There is an outcry in the US about this and many of those who oppose it are
reminded of how little Mandarin, Japanese, French or, come to that the
Queen's English, Americans speak when they compete in tournaments in China,
Japan, France or Britain.
This is disturbing and smacks of blatant targeting of the Koreans, who are
incidentally, by the far the most successful of the non-Americans competing
on the LPGA Tour. There are 121 players from 26 nations, 45 of them from
Korea. Korean ladies have won seven of the 18 victories to date this year on
the tour in the US.
Newspapers in the US have given this proposal a big thumbs down. "LPGA
way out of bounds" was the Boston Globe's headline. "A bad
idea from the LPGA" was the opinion of the New York Times.
Carolyn Bivens, Commissioner of the LPGA Tour, is doing her best to defend
the policy and there is a likelihood that it will not be enforced in its
current form but by then the damage will have been done.
By the same token it is probably already too late to do anything about the
snub that was delivered to Carl Pettersson by Nick Faldo and the European
Tour when Faldo announced his two selections to round out the 12-man Ryder
Cup team to face the US in Kentucky later this month.
Pettersson is a paid-up member of the European Tour and thus eligible to be
selected for the team. But because he chooses to live and play most of his
golf in the US he was not considered to be a serious candidate for the team,
despite having won three tournaments in the US in the past four years, the
most recent a few weeks ago.
All I would say is this: what if he were British?
It is at times like this that one has some sympathy for the Gang of Four -
Bernhard Langer, Severiano Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal and Faldo - who
a few years ago called for greater openness by the European Tour. They
wanted to know more about the Tour's money, how it was earned, how it was
spent. But there was also an undercurrent of criticism of the way that the
Tour, though European, had such a British bent.
That has been addressed now that a Middle East headquarters for the European
Tour will be in place by the time next year's Race to Dubai gets underway.
But it does not remove the feeling that Pettersson's non selection was
handled clumsily and in a way that was not worthy of, and does not reflect
well on, the European Tour.
*****
Gary Wolstenholme, the amateur golfer who has overturned conventional wisdom
and turned professional at the age of 48 (a story I revealed in The Times)
and will compete in the Kazakhstan Open at the time of the Ryder Cup, is
doing so to get more golf in so that he will be ready to compete on the
Seniors' tour in 2010.
Peter McEvoy, the distinguished former amateur golfer who held the record for
appearances for England before Wolstenholme broke it, has known Wolstenholme
for more than 20 years. They were playing partners in Wolstenholme's
international debut for England against France at The Berkshire. McEvoy,
whose career was ending about that time, went on to captain the victorious
1999 and 2001 Walker Cup teams, both of which included Wolstenholme, against
the US. If anyone knows Wolstenholme well, it is McEvoy.
"He has been a bit like a pro for years and years" McEvoy said. "He
plays more than the average pro. He plays locally. He plays hundreds of
events. He never turns anything down. He has been a pro in all but name for
some time now.
"When I think of Gary I think of his stoicism, his longevity and what he
has achieved in his career" McEvoy continued. "He has beaten Tiger
Woods and Anthony Kim in the Walker Cup. You don't do that unless you are
exceptional.
"I wonder how much money he will make having turned pro? I think he will
be surprised to find after years of being flown everywhere by the English
Golf Union, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and other organisations and
having everything paid for he will be surprised at how much he has to pay
for himself now that he is a pro. It won't be so much a case of him getting
a lot of money in as having to pay out a lot of money.
"He was my foursomes partner for his first international. He was very
straight and the shortest hitter of a golf ball wherever he played and
whoever he played against. You didn't always know how he was going to be
after a match. He could have lost by 5 & 4 and be the life and soul of
the party afterwards, and very gracious. And he could have recorded a famous
victory against, say Anthony Kim and he would be unhappy with himself all
evening.
"On a short and fast-running golf course when he is on his game he is
capable of four rounds in the mid sixties. I wish him well. He has a lot
about him. If he doesn't succeed, it won't be for want of trying."
*****
The week in 60 seconds: from admiring Oliver Wilson's very courageous homeward
nine holes in the second round of the Johnnie Walker Championship at
Gleneagles to seeing Nick Faldo announce that he and Jose Maria Olazabal,
his vice captain, did not want any more help, to hearing Colin Montgomerie
and Darren Clarke behave very graciously in the hours after hearing that
Faldo was not selecting either of them for the Ryder Cup team.
*****
Hero of the week: Nick Ward, the 13-year-old who broke the Redbourn Golf
Centre course record recently with a nine-under-par 61. Ward had nine
birdies and nine pars in his round, which was three strokes lower than the
previous record.
