In some ways the timing of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is terrible. In others, it is perfect. It would be strange and unsatisfying to transition from Ryder Cup to stock European Tour event which features none of its stars, but thanks to a hefty purse and the Old Course, this one always attracts a few. On the other hand we're now without Tony Finau, content to bask in the glory of a USA win, and the Europeans who do arrive on the plane from Wisconsin will do well to dust themselves down and go again.
Twice in the past 20 years, a Ryder Cup player has gone on to win this title. It happened in 2002 thanks to Padraig Harrington, and in 2010 when Martin Kaymer extended his golden autumn through to Sunday at the Old Course. It should've happened in 2018, too, when a weary Tyrrell Hatton came home in 40 to miss out by a shot, and all four players who travelled from France to Scotland finished inside the top 10. That number includes two Americans, despite a resounding defeat in Paris.
All of this is quite encouraging if you're tempted to give one of the three European team members a chance, and there are other examples (Bernhard Langer in 1991, Tiger Woods in 2006, Lee Westwood in 2008, Rory McIlroy in 2014) of Ryder Cup players either winning or nearly winning the very next week. However it's surely best to judge each situation on its merits, and despite taking three of the top four positions in the market, Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood and favourite Shane Lowry have plenty to overcome.
Most of the examples given, and more besides, are of players who had either won the Ryder Cup (Kaymer, Harrington), faced a short journey (Woods, McIlroy), or both. Westwood almost overcame the long trip to the Belfry and Langer somehow won in Germany, but there's been a notable downturn in performances of long-travelling Europeans in 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016. The Ryder Cup is exhausting enough as it is. Throw in a transatlantic flight and then long rounds in the company of amateurs, days after a record defeat, and this may be beyond all three.
It's been a strange and ultimately disappointing season for the 25-year-old, who has generated a real buzz since an outstanding rookie campaign in 2019, and took the logical next step up the ladder with a breakthrough win in Cyprus last year. This one began with a big performance in Dubai and it's not surprising that he was anointed Ryder Cup star in the making with many months of qualifying still to go.
That is not his fault, even if it's effectively his doing, and MacIntyre remains a player of big potential and with the attitude to go a very long way. He showed it when clawing his way from the cut line to eighth place in the Open, a continuation of a really bright start to his career in majors, and now free from the pressure of meeting those Ryder Cup expectations it would not surprise me were he to finish the year in style.
We know that these conditions are set to be ideal, not because he's Scottish, but because he was sixth in the rain and wind of Portrush, and eighth at Royal St George's. Away from the Open he's been 14th and 18th at The Renaissance, links-like if not the truest definition of the term, and in that rookie campaign he was second both at Himmerland and by the sea at Hillside.
Detry is without doubt one of the best established maidens on the circuit, up there with Laurie Canter, Matthias Schwab, Adri Arnaus and a few others, and his form in 2021 suggests we may not have to wait much longer for everything to fall into place.
Granted, he was a bit disappointing in the mix at the KLM Open last time, where he finished fourth, but I thought he was extremely unfortunate in the Scottish Open back in July. Detry was leading and putting for par when the horn blew to suspend play during his back-stroke, which led to a bogey he had to stew on. After doggedly sticking to the task upon resumption, he then lost out in a play-off to a birdie from Min Woo Lee.
If there's a nagging doubt it's that Grace did drift to something close to his current price for a weaker event last time, but this 14-time winner as a professional has every right to be considered a massive player in an event he won with a record score back in 2012.
Since then he might not have threatened to double-up as Hatton and Harrington have, but he has expanded his links portfolio with the first ever 62 in a major at Birkdale, a play-off defeat in the Scottish Open, and any number of coastal performances which correlate nicely with events like this one.
Two wins in Qatar is one such example, and it's no coincidence at all that his two PGA Tour victories have been earned by the sea. One of those was at a firm, fiery Harbour Town, where Grace relished hitting low, bullet drives, and the other came earlier this year at a blustery Puerto Rico.
The American is entitled to bounce around the locker room as one of a handful in the field and it's not beyond him to win for the fourth time in little more than a year, his breakthrough in Spain coming in early September 2020 before he doubled up in Northern Ireland, and then won in Austria in the spring.
All three of these performances demonstrated what Catlin is about: grinding pars and playing defensively when he has to, avoiding taking the cover off the driver unless he needs to, and chipping away while others run up big numbers under largely difficult conditions.
The weather was miserable when he outlasted Max Kieffer in Austria, the rough was thick in Northern Ireland, and Valderrama is Valderrama. It's when faced with challenges like these that the 30-year-old becomes a massive danger, and it's the forecast for the middle part of the Dunhill Links which makes me believe his skills could be particularly useful again.
Nienaber's talents are there for all to see, his long limbs helping generate extraordinary swing speed which might make him as competitive as Bryson DeChambeau were he taking part in the World Long Drive Championship instead.
He missed the cut in 2019 alongside the young South African, failing to advance to Sunday's final round by a single shot, but made just four mistakes all week including a costly double-bogey at Carnoustie where he was otherwise blemish-free.
Significantly, this came during a serious lull which followed a win earlier in the season. From May all the way through to December, Law failed to register a single top-30 finish, and his results prior to the Dunhill Links read MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-60-72.
Two years on and having , Law looks capable of putting home advantage and links experience to use in an event won by Paul Lawrie, Colin Montgomerie and Gallacher in the past.
"I’ve been playing pretty good for a while," said Law, adding: "Over the course of the past three months, I’d say it’s just about as good as I’ve ever played. These are big events and I am definitely feeling comfortable out there in front of a big crowd and a tough course."
As an amateur he won at Troon, West Gailes and Royal Aberdeen, as a professional his Challenge Tour breakthrough came on a heathland course here in his native Scotland, and when last he teed it up on home soil he finished an excellent fourth in the Hero Open at Fairmont St Andrews.
Despite a brief run of missed cuts following that effort, Law's bullishness came before he went on to finish 14th in high-class company at Wentworth, after which he was 38th in the Netherlands despite an abysmal week with the putter.
That club isn't usually a problem and the fact he ranked eighth in strokes-gained approach is really encouraging. The European Tour victory referenced earlier came by the sea in an event with multiple courses in operation and with so much going for him, Law looks a massive price.
Posted at 1730 BST on 27/09/21
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