The walk into Marco Simone Golf and Country Club takes you past a series of giant posters of the European team’s greatest moments: Darren Clarke’s chip at the 16th to beat Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk in the fourballs at the K Club in 2006, Jamie Donaldson in the seconds after Keegan Bradley had conceded on the Sunday at Gleneagles in 2014, Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari hugging after winning their fourth point together at Le Golf National. It’s a long way, and they run on and on and on, Seve at the Belfry, Woosie at Muirfield, Ollie tearing up in the aftermath of the Miracle at Medinah.
There are, you’ll eventually twig, three people who are very conspicuously missing from the gallery. You’ll have to walk a lot longer again before you find any photos of Sergio García, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, the three men who have come to be most closely associated with the European team in this century. In fact, if you’re looking for one you can walk right across the course’s 350 acres and carry on going off it back into the city again.
