You can dig intensely into scholastic history but in European golfing terms, this phrase only came to the fore for the first time in 2011. Put elementarily, Charl Schwartzel (Masters Tournament), Rory McIlroy (US Open) and Darren Clarke (The Open Championship) followed Graeme McDowell (US Open), Louis Oosthuizen (The Open Championship) and Martin Kaymer (US PGA Championship) into golfing folklore and, by so doing, completed six successive victories by European Tour Members in the Major Championships.
European Tour Members have long been at the forefront of educating the world to the finer aspects of a game that is fascinating, exhilarating, exasperating and, most importantly, played everywhere by people of all ages. In 2011, The Race to Dubai on The European Tour International Schedule visited 29 destinations where 52 tournaments were played on a plethora of magnificent courses, all offering challenges unique in character.
The Major Championships, of course, remain the Holy Grail of the Royal and Ancient game, but the Official World Golf Ranking has, since its introduction 25 years ago, provided tangible evidence of the most authoritative and talented hands in the kingdom of the sport.
Therefore irrefutable proof of the worldwide dominance of European golf was borne out by the examination papers submitted by Luke Donald, Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood. In 2011 they were indisputably the Head Boys who dominated the Number One berth.
Westwood started the year on that noble perch, Kaymer succeeded him; Westwood then repossessed the prized position before Donald claimed control. He stayed there for 30 weeks and will start 2012 as the Number One golfer in the world.
This, then, was a season so sublime, so engagingly structured and so unquestionably European, that even the most parsimonious of schoolmasters would have found difficulty in not only awarding a gold star to all of these golfers, but also admitting that the class of 2011 had, perhaps, excelled even the supreme achievements of those of 2010.
What is beyond contradiction, however, is that The European Tour ended its first 40 years with the two greatest seasons in its history.
The all this, too, without The Ryder Cup being on the agenda in 2011. Not that it is far from anyone’s thoughts with the new European captain José María Olazábal already immersed in concentration as he ponders his strategy ahead of the defence of the trophy at Medinah Country Club on the outskirts of Chicago in September. The much respected Davis Love III will lead the United States team, providing another enthralling week when the world will focus on a sport which continues to prosper.
Rory McIlroy, of course, continued to showcase his own stupendous skills by eclipsing one record after another en route to winning the US Open at Congressional Country Club. Furthermore, in 2011, we unearthed additional confirmation of the fountain of youth spawning dynamic challengers, all determined to follow in his footsteps
The joy that Matteo Manassero evoked by winning in 2010 was magnified when, before his 18th birthday, he gained a second European Tour title in Malaysia. Then along came Tom Lewis to caress
fame at The Open Championship – his opening 65 was the lowest score by an amateur in 151 years of the event – and to consummate it by winning on The European Tour International Schedule in Portugal on only his third professional appearance.
Nevertheless, in reviewing The 2011 European Tour International Schedule we must start with the Joburg Open in January. It was where Charl Schwartzel launched his year with a successful title defence, helped greatly by a second round 61. Confidence is key to a golfer’s spirit, and Schwartzel underscored that at the Masters Tournament. Never before had European Tour Members held all four Major Championships at the same time, but Schwartzel changed all that with an electrifying four-birdie finish to his final round at Augusta National. The European Tour ‘Grand Slam’ was in the bag, but there was more, much more, to acclaim.
Next it was Rory McIlroy’s turn to make capital on the outskirts of Washington DC in June. Twelve months earlier his fellow Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell had ended a 40 year wait by becoming the first British winner of the US Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970. Now McIlroy was saluted as he won his first Major with a record score and by an astonishing eight shot margin. Records tumbled during four rounds of breathtaking golf which inspired youngsters in every corner of the globe to scurry to their local course in search of imitating the new kid on the block. There is nothing quite like a 22 year old with a spring in his step and a smile on his face to energise an expectant audience.
Then again, there is nothing like a sportsman adored for his talent and tenacity and admired for his ability to overcome adversity to bring not just one nation, but the whole world together. Darren Clarke achieved that amid scenes of glorious jubilation and celebration at Royal St George’s in July, moving everyone to the edge of their seats as they cheered him every step of the way to Open Championship immortality. Clarke, who won the Iberdrola Open in Mallorca in May, was, at 42 years and 337 days, the oldest Open Champion since Roberto de Vicenzo in 1967. Even teetotallers and tobacco antagonists alike could not fail to be smitten as he celebrated with his trademark pint of Guinness and a huge Cuban cigar.
Six of the best might have become ‘The Magnificent Seven’ in August but American Keegan Bradley thwarted that magic number by winning the US PGA Championship. Nevertheless, Clarke had notched the 43rd Major Championship triumph by a European Tour Member since Seve Ballesteros so proudly won in 1979 The Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes where the Claret Jug will next be presented in 2012.
That, of course, will be another poignant reminder of the loss to the world of golf in 2011 of Seve, the inspiration behind The European Tour, for it was on those famous Lancashire links that the dashing Spaniard won two of his three Open Championships. Lee Westwood, whose own tribute to Ballesteros included the words; “We have lost an inspiration, a genius, a role model, a hero and a friend,” linked the two greatest years in the history of The European Tour by closing 2010 as the Number One player in the Official World Golf Ranking and starting 2011 in that position. He remained at Number One for 17 weeks in total before Martin Kaymer ascended to the summit in late February.
Westwood regained the honour for five weeks, consolidated by his win in the Ballantine’s Championship in Korea, before Luke Donald grasped the baton with his win in the BMW PGA Championship, The European Tour’s flagship event, where he beat Westwood in a play-off on a dramatic afternoon on the West Course at Wentworth Club.
In any momentous year there are defining moments and for Donald, this was one. He had followed in the footsteps of a roll call of champions who had held the coveted Number One position – Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Sir Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Fred Couples, Nick Price, Tom Lehman, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, David Duval, Vijay Singh, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer.
Donald launched his annus mirabilis in the resounding manner of a true champion. He won the World Golf Championships – Accenture Match Play Championship, overcoming Kaymer in the final. His win in the BMW PGA Championship three months later catapulted him to the top of the world and he consolidated that by capturing the Barclays Scottish Open at Castle Stuart Golf Links in July.
By now he was also heading The Race to Dubai which he would secure at the season-ending Dubai World Championship where he became the first player in history to officially finish the leading money winner on both The European Tour and the US PGA Tour in the same season. He earned a record €5,323,400 for finishing first on The Race to Dubai and $6,683,214 for being top of the USPGA Tour money list after winning the season-ending tournament in Florida with a closing 64.
European Tour Members have enjoyed halcyon days in the past in terms of the World Rankings – Ian Woosnam, José María Olazábal, Sir Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer held the top five positions on March 1, 1992 – but there would be a truly landmark moment on May 18, 2011, when Members held six of the top seven places with Westwood, Kaymer and Donald first, second and third while McDowell, McIlroy and Paul Casey occupied fifth, sixth and seventh.
The global influence of The European Tour is well recognised. In total no fewer than 38 countries have hosted competition on The European Tour International Schedule and players from no fewer than 35 countries have become Tour champions. The year of 1971 marked the birth of The European Tour and by the end of the 40th season there had been no fewer than 398 champions.
If Belgium had good reason to celebrate Volvo China Open champion Nicolas Colsaerts becoming their country’s first winner since Phillipe Toussaint in 1974, then Denmark could equally hail the resurgence of Thomas Björn who, like Donald, won three times. The popular Chairman of The European Tour Tournament Committee captured the Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy, the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles and the Omega European Masters, and set a special record by becoming the oldest player in Tour history – at 40 years and 198 days –to achieve back-to-back wins in the latter two events.
In winning the Masters Tournament, Schwartzel gained the 98th win by players from South Africa before Thomas Aitken made it 99 in the Open de España and Garth Mulroy brought up the 100 with a win in the Alfred Dunhill Championship appropriately enough in South Africa in November.
Donald, however, led English players to 14 wins in total, thus reinforcing their position as the provider of most victories (271) by one country. Spain, for whom Pablo Martin, Alvaro Quiros and Pablo Larrazábal were champions in the first half of the year, remained in second place with 163 wins following the wondrous and welcome return to form later in the season of Sergio Garcia with back-to-back victories in the Castelló Masters and the Andalucia Masters, two weeks prior to Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño winning the Barclays Singapore Open and Quiros triumphing in the Dubai World Championship presented by DP World.
However, if one country had bragging rights in 2011 it was surely Northern Ireland with McIlroy and Clarke’s summer of Major success being bookended by Michael Hoey’s wins in the Madeira Islands Open and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Clarke and Hoey were two of nine players to each win two titles on The 2011 Race to Dubai – Simon Dyson, Alex Noren, Garcia, Kaymer, McIlroy, Quiros and Schwartzel being the others.
In terms of longevity Paul McGinley, who led Great Britain and Ireland to victory in the Vivendi Seve Trophy against Jean Van de Velde’s Continental Europe, and Phillip Price both made their 500th appearances, while Thomas Aitken, Keegan Bradley, Nicolas Colsaerts, Oliver Fisher, Tom Lewis, Joost Luiten, Garth Mulroy, Lee Slattery, Robert Rock, Nick Watney and Matthew Zions were all first time winners on The 2011 European Tour International Schedule, setting a target for the graduates from the 2011 European Challenge Tour led by England’s Tommy Fleetwood.
Intriguingly, four French players were among the 20 graduates in a year when France was announced as the Host Nation for The 2018 Ryder Cup. In fact Benjamin Hebert earned automatic elevation to The European Tour by winning three times – a feat matched by England’s Sam Little – while Edouard Dubois, who triumphed twice, Julien Quesne and Charles-Edouard Russo subsequently followed.
The European Senior Tour visited no fewer than 16 destinations while Peter Fowler’s renowned work ethic was richly rewarded as he pipped England’s Barry Lane in the tussle for the John Jacobs Trophy awarded to the winner of the Senior Tour Order of Merit.
Elsewhere, Carl Mason won twice in Spain - the country where he secured his first European Tour win in 1994 – to claim a record 25 European Senior Tour titles.
All these spectacular achievements and much more are chronicled chapter by chapter in the 24th edition of the Official Yearbook which celebrates and rejoices the global landscape on which Members of The European Tour continue to ply their trade. They do so with such formidable skill that newcomers the world over are so captivated by the game, they cannot resist the challenge of following in the footsteps of giants.
Mitchell Platts
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