President’s Cup runneth over

IF this is team golf, then we can’t get enough of it! We refer, of course, to the epic President’s Cup at the weekend which rivalled anything the Ryder Cup has come up with in its much longer history.

The future of the biannual clash of the USA and the International selection was surely copperfastened in the minds of public and players alike as two superb and evenly-matched teams fought out a memorable tie at Fancourt. The Internationals may not have had a very apparent cause for which to do battle as the players came literally from all over the globe, but theirs was a team full of outstanding golfers.

Nick Price, one of the game’s great gentlemen, was so upset at missing a putt on the 18th for a half against Kenny Perry, that he broke the shaft of his putter off his knee more in disappointment than anger.

More than once I was left to wonder how many Europeans would have found a place in Gary Player’s team, especially when current form was taken into consideration. The world rankings would have ensured recognition for Pádraig Harrington, Darren Clarke and Sergio Garcia while a very realistic case could have been made for the likes of Paul Casey and perhaps Colin Montgomerie as a “wild card” because of his reputation and magnificent Ryder Cup record.

But then you looked at the International squad and it is difficult to see who you would have left out of their side to accommodate the Euros. Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh and Mike Weir would walk into any team. Australians Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby and the Korean KJ Choi have done so well on the US Tour that they would be difficult to dislodge and others like Peter Lonard, Stephen Leaney, Nick Price and Adam Scott have enviable records to their credit and performed superbly in the President’s Cup match itself.

Europe’s qualifying race is still very much in its infancy and only a soothsayer could come up with the 12 who will eventually line up Oakland Hills next September. Inevitably, they will travel as underdogs. While we have become familiar with that scenario over the years and then seen the form book torn to shreds by the battling Euros, it would be difficult at this remove to feel anyway optimistic about their prospects of retaining the trophy.

It will again be very much advantage to the United States in the build-up to the matches, not least because of the facility they have to considerably strengthen the side that represented Jack Nicklaus at the weekend. For one thing, their Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton will not be swayed by sentiment when it comes to naming his two “wild cards.” Realising that this was almost certainly Fred Funk’s last chance of ever playing for his country and that Jay Haas, at 49, was about to depart the regular US Tour, Nicklaus gave them both their place against the Internationals. The Ryder Cup is an even more serious business and you can be sure that Sutton will go for his two best men no matter who they are or where they come from.

The Americans have the nucleus of a powerful side in Tiger Woods, Davis Love III, David Toms, Kenny Perry and Charles Howell III with a host of others including Chris DiMarco and Justin Leonard of the successful side in South Africa along with Chad Campbell, winner of the season ending Tour Championship. There is, however, one serious question mark and it hangs over the name of Phil Mickelson, a man now in danger of suffering a number of golfing indignities. He has already been superseded by Mike Weir as the best left-hander in golf. He has fallen from 2nd at the start of the year to 13th in the world rankings. He came a lowly 38th in the US order of merit in 2003. He is outside the top 30 in the US Ryder Cup standings at the end of the season.

Mickelson looked a disconsolate figure as he went down to singles defeat against Retief Goosen on Sunday. He appeared to be at odds with his golf game and himself. Even his midriff was a little too rounded for his own good! First “capped” in the Ryder Cup in 1995, it would be a strange American team without Phil! And what about Davis Love. An hour before his 18th hole collapse against Robert Allenby on Sunday evening, a television interviewer actually CONGRATULATED Jack Nicklaus on playing Love at the bottom of the order so that his experience would see the US through in a tight finish. How silly that observation sounded later in the day. Love’s confidence, especially in a team situation, may well have taken a hammering by his fluffed chip at the 18th and inability to even manage a par five at a relatively straightforward hole. Davis himself won’t take much solace from having it pointed out that we would have been deprived of the dramatic play-off had he not made such a mess of the final hole!