Bill Elliott : Golf
When Richard Hills, the European tour official in charge of this months Ryder Cup, flew back into London from Switzerland last Friday, he was astonished to discover that the flowers outside Buckingham Palace were visible from his window seat. He could have been excused if he had thought also that flowers of any sort would have been welcome in his office on the Wentworth club estate.
It had been a funny old week for most of us but for Hill and his colleagues it has been particularly fretful. Instead of a bunch of roses, the Tour is presently awaiting a bouquet of barbed wire in the shape of an invitation to meet Ryder Cup hopeful Miguel Angel Martins lawyers in court to discuss a game of golf.
Martin, of course, is the golfer who clinched an automatic top-10 place (he was 10th) in the European team rankings, only to find himself removed from the team because of a persistent wrist injury. His anger at being tossed aside so eagerly and so early means that he is still determined to challenge the Ryder Cup committees decision to press on against the Americans at Valderrama from September 26 to 28 without his talents.
Hills, who is approaching the climax of more than two years work on the match, restricted himself to admitting to his surprise at spotting those floral tributes to Diana, Princess of Wales, and to a weary concession that: It has been a tough week. He also confirmed that each year the Ryder Cup captain and the committee hold a debriefing meeting at which the selection process is reviewed. I suppose it could be true to say that the method we will use for 1999 will be different.
Just how different remains to be seen; but I understand that it is certain that the world rankings system will be brought into play. At present this increasingly relevant global list is ignored, with only European tour events, plus the four majors, counting towards an automatic team place.
With the five main golf tours American, European, Japanese, Australasian and South African co-operating on the establishment of what effectively will be a mini world tour, and with more players hinting that they may join the US circuit, it would be foolish for Europe to remain so parochial.
I believe that a blueprint for change is already drawn up and it will mean an automatic team place for the five top Europeans in the world rankings, with five more coming from the European tours own domestic list, while the captain will retain two wild-card choices.
If this system had been used this time, the five players from the world rankings would have been Montgomerie, Faldo, Parnevik, Langer and Woosnam. The five from Europes own list would have been Clarke, Johansson, Westwood, Garrido and Bjorn. Seve Ballestros could then have picked Olazabal and Rocca, which would have produced the same 12 men now due to play, but without the aggravation.
Of course, it would have been nice for Martin to withdraw graciously last week, thus laying down his place for the greater good of the team. That he chose not to do this shows either a desperate and understandable desire to play, or a sincere belief that he would be fit enough to acquit himself well in the match.
But whatever, if anything, happens in court, it seems impossible that the little Spaniard and his captain could share the same fairway, never mind the same locker room at Valderrama.
The angry exchanges between them over the past few days have been damaging to both men as well as to golfs image as perhaps the cleanest and most equitable of sports. Only Martin really knows how badly injured his left wrist is, while only Ballesteros knows how eager he was to jettison his countryman in favour of Olazabal, and then pick Faldo and Parnevik.
Whatever the truth of the matter, it has been an unsavoury episode in the history of a match that is supposed to encourage friendship. Ironically, however, just as those wilting flowers outside the palace may yet produce a fundamental change in an institution hitherto apparently stuck in aspic, so Martin seems likely in his absence to produce a similar effect on the Ryder Cup. More fundamental, certainly, than he could have managed had he participated in the match.
ENDS