07 Oct Fine players, caddies heavily if they don’t shout fore

I was very impressed with the inspirational video that the European Tour produced to motivate their team prior to last week’s Ryder Cup. The older gentleman talking at the beginning many of you will not recognise — but I did, as he and his father were my teachers when I first started out in the game. For many years Brian Huggett was one of the best with 34 wins on the European Tour. However, he will always be remembered as the man who holed one of the most pressurised of putts in the history of golf — to half his match with Billy Casper. This allowed the team to finish 16 points to 16 in the 1969 Ryder Cup match at Royal Birkdale.

Interesting to digest and analyse the fallout and finger pointing that’s coming now from the American team. Personally, I’ve noticed that there’s been a certain clique of players within the American team for a while now, and I can understand how uncomfortable it would be, for whatever reason, to be on the outside looking in. I’ve often wondered too of how you can keep twelve wives of one team happy for a week! — that reminds me — I also loved the video of Tommy Fleetwood and Molinari waking up in bed together.

One would be naive to think that there has not been any animosity amongst past European players and when Brian Huggett was captain in 1977 at Royal Lytham & St Annes he had some choice words for Tony Jacklin, who he thought showed a total lack of enthusiasm, was completely out of line and not pulling his weight with his measly half a point for the week. But I believe that it’s a cultural difference whereby, for the Europeans in general, a beer or two later together at the pub often solved many a potential problem.

Let’s face it nobody likes to lose but the facts are there for all to see. The Europeans made so many more birdies than the Americans and they were simply outplayed.

Spare a thought for the poor girl who apparently has lost the sight in one of her eyes from a wayward drive from Brooks Koepka. Obviously, this affected him mentally together with his play last week and it will be very difficult for him to shake this incident off. To his credit he and the caddies did shout ‘Fore’ — sadly though — many players and their caddies don’t, and I feel they should be fined heavily for this.

Out of Bounds: I laugh when I hear someone say that match play is a different game — 9 times out of 10 if you had shot under par you’ll be shaking the hand of someone you’ve just beat.