It has all gone sour for cream of Europe

David Smith13 April 2012

Sherry glasses will be raised tomorrow to salute the final event of the 2001 European Tour, which is appropriate because a big celebration is hardly called for.

Promoters and the pick of European playing talent have gathered at Montecastillo Golf Club in Jerez, deep in Spain's sherry belt, for the £2 million Volvo Masters.

But as they sip at the Fino and Amontillado, the great and the good of European golf will have cause to reflect upon a season in which those of European birth failed to make a single significant mark upon the game at elite world level.

The catalogue of unprecedented mediocrity includes:

The failure of European players to win even one of the four majors for a second successive year

The failure of European players to win one of the prestigious World Golf Championship events

The failure of a European player to mark the climax of the Tour by registering among the top five in the world rankings

The failure of European players to keep their grip on the Harry Vardon Trophy - awarded to the leading money winner on the Tour's Volvo Order of Merit - for a 19th successive year. South Africa's Retief Goosen is the first non-European champion since Greg Norman of Australia triumphed in 1982

Rarely have European-born players fared so poorly. But if that failure to perform is not enough to leave a bitter taste in the mouth, the best player of 2001 has been identified as a 44-year-old veteran representing the glorious past rather than a younger charger heralding a promising future for European golf.

Ken Schofield, executive director of the European Tour, said: "Bernhard Langer has been the star.

"He was in the top three in The Open and the Players' Championship, tied for sixth place in the US Masters, and he has won twice in Europe." That, surely, is a damning reflection upon the so-called cream of Europe who are at the peak of their careers - men such as Lee Westwood, Colin Montgomerie, Darren Clarke, Thomas Bjorn and Padraig Harrington.

What will give Schofield special cause for concern as he considers the decline in the performances of European-born players is the domination of the top tournaments and the world rankings by players carrying United States passports.

Four Americans - David Toms, David Duval, Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods (twice) - won five of the six 'elite' events comprising the majors and World Championships.

The outsider was Goosen, winner of the US Open in June, who is at least a member of the European Tour even if the closest he comes to qualifying as a true European is the possession of a home in Surrey.

As for the world rankings, the leading three players and four of the top five are American. Woods has also put the stamp on American domination of the game by retaining the US Tour's Order of Merit for a third successive year.

The final confirmation of desperately slipping standards among European players is offered by a comparison of the current status of the Ryder Cup teams that will meet in their postponed match at The Belfry next September.

At this moment the United States can boast five players in the world's top 10, eight in the top 20, and 10 in the top 30. All 12 players in the team captained by Curtis Strange figure among the world's top 40.

By contrast Europe now have just two players ranked in the top 10, five in the top 20 and eight in the top 30. Two of the 12 in Sam Torrance's side don't even make the world's top 50.

It calls for some sober reflection over the sherry this weekend.

The decline of European golf

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