By John Huggan
For those with ambitions aimed at a certain spot in America’s Midwest, the Middle Eastern return of the European Tour at this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship represents the re-start of a compass-crossing journey. The ultimate destination, of course, is a long way from the January warmth of the United Arab Emirates. But there is little doubt that a certain late-September date at Whistling Straits, venue for this year’s Ryder Cup, will be in the minds of many as the 2021 season commences.

Not everyone’s though. Guy Kinnings will be heavily involved in almost every off-course aspect of the 43rd biennial contest between the Old and New Worlds, yet the European Tour’s Ryder Cup Director—he also “triples” as Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Commercial Officer—is already looking forward to the 44th. In 2023, the matches will make their first visit to Italy, specifically the Marco Simone club just outside Rome.

While Kinnings clearly plays an important role in the European Tour’s day-to-day running—the former International Management Group executive was heavily involved in the negotiations that led to his employer’s “alliance” with the PGA Tour at the end of 2020—so does the Ryder Cup. Home matches provide a large percentage of the working capital that allows the game’s second-biggest circuit to operate. So with the usual four-year gap between matches extended to five with the postponement of Whistling Straits from 2020 to 2021, the next Ryder Cup in Europe has an increased importance, at least financially.

“The extra year won’t be too significant,” Kinnings insisted when speaking to Golf Digest. “Any economic downside has been minimized by the very smart people we have working here at the European Tour. Growth in other areas of our business means we are not as reliant on the matches as we once were. The Rolex Series has helped in that respect, as has our very strong media business. Besides, we’ve had a postponement [from 2001 to 2002 in the wake of Sept. 11] before. So a five-year gap is less about the financial aspects than it is the opportunity to ‘do’ the event as well as it can be done.”

Ryder Cup Director Guy Kinnings stands on the first tee during the morning fourball matches of the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National. Andrew Redington

Warming to his theme, Kinnings, who handled the business affairs of former Ryder Cup captains Colin Montgomerie and Thomas Bjorn during his near three decades with IMG, is confident that the benefits of the 12-month postponement will outweigh any drawbacks.

“For one thing, the world will hopefully have returned to something like normality,” Kinnings said. “Specifically, the commercial markets worldwide and in Italy will make things like sponsorship and hospitality a lot easier to secure. People will be desperate for the best kind of live experience after going through what we are all enduring at the moment, which should improve our commercial opportunities. So if there is any small negative impact, we will be able to handle it, especially as I can see significant plusses by the time we get to 2023.”

The same also might be said of the Marco Simone course, the subject of much gossip—mostly negative—since it was announced as the first Italian Ryder Cup venue. Still under construction, the European Golf Design layout will surely benefit from an extra 12 months of “growing-in” time.

“There has been lots of speculation regarding the course, but right now there are nine holes open for play,” Kinnings said. “The other nine holes are looking good and will be ready later this year, in time for the Italian Open in September. So that answers the Will it be ready for the Ryder Cup? question. Does that mean everything will be perfect? No. But the pandemic hasn’t stopped the grass from growing, although some of the areas around the course won’t quite be as they will be by 2023. So it will not be ‘Ryder Cup ready’ by September [when it hosts the Italian Open]. But it will be in good shape. I think people will be pleased with what they see. And the extra year allows us more time to fine-tune everything for the Ryder Cup.”

MORE: As the European Tour holds on heading into 2021, there are brighter signs ahead

Another possible plus, at least from a European perspective, is that this year’s Italian Open is likely to be the first of three national championships played over the course before the 2023 Ryder Cup comes around. If so, it is reasonable to assume that at least some of the home players will have familiarized themselves with its foibles. That intangible was undoubtedly a factor in Europe’s convincing 17½-10½ victory in 2018 at long-time French Open venue Le Golf National.

“Many of the European players will get the chance to see and play the course as much as possible before they take on the Americans,” Kinnings confirmed. “That’s another truth about the Ryder Cup. We don’t just want to build a great venue for a great spectacle, we want to give our guys the best chance of success. That was borne out at Le Golf National. That they knew the course better than the Americans must have helped our team.”

One thing that may not have quite the same impact in Italy is the “first tee” experience that was one of the highlights of the 2018 matches. At Le Golf National, a huge grandstand offered unprecedented views of not only the opening shots but three other holes as well. That opportunity doesn’t present itself in Italy, although the European Tour staff will likely have some surprises. Meanwhile, Kinnings notes that two things will always be immutable factors in the success of a Ryder Cup in Europe.

“We did an analysis after Paris,” said Kinnings with a smile. “How could it be even better? was the question. And you know what? The two things people like best are sunshine and winning. So while we will do everything we can to improve every aspect of the matches, it helps when the sun comes out and it helps when we win. So the weather is important. But winning and losing is in the hands of the captain and his players. All we can do is provide the perfect platform.”

On that front, Kinnings is confident Marco Simone’s proximity to one of the world’s great cities will bring its own benefits. “[Being so close to the centre of Rome] will allow for certain unique things to happen. It is one of the most beautiful cities on the planet, which opens up possibilities and opportunities. They will be a strong feature of the week. The Italians are experienced in hosting big sporting events. It will be a unique experience. Yes, we want to grow the game. But we want to showcase the Ryder Cup, too. And Rome is well-equipped to do that.”

The Ryder Cup coming for the first time to Rome was a point of pride when the European Tour announced it was bringing the matches to Italy’s capital. Paolo Bruno

MORE: These are the rising stars you should be watching on the European Tour

Predictably, Kinnings would not be tempted into speculating about the identity of who will lead Europe as captain in 2023. That decision is in the hands of the previous three Ryder Cup skippers, although Lee Westwood is a strong favourite.

“I have no idea who will be captain in 2023, but I can say with some certainty that we have an embarrassment of riches in that department as we move forward,” Kinnings said. “Prominent players are going to miss out because we have so many great candidates, so many who would be so good in the role, which is both fortunate and unfortunate. But the bottom line is that the backroom team, whatever and whoever it is, will pull together in the same way as the players always do.”

Indeed, amidst all of the current uncertainty, a strong degree of camaraderie is something Europe—winners of nine of the last 12 Ryder Cups—can absolutely rely on. On that front at least, there is no middle ground.

The post Preparations are underway for the upcoming* Ryder Cup appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
Every working day since April 14, their routine has not changed. Promptly at 7:45 a.m., six men sit down for a 45-minute “scheduling meeting,” mostly via video conference. Keith Pelley, European Tour chief executive, is “in the chair,” surrounded by the tour’s chief operating officer, Keith Waters, deputy COO Ben Cowen, deputy CEO and Ryder Cup director Guy Kinnings, head of championship management Richard Atkinson and communications director Scott Crockett.

The one-point agenda also hasn’t altered in the last three months. As the coronavirus laid waste to the European Tour’s well-established tournament schedule, filling the steadily increasing number of gaps in the calendar—empty since the Qatar Masters in early March—became top priority.

In that respect, and starting basically from scratch, this ad hoc committee has done an exceptional job. Following a pair of tournaments co-sanctioned by the second-division Challenge Tour in Austria, this week’s start of the six-event “United Kingdom swing” heralds the return of what is almost a full tournament slate (without fans at the outset) for the European Tour. Even after the recent postponement of the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits (rumored to be “replaced” by the Irish Open), only six blank weeks remain between the British Masters, which begins on Wednesday, and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai that will conclude Dec. 13.

“The challenge was all about having back-up plans,” says Pelley, who calls the last few months the most demanding of his professional life. “When we started to see tournaments disappearing, we knew we had to react and take over the running of events ourselves. We had a tournament development fund we could draw on. But we had no other revenue streams. So we put a team together to look at our options. Our chief medical officer, Dr. Andrew Murray, led us in that. He told us that our best chance of success was to minimize travel. That’s why we have had two events in Austria and now six events in the U.K., followed by three more in Spain and Portugal. Air travel has been kept to a minimum.”

Lessons also have been learned from the recent experiences of the PGA Tour. Pelley and his U.S. counterpart, Jay Monahan, have been in contact multiple times weekly since the virus struck.

“The PGA Tour has done a terrific job,” says Pelley, who claims relations with Monahan and the four major championships have been permanently altered—for the better. “They have shown us a level of respect with regard to our scheduling issues that is much appreciated. But, at the same time, we are a different country. Or countries. So we can’t compare like with like. It’s all about planning. Which is why we have multiple scenarios in place. If the U.K. government says to us we can have 5,000 fans on-site, we are ready to go.

“Over the last five years we have been a momentum-and-growth business. We have been building and building, driving revenue. But that stopped overnight. Now it is all about getting back to being a growth business. And it looks like that will take at least until the end of 2021.”

Given that time frame, Pelley remains wary. The experience of the last few months has shown him how rapidly things can change. Plans are modified on almost a daily basis. So, while the schedule is solid through the end of October, the tour already has back-up plans in place—two more possible “swings”—that are ready to step in if some of the events at the end of the year don’t come to fruition. Next year is taking shape, too. The U.K. swing will return in 2021, this time with five events, one of which will be in Scotland.

Before that, however, the “new normal” that encompasses all aspects of post-virus life means many things are going to look different on what was golf’s second-most lucrative circuit. Field strength for one. After a fortnight in Austria that featured no player ranked inside the world’s top 100, only one player from the top-50—tournament host Lee Westwood—will tee it up at Close House in northeast England. That depressing fact isn’t likely to change much in the coming months. Nearly all of Europe’s leading lights are already feasting at the PGA Tour’s rich table, with an even more appetising diet of majors and World Golf Championships beckoning.

Ross Kinnaird
England’s Lee Westwood will serve as host during this week’s British Masters, as he did at Close House in 2017. He also will be the only player among the World top 50 in the field.

It’s not a fair financial fight of course. At least initially, prize money in Europe is paltry by comparison. Both events in Austria “boasted” €500,000 purses—roughly $575,000 for all players. Four times that amount is on offer at this week’s British Masters, with the five other events in the United Kingdom all paying €1 million.

What both sides of the Atlantic do have in common is dealing with the medical and safety aspects that have become the overriding concerns at every major sporting event. And a good beginning has been made. Although three people (not players) reported COVID-19 symptoms before traveling and so were denied entrance, no one on-site in Austria tested positive for the virus, a tribute to the protocols in place. Even the bananas the players ate during rounds were individually wrapped.

“Overall, it was a good experience,” says Nicolas Colsaerts, a former Ryder Cup player who played the first week back at the Austrian Open. “We were sent a test called ‘let’s get checked’ about a week before the tournament. That was the first step towards returning to the tour. It was compulsory. I sent the swab back and got the result two days later.”

Once at the tournament venue, each golfer took a CRP (C-reactive protein) test. “The result came back 2-4 hours later,” Colsaerts said. “But before that I was given an orange necklace. It allowed me to enter the outside parts of the venue—the range, the putting green—but not any buildings or the players’ lounge. Once I came back negative, I was free to go wherever I wanted. But I still had to wear a mask when indoors. And I still had to practice social distancing.”

Brian Nilsson, Colsaerts’ caddie, was another impressed by life inside the Austrian bubble.

“The tour staff were very strict,” says Nilsson, an Australian, who travelled from his home in Thailand to work for his long-time boss. “If you got a little close to any of them, they would take a step back. So they were leading by example. And the tour threatened to close the lounge when a few caddies and players didn’t self-distance. On the course was normal, but only one caddie touched the pin per hole. There was sanitizer on every tee box. And every player was marking his own card.”

So far so good then. But bigger challenges lie ahead, as Murray is quick to emphasise. Murray is a consultant for the University of Edinburgh, the SportScotland Institute of Sport and the Scottish Rugby Union. He is a former ultra-marathon runner (he once completed seven inside a week) who has won races in places as diverse as the North Pole, the Antarctic and the Gobi Desert. And he is just as tough away from what he once did for fun.

At Murray’s instigation, athlete education is mandatory for all players, caddies and anyone else on-site at tournaments—including the media. A video details the most important aspects of fighting the virus, how to recognize it and what to do about it. Then there is a quiz. Anyone failing is not allowed in.

“A new start is always exciting,” Murray says. “But we had a really good collaboration with the Austrian government and the local health authority. It involved the things that will be entirely appropriate at every event for the foreseeable future. Social distancing. Enhanced standards of hygiene. Symptom and temperature checks for all participants. On-site testing. Copious supplies of hand sanitiser [750 liters in all].”

Andrew Redington
Players will be asked to practice social distancing measures to help keep themselves safe during the restart.

All of which is standard practice. But there are complications and challenges ahead. Because of the global nature of the European Tour, Pelley and Murray must deal with a variety of governments and health authorities, not all of which are moving at the same speed when it comes to dealing with the virus.

“One of the things we are proud of is that Formula 1 and ourselves are the only two international events currently taking place,” Pelley said. “It’s not like we are a domestic tour; we are international. As a result, governments look at us differently. And all of them have different regulations in place.”

As a consequence, tour policy is not just about what has to be done at and around events. It’s about how everyone gets to events.

According to Murray, three factors are in play:

• What are the regulations? If a government or public health authority does not think it is safe or reasonable to have spectators, then the tour won’t allow them.

• What does the tour think is the right thing to do? The restrictions in Austria were less than they will be in the U.K. But going spectator-free was felt to be the right thing to do so many people are arriving from so many different parts of the world.

• What do the players think? “We spoke to them and worked out what they think is right,” Murray says. “Then we came to a collective decision.”

All of which begs an obvious question: Are all players, regardless of nationality, going to be subjected to the same frequency of testing?

“The frequency of testing will follow the level of the virus in the country where the event is being held,” Murray says. “But for those coming from overseas countries where COVID is more prevalent, it is more likely that we will test them more often. It’s just more likely that they might have it. But it will all be based on government advice. If they want people from country X tested more often, that’s what we will do. Right now, for example, those coming from, say, Brazil or America will be tested more. But every day everyone will be asked the same questions as they come on-site. It’s all about making on-site a low-risk environment—more than going to the shops or playing in the monthly medal. We want the players to be free to focus on getting the ball in the hole.”

That’s a nice thought, one everyone will be hoping can come to fruition over the coming weeks and months. But human nature being what it is, even the best laid plans can go awry. At least one tour caddie has doubts.

“I’ve heard a few guys saying they don’t like the idea of being ‘in jail’ for the U.K. swing,” he says. “They prefer to wait for Spain/Portugal, when they can stay in any hotel and go where they want for dinner. The first week in the U.K. will be good to see everybody for the first time in a while. But week two or three surrounded by players, caddies and staff in the same hotel? That’s going to be hard work.”

As it already has been for the sleep-deprived scheduling committee. Now though, for the European Tour, it’s time to play.

The post Back to work: How the European Tour is approaching its return to golf appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.