Bookies back Garcia to lead European charge

EMBARRASSING. That's the best word to describe the failure of Europe's best to capture the Open Championship or indeed any major title since 1999.

Their latest chance to rectify the situation has arrived with the staging of the 133rd championship over the links of the Royal Troon club on Scotland's Ayrshire coast.

Yesterday's final practice day dawned damp and windy and the prospects are for much of the same over the next four days while the overnight rain softened the links just a little, probably helping to make conditions a little better suited to low scoring.

Accordingly, Justin Leonard's winning total of 272, 12 under, in the last Open here in 1997 may come under fire.

When Paul Lawrie overcame the savage Carnoustie links and the rest of the field in the notorious Open of five years ago, few would have envisaged the drought that has since afflicted the European contenders.

If the five year wait is to end, the bookies believe the Spaniard, Sergio Garcia, at 20 to 1, and with two victories in the US this year, is the man to do it. If not, Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke are regarded as the next best value at 33 to 1.

Garcia has finished 9th, 8th and 10th in each of his last three Opens so he could be working up to something big. Nor does he agree that Europe's failure since 1999 is embarrassing.

"I really don't think so," he declared. "We have given ourselves chances. There's no reason why one of us shouldn't win a major championship. It's just a matter of time. Majors are the toughest to win because of different things. Mainly the field is stronger, the courses are tougher. They test you in your mind and in your game. I've always really loved the Open because of all the history - it's the one in Europe - and I was able to watch it a bit sooner than the others in Spain. The most important thing to do in the Open is to commit to whatever shot you pick at that moment. It gets really tough with the wind and maybe you don't feel as comfortable. If you have any doubts, you're going to struggle."

There is a suspicion that left-handers like Phil Mickelson and Mike Weir will have an advantage playing into the north-west wind over the testing final nine holes.

Garcia agrees: "They will be pretty much cutting the ball into the wind which I think is a little easier. But it's going to be tough for everybody and it should be a great test.

"I think that everything happens for a reason. I had my chance as early as '99 in the US PGA. But I think there's something positive out of everything. I can only keep giving myself chances and I'll definitely come through."

There's every possibility that this will be his week. But there are other Europeans: Harrington, Clarke, Freddie Jacobson, Lee Westwood, Miguel-Angel Jimenez, maybe even Colin Montgomerie, who could get there first. Thomas Levet at around 80 to 1 may be the best value of all. And then there's Thomas Bjorn at 66 to 1.

Nobody likes to see a player fritter away his chance of a major championship so there will be plenty of moral support for the Dane after what happened at Royal St Georges when, with the hard work done, he allowed Ben Curtis to slip past him and claim victory. He certainly appears to have got over the depression that gripped him at The K-Club when he walked out of the European Open a fortnight ago.

"It's been a question of clearing out all the things that are going bad, going back to my old coach Pete Cowen, sitting down, talking to him. I've kept him very close to me since Ireland. And my caddy Billy Foster and I have talked a lot. I've just been having the best people around me," Bjorn said.

As for the golf course, he couldn't be happier. He insists that Troon is "probably the best I've seen in a major championship in a long, long time. It's playing the way an Open Championship course should play.

"You hit in the rough and you're faced with shots you can't get on the green and that's just the way it should be. And the greens are as good as British Open greens have ever been."

But it remains to be seen whether Bjorn has rid himself of the demons of Royal St Georges last year.

He insists they have been cast into outer darkness - "I've had no flashbacks or dreams. You can't run away from what happened last year. It will always be there. But now it's a question of going out and being comfortable, not just in the Open, but in all the majors. With my record of two seconds and two other top tens, I know I can play British Open golf."

Ultimately, recent experience suggests the current crop of Europeans don't have what it takes. The bookies agree, with Tiger Woods at 7 to 1; Ernie Els 8 to 1; Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen 14 to 1 and Davis Love 20 to 1. Not very generous, you may feel, but of the lot, Ernie Els stands out for me as the man with the game and the mental fortitude to capture his second title in three years.

Sadly, Europe may have to wait at least another 12 months.