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News European Team To Honour Seve Wearing Same Coloured Clothing In Medinah Singles.
European Team To Honour Seve Wearing Same Coloured Clothing In Medinah Singles.
The European Team will honour the memory of the late, great Seve Ballesteros by wearing a navy blue pullover and coloured trousers for Sunday’s Singles showdown against the Americans.
While European Team officials would not confirm the choice of colours it was Scotland’s Paul Lawrie who revealed the choice by Jose Maria Olazabal.
“I don’t know for sure but the word is that we’re wearing navy trousers, navy sweaters and white shirts like Seve always wore in the final round of majors. I think that will be our singles outfit,” said Lawrie.
“I don’t know that for certain but a few of the boys have mentioned that and I think that, if that is indeed the case, there could be no more fitting a tribute to a guy like Seve than having 12 of the best players in Europe wearing his outfit on the final day of the Ryder Cup.
“If that’s how they’re going to do it, then it’s absolutely bang on.”
Lawrie at 43 years of age is the oldest player among the two dozen competing this week at Medinah.
And in an article appearing in today’s Daily Record (and a paper I contribute regularly) Lawrie rekindled memories of his first visit to the States as a member of the 1999 European Team, and playing the opening tee shot.
“I slept well the night before, then had a good breakfast and hit some balls and still felt fine. I had Adam with me all week and he kept me calm.
“Then walking to the first tee, it hit me. I felt unwell. Not physically sick but I was shaking.
“I’m nervous on the first tee whenever I am playing, but this was unlike anything I had experienced. I was over the ball thinking, ‘Just get it in the air’.
“But when that first shot is over there is a sense that it is time to get on with playing golf.”
The ‘Adam’ he mentions is, of course, his long-time coach and closest friend Adam Hunter, who lost a two-year battle with leukaemia last October.
His death hit Lawrie hard and he has walked the West Highland Way to raise funds for the Beatson Oncology unit in Glasgow where Hunter was treated.
Lawrie cites Hunter’s unstinting belief in his ability as a major reason for the resurgence in his career – that, and his own determination to live up to his friend’s opinion of him.
“Nobody had more belief in me than he did,” Lawrie says. “And after he took ill I made it my goal to show him I could be as good as he believed I could be.
“He used to tell me that when I was at the top of my game there were only about five players in the world who were better than me. I didn’t believe it but he genuinely did think that way.
“When the disease struck him, I made a conscious effort to show him his faith in me wasn’t misplaced.
“Any success I’ve had in the last couple of years is down to him and my determination to do it for him.
“I will be thinking of him this week but that’s no different to any other time because he is always in my thoughts.”
The Europeans will have the crowd very much against them this week but Lawrie isn’t worried as long as the fans don’t over-step the mark.
He said: “I like passion in sport, as long as it does not go too far as it did at times in Brookline in ‘99.
“It didn’t affect me too much but some of the things that happened shouldn’t have and I’m hoping there’s no repeat.
“A noisy atmosphere at Medinah will suit me fine. As long as it is quiet when guys are over their shots, I don’t care.
“But the best way to keep them quiet will be for us to hole putts. Sounds simple doesn’t it!”
