St. Andrews, Scotland …
For six members of the defeated European Ryder Cup side it is back to ‘business as usual’ this week in the Home of Golf.
Masters Champion Danny Willett joins double Major winning Martin Kaymer along with Hazeltine rookie sensation, Thomas Pieters plus Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello and the England pair of Lee Westwood and Matthew Fitzpatrick teeing up in Thursday’s starting Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
This year marks the 16th anniversary of the pro-amateur tournament format played over the Old Course at St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns in the east of Scotland.
Danny Willett returning to business as usual at this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links.(Photo – www.europeantour.com)
Willett, still bitterly disappointed at the ‘personal’ abuse he received at last week’s Ryder Cup, will be looking to extend his lead over absent Hazeltine team-mates Henrik Stenson and Rory McIlroy for the season-ending Race to Dubai title.
Willett is currently some Euro 413,000 ahead of Stenson while McIlroy is a further Euro 643,000 adrift of Stenson.
“I went so close to winning the Race to Dubai last year but then Rory played superbly over the weekend out there in Dubai to go past me,” said Willett.
“So that’s the goal this season to go that one place better and win the Race to Dubai.”
Willett also has fond memories of being fourth in last year’s Dunhill event and just a handful of months following his share of sixth place in the Open Championship at St. Andrews, and where he will play two rounds this week.
Ryder Cup star Matt Fitzpatrick driving off the first tee on the Old Course at St. Andrews in his final practice round ahead of the 2016 Alfred Dunhill Links. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
“My sixth in The Open here at St. Andrews a year ago was my then best finish in a Major and pretty much gave me the confidence of what then took place this year at the Masters,” he said.
However, Willett is sure not to have it all his own way this week as Hazeltine colleagues Kaymer and Westwood are former event winners, along with South African Branden Grace who posted a round of 60 at Kingsbarns on route to success in 2012.
Grace revealed he spent last week ‘glued’ to watching TV coverage of the Ryder Cup and hoping, that as a certain member of the 2017 International Presidents Cup side, to finally turn the tables on the USA Team next September at the Liberty National course in New Jersey.
Former Dunhill Links winner Brandon Grace reveals he was glued to the TV watching coverage of the Ryder Cup.
Unlike the European Ryder Cup team, the International Presidents Cup side has won just one of the 11 biennial encounters, and that was the third staging of the event in 1998 in Australia, but has also lost the past six from 2005 to 2015.
“As an International player, you never like seeing the Americans win,” said the World No. 14 ranked Grace.
“They keep winning the Presidents Cup but we’re getting closer.
“But I have to say I was glued to the TV every night watching the Ryder Cup though at the end of day the better team won.
“Those guys, they played magnificent golf and what Sergio and Mickelson did on Sunday, it’s phenomenal.
“That’s what the Ryder Cup is about and if you ever get in that position and get into that team, there’s just no feeling like it. There’s no other week like it. A major is something but the pressure in a Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup is so much bigger than a major”.
