Two Scots were selected yesterday to play for Great Britain & Ireland in this year’s Walker Cup. Grant Forrest, of Craigielaw, and Jack McDonald, of Kilmarnock (Barassie), are among the ten amateurs who will tee it up against their American counterparts at Royal Lytham next month.
With Ewen Ferguson, of Bearsden, named as first reserve, it is a decent haul for Scottish golf, especially after the humiliation of two years ago, when they had not a single representative in the team. This year, it is Wales who lay claim to that dubious honour, while Ireland have a record five in the line-up.
Not that there is much point in the numbers game. Of all the Scots who have played in the Walker Cup since the millennium, only Richie Ramsay and Marc Warren have gone on to establish themselves on the European Tour. Steven O’Hara, Graham Gordon, David Inglis, Stuart Wilson, Lloyd Saltman, Wallace Booth, Gavin Dear, James Byrne and Michael Stewart were not so successful.
Competition to reach the European Tour is far tougher than it used to be. Only one of the latest GB&I team is in the top 20 of the amateur world rankings. More and more players are turning professional, and more are trying to secure their Tour card, not just from France and Spain and Scandinavia, but from America and the Far East.
As a guide to the future, the Walker Cup is of limited value, but the selection of two Scots at least reflects an improvement in the country’s amateur scene, as demonstrated by their recent victory in the European Team Championship. Forrest and McDonald each scored five out of a possible six points in that success.
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Ian Rae, the national coach, oversaw that result in Sweden. He is full of praise for 22-year-old Forrest, who reached the final of this year’s Amateur Championship at Carnoustie. “He has a great all-round game, a great attitude and he knows how to organise himself,” Rae says. “Over the last number of years, he has become better in every department, whether it is swininging the club or becoming more tactically aware. He also hits it a long way, which helps in the modern game.”
McDonald, who is the same age as Forrest, also reached the semi-finals of the Amateur Championship. “Jack doesn’t hit it as far, but he is about the straightest guy you will find off the tee. He’s a good foursomes player. He has a great attitude, he practises really hard and he will be a good asset to the team,” Rae says.
Together, they will try to help regain the trophy that was lost in New York two years ago. Whatever the respective merits of the two teams, Nigel Edwards, the GB&I captain, has every chance of pulling it off. He has in his favour a distinct home advantage, not least because his players contest the Lytham Trophy every year.
By playing in the Walker Cup, Forrest and McDonald are fulfilling one of their biggest ambitions. What it tells us about the health of Scottish golf remains to be seen.
Woods once again comes up short
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Just when it looked as though Tiger Woods might win his first PGA Tour title in more than two years, he succumbed to the same old problems. Two shots off the lead after the third round of the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina, he kept himself in contention until the par-four 11th on Sunday, when his short-game frailties returned with a vengeance.
The “yips” he was accused of having in January have never been so apparent. After yanking his tee shot into the rough, his approach pulled up left of the green. There, he bladed his wedge across the putting surface, chunked the chip back and required three more strokes to sign for a triple-bogey seven.
Although he birdied four of his last six holes to finish in a tie for tenth, one commentator suggested that he had been able to do so only because the pressure was off.
By then, his tournament was over, as was his season. Woods will not play again until the frys.com Open in October, the first event of the 2015-16 campaign, when the same questions will again be asked. Will he ever win another major? Will he ever win another tournament?
Those for whom the answer is “yes” are neglecting to consider all the most recent evidence. Woods mounts the occasional challenge, as he did last week, but so do most of the journeymen around him. Not for nothing is he ranked 257 in the world.