The Bjorn supremacy

WHEN Thomas Bjorn’s father lost his battle with a long illness in May, his golfing son was pacing around Finca Cortesin in Spain, waiting to see whether he would be turning his first alternate status at the HSBC World Match Play into a starting place.

The Dane returned home immediately on hearing the news and little has gone right on the golf course since. A missed cut in Wales, a withdrawal due to back injury from British Open qualifying and a loss of direction to all facets of his game.

When Vijay Singh withdrew from the championship proper on Monday afternoon though, Bjorn was handed the opportunity to return to Royal St George’s as an alternate and salve a comparatively more trivial emotional wound than the grief he is experiencing at the loss of his father.