When, in 2011, Rory McIlroy followed on from his friend McDowell, there were several good reasons why people should have rushed out to put their money on him.
Firstly, he was less consumed with the stature of the championship than the need to hit back after what had happened to him at the Masters. Secondly, there was that old knock-on effect kicking in once again. He had always believed that anything McDowell could do, he could do better.
Looking back across this extraordinarily successful period in the annals of the European Tour, the aforementioned Schofield suggested that the final piece of the jigsaw came with the start of the World Golf Championships at the end of the 1990s.
“At that point,” he recalled, “American and European Tour players started to compete regularly each with each other and the hitherto ‘myth’ – if that is the right word – of American superiority started to be fully addressed. (Save, of course for the “Woods factor” because there was that considerable period when he dominated everyone and everything.)
“In terms of the balance of power,” concluded the former CEO, “the key is that both in the Ryder Cup and in the majors, our European Tour players have become truly competitive on an on-going basis ... I don’t believe anyone today would want to argue with that.”
