Another chance for England's 'future' stars
ENGLAND’S young pretenders get another chance to axe the word ‘future’ from the prefix they are always labelled with, when the US Open tees off in a few hours.
Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Ian Poulter are four men who have carried around the tag of ‘future major champions’ for long enough now.
Each of them has put themselves in a position to win, or at least challange down the stretch in one of the game’s grand slams, but each time they have faded away.
Add Lee Westwood to that group and you have a man who has won 29 times worldwide and is one of the continent’s greatest finishers, but even he falls short in the majors.
Perhaps adding Poulter to that list is a little ambitious considering he only has one top 10 in 23 appearances in the majors, but the fact that he has missed the cut only three times speaks volumes for his consistency.
When compared with Rose, Casey and Donald he has never really threatened to take a big title.
Rose was crowned European No 1 last October thanks largely to his performances in the majors.
He stood on the 17th at Augusta last year needing a birdie-par finish to force a play-off with Zach Johnson. In those circumstances you have to go for it, he did and unfortunately ran up a double bogey, but in doing so showed he had the bottle to at least put his game on the line.
He finished 10th at the US Open - he was fifth on his US Open debut at Olympia Fields in 2003 - and 12th at the Open and US PGA, a fine accomplishment that saw him as one of only seven men to make the cut in all four majors last year.
One of those was of course Tiger Woods, but Rose was in good company, Westwood, Poulter and Casey being the others.
Casey finished 10th in both the Masters and US Open last year, and has led majors before. At Augusta two months ago, he called a penalty on himself when the ball moved less than a milimetre, a decision that effectively ended his chances, but showed the character and sportsmanship a golfer possesses.
Donald is undergoing something of a slump having not won a tournament since the Honda Classic in 2006, and not challenged in a major since finishing third to Woods at the USPGA at the back end of that year.
However, all five of those Englishmen have the sort of game you need to excel in a US Open, accuracy and putting.
They’ve all had a sniff of what it’s like to contend, they just need to grab the chance.
Also working in their favour is that at 1.14pm west coast time in America, Poulter, Casey and Donald all tee off together as a threeball.
For the first two days they can relax in each other’s company, shut out the tournament rhetoric, the clatter of the huge leaderboards being changed and the smell of the catering vans, and just concentrate on playing some good golf.
And who knows, this time next week, one of them might have erased the word ‘future’ from their title.
Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Ian Poulter are four men who have carried around the tag of ‘future major champions’ for long enough now.
Each of them has put themselves in a position to win, or at least challange down the stretch in one of the game’s grand slams, but each time they have faded away.
Add Lee Westwood to that group and you have a man who has won 29 times worldwide and is one of the continent’s greatest finishers, but even he falls short in the majors.
Perhaps adding Poulter to that list is a little ambitious considering he only has one top 10 in 23 appearances in the majors, but the fact that he has missed the cut only three times speaks volumes for his consistency.
When compared with Rose, Casey and Donald he has never really threatened to take a big title.
Rose was crowned European No 1 last October thanks largely to his performances in the majors.
He stood on the 17th at Augusta last year needing a birdie-par finish to force a play-off with Zach Johnson. In those circumstances you have to go for it, he did and unfortunately ran up a double bogey, but in doing so showed he had the bottle to at least put his game on the line.
He finished 10th at the US Open - he was fifth on his US Open debut at Olympia Fields in 2003 - and 12th at the Open and US PGA, a fine accomplishment that saw him as one of only seven men to make the cut in all four majors last year.
One of those was of course Tiger Woods, but Rose was in good company, Westwood, Poulter and Casey being the others.
Casey finished 10th in both the Masters and US Open last year, and has led majors before. At Augusta two months ago, he called a penalty on himself when the ball moved less than a milimetre, a decision that effectively ended his chances, but showed the character and sportsmanship a golfer possesses.
Donald is undergoing something of a slump having not won a tournament since the Honda Classic in 2006, and not challenged in a major since finishing third to Woods at the USPGA at the back end of that year.
However, all five of those Englishmen have the sort of game you need to excel in a US Open, accuracy and putting.
They’ve all had a sniff of what it’s like to contend, they just need to grab the chance.
Also working in their favour is that at 1.14pm west coast time in America, Poulter, Casey and Donald all tee off together as a threeball.
For the first two days they can relax in each other’s company, shut out the tournament rhetoric, the clatter of the huge leaderboards being changed and the smell of the catering vans, and just concentrate on playing some good golf.
And who knows, this time next week, one of them might have erased the word ‘future’ from their title.
Labels: Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood, Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Tiger Woods, US Open
posted by Nick Westby at 2:17 PM
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