“I learned probably more about myself than anything else that week,” said the Dane who will tee it up in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Thursday as one of 11 former champions.

“You know, how to deal with the — they are so different. They come completely how they want to work a week like that. You ask 12 of them and you get 12 different answers. Some want to practice, some want to play, some don’t want to do anything, some just want to go to the gym. There’s so many differences.

“I learned a lot about how I positioned myself with the 12 of them. How to deal with the experienced guys. It’s easy to sometimes feel like, well, they know what they are doing, so I’ll spend my time over here with the new guys here.”

Managing the mix of players seems to have been a challenge for the Dane, but he certainly executed, securing a 14-10 victory after trailing by a point going into the final day. There can be no doubt he has a growing quantity of quality talent to choose from come September.

“When you wake up on Monday morning and Sergio has won in Singapore and Tommy [Fleetwood] has won in Abu Dhabi and Jon [Rahm] has won on the PGA TOUR, you can’t help but thinking that European golf is in very good hands right now. There are some great players. But then you look at what 12 you’ve got to be up against and American golf is also in great hands at the moment. That’s what’s ahead.”

The European Ryder Cup captain is fresh off a strong performance at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship last week, finishing T-30 at -8. Bjorn seems to have taken a big step towards becoming comfortable with his responsibilities in Paris, while still wanting  to ply his trade on the course.

“So you’ve got to be with them all, and just how I position myself within the team, I’m in no position… I keep saying this, I’m in no position to tell them what to do. It’s not my job to tell them how to play golf and how to practice and where to play and what to do. That is not my job.

“My job is to make sure that I create an environment for them where they can perform at their best, and that I do through conversations with them and with people around, and that’s what I spend most of my time doing.

“I want to play some golf and I want to practice, and they know I’m there. But I don’t want to stick my finger in the middle of their lives and go, well, this is what I think you should do. Who am I to tell Rory what to do? You look at him and you go, I’ve got four majors and you’ve got zero (laughter) …work out the math from there.”

The post Bjorn learnt a lot – about himself – in Ryder Cup dress rehearsal appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
As far as dress rehearsals go, the EurAsia Cup proved to be a bit more challenging than European captain Thomas Bjorn had hoped for. Yet with an eye toward preparing for the Ryder Cup in September, Bjorn and his European squad rallied in Sunday singles, winning eight of the first nine matches after starting the day one point behind, to beat their Asian counterparts, 14-10.

Belgium’s Thomas Pieters earned the decisive point at Glenmarie Golf & Country Club in Kuala Lumpur, defeating South Korea’s Byeong-Hun, 1 up.

The European side had six of the world’s top 20 competing, compared to an Asian squad with just one from the top 40 and half the team ranked outside the top 100. Still, the home side won Friday’s four-balls, 3½-2½, and split the Saturday foursomes, 3-3.

Yet the Euros took back momentum on Sunday. Alex Noren started the day with a 4-and-2 win over Nicholas Fung. He was followed with wins by Tommy Fleetwood (who was undefeated on the week), Henrik Stenson, Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Bernd Wiesberger, Alexander Levy and Tyrrell Hatton.

Europe’s Thomas Pieters shakes hands with Asia’s Byeong Hun An after winning his match during Sunday singles at the 2018 EurAsia Cup. (Stuart Franklin)

The post Sunday singles rally allows Europe to pull out victory at EurAsia Cup appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.