What’s the quality of the players today in Europe compared with the past?
That’s a tough one. Because we had a great period, obviously, when it was a real foundation of the European Tour — the famous five: Seve [Ballesteros], myself, Sandy [Lyle], Woosie [Ian Woosnam] and [Bernhard] Langer. And then we get joined by [José María] Olazábal and by Monty [Colin Montgomerie].
By the time they formed the world ranking, it was like five out of the first eight in the world were European guys. Today, Europe has got a very strong run, but ours was, because it was kind of like forming the tour, a very important time.
Rory McIlroy has not won a major in five years.
Isn’t that amazing? When he was doing that, his dominance, everybody ran to me and said, ‘What’s he going to win?’ I said, ‘You know what, you might be disappointed he only wins 19 majors. Or he’s going to be ecstatic to get to five. We don’t know.’ And now, he’s going to be ecstatic to get to one more. He’s got an unbelievable opportunity with the crowd [in Northern Ireland]. Maybe the wave of that can really motivate him. He’s got the talent.
Who is your favorite for the British Open?
I keep looking at the weather. It rains every day, so you’ve got to believe it’s going to be a very physical week. The physical man right now is Brooks [Koepka]. He’s going to go over and prepare for that.
I think the Irish boys, people like Shane Lowry, will be lifted up. He won the Irish Open as an amateur on the wave of the fans. That’s why Rory could step in there and be carried along by the euphoria for him.
Are you going to tee it up again?
I doubt it now. I tried, and I didn’t enjoy it. I thought I made a decent effort. And if you’re just not doing it daily, competitively, you really do lose it. There’s nothing worse than spending all day holing six-footers for pars. You can’t make a score; it’s hard work.
Source : NYtimes
