It appears that England is on a roll at the moment. But willl it last? And I must add that a Scotsman was the last Brit to win The Open. 

Alistair Tait begins his search for the answer with, “Nature or nurture? That’s the question on my mind this week, especially as it relates to English success in world golf.”

The success he refers to is, “There are currently three Englishmen in the top 10 of the official world golf ranking. Three more can be found inside the world top 50, and another four in the world top 100. One-tenth of the world’s top 100 hails from England.”

Alistair’s article is headed, “Does elite golf training make a difference?”  And his conclusions don’t make good reading for those countries which have placed so much faith in the concept.

I’ll come to one of the English success stories which did not involve participation in the English EGU elite squad. But first of all a look at some of the individuals who succeeded with no or very little involvement in the English Golf Union’s training programme.

“Poulter never played elite amateur golf. His family couldn’t afford to drive him all over the British Isles to elite events.”

Westwood, Rose and Dyson were playing amateur golf before the elite squad came into being

“McGowan and Wilson were in the elite squad, but only when they were home in England from college leave.”

However the EGU can take pride in the fact that Chris Wood is one of their success stories.

This brings me to Mark Reason writing in The Telegraph

“Paul Casey draws on Seve's magic going into CA Championship

The American media wanted to know how come all these darned Limeys were not behaving like a bunch of losers. Hot potato, some of these guys actually look as though they expect to win. Paul Casey rummaged about in his mental dictionary and came up with the word 'Seve'.”

Seve, now there’s a guy who never went to elite school training and has to be an example of nature and not nurturing.

There’s no way an elite training teacher could have taught Seve the weird and wonderful recovery shots which made him such a remarkable golfer. His most memorable recovery shot, the “car park” second shot at Royal Lytham and St. Annes’ 16th hole, which he birdied on his way to winning the 1979 Open.

While checking my dates I came across this fascinating fact at golf.com.

“The fact is, with his driver Ballesteros hit nine fairways—nine—in 72 holes of golf. He hit one on Saturday. One. They had played a British Open without fairways after all. At least they weren't necessary for Ballesteros, whose style of golf matched Lytham perfectly and kept it an American graveyard.”

And there’s another exquisite example of Seve's talent, mentioned in Mark Reason’s article about Paul Casey.

“Casey said: "I got a chance to play with Seve at Tenerife, the only time I've ever played with him…He hit it about 30 or 40 yards left of the first green with his second shot, and the ball was actually sitting on a stone wall – and he got up and down from a stone wall. That's all I wanted to see. I could have retired and walked in. I had seen enough. It was fantastic.

Mark concludes his article, “If Lithuania can beat Great Britain at tennis, then why can't England beat America at golf? As Seve proved, anything is possible.”

Alas I couldn’t find out if it was nature, nurture or elite squad training which created the Lithuanian breakthrough.

Link to Alistair Tait’s article. And to Mark’s

Thought for the day: From Seve

“I'd like to see the fairways more narrow. Then everyone would have to play from the rough, not just me.”

God willing we’ll see Seve at St Andrews playing in the past champions four-hole event.

Slainte

Stan