House, which served as the maternity hospital in which he was born in 1943, he has transformed the 167-acre site into a luxury leisure venue. Such was the luxury on offer after a ten-year transformation, the late 1980s saw a regular flow of celebrity guests, with Tom Jones, Elton John and Shirley Bassey enticed to the new Celtic Manor Resort.
Matthews, who emigrated to Canada during the rise of his telecommunications businesses, has invested £100million in the Newport site but he will be rewarded this weekend with hosting one of sport’s biggest events.
But the 2010 Ryder Cup was nearly without the biggest name. Tiger Woods nearly has had more women than hot dinners and in the process has become sport’s biggest let-down. Goodness knows why a car crash yards from his home caused such deluge of self-humiliation, but the crash almost robbed Sir Terry of his centrepiece. He needed American captain Corey Pavin to do him a favour: Woods needed a captain’s pick.
Pavin picked Woods as he seeks to retain the trophy won by Paul Azinger’s team in 2008 because he hasn’t got enough golfers he would rather have on the first tee come a tense Sunday afternoon than an out-of-sorts Woods, despite his poor Ryder Cup record – Woods has lost 13 matches, the third most by an American.
Something this Ryder Cup will be missing is a local player. Rhys Davies, from Bridgend, is enjoying a breakthrough season on the European Tour, with his maiden victory in the Morocco Open in March and a stunning final round for a second-place finish – his third of the season – at the Wales Open, held at the Celtic Manor. Unfortunately the world number 58 wasn’t in Colin Montgomerie’s eyeline for a wildcard selection.
One of the three men who were was Padraig Harrington: a brave wildcard selection. Harrington is a treble major champion and serial Ryder Cup winner but hasn’t been playing anywhere near the level that saw him lift consecutive Open Championships in 2007 and 2008.
Harrington still remains 16th on the world rankings but he was picked ahead of a player nine places higher on the rankings. Paul Casey can consider himself very unfortunate not to be part of the Ryder Cup team but to his credit he has taken the decision with graceful silence.
Casey hasn’t said anything at all against the qualification system; Luke Donald has, but not before he’d received a wildcard selection. The world number nine criticised the system of four qualifiers from the World points list and five from the European points list. Better players compete on the USPGA Tour, for higher prize funds, which count towards the World points list but only European Tour events count towards the European list. Hence the potential for some players lower down the world rankings to usurp their higher-ranked peers.
The European Tour needs to provide incentive to maintain the appeal of their events;Ryder Cup points is that incentive.
Francesco Molinari is the case in point. Eight top-ten finishes on the European Tour this season earned him the points – consistent golf and good form. His brother, Edoardo, gained the final wildcard spot after winning the Jonnie Walker Classic at Gleneagles – the final tournament before the wildcards were selected.
Form is certainly the make-up of the European team. In the past it was taken as given that the Americans had the better individual golfers, but their continental counterparts played better as a team: the same may not be true anymore with the world’s top 20 littered with Europeans, and plenty of Brits.
Lee Westwood tops the pile. Second at both the Masters and the Open and seven top-10 finishes on Tour provide the walk to the talk that Westwood is the best golfer in the world at the moment. Although his recent injury worries may have doused those claims.
Westwood was down the field at the US Open but fellow Briton Graeme McDowellclaimed his maiden major victory and the first by a European at the US Open sinceTony Jacklin won in 1970. The Ulsterman, in his own words, is playing the golf of his life. He also has the added advantage of a great look around the Ryder Cup course, have won the Wales Open this year.
Such is the strength of British golf – players from the Isles make up 60% of the European team – we could happily be back pre-1979, when help from the continent was first sought.
Continentals could yet have a major part to play in this year’s tournament. Germany’s USPGA Championship winner Martin Kaymer, Sweden’s Peter Hanson and the cigar-puffing, experienced Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez provide further representation, but Britons would be forgiven for abandoning their biennial feeling of unison with Europe at the Celtic Manor.
