Notebook: Examining Europe's Ryder Cup Captain Pipeline, Angel Cabrera's Jail Time and Cherry Hills' Open Hopes
The Ryder Cup at Bethpage is three years away, but who will be the captain for the Europeans is a huge question—and we could glean some answers for moves this week.
Englishman Tommy Fleetwood and Italy’s Francesco Molinari have been named as the two captains of the inaugural Hero Cup, the replacement for the Seve Trophy that ran from 2000-13.
When the Hero Cup was announced in early September, the DP World Tour made clear in its announcement that Luke Donald, the 2023 European Ryder Cup captain, will select both 10-man teams for Great Britain & Ireland and continental Europe.
Fleetwood and Molinari were designated as playing captains, but the event will be presided over by Donald.
Donald is really the third pick by the Europeans to captain the Ryder Cup team in 2023, with Lee Westwood declining last year and Henrik Stenson taking the job and then losing the job when he jumped to LIV Golf.
With potential European Ryder Cup captains Graeme McDowell, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Stenson, and Westwood all in LIV’s fold, the Europeans are between a rock and a hard place.
That's possibly 10 years or five Ryder Cups of captaincies lost, which means either the Europeans need to repeat captains, something they have not done since Bernard Gallacher in 1995, or tap into a new crop of likely younger players like 44-year-old Donald.
At 31, Fleetwood would be a little young to take on the captaincy in New York, but Molinari, who just turned 40 in November and would be 42 at Bethpage, could clearly fill the bill.
A major winner and a staunch supporter of the DP World Tour, the Italian is one to watch out of the Hero Cup when it debuts in January at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
“I definitely felt like it benefited me when I played in similar events in the past,” Molinari said. “Hopefully as captains, Tommy and I can bring some of our own experience of team golf to help the other players and we are looking forward to working with Luke on this exciting new concept ahead of a big year for European golf with the Ryder Cup taking place in my home country.”
> Not that I have spent much time around felons unless you count crime shows on television, but I was surprised when I heard the reported comments of two-time major winner Angel Cabrera in a Cordoba court room.
Most incarcerated individuals usually claim their innocence, but not that the trip to the slammer is a good thing.
"Many say prison is bad, but it's not the case, prison has done me good," Cabrera said during the trial in the central city of Cordoba, according to local press and reported in Agence France-Presse.
Charlie Epps, Cabrera’s longtime swing coach and friend, was glad to hear Cabrera’s attitude change considering the issues with alcoholism and anger management that had dogged him throughout his career.
“He had no respect for the law,” Epps said of the 53-year-old Argentinian. “The only rules he followed were the rules of golf.”
Epps hasn’t seen or talked to Cabrera just before he left for Brazil to renew his visa in December 2020.
Cabrera was arrested in Rio de Janeiro in January 2021 under an Interpol warrant that was issued by an Argentinian court in Cordoba for assaulting his former partner, Cecilia Torres.
A month later Cabrera was sent from Brazil to Argentina, where he has been in jail ever since.
Friends including two Argentinian golf professionals who have visited El Pato (Cabrera is nicknamed “The Duck”) have reported back to Epps that he has lost weight and looks good.
But most importantly, Cabrera seems to be getting his life back together, Epps said.
When Cabrera does finally get out of prison, his plan is to play professional golf again.
“Hope he will get out sooner than later,” Epps said.
Even with an additional sentence of 28 months on Monday in Cordoba for assaulting Micaela Escudero, the court is running the sentences concurrently, which means his sentences are running together and not separately.
Epps sees that as a good sign and believes the court will see how Cabrera has progressed during his time in prison, and perhaps he will get paroled soon.
> Clearly in hopes to get another U.S. Open west of the Mississippi, Cherry Hills Country Club, located in Denver, just finished a restoration of the original William Flynn design from 1922.
Renowned architect Tom Doak took on the task of not only restoring but bringing the historic venue up to today’s standards.
A 10-year project culminating in 2022, just in time for the 2023 U.S. Amateur, saw almost every part of the course touched including rebuilding tees, greens and bunkers. But the major change that brings back the Flynn esprit de corps, was the rerouting of Little Dry Creek that meanders throughout the back nine.
The Little Dry Creek is back in play throughout Cherry Hills, as seen here at the 14th and 7th holes.
Courtesy of Cherry Hills
Due to flood control working overtime, the creek was no longer the threat that Flynn had designed, so Doak brought it back to as close to the original location as possible.
This meant that the creek was moved closer to the 7th, 14th and 15th greens and also closer to the 16th fairway.
The creek now is a force again as it had been when Arnold Palmer won his only U.S. Open.
The 1922 masterpiece has seen many USGA championships starting with the 1938 U.S. Open won by Ralph Guldahl, the 1960 U.S. Open won by Palmer and in 1978, when Andy North captured his first of two national championships.
It also has hosted two PGA Championships, U.S. Amateurs, a Women’s Open, a Senior Open and a Mid-Amateur.
In total, 15 major championships have been at Cherry Hills over its 100 years.