Hasta la vista, baby. Just as one chaotic tenure was coming to an end with those words from bumbling Boris Johnson at PMQs, another leadership race was being sparked by the removal from office of European Ryder Cup skipper Henrik Stenson.
In this remarkable, on-going palaver, you wouldn’t be surprised if Liz bloomin’ Truss leads out Team Europe in the biennial bout with the USA in Rome next year.
Stenson’s stewardship lasted just 128 days. The statement from Ryder Cup Europe yesterday informing the masses of his immediate departure reached 140 words. The figure the Swede will get for an anticipated defection to the LIV Golf Series, meanwhile, will be slightly larger than those aforementioned numbers.
“In light of decisions made by Henrik in relation to his personal circumstances, it has become clear that he will not be able to fulfil certain contractual obligations to Ryder Cup Europe that he had committed to prior to his announcement as captain,” read a communique from Wentworth HQ which was as downbeat as leafing through the results from Ryder Cups of yore when the old GB&I team would get routinely slaughtered.
This latest development in the saga sent wider shockwaves through a game already reeling from the relentless LIV Golf onslaught. “A sad day for European golf,” was the succinct summing up of the former European skipper, Colin Montgomerie.
Padraig Harrington, who passed the reins over to Stenson and was part of the selection panel who chose the 2016 Open champion, was more vocal.
“I certainly empathise with anybody that makes the decisions that they have made in terms of going to play a new tour, the financial incentives are quite impressive,” said the Irishman, speaking ahead of this week’s Senior Open at Gleneagles. “I do think it's different in Henrik's case. He signed a contract not to do that and was specifically asked not to do that. I have no empathy there. He took the Ryder Cup job when LIV was in doubt, and now that LIV is pretty much mainstream, he's jumped ship.
“When you sign up to something you have to accept you made a decision at the time and you’ve got to stick with it. He’s done what he said he wouldn’t do.”
Reaction to the news will continue to be heated. Back in March, when Stenson accepted the honour of becoming Ryder Cup captain, he said: “When I started out as a professional golfer, it was beyond my wildest dreams that, one day, I would follow in the footsteps of legends of the game such as Seve and be the European Ryder Cup captain. But today proves that, sometimes, dreams do come true.”
While rumours of Stenson performing a complete u-turn and jumping onboard Greg Norman’s Saudi-backed breakaway series have been doing the rounds for a while, the decision to effectively sack him from the captain’s post still provided one of the most dramatic chapters in Ryder Cup history.
At 46 and down in 171st spot in the world, Stenson is hardly setting the heather on fire on the playing front but Norman won’t mind that. Luring the Ryder Cup skipper to his LIV Golf Series, and plunging the European line of succession into more chaos, is another significant coup.
The Ryder Cup captain’s job is unpaid but worth a few million quid in various endorsements. That pales into insignificance, though, compared to the eye-watering sums being dangled by LIV Golf, especially for a man who lost vast sums of his career earnings in the Allen Stanford financial scandal a few years ago.
Amid the pandemonium, there is a terrific cavalcade of golden oldies on show at the King’s Course this week as the over-50s showpiece comes to Gleneagles for the first time.
Thirty years ago, the wonderful King’s Course was the site of one of professional golf’s greatest finishes as Australia’s Peter O’Malley snatched the Bell’s Scottish Open title in 1992.
With a thunderous charge that just about featured a lance, O’Malley came home in just 28 blows and covered his last five holes in seven-under - eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle – to win by a shot. The aforementioned Monty, decked out in that blue saltire sweater, was pipped to the post as O’Malley closed with a breathtaking 62. The duo are both playing this week in a star-studded field. “I saw my nemesis there for breakfast,” said Monty with a chuckle.
It was a bit of light relief on another tumultuous day.
