O’Connor Jnr determined to lead Europe
Newly appointed American skipper Tom Lehman believes Europe must assume the mantle of favourites in two years time and O'Connor is simply amazed.
"The Americans saying they are underdogs is like the eighth wonder of the world to me," O'Connor said. "I couldn't believe my ears when I heard Lehman say that. Ben Hogan would turn in his grave.
"I never thought I would hear an American captain say that. To go from Hogan saying 'Here are the best golfers in the world' all those years ago to what we are hearing now is incredible."
O'Connor Jnr was speaking at the PGA National course at Palmerstown House near Naas, which was officially unveiled as the new headquarters of the PGA Irish Region yesterday.
The 7,419-yard parkland track, designed by O'Connor Jnr with the help of the Nicklaus Design Company at a cost of over €30 million, is scheduled to open in spring next year.
The Irish Region of the PGA will relocate from their Dundalk HQ to PGA National at Palmerstown House, where they will be "heavily involved" in setting up the first PGA Golf Academy in Ireland.
But while O'Connor is delighted with his 30th design project, he is still committed to becoming Europe's Ryder Cup skipper in 2006.
"I have not dropped the idea of being captain. I am not out of the equation and no one has told me that I am dropped. I filled in my forms a long time ago."
However, O'Connor did express surprise that Lehman got the nod ahead of Irish-American Mark O'Meara in the race for the US captaincy.
"I must admit that I was surprised that O'Meara, with his Irish roots, did not get the job. But Tom Lehman is a gentleman and without mentioning any names the Americans have been short a bit of style in recent years.
"He is totally into the game of golf and will make a fine captain. As for what happened at Brookline in 1999 with Lehman and other players running on the green when Olazabal still had to putt that was a spur of the moment situation. They came back from so far behind."
Lehman was officially presented as US Ryder Cup captain in Florida on Wednesday and immediately claimed the underdog's role. He said: "I think four of the last five Ryder Cups, the European team has won; five of the last seven, and we always go into the Ryder Cup as the favourite.
"And I think simply the facts show that no matter how good our players are, no matter how high you are ranked in the world, no matter how many major championships our team has won and how many victories we have, how talented we are, we always seem to have a difficult time with the Ryder Cup.
"The European team is very, very strong and so for the first time ever, without meaning any dishonour to the American players, we'll probably be the underdogs.
"I think without question, the facts show we are the underdogs. You go to Irish soil playing on a golf course that they play the Irish Open (European Open) on every year; a course that the European players have played many, many times with all of their fans and their home base in their backyard. They will be the favourites and we'll be the underdogs, and that's just fine with me."
The PGA National Course, owned by CityWest supremo Jim Mansfield, has been built on the 800-acre Palmerstown House Estate and Stud Farm near Naas, Co Kildare.
This is the first time the PGA has given its name to a golf course in Ireland and joins the PGA National at the Belfry and PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles.
The course winds its way through thousands of mature trees which have been supplemented by almost 150,000 new trees. O'Connor Jnr revealed Mansfield has invested €4.5m in trees and shrubbery alone, having purchased the estate for IR£10m four years ago.
The course was to be co-designed by Jack Nicklaus and the late Payne Stewart, but O'Connor was retained by Mansfield after Stewart's death in a plane crash in 1999.
There are plans to open a 229-room five-star hotel on site in time for the 2006 Ryder Cup and a sumptuous clubhouse is due to open next year.
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