Dear Industry Colleague,

What a memorable Masters we all enjoyed recently. The most dramatic and exciting finish for decades and perhaps ever. Congratulations obviously go to Rory McIlroy, but also commiserations to Justin Rose who played so brilliantly including finishing the last 12 holes in 8 under par on Sunday. Breathtaking. He must surely be a shoe-in for a Ryder Cup place.

The US Tour bought a serious chunk of influence and equity in the DP World Tour, formally the European Tour several years ago. Allowing the PGA Tour to exert such control over the European operation was contentious despite being extremely useful as the Covid crisis hit. With the top 10 on the DP World Tour now gaining playing rights to the US Tour, this will have a profound impact on the Ryder Cup. Detry, Straka, Hovland, McIlroy, MacIntyre, Åberg have all won US Tour events in the last 12 months and together with Rose, Fleetwood, Rahm, Hatton and Garcia, the European Ryder Cup team maybe the strongest ever. Not perhaps what the US Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan had in mind!

Bethpage Black, the venue for this year‘s contest, will be a formidable cauldron for the European team to play in. Close to New York, the crowds can be guaranteed to be raucous and partisan - let’s just hope that they manage to behave with respect for all competitors, even if they would dearly love a victory on home soil.

Luke Donald is an exceptional captain of the Europeans and I’m sure he will use all his guile and cunning to bring the best out of his team. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to have the humble, yet confident, Captain Donald retain the trophy in front of the other Donald!

Best wishes, 

Colin Jenkins