IN MY VIEW

“Carnastie” and lambasted by the players and media alike because of the severity of the rough, narrowness of the fairways. It will long be remembered for the way in which Frenchman Jean Van de Velde lost it, rather than Paul Lawrie winning. As a consequence of 1999, there was much speculation about how Carnoustie would be set up this year. Well, it was universally acclaimed as being tough, but fair. For the first three rounds, Spain’s Sergio Garcia gave a superlative display that made just about everyone think he was going to break his “major” duck at last., however, on a final day that saw Sergio loose some of his previous fluidity, the chasing pack closed

in. After all sorts of drama over the closing three holes, Padraig Harrington managed to salvage a double bogey six at the final hole, and that after having visited burns twice, leaving Sergio needing to make a par four for victory. The long wait that Sergio had before playing his second shot obviously didn’t help, but after he failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker, the Spaniard and Irishman were tied. The four hole play-off saw Padraig bravely holing out on the final green to deservedly win his first major championship.

Like a lot of the British public, I had mixed feelings about the outcome. Both Sergio and Padraig are hugely popular players and both stalwarts of recent Ryder Cup teams. I really did feel that it was a shame that one of them had to lose, but what a boost for British and Irish golf that Padraig won. The scenes on the eighteenth green will long be remembered as we watched Padraig’s son Patrick run onto the green, and later declare that he would like to collect ladybirds in the Claret Jug!

On to St. Andrew’s and the historic Ricoh Women’s British Open. The “Auld Grey Toon” was a welcoming host to the first visit of a women’s professional event. The players, spectators and media all felt that the event was a huge success. The weather provided the players with a variety of conditions to test their skills, especially on Saturday when winds gusted up to nearly forty miles per hour. Not through any great skill on my part, but I said that I thought Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa would win her first major at St. Andrew’s. For months before her first visit to St. Andrew’s, Lorena worked on all the shots that she would need there, in particular, her long putting a low shots into the wind. All her hard work paid off, and in the near gales of Saturday, Lorena paved the way for her first major victory with a wonderful

display of controlled golf. When many of Lorena’s nearest challengers were scoring in the 80’s, Lorena calmly went round in level par 73. When calm early conditions on the final day gave way to sheeting rain and miserable conditions, Lorena’s lead proved invincible. It seemed absolutely right that the world number one should create history in winning her first major at “The Home of Golf”. I’m sure that it will be the first of many majors by the friendly and popular Mexican.

For some reason, the USPGA Championship has always felt like the least interesting of the eight men’s and women’s major championships. I’m not sure why exactly – maybe because it’s the last to be played, maybe because it comes at a time when we’ve had a glut of tournaments and most of Europe is on holiday? I’d be interested to hear if any of you feel the same?

In any case, It seemed to have less excitement than any of the previous majors. Although Ernie Els and Woody Austin made brief challenges on the final day, when Tiger birdied the fifteenth hole when Woody Austin missed a short birdie putt on the fourteenth, the gap of three shots proved, as we all thought all along, that there was only ever going to be one winner. Tiger Woods took his number of major victories to 13 and moved ever closer to overtaking Jack Nicklaus’s tally of 18.

With the recent announcement of the European Solheim Cup team, and the American team to follow shortly, the long awaited tenth encounter of the contest is almost upon us. I have to say that the American team is looking very strong, so Europe will have to be at their very best win the trophy back. With four Swedish players in the team, my hope is that Annika, Sophie, Maria and Linda Wessberg will be playing great golf and get the massive galleries cheering early on. As always, I feel that it is absolutely vital that Europe are leading going into the final singles series of matches if we’re to have a realistic chance of winning. As part of the Sky Sports commentary team I will see every shot, and offer no apologies if at times I might sound slightly biased towards Europe! I sincerely hope that when I next write “In My View” it will be with a huge grin on my face following a European victory!