We should have seen this coming. Once again in a risk/reward scenario, Greg Norman has made a bold choice. To anyone familiar with his golfing career, this is what he does. There is one little problem with this philosophy. Greg Norman is no Arnold Palmer. Hell, he’s not even a Phil Mickelson. Those two guys could pull it off enough to justify taking the chance. Norman, well, he turned into the Loser of Destiny almost every time.

When the Captain of the International Team in the upcoming Presidents Cup announced his first of two wild card selections – Japanese 17-year-old Ryo Ishikawa – I thought, now there’s a bold pick. This youngster has a lot of game in Japan, even if it hasn’t translated to much outside of his native country. Ishikawa played in 6 events with the big boys and managed to make the cut only twice with a T56 finish in the PGA his best result. But at least he’s been winning regularly at home.

Then pick number two goes to fellow Aussie Adam Scott and I thought; now he’s really gone mad. The more you look at it, the more insane it becomes. Scott is currently in a funk of possibly catastrophic proportions. Take a look at his results in his last 13 events where there was a halfway cut to be made: Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, T64, cut, T36, cut, cut, cut, T58. Does that, in any way, resemble the record of any other captain’s pick in the entire history of captain’s picks? Only Norman would take such a gamble when logic would dictate otherwise. It’s almost as if he is trying to spark Scott into resuming his form of over a year ago. He said the pick of Scott was “a no-brainer.” That phrase would more likely be applied to himself.

Some picks that would have made more sense:

Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee, twice a winner on the Euro Tour in 2009 and a 13th place finish at the Open Championship at Turnberry.

Canadian Stephen Ames, with four top 25s in his last 6 PGA Tour events including a T10 at the US Open.

South African Rory Sabbatini, who only missed an automatic berth when Y.E. Yang shocked the world by beating Tiger Woods to win the PGA Championship. Sabbatini had four top 10s this year, including a win in May at the Byron Nelson.

Aussie Michael Sim, who has dominated the Nationwide Tour this year and earned the coveted Battlefield Promotion to the PGA Tour by winning three times. So dominant has Sim been that his earnings in just 12 events are nearly double that of second place. He also finished 18th in the U.S. Open and 51st in the PGA Championship (way ahead of Scott in both those events). In my opinion, Sim would have been a better pick than either of the two Norman did select.

Permalink 3 comments