A team full of former European Ryder Cup stars wouldn’t take long to find success in the Skechers World Champions Cup – a PGA Tour Champions event featuring selections of the best players aged 50 and over from the US, Europe and around the world – and in the second match of the tournament, the Europeans did just that. On a Sunday when heavy rain and gusty winds made the Feather Sound Country Club, on Florida’s west coast, at times resemble a scene from “Deadliest Catch,” the Europeans unleashed their own fury.
The World Champions Cup is a three-day, six-session competition, with two days of six-ball play and Scotch Sixsomes (a modified version of an alternative shot), followed by two sessions of 9-hole singles matches on the third and final day. After the first two days, the six-player European squad had a slim 1.5-point lead over the Americans and a 3-point lead over the Internationals – bringing us to Sunday, which looked to be a tight back-and-forth battle with the overall points race so close.
But Europe, as is often the case in international team play, had other plans and needed about half a dozen holes in the first series of singles matches to rob the final of all tension.
In the first match – the players competed in groups of three, with one representative from each side – Colin Montgomerie birdied three of the first five holes; the next match saw Europe’s captain, Darren Clarke, birdie four of the first five, a feat matched by the European in the third match of the day, Thomas Bjorn. Cigar-chomping Spaniard Miguel Ángel Jiménez also came out strong in match 4, birdieing three of the first five before limping home to finish at two over. But his scrappy finish was picked up by Alex Cejka, who, battling a bad back, played the first six holes in five under, and that’s where he finished. In the last match it was Bernhard Langer, who managed only two birdies and made two over – but the damage had already been done. When the dust (more like a deluge) settled, Europe had a lead of 17 over the Internationals and 19 over the US.
Game over? Not officially, but Europe had actually made nine afternoon just a formality.
Bjorn, 54, a Dane who played on three winning European Ryder Cup teams and captained another, summed up his side’s dominance best.
“I was four under par when I woke up,” he said. “That’s always fun. Then you’re in that groove.”
The European groove continued in the second wave of singles matches, thanks in part to another Dane, Soren Kjeldesen, one of Clarke’s two assistant captains who had to pinch hit for Cejka because of Cejka’s clumsy back. Kjeldesen – given about half an hour’s notice that his services would be needed – opened with five consecutive birdies and added another before doubling on the 9th to finish at four under. How do you surpass that start? With four consecutive birdies and a eagleand so Langer, 68 years young and playing in the last match of the day, came out of the gate on his way to his round of five under. In the end, Europe achieved 230 points, 16.5 more than the Internationals led by Mike Weir and 25.5 better than the US.
The brightest point on a gloomy day for the Americans was the one American player who might have even had casual golf watchers calling Wikipedia: Jason Caron. That’s no disrespect to Caron – just an acknowledgment of the fact that just two years ago he was devoting most of his time to his professional duties at the Mill River Club in Oyster Bay, NY. He then played his way to the PGA Tour Champions in 2024, finishing 21st in the points race this season. His strong year earned him an unlikely place in the World Champions Cup, where, after a four-birdie performance in his second singles match, he became the US’s top points earner for the week, ahead of Stewart Cink, Steve Stricker and Justin Leonard. “What can I bring?” Caron said afterwards. “I think for me personally it would be, listen, I can play with all these guys here.”
Mother Nature has not been kind to the World Champions Cup. After the event’s 2023 debut at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida, which the Americans won in a come-from-behind thriller on the final hole, the 2024 edition was cut short when a pair of hurricanes wreaked havoc in the region. This year’s event started under sunny skies, but culminated on a day so filthy that the course seemed unplayable for a time. After Europe scored the winning point and the last few groups made their way to the 9th hole, the champions huddled under umbrellas, with blue and white striped towels around their necks, looking more chill than cheerful.
However, the winner’s press conference, in the comfort of the Feather Sound clubhouse, was a different story. Smiles. Jokes. Laughs. And even a bit of benign ribbing.
“It takes a team to win this,” Montgomerie said. “It takes all six or seven of us, whoever replaces, and it takes all seven of us to score 230 points, which I think is 16 more than the last winning team? I won’t mention their names… USA”
Monty wasn’t done yet.
“That’s a big difference,” he continued. “That was one enormous difference. It has been a huge team effort from the very beginning this week, and I am very proud to be on this team. As I said at the beginning of the week: I am very proud that we can put on a European shirt and represent Europe as we have done on a number of occasions. Good to emulate what the [European] Ryder cup [team] won this year by winning on American soil. I’d say this team deserves more credit than they actually do. I think it was a bigger victory. Never mind, Luke Donald. We’re going to Darren Clarke for another two years.
Monty’s teammates were crying.
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This is Team Europe — at every level of the game. Loose but close. Fun but focused. Pranksters but assholes. And always with appreciation for the ties that bind them.
“Twenty-eight years ago, most of us were playing on the same Ryder Cup team,” said Jesper Parnevik, Clarke’s second vice-captain. “Miguel was the vice-captain. I was a player. This year Miguel is on the team and I am the vice-captain. No other sport would ever happen except golf. I love having that history behind us.”
Those threads to the past are at the heart of the beauty of this event, which organizers say they have visions to maintain for the next 100 years and beyond, hoping to take it abroad sooner rather than later. (Sites in Ireland and the Bahamas have expressed interest in hosting, a source close to the event told me.)
“I think as word spreads about this tournament and what it is and how exciting it is and how great it is and how good golf is, people will come from all over the world to come and watch,” Langer said. “I met a gentleman today who said he flew all the way from Germany to see me or us play, just for a week.”
“Maybe it was me,” Cejka joked.
“It was you too,” Langer continued. “Either way, it’s going to take a while. The Ryder Cup wasn’t the Ryder Cup when it started. It took a few years to get off the ground. I believe this can have the same effect.”
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