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By Alistair Tait
Golf fans take it for granted English golfers will contend for major championships, occupy places in the upper echelons of the Official World Golf Ranking and chase for the top spot on the Race to Dubai.
It hasn’t always been thus. Twenty years ago, many experienced commentators weren’t looking into crystal balls and predicting great things for those from the land that gave the world Harry Vardon, Sir Henry Cotton and Sir Nick Faldo.
Fourteen Englishmen teed it up in last week’s PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. That’s 10 more than competed to lift the Wanamaker Trophy at the Atlanta Athletic Club in 2001. Faldo, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and U.S.-based club professional Stephen Keppler were the only four players who pledged allegiance to the flag of St George that year.
There were more Scots, five, than Englishmen.
The Official World Golf Ranking the week before the 2001 PGA practically mirrored the above numbers. Faldo, Westwood and Poulter were the only three Englishmen in the top 100 against five Scots.
No wonder English golf commentators were down in the dumps.
It’s a credit to the longevity of Westwood and Poulter that they took their places at Kiawah last week along with Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Paul Casey, Matt Wallace and other so-called lesser lights such as Aaron Rai and Sam Horsfield. Those 14 Englishmen trounced the Scottish contingent by 12. Robert MacIntyre and Martin Laird were the only representatives from the Home of Golf.
That scenario probably wouldn’t have taken place if not for the English Golf Union, now England Golf, putting in place a system to restore national pride. In December 2001, the EGU devised a World Class Performance Programme with the stated aim of producing “a regular stream of top English players with the ability to perform successfully on the world stage.”
Said programme, funded by Sport England with money from the new National Lottery scheme, would identify players for an elite team to receive funding for coaching, travel, equipment, and anything else needed to develop world-class players.
There was another reason for developing the elite system. The achievements of top English amateurs Paul Casey and Luke Donald in U.S. college golf suggested the route to success for young Englishmen was to travel west to the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave to hone their skills in preparation for professional golf. While the EGU obviously didn’t stand in the way of players following in the footsteps of Casey and Donald, it was cognizant that college life wasn’t for everyone. It needed a programme for those players wanting to remain at home.
“You’ve got to credit the (English) amateur system. ... The coaching was good; we got a lot of help on the psychological side, too.”
Eddie Pepperell
Except for Westwood and Poulter in last week’s field, the other dozen came through the English system. Aside from coaching, they’ve benefitted from warm-weather training during winter months, and took advantage of foreign travel to South Africa, Australia and other points around the globe.
Danny Willett counts winning the 2008 Australian Amateur Open Stroke Play Championship as part of his preparation for his 2016 Masters triumph. Willett attended Jacksonville State University for a brief spell, but realised he was making so many long-distance calls to England Golf coach Graham Walker he decided to return home.
Fitzpatrick probably wouldn’t have won the 2013 U.S. Amateur if not for England Golf funding his trip to the Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. Like Willett, Fitzpatrick briefly toyed with college golf, at Northwestern, before returning home to prepare for a professional career.
World No 9 Hatton, England’s top-ranked player, won the 2010 Czech Amateur Open Championship, a trophy made possible thanks to England Golf funding.
Two-time European Tour winner Eddie Pepperell was inundated with offers to play college golf. He’s on record as saying he’s a better player because he chose the England Golf route.
“You’ve got to credit the (English) amateur system,” Pepperell said. “I was helped enormously by (former England Golf director of coaching) Peter Mattsson.
“The coaching was good; we got a lot of help on the psychological side, too.”
Pepperell is also a big believer that staying at home rather than decamping to the United States can help young English players better prepare for the rigours of professional golf.
“If you grow up playing links golf then you learn facets of the game that perhaps the Europeans or the Americans don’t have,” Pepperell said. “The fact we grew up playing links golf and faced tough conditions means we’re maybe a bit better mentally prepared because as an 18-year-old playing, say, the Lytham Trophy in a howling gale means you have to find some way to get through it. I think that helps in the long run.”
A programme to produce a regular stream of top English players with the ability to perform successfully on the world stage?
As many English people might say: “Bingo!”
Top (from left): Ross Fisher, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Paul Casey celebrate with the English flag at the 2018 EurAsia Cup.
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