Of the hundreds of decisions Thomas Bjørn has had to make since he took on the captaincy two years ago, picking Sergio García was one of the riskiest. Not that Bjørn ever saw it that way. He has been on the same team as García in six Ryder Cups, as a teammate and a vice-captain. Now he was in charge, he knew he wanted him in his team, even if he had to use one of his wildcard picks to do it. The problem was, hardly anyone else seemed to agree with him.
García had been playing some poor stuff this summer, missing the cut in eight of his past 11 tournaments. But Bjørn was not worried about that. Instead it was the criticism that bothered him. To pick García, he has had to leave out men who were in better form, such as Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Matt Wallace. “I know people are going to wonder how much quality Sergio will bring on the course, I believe he will bring plenty but I also know what Sergio brings off the course. He’s right at the centre of it every single time.” García, Bjørn said, is “the one who will stand up in the middle of the room and who the others will listen to. He’s the one who will rally the troops.”
Continue reading...