The PGA President explained how, at the end of a one-sided contest in 1977, Jack had asked to see him in his room before dinner. The living legend’s purpose, it transpired, was to suggest that, in future, ‘GB&I’ should become ‘Europe’ to make it a more even contest.
Lord Derby indicated that he had accepted, subject to board confirmation, with some alacrity. You bet he did. It introduced into ‘our’ team a young Spaniard named Severiano Ballesteros, for a start… More of him later. Neither of these two eminent gentlemen had the faintest notion, at that moment, about what they were starting. How could they? Most of Europe wasn’t much into golf back then. Spain had a leading player or two. Sweden was starting to get keen. So was Germany. But France? Italy, Denmark? No way…
King Soccer, only, ruled, OK? So, this suggests that, somewhere along the line, another influence has been brought to bear on the escalation of The Ryder Cup from an American near-monopoly to the one sporting contest that, every two years, unites the rest of us into being true Europeans for a few heart-thumping days. Imagine England and Italy, or even England and Scotland, for heaven’s sake, being on the same side in most other activities!
For a personal view of one significant reason of why I believe that there has been such a power swing I go back to another informal chat between two gentlemen. This, bizarrely, was during a break in a soft ball match in Stockholm during much the same period as the Lord Derby / Jack Nicklaus conversation.
One was the late Christer Lindberg, who became the PGA of Europe’s first Chairman and first President. The other was Leif Ohlsson, currently a director of the PGAsE and, more crucially, Chairman of its Education Committee.
The two were friends, members of the same golf club but neither of them of any real influence on a broader scale. Leif is passionately keen on sport. Two spiders running down a window pane would grasp his attention until the ‘race’ was won or lost. He is also a leading educationalist in Stockholm, a lecturer at the famous Bösön Institute, where all Sweden’s top sportsmen are prepared with such resounding success.
