Spaniard’s petulance, Kuchar’s thrifty touch and Holmes’s slow play sit uneasily with the public but Tiger Woods offers hopeThe World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship is an unlikely saviour for the sport. At the first staging of this tournament, in 2017, players and caddies were affected by sickness to such an extent that an emergency ward by the 18th green would have been a valid addition. The impact on last year was inevitable; Rory McIlroy gave the event a miss despite a $10m prize pot, as again did Jason Day. The tournament seen by many as a beacon of light, having prised WGC status away from the Donald Trump-owned Doral site in Miami, was floundering. Related: Fifty seconds for a one-foot putt:...
Spaniard justifies Ryder Cup call-up by proving he is a true leader with a day of input on and off the courseOf 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...
In-form Masters runner-up, so bruised by his play-off defeat at Augusta, can end on a high in DP World Tour Championship where he has unfinished businessThose who belittle the value of an order of merit chase may need to look away now. The Race to Dubai has never seemed more appropriately named, given the appealing pursuit likely to occur in the Middle East from Thursday. That two Englishmen are at the forefront of proceedings both adds allure and to the sense that the nation’s golfers – plus their recurring success – are not appropriately recognised at home.If Tommy Fleetwood had any doubts regarding whether to play in this weekend’s Nedbank Challenge in South Africa, they were forcibly removed by the...
Spaniard previously cast as a sore loser finally won a major after he made peace with defeat – and his victory shed light on the inherent futility of gamesmanshipIt’s one of the quirks of the English language that, if you didn’t know any better, you could imagine that the words sportsmanship and gamesmanship were synonyms. But, of course, they mean almost the complete opposite. Gamesmanship is the art of winning by underhand or devious means. It places victory above any code of gracious behaviour.Whereas sportsmanship entails an attitude that transcends winning and losing and instead places an emphasis on mutual respect and appreciation. In the pursuit of glory it refuses to compromise with the principles of fair play and a...
After 73 failed attempts to win a major the Spaniard finally came good at Augusta National having seemingly thrown his challenge away once againOn reflection it was wrong to say we had been waiting for this since 1999. It was not a thing in 1999 at all. When the precocious 19-year-old charmer Sergio García announced himself by manufacturing a six iron to the green from behind a tree at that year’s US PGA Championship, sprinting up the fairway after it, then running Tiger Woods close in a near-miracle at Medinah, it was simply assumed he would go on insouciantly to gather up armfuls of major titles – just like Tiger. But it did not work out like that.Since then Todd...