Mixed Emotions

Back in 1997 Miguel Angel Jiménez was Seve's vice-captain at Valderrama in Southern Spain, and he got used to being woken up at all hours by his captain who wished urgently to convey his latest ingenious plan for upending the "enemy". Jiménez is carded to perform a similar role at Gleneagles, but after his most recent bout of brilliance in winning the Spanish Open (at his 27th attempt!) and thereby breaking his own record, achieved at the last Hong Kong Open, as the oldest winner on the European Tour, the odds are shortening rapidly on him making the team as a player.

Back then Seve's Team emerged triumphant, but many involved felt it was in spite of, rather than because of the great man. A lot of the organisation was chaotic, and Seve was just such a brilliant player and Ryder Cup enthusiast that he wanted to play every shot himself. Working for BBC Radio, I was following Thomas Bjorn's singles match on the final day. He was four down after four holes to Justin Leonard, at which point Seve appeared on Bjorn's shoulder eager to help him play. Politeness forbids a verbatim account of Thomas's reply, but suffice it to say that Seve was made aware that his energies would be better deployed elsewhere. Bjorn eventually halved his match. He too looks like being back in the players’ locker room at Gleneagles, 12 years after his last appearance.

I have fond memories of that week in '97. The Radio team was staying up a nearby hillside track in a wonderfully corroded old colonial-style farmhouse on an estate where they harvested cork and reared bulls. Somehow a "Cork and Bull" farm seemed a most appropriate hostelry for a bunch of radio commentators. It was unbelievably wet that year, and conditions outside the ropes resembled the production phase of a Cadburys chocolate factory. Our studios were located in two metal containers stacked vertically, and on the first morning the rain having thoroughly soaked the top floor, then made its way into the bottom container. Hi-tech electronic equipment and gallons of water don't make a happy union. The course though stood up to it remarkably well.

Valderrama was the late Jaimie Ortiz-Patino's pride and joy and nothing happened there without his approval. I was out early on that first morning to check conditions while it was still pitch black. There, showing a bunch of green-keepers how to properly rake a sodden bunker was "Jimmy" Patino. An extraordinary man who was a great friend of the European Tour and who deserved so much more than life ultimately gave him, as his fanatical motor-racing son squandered his legacy.

Now where's that cheap coffee …