So let’s start with the amazing transformation of Graeme Storm’s fortunes. If you cast your mind back to the Portugal Masters; Graeme has to make par on the last hole of the tournament to keep his card for the following year.
He makes bogey and loses out on his playing privileges by €100.
Fast forward a month, it turns out that if Patrick Reid doesn’t play in the last two events of the season, Reid will not have played the European Tour’s minimum of events in 2016 to retain his card.
Mrs Reid then says that she is not comfortable with her husband going to compete in Turkey, which gets Mr Storm back into the last spot eligible for him to retain his card for the following season. You have to wonder if Mrs Reid didn’t get an enormous bunch of flowers from the Storms for Christmas for her intervention.
This is why the Sky Sports team on Sunday were looking closely to see if Graeme was pinching himself in the playoff against Rory McIlroy, which he duly won on the third extra hole.
Talk about a rags to riches turn around in three months. He has now secured his card for two years and is currently 4th in the Race to Dubai. A change in attitude alongside a thankfulness for his circumstances really does make a difference.
What it does show is that the depth of talent on the tour is very deep indeed. The worst placed man one minute can beat the world number two the next month.
Jordan Spieth’s prophesy from a week ago: “It’s potentially floodgates opening for him,” talking about his close friend Justin Thomas’s win in Hawaii, could be viewed as an understatement.
Thomas went onto win a few days afterwards with a slam dunk, including a 59 on Thursday and the all-time lowest 72-hole total of -27 under. Not bad for a twenty-three-year-old who you have hardly heard of, is it? Who, just to show you how quickly things can change, is now ranked number eight in the world.
It seems when this guy gets hot he stays hot. Spieth is now only three spots ahead of him; you have to think that there is a potential Ryder Cup pairing lurking in the future.
Which brings me to the most worrying news of the week. Jim Furyk has been announced US Captain of the upcoming Ryder Cup clash next year. That’s right, next year.
Furyk will lead by example and is known for his meticulous attention to detail. The US’s Ryder Cup “task force” has now a succession plan and this guy is current, quiet and has the respect of the players. A lot like Davis Love his predecessor. That damn task force spells trouble for us. The Americans have organised themselves now, woken up, the taste of winning is back in their mouths and they believe they have the winning formula. I for one, again have a sense of foreboding. Mr Bjorn, good luck.
Finally, to the passing of one of the great coaches, Mr John Jacobs. A quiet giant of a man with even bigger hands who has been coaching the best of the best for over 60 years. Hank Haney (Tiger Woods’ coach for six years) said this of Jacobs, “This guy is not the best teacher now, he is the best teacher ever.” An amazing coach who changed the way the game has been taught; with the simple principle of diagnosis first, explanation second and then correction. Stunningly simple with deft accurate touch. He would often joke that he had been kept in business by amateurs and professionals alike who would use the “keep your head down” phrase.
The game will have some great stories this year as always, but the passing of John Jacobs is different, he is irreplaceable. I had the pleasure of being coached by him as a thirteen-year-old, in front of a huge crowd during a clinic at the Dunlop Masters in St Pierre.
He made me feel like I was the only person in front of him and thankfully stopped me from shanking the ball in front of the crowd. A knowing smile, accompanied by a kind face, just told me to move my thumb here and my finger there and all of a sudden I was hitting it straight and true.
Something which I hope to do as pre