Bjorn wants strong European representation
The BMW Championship starting at Wentworth tomorrow is the richest and the biggest event of the European season so far – and Thomas Bjorn for one believes every European star should be present.
Of last year’s triumphant Ryder Cup team in Detroit Sergio Garcia and captain Bernhard Langer are the notable absentees.
Justin Rose, who led what was then the Volvo PGA Championship at halfway last year, and former Ryder Cup hero Phillip Price, both of whom also hold US Tour cards now, are missing as well.
For Garcia, though, this is not a one-off.
The 25-year-old, Europe’s highest-ranked player at eighth in the world, last played in the tour’s flagship event in 2000.
“I think any European-born player should play in this golf tournament. I can’t say it any more clearly than that,” stated Bjorn, who returns to action two weeks after winning the British Masters.
“Every single European player around the world, the European tour has done a lot for them in their golf career.
“And for them one week a year to come back and play this golf tournament should be their duty – because the European tour has done more for them than they think.”
Bjorn, a member of the tour’s tournament committee, is not proposing any sanctions against anyone who stays away because he knows the tour do not employ players and it would be tantamount to restraint of trade.
But the Dane, an assistant to Langer last September, added: “They shouldn’t expect favours.
“The Ryder Cup team is about what this tour has done for the Ryder Cup. Don’t expect any favours when it comes to the Ryder Cup if you can’t come back once every year and play in this golf tournament because this is our biggest golf tournament.
“It’s any player’s right to do whatever they want. They look after their own careers and they do whatever they think is best for them.
“The tour can’t and the (other) players can’t start pressuring them to play. That’s their decision. But this tour is here to stay and we will stick together as a tour.
“You’re either part of it or you’re not. It’s as simple as that. If you’re part of it you come here and play.
“If you don’t show any interest well don’t expect the tour and the rest of the players that play on this tour to show any interest in them.
“It’s almost like some players feel like when they come back from America they need to be treated as even bigger stars than some players on this tour and that’s not the case.
“The case is a player that plays on this tour is a player that needs to be looked after by this tour.
“They guys that come back every blue moon and think they can start changing the tour around well we don’t need them. The tour is bigger than any player.”
New Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam, who shared a table with the 11 other members of last year’s team at the tour’s annual dinner on Wednesday night, will take a keen interest in Bjorn’s comments.
At the end of August next year he could well have a difficult choice for his two wild cards. And support of the European tour could be a factor he taken into consideration.
Woosnam will be operating under the same system as last time – five players off the world rankings, five off the Order of Merit and two picks.
Bjorn, warming to his theme, continued: “I just think the tour needs to say we are not going to make special rules and favours for them to make Ryder Cup teams and get them in our money list or whatever.
“They need to come and play in our golf tournaments. I mean, it’s so easy today to be a member of this tour.” Eleven events are required, but they include the four majors and three world championships.
Mostly for family reasons Bjorn has handed in his US Tour membership this year and he said: “I’ve been there, played in America. I know how easy it is.
“You need to play four regular European tour events to be a member. I mean, what else do you want? Do you want to be able to play in America all your life and still feature on our money list?
“Well, you’ve got to play golf in Europe if you want to be on our money list and if you want to be a part of our European Ryder Cup team you’ve got to play golf in Europe.”
