A Man For All Seasons

P.G. Wodehouse, in The Letter of the Law, admitted that for all its grand-sounding name, the President's Cup at the Oldest Member's club ranked somewhere between the Grandmothers' Umbrella Competition and the Infants' All-Day Sucker (open to those not yet having finished teething).

 The World Cup. Those words invoke strong emotions, whether thinking about Pickles finding the Jules Rimet Trophy in 1966, Diego annoying Terry in 1986, or, for the Irish, David O'Leary in 1990 and Ray Houghton in 1994.

 The World Cup of Golf. While this name may not curry as much favour with TV fans, it still sounds impressive. However, if you expected Adam Scott and Robert Allenby to be teeing up against Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim, think again. You'll be watching Brandt Snedeker and Brendan Jones. Top players will play the World Cup a couple of times at the beginning, and then get on with their own game. 

And so the World Cup goes largely ignored by a large proportion of the golfing population. This year, however, we were treated to a magnificent display of golf that can only help what should be a wonderful event. Will Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington ever play in it again? Probably not. But that doesn't mean it can't be a top-class event.

 Sergio's avoidance of the week meant a start for young Pablo Larrazabal, one of the brightest sparks on the European Tour. He teamed up with the legend that is Miguel Angel Jimenez, and they put on a display that will have the 2010 Ryder Cup Captain rubbing his hands with glee. Despite a disappointing final day, they played superb, passionate golf, and almost single-handedly made it a tournament worth watching.

 Other countries had great showings as well. Martin Kaymer and Alex Cejka were a fancied team at the beginning of the week, and lived up to the expectations until a 73 today ended their hopes. Australia shot themselves out of contention on Sunday too, but Brendan Jones and Richard Green showed themselves to be quite a pairing.

However.

During the Ryder Cup, two tall Swedish men were paired together. As European heads were in hands (mine included), the one claim I stuck to was that if you have a couple of Swedes together, it doesn't matter if they're 2 or 3 down. They'll just calmly keep on playing, won't get hassled, and will do the business.

 Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson are two of the best players in the world today. Karlsson has had a busy year - top 10s in three majors, two victories, eight other top 10s, and an Order of Merit title. He's played the best golf of his life throughout the spring, summer, and autumn. Time for a winter break? Not at all! Get Henrik and we'll play a few games of golf!

They played wonderful golf all week, shooting 65-67-66-63, and justifying their status as pre-tournament favourites. Admittedly, their closest challengers helped them on the final day, but they did what they did best - calmly walked around, ignoring what other guys are doing, and getting on with business.

 Of course it's a different format, but this performance only accentuates what we've been saying for the last few months - one of these boys will have a major by the next Ryder Cup.

The Race to Dubai travelled to Australia this week, and Rod Pampling and Marcus Fraser set up a playoff for the home crowds to enjoy. The experienced Rod came out on top, but Fraser certainly showed signs of wanting to build on his steady 2008 season in the New Year.

Robert Allenby let me down again with a final day 73 - he's declared an intention to play in the Race to Dubai this year, and we're delighted to have him. However, if he's going to start winning again, he's got to start holing putts to supplement his magnificent iron-play. If he'd holed a handful more putts during the last year, he'd have been a multiple winner in America.

The Race has a week off now, before heading to Leopard Creek for the Alfred Dunhill Championship, where Lee Westwood will be looking to get his campaign off to a winning start.

There is golf this week though, with the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City. Trevor Immelman is defending champion, and will be joined by 11 other top players from around the world, including Sergio, Westwood, and those two Swedes again. I think I'm going to go with Stenson for the victory - he won't want 2008 going by without a win and the World Cup will have him confident.

Apologies to those of you who have visited over the last two weeks expecting up-to-the-minute self-satisfied over-opinionated twaddle, only to find that I was holding my peace (that's a self-satisfied phrase right there). Such a delay will not occur again. In the interim, Rory McIlroy narrowly missed out on a maiden victory in a playoff to Wen-Tang Lin, but I'm confident that young McIlroy will have a win under his belt by the end of the winter (which I, being Irish, extend to at least the end of February).

All the best. Take care.

It's On

I came to my computer today with a wonderful, catchy, unoriginal blog title in my head for this week's column, only to see that Ewen Murray nicked it for his Sky Sports article. So, "Let the Race Begin..." will have to wait until next year...

I've already spoken about the Race to Dubai, and how I've come around to its way of thinking. I must say, I'm confident now that it is the dawning of a new era for the European Tour. It will provide more competition for all, which can be tough on the journeyman pro, but in the long run, it's a positive. The first event sees Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim, Mike Weir, and Camilo Villegas to name but a few teeing it up in Shanghai. Kim and Villegas are the new stars of the game, and to have them playing on both sides of the pond is a huge positive for world golf.

Congratulations to Soren Kjeldsen (I finally got a tip right in last week's column) and Robert Karlsson on taking the final Volvo Masters and the Order of Merit respectively. In the end the OM title was almost an anticlimax, but Lee Westwood put up a spirited battle until midway through Sunday. I said last week that Kjeldsen just needed to hole a few putts early, and that's exactly what he did. On Thursday, he only hit 9 greens, and yet had 8 birdies. He played great golf and ground out a win on a very tough course. 

 I hope Valderrama retains a place on the circuit - it's too good a course to miss out on having an event; it's never eaten up by the players and anything can happen down the last 3 holes, so a tournament's never over until the last putt is holed.

Before leaving Spain for Shanghai, just to update you on Seve - he's making good progress apparently, and was speaking to his family yesterday, but he'll remain in intensive care. As always, our best wishes go to him and his family.

So, who's going to lead the Race to Dubai after week 1? I'm going to stick with the guy I've been backing all month. He had a poor start at Valderrama put played solid golf in terrible conditions on Friday and Saturday to come in 11th. He lost in a playoff to Mickelson here last year, after a God-awful chip on the last that ran into the water, when he only needed a 5 for the championship. As long as he gets through that hole on Thursday ok, I think he'll be in the top few come Sunday.

Paul Casey's got a great record at the course - 3 top 10s from 3 starts. He's had a quiet time recently, but if he gets his putter going he'll be in there.

For once I'm not going with Karlsson and Harrington, and I'll probably be punished. I think Karlsson will just have felt such a relief in wrapping up the OM, and he needs a rest. Harrington had a torrid time last weekend, and he needs a good winter break to bring his game back to its best.

Anthony Kim is playing, and that makes it exciting enough. He had a phenomenal year on Tour, with 2 wins and a few more top 5s. He starred in the Ryder Cup, and he's declared his intentions to world golf. He wants to win, and he wants to win everywhere. Don't be surprised if he gets his European Tour career off to the perfect start.

Finally, Sergio. He had a quiet day on Sunday at Valderrame - he just never really got it going. The important thing is that he's playing good golf and putting pretty well. I expect him to be in the top 5 in this once again.

The best thing about golf is that the new season starts 4 days after the old one ends. I'm excited about this - the only problem is it'll be on too early in the morning for me to watch it.

I think it'll be a great event, and a great year for golf.

Enjoy.