GOLF: Torrid time for Ryder Cup pair

GOLF

TIM GLOVER

reports from Sunningdale

There were no roped-off galleries, no ripped-off punters, no television cameras, no excuses. On the face of it the Sunningdale Foursomes is as far removed from the Ryder Cup as a donkey derby from the Gold Cup. Not that Bernard Gallacher and Sam Torrance saw it that way.

Gallacher has played in eight Ryder Cups and is the non-playing captain for the biennial match against the United States in Rochester, New York, in September. Torrance, a fellow Scot, is on course to play in his eighth successive match. Yesterday the dream team, dovetailing in this competition for the first time, very nearly fell at the first hurdle. They would never have been able to live it down.

Neighbours at Wentworth, where Gallacher is the club professional, the Scots were taken to the limit, and then some, by a pair of young tiros, Les Cox and Simon Griffiths. Gallacher knew what he was up against, for Cox and Griffiths are not only two of the most promising amateurs, they are attached to Wentworth.

"I thought it would be a close match when I saw the draw," Gallacher said. "They could have won. Perhaps their overall inexperience let us off the hook."

Cox, 21, and Griffiths, 22, were two up after the first two holes on the Old Course and the old pros did not get it back to all square until the 15th. The Wentworth prodigies - Cox is an odd-job man at the club and Griffiths is on a Wentworth golf scholarship - were kicking themselves at the 16th. They managed to lose the hole, missing a short putt after Gallacher had holed out from 25 feet.

The Ryder Cup veterans were one up playing the last. It was, perhaps, at that point that the pressure of the Sunningdale Foursomes got to them. Gallacher sliced his drive so far right that the ball ended up on the fairway of the 18th on the New Course; Torrance hit a four wood into a right-hand bunker; Gallacher thinned the sand shot over the green into another bunker; Torrance, with a plugged lie, failed to get it out. There are times when pros thank God for the absence of cameras.

Cox and Griffiths were conceded the hole without having to putt but the end came at the 19th, the first again, where the youngsters three-putted. Torrance, who was disqualified from the Portuguese Open last week after signing for a wrong score, said: "It's a fun event and it's just magnificent to play such a good course but there is pressure. It's foursomes for a start and then we were up against two very good players. They showed no sign of nerves."

Torrance originally entered the tournament - open to pros, amateurs, male and female - with his Ryder Cup colleague Barry Lane. There was a blank date on the European Tour schedule for this week but when that was filled with the Majorca Open, Lane, the defending champion, travelled to Spain and Torrance invited Gallacher to take his place.

Although they had not played in this before, they had played against each other. Ten years ago Torrance and John O'Leary won the title, defeating Gallacher and Pat Garner at the 25th, the seventh extra hole, in the final. Later that year Torrance went on to hole the winning putt for Europe in the Ryder Cup at The Belfry where Gallacher was assistant to the captain, Tony Jacklin.

Torrance is currently 10th in the Ryder Cup standings with £134,977. When the process to determine the team reaches a conclusion in the Volvo German Open in August, the leading 10 automatically qualify. The remaining two places are filled at the discretion of Gallacher.

Scores, Sporting Digest, page 29