Editor’s Letter

A

BOUT THIS TIME every other year I reach for my little black book. While it’s well-thumbed and fiercely-guarded, it’s not your clichéd journal full of secrets, rather a dossier of treasured memories from the summer of 2014. Instead of phone numbers that might raise the hackles of the wife, there’s specifi c yardages that would only excite a golf geek, along with detailed observations of outrageous shots and magic moments that shook and shushed the entire golfi ng world at the time.

What a summer it was looping Royal Liverpool and the Centenary course at Gleneagles.

Finding a fresh angle that will survive the test of time (in this instance a magazine feature a month after the fact) is never easy and the theme for my maiden major as a journalist didn’t strike me until I’d negotiated security on the fi rst morn-

Unadulterated joy stand looking directly down the par-4 1st at Gleneagles to ensure a ringside seat to the good-natured banter and clever canting. If you’ve ever been fortunate enough to witness a Ryder Cup in the fl esh, you’ll KENT GRAY know the hair-raising joy well. Getting kent.gray@motivate.ae • Twitter: @KentGrayGolf / @GolfDigestME club face on dimple is a feat in of itself in that rarefi ed atmosphere so imagine when ing of the 143rd Open at Hoylake. Why Bubba Watson doubled-down by rousing not pick childhood heroes and walk a full the mostly enemy gallery to be anything round with each of them, cataloguing the but “Quiet Please” as he prepared for his unique sights and sounds along the way? fi rst fourball examination in tandem with Tom Watson, Sir Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods Webb Simpson. Pity for America that and Rory McIlroy, with plenty of bonus they’d been pitted against Justin Rose Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler thrown in and Henrik Stenson who would go on to during that stirring fi nal round. Four glo- produce a leading narrative in Europe’s rious days as legends at diff erent stages of eventual 16½-11½ victory. their careers wowed the Wirral. My little book triggers so many memoThe Open is hard to top for theatre but ries. Rose’s incredible week-long putting, arriving in Scotland for the 40th Ryder Cup Graeme McDowell’s mentorship of Victor matches two months later didn’t so much Dubuisson and Ian Poulter’s chip-in late hint at an event on another level, but scream on Saturday as Paul McGinley’s Europeans it. I’ve never seen so many scribes and snap- again responded to Team USA’s morning pers, radio and TV pundits in one media cen- fourball glory with their now traditional tre and I’ve worked some big, global sports afternoon foursomes retort. events. It was intimidating and hugely ex- The Ryder Cup just isn’t the Ryder Cup citing, a bucket-list tick and I hadn’t even without the Postman delivering one of his reached the fi rst tee amphitheatre yet. iconic double fi st-pump celebrations and it I arrived extra early on the Friday morn- proved contagious as Martin Kaymer did his ing to ensure a premium space in the own, pivotal impersonation in the singles,

“Rightly or wrongly, we were playing witness to the character assassination of one of golf’s most beloved figures.”

binning a chip to sink Watson on the 16th.

The first part of my Sunday was spent perched atop a giant sand dune with sweeping front nine vistas. McIlroy raced by in a flurry of seven birdies and an eagle in his first 12 holes enroute to a 5&4 humbling of Fowler. Not long afterwards, I’d hardly had time to record Matt Kuchar’s hole out for eagle on the 8th in his match against Thomas Bjørn when Patrick Reed went full Captain America by shushing the partisan gallery after draining a critical putt on the 7th en-route to a 1up win over Stenson.

It was utterly mesmerising and suddenly there was a whole lot of American red on the leaderboard. Surely the Europeans wouldn’t cough up their 10-6 Saturday night advantage?

American captain Tom Watson only wishes so. For all the on-course drama, the defining moment of the 2014 Ryder Cup was the unprompted, cringe-worthy Watson v Phil Mickelson Team USA post mortem which masqueraded as the event’s final press conference. Watson insisted “we arrived united, we depart united” but Lefty, curiously benched along with Keegan Bradley for both Saturday’s fourballs and foursomes, wasn’t having a bar of it. Rightly or wrongly, we were playing witness to the character assassination of one of golf’s most beloved figures. I’ve never felt so uneasy or captivated by a press conference in my four decades in sports journalism and I’ve reported multiple Americas Cups where very rich men rarely cover themselves in glory.

History, in the form of Team USA’s 17-11 redemption at Hazeltine two years later, suggests the blood-letting was justified although the ‘team of individuals’ moniker returned to haunt Jim Furyk’s men in 2018 as Bjørn led Europe to a memorable 17½10½ victory at Le Golf National.

COVID-19 was the winner last year but thankfully the delayed 43rd matches will soon be upon us, albeit a year late. Steve Stricker’s Americans and Whistling Straits stand between Padraig Harrington and a 10th European triumph in the biennial event’s last 13th editions. Can Harrington’s meretricious planning help the European’s repeat the Miracle at Medinah in 2012, their last win on U.S. soil? With travel restrictions, there’s sadly no need for a little black book to take into the field at Wisconsin but there will undoubtedly be hackles raised and history made as we play witness on TV. Enjoy the greatest three days in golf.

editor-in-chief Obaid Humaid Al Tayer managing partner & group editor Ian Fairservice

editor Kent Gray art director Clarkwin Cruz editorial assistant Londresa Flores instruction editors Luke Tidmarsh, Euan Bowden, Tom Ogilvie, Matthew Brookes, Alex Riggs chief commercial officer Anthony Milne publisher David Burke general manager - production S. Sunil Kumar assistant production manager Binu Purandaran

the golf digest publications editor-in-chief Jerry Tarde

director, business development &

partnerships Greg Chatzinoff international editor Ju Kuang Tan

golf digest usa editor-in-chief Jerry Tarde general manager Chris Reynolds editorial director Max Adler executive editor Peter Morrice art director Chloe Galkin managing editors Alan P. Pittman, Ryan Herrington (News) chief playing editor Tiger Woods playing editors Phil Mickelson, Francesco Molinari, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Tom Watson

Scan the QR Code to read, download and share the latest, and back issues, of Golf Digest Middle East.

head office: Media One Tower, PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAE Tel +971 4 427 3000; Fax +971 4 428 2270 dubai media city: SD 2-94, 2nd Floor, Building 2, Dubai, UAE Tel +971 4 390 3550; Fax +971 4 390 4845 abu dhabi: PO Box 43072, UAE Tel +971 2 657 3490; Fax +971 2 657 3489 london: Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London NW1 3ER, UK, E-mail: motivateuk@motivate.ae

GOLF DIGEST and HOW TO PLAY, WHAT TO PLAY, WHERE TO PLAY are registered trademarks of Discovery Golf, Inc. Copyright © 2021 Discovery Golf, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Volume 72, Issue 2. GOLF DIGEST (ISSN 0017-176X) is published eight times a year by Discovery Golf, Inc. Principal office: Golf Digest, 1180 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y., 10036. Discovery Golf, Inc.: Alex Kaplan, President & GM; Gunnar Wiedenfels, Chief Financial Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices.