Charlie Mulqueen, Casares
It is every amateur golfer’s ambition to win a captain’s prize.
The majority fail to achieve it no matter how long their career and those of us who have gone close invariably remember the day with a degree of sadness. I was once pipped on the back nine and while the vice captain’s prize was a beauty and is much treasured to this day, it didn’t quite compensate for the real thing.
It must be even more painful when a player has the Holy Grail within his or her grasp only to allow the pressure to take over. The palms become sweaty, the butterflies flutter uncontrollably in the tummy and generally speaking the thinking process becomes frazzled and virtually uncontrollable.
You have to imagine that they are the kind of emotions suffered by Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell in their recent collapses in the US Masters and Players Championship respectively.
To be fair, both men seem to have recovered very quickly from the experience with McIlroy in contention within a few days of Augusta and McDowell this week insisting that he has already put Sawgrass to the back of his mind.
However, debate rages on as to whether the two Ulster boys and others before them like Lee Westwood in the 2010 Players, Dustin Johnson in the 2010 US Open and Nick Watney in last year’s US PGA Championship would have been better off coming through the field from behind instead of having to protect a lead knowing that everybody else in the field will quickly be yapping at their ankles.
When I asked McIlroy yesterday if he’d prefer to lead by four or trail by four going into the final day or trail by four, he didn’t hesitate: “To lead, of course”.
But, I whispered, are you not haunted by Augusta? “No, absolutely not, I’m fine.” Good for him, I hear you say.
Everything is relative. The monthly medal or the captain’s prize means as much to the amateur as does a major championship to a professional. And that’s why it was interesting to compare the way Darren Clarke came from four off the pace in the final round in Majorca on Sunday to win by three with McDowell dropping ten strokes in his final 19 holes at Sawgrass to fall away to a share of 34th.
From my perspective, I believe it would be better to play steadily for the opening holes before accumulating the points towards the finish before the nerves had time to take over!
In any event, Clarke’s victory at the age of 42 proves that he remains an outstanding player, a point emphatically made today by Graeme McDowell.
“Darren would make an ideal Ryder Cup captain in the States. I was really pleased that he won on Sunday as he’s still a great ball striker. I played with him in the Shark Shootout last December and was really impressed so I’m not surprised that he won in Majorca. He was always that kind of player that if he could putt well regularly, he would win more and more.”
McDowell may be a little biased in that he is a native of Portrush where Clarke and his family have been living since moving from Surrey back to their native heath last autumn.
“That has helped him immensely,” stressed G-Mac.
“He’s got the boys with him and all the family around so he doesn’t feel bad about leaving Tyrone and Conor. He’s engaged to Allison (Campbell, owner of a highly successful Northern Ireland fashion agency and former Miss Northern Ireland). He’s a lot more comfortable now and fair play to him.”
McDowell is delighted with the choice of Paris National as the venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup and admitted that some American players he wasn’t prepared to name have told him of their disappointment at the state of some of the courses to have hosted the match on this side of the Atlantic.
“They’ve been saying that they detract from the event,” he added.
“The Ryder Cup in the States is played on great courses, courses that have staged majors. But Paris National is going to be a fantastic venue and France is very deserving of the match. They’ve run a great French Open for years and while I know I will be 39 when 2018 comes around, I would dearly love to be travelling to Paris and playing in that Ryder Cup.”
And G-Mac was careful to add that his words were not to be interpreted as a criticism of Celtic Manor last year.
“That’s not taking away from Wales, I enjoyed every minute, and Terry Matthews spent a lot of money and did a great job.”
For now, he has to concentrate on this week’s lucrative and prestigious Volvo World Match Play with every chance that he will meet Rory McIlroy in the quarter-finals on Saturday. What a contest that would be — and this time they needn’t worry about dropping shots here and there. This is match play, they can mess up a hole and still escape and it’s a whole lot different from the day you’ll be coming down the stretch trying to close out the captain’s prize!
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/P5fW9jrYXBk/post.aspx
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