Royal Trophy 2010

When golfing great, Seve Ballesteros, originally wrote a letter to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand in the hope of bringing all of Asia together for a team golf competition in the Kingdom. The Spaniard was very

enthusiastic about the team component of the Ryder Cup, where Europe plays the United States, being applied as the model for the Royal Trophy.  His Majesty The King not only welcomed the Asians coming together in Thailand to compete against the Europeans for the epic inaugural championship, but also graciously donated a beautiful perpetual 16-kilogram solid-silver Trophy. And so a new intercontinental golf competition was born.

Europe won the first two competitions with Asia taking last year’s competition, leaving the
Score at 2-1 to Europe. After Y.E. Yang captured Asia’s very first \Major championship at the US open last year – Asian golf is definately on a high – who will triumph as we step into the new decade?

Some think comparing this competition to the Ryder Cup is sullying the name of Samuel Ryder. I think they are entitled to their opinion but personally, I think it’s a fair analogy – whenever you try something new you will meet with some skepticsm.

Up until now  the tournament has had to overcome quite a few hurdles – from cancellation a few years ago due to a Royal death in Thailand – to the recent ill health of the pioneering European captain – Severiano Ballesteros.

It was a great relief to me to see Seve recover from his recent brain tumor and the tournament he helped initiate seems to be doing pretty well too judging from my visit to Amata Spring in Chonburi yesterday.

The Ryder cup captain for this year Colin Montgomerie has taken over the reigns from Seve and I’m sure he appreciates the value of this tournament to prepare for the real deal later on in the year. Monty also took the  previously unheard of step of being a playing captain.  A decision which looked somewhat questionable judging from the shocking hybrid he hit from just off the fairway on the 16th hole which resulted in his match with the Japanese coming to a premature end.

I do hope Monty can do better in the last two days but with the heat in Thailand and Monty’s extra baggage he has to take around the 18 holes I suspect it will be a disappointing end to a legend of the European game.

The European team is 50% Swedish vikings – though with the strength of the golfers from this country that’s hardly surprising. I was disappointed there was no Alviro Quiros but the quality of  the European team cannot be questioned with the world no 7. Henrik Stenson and the world no. 28 Robert Karlsson bringing undisputed class to a solid looking team. Colin and Pablo do seem to be the black sheeps though being the only 2 players outside the top 200 – this makes the decision to play together somewhat surprising. But perhaps he hoped the other 6 players would steamroller the competition.

The Asian team is strong – of course it’s disappointing not to see the  first Asian major winner, Y E Yang playing but we were compensated by having the ’shy samurai’ Ryo Ishikawa who seems to like this matchplay format judging by his 3-0 record in last year’s Presidents Cup.

Comparing the teams world rankings:

World Rankings 2010 – Week 1

Europe	Asia
H Stenson 7	R Ishikawa 30
R Karlsson 28	J Singh 50
Soren Kjeldson 35	Thongchai Jaidee 60
Simon Dyson 43	Koumei Oda 73
Peter Hanson 56	Liang Wen Chong 82
Alexander Noren 55	Prayad Marksaeng 90
Pablo Martin 234	Charlie Wi 151
C. Montgomerie 255	Gaganjeet Bhullar 168

So it looks like on paper Europe certainly have the stronger team but with matchplay really anything can happen.

We decided to go on the Friday since I figured that way there would not be so many people and we might be able to keep an eye on the ball as well as get a good look at the players. Left around 9:30am and arrived about 10:30am.  On arriving at the course – the organisation was pretty good for Thailand. Ample parking was provided with buses  provided to ship everyone to the course.

First golfer I noticed was Ishikawa himself. Although I wasn’t sure t was him – he looks a lot older than he is. Also looks surprisingly strong for a little guy. Kind of like a little ninja from days gone by – love the way he swings that club too – like a samurai’s sword cleaving through the skull of his foe.

Monty was also on the practice green so had a good view of him trying to adjust to  the Thai grass. He was missing quite a few 3 footers so things weren’t looking good for him.

Surprisingly the team leading Europe out was Monty and Martins – according to the world golf rankings the two worst players in the field. Although they got off to a flyer when the Japanese team of Ishikawa and Oda made bogey from a perfect drive from Ishikawa –  Oda-san hit a shot straight over the pin by about 15 yards  - and into the unplayable long grass. Poor Ryo was left with an unplayable after his perfectly positioned tee shot. That’s foursomes golf for you!

I didn’t fancy following the massed hordes of Japanese who were following their team so we watched all the teams play the first hole then enjoyed the rest of the day following different matches.

The highlight of the day for me was when Simon Dyson – the sole Englishman in the field hit a wonderful approach from 60 yards on the par 5 8th. The Thai team were greenside in 3 with a very tough chip, they had to get up and down to win the whole, Prayad stepped up and almost holed his chip – it just kissed the flagstick and left a tap-in for the Thais to take the hole.

The Asian team dominiated the day and ended up being 2.5:1.5 in the lead. It didn’t last and in a titanic finish Stenson took the trophy back to Europe with a 9 footer on the very last hole of the last game on the course after Thongchai had come up agonisingly close to taking the match to overtime.