That has necessarily meant little face-to-face contact during the season, but the German, unlike his predecessor Sam Torrance, who set great store by it, does not think it a must. Not only does he now live in Florida and play most of his golf on the US Tour, he appointed as his vice-captain Anders Forsbrand, who also lives in Florida and plays nowhere. Langer has brought a certain aloofness to his captaincy. The result was two of the ugliest occasions ever witnessed in sport, let alone golf. The Americans are hugely conscious of the fact that of the last nine playings of the Ryder Cup, the Europeans have held the trophy aloft after six of them and are, of course, the holders.īut for the sake of the Ryder Cup it is to be hoped that Sutton does not take the "win at all costs" approach that previous US captains, notably Dave Stockton in 1991 at Kiawah Island and Ben Crenshaw at Brookline in 1999, have done. That one word instruction carried no qualifications, such as "fairly" or "within the spirit of the game" simply, "win". "When they told me I was to be captain," said Sutton of the US PGA, "I asked them what they wanted of me and I got one word back. But the reasons for the appointment were completely different to that of Langer. When Sutton was appointed there was no doubt that his Ryder Cup career as a player was over.
But against that it was thought that, given that the match was in Detroit, where ructions could confidently be expected, he was the safest pair of hands available. When Langer was appointed it was arguable that he had kicked himself upstairs a match too soon.
It was much the same 44 years later when the reserved Bernard Hunt had to try and match a charging Arnold Palmer, and was overwhelmed, and it was not really until 1997 at Valderrama, in southern Spain, that the almost superhuman energy of Severiano Ballesteros completely obliterated the efforts of his opposite number, Tom Kite.īut, just as in skinning cats, there is more than one way of winning a Ryder Cup and while this year's captains could hardly be more disparate that is not to say that Bernhard Langer's dispassionate approach will not prevail over Hal Sutton's kick-ass, take-no-prisoners philosophy.
0 kommentar(er)
