Spain Showing Late Speed In '18 Ryder Cup Derby?

Lawrence Donegan says that's the case in this analysis of Tuesday's announcement.

The French bid boasts a great course – Le Golf National near Versailles – and has reportedly offered the greatest financial support to the European Tour over the long run. It has also been the bookies' favourite – an assignation never to be underestimated. But in the past week or so the weight of expectation has fallen behind the efforts to stage the biennial contest between Europe's best and their American counterparts in Madrid.

Financially this would make sense. Spain has long been one of the tour's strongest markets, staging more tournaments most years than any other European nation (seven in 2011, compared with two in England). To deny Madrid would be to risk losing Spanish support for the European Tour into 2018 and beyond – a prospect that will weigh heavily on tour officials.

The annoucement will be broadcast live online Tuesday.

Seve's Brother Makes Plea For Spain To Get '18 Ryder Cup

The Telegraph's Ian Chadband reports that the Ballesteros family would like the European Ryder Cup committee to select Madrid next Tuesday when they announce the winner of the 2018 Ryder Cup bidding.

The golfer’s brothers Manuel, Vicente and Baldomero and sons, Javier and Miguel, want the European Tour’s Ryder Cup committee to choose Spain’s capital city over rival bids from France, Germany, Portugal and Holland when they meet at Wentworth on Tuesday.

A tearful Baldomero invoked the legend of El Cid, the 11th century nobleman who, having been strapped to his warhorse following his death in battle and placed at the front of his troops, was supposed to have inspired them to one final victory.

He said: “I wish that, like El Cid, Seve wins the last battle after his death. It would be the greatest tribute to him.

“I appeal to the sensitivity of the Ryder Cup Committee of the European Tour to agree the greatest honour that could be bestowed on Seve is to award the competition to Spain. I appeal on behalf of the family.

Golfweek Illustrators Give The European Tour Common Sense Options

Golfweek illustrators D.J. Piehowski and Jason Lusk put together logo options for the European Tour to ditch the old geezer who never played the European Tour with a Seve-themed logo. This is the one that floated my boat:

"The large crowd outside the church burst into applause as Ballesteros' ashes reached the tiny church, which was filled to its 400-person capacity."

AP's Paul Logothetis reports on Seve Ballesteros' memorial service.

Ballesteros' oldest son, Javier, carried the urn holding the Spanish golf great's ashes at the front of the procession, with the wail of a single bagpipe punctuating the occasion on an overcast day in the tiny village off the Bay of Santander.

The procession also included several young boys and girls wearing a replica of the navy blue outfit that Ballesteros wore for his first British Open win in 1979. They each held a 3-iron, the first club he used as a child.

Members of a local men's rowing team marched with their oars.

The large crowd outside the church burst into applause as Ballesteros' ashes reached the tiny church, which was filled to its 400-person capacity. Locals, friends and others watched from one of the three giant screens set up outside.

An unbylined European Tour story included this:

The 2012 European Captain José Maria Olazábal, who with Seve formed the greatest partnership in Ryder Cup history, was joined by past Captains Sir Nick Faldo, Bernard Gallacher, Colin Montgomerie, Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam. Miguel Angel Jiménez and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño were among the Spanish contingent with a host of European Tour players past and present who joined family and friends in Seve's hometown.

George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson and his predecessor Sir Michael Bonallack were among those paying their respects.

Getty Images has a library of shots from the service. Thanks to reader Tim for the link.

Tributes continue to come in (or I'm just now reading them), including this from Mitchell Platts:

I recall a breakfast with Seve at the Ritz in London when, with tears in his eyes, he spoke warmly of his parents – his father had now died - and three brothers. He said: “The biggest influence on my life was my parents and probably the surroundings because our house was right there on the golf course (Real Club de Golf de Pedreña). My uncle, Ramon Sota,  was also a professional golfer and he was very good.

“My father was always optimistic; he always believed in me. The house had belonged to my mother’s uncle. When we were growing up Baldomero, my eldest brother, had one bedroom, Manuel had another and I shared with Vicente. We were a happy family. We kept cows which my father looked after. He also fished, some for us to eat and some to sell, and he caddied. It seemed that he and my mother were always working.”

Later the tears turned to smiles when he recalled being drunk at the age of 12. He said: “I came home and my father and mother had gone fishing. My lunch had been left and there was a bottle of wine. I had four glasses. It did not go unnoticed when I returned to school; I was sent back home!”

Scott Michaux suggested this as a way to pay tribute to Seve…not that it'll happen, but it might be fun to do once a year.

If the game's leaders wanted to truly honor Seve's memory, they would figure out a way to restore the relevance of his style in an era before players carried five different wedges, several hybrids, long putters and balls designed to combat the elements of spin. It's probably too late to cap the bottle of technology, but maybe something as simple as reducing the number of clubs in the bag from 14 to 11 would require today's elite players to learn how to do more with less the way Ballesteros could.

Sally Jenkins wrote:

Ballesteros’s life ended where it began: in the Cantabrian hamlet of Pedrena, along the rock-edged, turquoise shores of the Bay of Santander, where he was raised.

“The funeral rites will be as simple as those for any neighbor from the village,” his brother Baldomero said. “Seve is a country boy. We thought it was best.”

It’s a simpler and somewhat rougher part of Spain’s coast, not as traveled as the southern Mediterranean, but ancient and splendidly beautiful even so, wild with energy, and suggestive of just what an epic act of self-fashioning his career was. His essence, surely, is there.

Seve: "Suffered a severe deterioration."

From the European Tour site, courtesy of reader Patrick:

"The Ballesteros family informs that Seve’s neurological condition has suffered a severe deterioration. The family will inform accordingly about any change in his health condition and takes this opportunity of thanking everyone for the support that both Seve and his own family have been receiving during all this time."

Reader David shared this longer Guardian story by Ewan Murray.

Insomniacs Rejoice: Q&A With George O'Grady

I've scanned Leslie Wilson's Q&A with European Tour honcho George O'Grady twice now and I'm convinced it's actually Watson, the IBM computer developed to answer Jeopardy questions. If anyone finds something remotely interesting or informative, please let me know. The only semi-eye-opening moment:

What is your take on the current state of golf worldwide?

Golf is in a healthy state at present but none of us in the game should be complacent.

Grass-roots golf must be considered a priority as golf continues to be a more global and accessible game.

The youth of the game is the future — we all have to leave a legacy for the youngsters to carry the baton. With The Ryder Cup, golf in the Olympics and growth in all our Tours these are exciting times for golf.

17-Year-Old Manassero Wins Again!

From an unbylined AP story on Matteo's latest European Tour win before 18 in a field that included McIlroy and Kaymer.

Manassero, who became the European Tour’s youngest winner with his victory at last year’s Castello Masters, said it was “just fantastic” to earn another trophy before turning 18.

“It was tough,” he said. “The course is really tight and all the players were doing good and playing well. It’s just not easy to concentrate, especially to stay calm.”

McIlroy, who had to take a nearly 30-hour flight to Malaysia and arrived only a day before the tournament began, looked visibly tired during the final round, despite maintaining his smile for the huge crowd swarming around him.

However, his caddy ran out of patience when some spectators ignored the ban on taking photos while players were teeing off and asked officials to confiscate some of the cameras.

Sorting Out The Wildly Entertaining Presidents Cup Scheduling Brouhaha

This one appears only interesting to a few bigwigs until you start to read about the ramifications and the hilarious backdown of a PGA Tour that for once, was outleveraged.

Here goes...

The European Tour schedules the 2011 South African Open the week of the Presidents Cup, even though the Cup's date had been set for some time. Ernie Els, not exactly a favorite of his teammates, balks and suggests he might play the South African Open instead.

Fast forward to the Masters and the all mighty Big Oak negotiating sessions where the PGA Tour, European Tour, Sunshine Tour and a certain heavyset player agent ironed out a deal that, according to Steve Elling who first broke the news on CBSSports.com, has this year's South African Open swap dates with the Dunhill Cup in South Africa, allowing the South Africans to play in the Presidents Cup and their home Open.

The real stunner in Elling's report, which was confirmed today by AP's Gerald Imray: South Africa gets a WGC event at least this year, and perhaps for the next five. Even more amazing, it'll have a $10 million purse, the richest on the PGA Tour.

The tour had no choice but to back down, notes Elling.

Five of the top six players on the Presidents Cup's current International Team points list are native South Africans who would have faced the decision of whether to play their national Open or the team event held in years when the Ryder Cup isn’t contested.

The source said that Australian players might have backed the boycott, too.

So combine the South Africans with the Aussies and well, you have no Presidents Cup team. Which would explain how, even with the date set long before the others, the PGA Tour had to cave even though we know Tim Finchem would rather talk about his old speeding ticket problem than play a World Golf Championship event outside the United States.

Even more amusing, Tiger's Chevron tournament has now been drawn into the equation. Sunshine Commissioner Gareth Tindall, quoted in the AP story:

A date and venue hasn't been decided but Tindall says organizers will look at the first weekend of December, clashing with Tiger Woods' Chevron Challenge and South Africa's own Nedbank Challenge at Sun City.

On Woods' event, Tindall says, "they will have to move it."

And you thought the Presidents Cup was meaningless...

"We're running out of time in our allotted broadcast window."

Thanks to Mark Diver for Tweeting this fine moment in Golf Channel history as they signed off from today's European Tour's Open De Andalucia De Golf with Paul Lawrie walking up 18 attempting to clinch his first win in ages. For? The Arnold Palmer Invitational Pre-Game show!