Fresh from their dramatic title victory in the English Premier League with Manchester City, footballers Gareth Barry and James Milner were celebrating again after finding out about their call-ups to the England squad during the Pro-Am at the Volvo World Match Play Championship in Spain.
The pair were playing with compatriot Robert Rock, a two-time European Tour champion, at Finca Cortesin when they received a text from the English FA informing them of their selection by Roy Hodgson in England’s 23-man squad for the European Championships in Poland and the Ukraine this summer.
Although their team finished 22ndout of 24 teams in the Pro-Am, Barry and Milner were in a relaxed mood, picking up some useful golfing tips from former teaching professional Rock, who held off Tiger Woods earlier this season to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
“It was very enjoyable,” said midfielder Barry. “It’s a lovely course and James and I were very lucky to be playing with Robert today.
“He gave us a few tips along the way but made us feel comfortable out there on the course. I play at least once a week when the weather is good but living in Manchester it’s not always that nice. I don’t take the golf too seriously – it’s more a relaxing thing.
“It’s the perfect way to wind down after the season and have a mental break. We’re slowly coming down to earth after some big celebrations. It’s still not really sunk in the fashion we won the title. The manner we did it won’t be beaten for a long time. It will go down in history as a dramatic finish and it will be tough to beat. If you look back over the 38 games we played the best football.”
On their England call-up for Euro 2012, Barry is looking forward to working with the new England manager Hodgson.
“We found out about it on the course that James and I were both in the squad,” said Barry. “There’s a new manager and it’s nice to be in his plans to start with. You should never take too much for granted, especially with a new manager and fresh ideas so we were very happy to be included.
“I’ve not met the manager before. I’m looking forward to doing that and seeing his ideas and working alongside him and we will learn more in the next few weeks.”
“The expectation levels are a lot lower than for previous tournaments, which hopefully can help the team.”
Rock, who will face another Englishman, Justin Rose, in Thursday’s first round before taking on Open Champion Darren Clarke on Friday, also enjoyed teeing it up alongside the two newly crowned Premier League champions.
“Both of the guys were pretty good golfers and we had a good day together,” he said. “I didn’t realise until today that they were going to find out about the selection, so that was pretty cool.
“It must have been a bit of a weight on their mind, and rightly so. It was good they both got the call at the same time too – it might have been a bit awkward if one had and the other hadn’t.”
The Pro-Am was won by Sergio Garcia’s team, with the 32 year old hoping to complete a Spanish hat-trick with victory in the Volvo World Match Play Championship, having triumphed in his last two appearances on home soil at the end of 2011.
Englishman Ian Poulter is the defending champion at Finca Cortesin following his victory over Luke Donald in last year’s final.
