It’s nice work if you can get it. Conservative estimates suggest the European Ryder Cup captaincy is worth nearly $3 million in sponsorships and other lucrative odds and sods for the man at the helm.
When you’ve reportedly been offered $40 million to join a Saudi Super League, though, that’s chump change.
Henrik Stenson is Europe’s new Ryder Cup skipper for next year’s match in Rome. And by taking on the role, he has effectively turned his back on the riches from the bottomless pit of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and committed himself to the DP World Tour.
It was well-known in golfing circles that Stenson needed to provide an ongoing commitment to the circuit before his captaincy could be endorsed. You half expected some elaborate, archaic ceremony in which he swore his allegiance over some holy relics. Or at least a dog-eared copy of the Tour’s members’ manual.
“There’s been lot of speculation back and forth,” said the Swede of the Saudi situation which certainly won’t disappear in the months and years to come. “I am fully committed to the captaincy and to Ryder Cup Europe and the job at hand. The captain does sign a contract. He’s the only one that does that. Players and vice-captains don’t.”
With the elephant in the room brushed aside, Stenson could get on with talking about his new post. As a five-time Ryder Cup player, with 11 points from 19 matches, and a vice-captain last year, Stenson ticks all manner of boxes.
“They’ll get Henrik,” he said simply when asked what he’ll bring to the job. Stenson will do it his way and, as a popular figure with a sense of humor that’s as dry as a sawmill, getting Henrik is not a bad thing. “As a player, I’ve been Captain Chaos a few times,” chuckled the 2016 Open champion.
The 45-year-old will be the first Swede to captain Europe and there’s a fair bit of pressure on his shoulders. After the visitors were on the receiving end of a dreadful thumping by a rampant USA side at Whistling Straits in 2021, Stenson has to find a way of derailing the American express. And he doesn’t want to be the first European captain to lose on home soil in 30 years either.
The might of a youthful and hugely talented Team USA was there for all to see last September. Europe, meanwhile, could be set for a changing of the guard with some seasoned campaigners making way for fresh talent. Whatever the make-up of his team, Stenson wants young and old alike to make a strong claim over the next 18 months.
“Looking solely at the age at Whistling Straits, I think our team was an average of 35 years and the American side had about a 26-year-old average,” he noted. “So we certainly had an older team and at some point there will be a shift and I can definitely see that happening this time around.
“But I can also see a few hungry veterans wanting to keep their jerseys. I know from my own experience that when you play in a Ryder Cup, you don’t want to hand that jersey to someone else. You are going to fight dearly to keep it another time. And that’s exciting for me as a captain. Everything is a possibility. The door is open to anyone with a European passport.”
The Ryder Cup may be over 560 days away but the job starts now.
“The Ryder Cup is golf, and sport, at its very best,” he gushed. “I got goosebumps every time I pulled on a European shirt as a player and that will be magnified in the role of captain. 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 such as Seve [Ballesteros] and be the European Ryder Cup captain. But this proves that, sometimes, dreams do come true.”
It wasn’t to be, meanwhile, for Luke Donald, Robert Karlsson and Paul Lawrie, who were the other names in the hat. At 53, Lawrie’s chance has passed him by. Like Sandy Lyle before him, another Scottish major champion has missed out.
Sometimes, the captain’s cap just doesn’t fit.
Nick Rodger is a contributor to the Scotland Herald and Glasgow Times, part of Newsquest, which is a subsidiary of Gannett/USA Today.
