Olazabal's Ryder Cup credentials

by Greg Allen

Europe’s new Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal is a very popular choice and he will hardly need to utter a word of encouragement to his team for next year’s renewal at Medinah near Chicago to command their respect. That’s because he has it already.

His Ryder Cup record is exemplary playing in seven matches winning 18 times, losing just eight and halving five. His last appearance as a player was at the K Club in 2006 where he won three points out of three.

Almost two decades earlier in 1987, he began his Cup career at Muirfield Village, Ohio, forming a partnership with Seve Ballesteros which went on to be regarded as the greatest in European history, losing only twice in 15 contests together.

He would probably have played in more Ryder Cups but for the rheumatoid polyarthritis he has been forced to endure since his late twenties. It struck shortly after he won the Masters in 1994 and was so severe that it forced him out of the game for a year and a half.

Containing the pain of his ailment has been a constant battle since then and his remarkable 1999 Masters triumph was an extraordinary achievement given his lengthy recuperation and the subsequent decline in his ability to keep the ball in play with his driver - a trait he had in common with his old friend and partner Ballesteros.

However, like Seve, Olazabal had a compensatory ability with his wedges and putter; short game powers were at their height at the ’99 Masters.

In his first round of two under par 70, he hit only eight greens in regulation, but performed a succession of miracles around Augusta’s unforgiving putting surfaces to keep his score more than respectable and his challenge intact.

He went on to win by two strokes from Greg Norman and also Davis Love III, who will almost certainly be appointed as the American team captain opposite in 2012.

Olazabal’s quiet, thoughtful demeanour masks an intense passion for the game that rivals that of his old mentor Ballesteros.

Inside the team room at the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla, an apparently disconnected and complacent Nick Faldo left the speechmaking to his vice-captain and Olazabal was by all accounts inspirational.

Players spoke of a lump forming in their throat as the normally private Spaniard delivered as emotional a speech heard in any European team room.

The match though, ended in defeat for Europe and the entire experience left Olazabal somewhat non-committal about his personal desire to lead a team into battle and so the 2010 captaincy was awarded to Colin Montgomerie.

However, many believe that the deferral has worked out well. Like Bernhard Langer in 2004, Olazabal looks like the perfect man to lead a European team in America which has been the scene of his finest experiences as a player as evidenced by his two Masters triumphs and in his superb Ryder Cup debut in 1987 as a 21-year-old when Europe won the trophy for the first time on foreign soil.

There was also the extreme dignity he demonstrated at Brookline near Boston in 1999 when American players, wives and caddies famously ran onto the 17th green after Justin Leonard holed a 40 foot birdie putt in a singles duel that would ultimately decide the outcome of the overall match.

Olazabal still had a 25 foot putt to birdie the hole, but he stood there quite patiently but clearly exasperated, witnessing the chaos with a pained but restrained expression.

After he had secured a half on the 18th which was not enough to save Europe, he was given ample opportunity by the media to castigate the explosive American intrusion on the penultimate green but merely said: 'What happened shouldn’t have happened. We are playing a match and we should have respect for each other.'

Such dignity will surely be a feature of his captaincy next year at Medinah but it is unlikely to be at the expense of his deep-seated passion for the Ryder Cup.