The United States have chosen Zach Johnson to captain their Ryder Cup team in Italy next year and it looks a shrewd move.
The 48-year-old has been a vice-captain on two occasions, including as part of Steve Stricker’s highly successful team at Whistling Straits last year when the Americans won 19-9.
Zach has all of the credentials to be a Ryder Cup captain. He has won The Masters and The Open and played in the Ryder Cup on five occasions.
He has already named Steve Stricker as one of his vice-captains which make sense. Unfortunately the Americans are now using the model which Europe used for years to win.
Momentum is with the United States so the challenge is on the European team to rise to the occasion in Rome and give them a game.
I don’t think Zach’s appointment will have any impact on who Europe choose as their captain.
The big question mark has been over the Saudi-backed Super Golf League and which of the potential European Ryder Cup captains were contemplating signing up to it.
That opened up the prospect of Luke Donald and Paul Lawrie being named as captain if the reports were true that the potential candidates such as Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter were set to make the move.
I thought Paul Lawrie had a great chance if it was going to be between him and Luke Donald.
Now that the Super Golf League appears on the backburner, the other candidates will likely come back into the equation.
Normally the European Ryder Cup captaincy would have been announced at the start of the season.
Padraig Harrington was named captain in January 2019 and Thomas Bjorn was appointed in December 2016.
This is as late into the season as it has been but we are set to finally find out who will succeed Padraig this month.
I have no doubt the delay has been caused by the potential breakaway tour.
I feel sorry for Paul Lawrie and Luke Donald if all of these other potential candidates come back into the fold.
I think Henrik Stenson is the one who – if he wants the captaincy – will get it.
He has a great personality and no one can argue with his golfing CV.
I’m not playing this week’s DP World Tour event in Kenya. It has just come too soon for me following my back injury but I’m going to play the next two events in South Africa.
I head out on Sunday and I’m looking forward to getting back into competitive golf.
South Africa has tended to be a happy hunting ground for Scottish golfers over the years so hopefully that continues over the next few weeks.
Disappointment for Lowry
Shane Lowry was agonisingly close to claiming victory on the PGA Tour at the Honda Classic at the weekend.
He finished only one shot behind unlikely Austrian winner Sepp Straka, who birdied three of his closing five holes to finish 10-under.
Lowry needed a birdie on the last to force a play-off but heavy rain began to fall just as he was teeing off at the 18th and he ultimately had to settle for a par. He described the late deluge as “as bad a break as I’ve had for a while.”
Soak it in, @SeppStraka. 🏆☂️ pic.twitter.com/k3IzpqUwAd
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 28, 2022
Shane played great on a very tough golf course to make birdies and he just came up short.
Not many people would have been aware of 28-year-old Sepp Straka before the weekend but you have to be a decent player to win the Honda Classic.
"I feel like I played the golf to win"
Despite coming up short at PGA National Shane Lowry was proud of his performance at the Honda Classic.@ShaneLowryGolf I @TheHondaClassic pic.twitter.com/e6IzTwEYWF
— SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) March 1, 2022
Rory is one to watch
Inverness golfer Rory Franssen has enjoyed a productive period in South Africa and is now aiming to play his way into the majors.
Rory finished runner-up at the South African Matchplay Championship and third in the South African Strokeplay Championship.
He hopes the match-play experience will be beneficial when he competes in the Amateur Championship this year.
A victory at the Amateur at Royal Lytham and St Annes would earn him a place in The Open, the US Open and The Masters and it is great to hear him showing that ambition.
He has been playing very well so he is right to aim high.
I didn’t realise he had played in the 2017 Palmer Cup – the annual team event for university and college golfers – in the European team alongside Viktor Hovland and with players such as Collin Morikawa in the United States team.
He must take confidence from seeing those players go on and make it into the top 10 in the world rankings.
Rory is a really talented player and it would be great to see him do well.
