Ferrie’s an American superhero

Who is the only British or Irish golfer to capture the imagination of America’s leading magazine Sports Illustrated over the past

year and make its front cover?

Nick Faldo? Monty? One of the

three young guns, Luke Donald,

Paul Casey or Justin Rose? Darren

Clarke or ‘Paddy’ Harrington?

Let me put you out of your misery

and ask Kenny Ferrie to step forward.

Yes, that’s right, Kenny

Ferrie. How they loved the Geordie

for the Superman belt he wore at

last year’s U.S. Open and a tilt at

the title so unlikely that if he’d won

he really would have had us

believing a man can fly.

And now,

at Oakmont this week, he’s back

for the sequel, clearly hoping it

won’t be a pale imitation of the

original.

Lest you’ve forgotten, amid the

carnage at the end as Monty,

Harrington and Phil Mickelson

exploded so spectacularly, Ferrie

was part of the last group out,

having been joint third-round

leader.

Despite the obvious

handicap of being paired with

America’s golden boy Mickelson,

Ferrie hit more greens in regulation

than any other player in the

final 15 groups.

In his first chance

at winning a major, he finished

four shots behind the winner,

Geoff Ogilvy, in joint sixth place.

"The whole week was a revelation

to me," recalled Ferrie. "I’d never

seen a course prepared like that,

with the rough graded so the

punishment grows the further off

line you go. As a fairways and

greens man, I was in my element.

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"Why can’t we have more courses

like that? In Europe we play far too

many where you bomb it 40 yards

off line and you’ve got a clear line

to the flag, whereas if you miss the

fairway by a yard you’ve got no

shot. It’s common sense, isn’t it?

The way they set it up at the U.S.

Open is golf as it should be."

That’s Ferrie — blunt and not

afraid to put a few noses out of

joint. In the locker room he has few

admirers. How they loved it when,

at the par-three tournament at

The Masters, he put his name

down to play with Gary Player and

Jack Nicklaus, not realising that

everyone else had left the third

spot clear for Arnold Palmer.

They

can be a bitchy lot, can’t they?

But better Ferrie, surely, and his

illusions of grandeur than those

who settle for the comfort zone.

As

Sam Walker, the young Midlander

playing here after following the

Ferrie route and coming through

qualifying, said: "I think Kenny

showed last year that you don’t

have to be one of the fashionable

European names to do well in the

U.S. Open. It was inspiring."

Ferrie wasn’t able to capitalise

last year, for at The Open at

Hoylake a month later he experienced

the other side of the game.

Attempting to drive on one hole,

he felt a pain so sharp in his lower

back he couldn’t move.

"Within an

hour I was in a local hospital

having MRI scans, which revealed

a torn muscle and that was basically

me done for the year," he said.

At 28 and after a slow start to the

season, he is hoping to relaunch his

career here. "Anyone who has

watched me will tell you I’m

playing well, but with no reward,"

he said.

"Now I’m taking on a

course that will play to my

strengths of hitting the ball

straight. It was a real thrill to be

involved last year. You never know

how you’re going to cope being out

last on the final day, but I did well

enough to convince myself I can

win a major one day."

This week the ‘man of steel’ just

happens to be in the American city

Pittsburgh, which is synonymous

with the stuff.

Just steer clear of the kryptonite,

Kenny.

New twist in Tour row

At 11.45am yesterday, the

European Tour put out a

statement announcing their

first-ever event in India next year.

Fifty minutes later, the Asian

Tour issued a statement of their

own, saying they were "appalled"

and denouncing the European

Tour’s actions as "unethical, and

against the protocol that exists

within the Federation of PGA

Tours".

At Wentworth last month,

European Tour chief executive

George O’Grady declared that all

the Tours were refining an

agreement to unite and take on

the mighty U.S. Tour.

Sounds like the "refining" still has

some way to go.

Be very afraid . . .

Tiger Woods was convinced that

the hardest course he ever

played was Winged Foot, venue

for the U.S. Open last year. Then

he played Oakmont yesterday.

"Oh, this is much harder," he said.

"It’s not even close."

One day into practice, therefore,

and the scare stories have

started to appear.

Australian Geoff Ogilvy said that

if someone offered him two 72s

and two 73s, he would sit in the

clubhouse and expect to defend

his title. Those four scores add up

to 10 over par.

In short, those Europeans who

whinged that Augusta in April

was hard might as well not turn

up.

"If Augusta in April was an 8.5 out

of 10 in terms of difficulty, this is a

10," said Woods.

Why? Well, add a 288-yard par three, a 500-yard par four and a

667-yard par five to the most

difficult greens in the world — it

is said that the average

putt has 10ft of borrow —

and it equals a mental

breakdown for many.

That said, the test is

exactly how it should be

for golf’s most gruelling

major at one of the great

inland courses in America.

Let’s just hope the United

States Golf Association don’t ruin

it all by making the greens so fast

they go from desperately

difficult to plainly unfair.

It happened three years ago at

Shinnecock Hills and led to a new

verb to describe a mangled

layout — Shinnecocked.

The U.S.G.A will deserve all the

abuse they get if they

Shinnecock this one up.

Brian spots light at end of the tunnel

Every struggling pro lives by the creed

that next week’s tournament might be

the one that changes his life. For some,

of course, it proves a one-way ticket to

the poorhouse. For others, it really does

come true.

Take Englishman Brian Davis. You

might recall our recent chronicle of the

health misfortunes of his family, with his

wife and two kids, not to mention his

father-in-law Ray Clemence, all struck

down one way or another.

As a

consequence of all those off-course

worries, Davis had slipped alarmingly

down the U.S. Tour’s money list and was

in serious danger of losing his American

dream.

Then he went walking in Memphis last

week. He finished runner-up in the

St Jude Classic and picked up a cheque

for £320,000.

He moved up 96 spots to

68th on the money list and his privileges

for playing on the world’s most lucrative

Tour are secure for another year.

Keep dreaming, all you struggling pros.

Keep dreaming.

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Pettersen open to suggestion

How the top players must love it

when they are stuck for five hours in

a pro-am with someone who’s convinced

he can help their game.

Norwegian Suzann Pettersen had just

such a man during the pro-am before

last week’s women’s major, the LPGA

Championship. Only trouble was, as he

was co-founder of the tournament, she

had no choice but to listen.

"Try my putter," he said, after watching

her hopeless efforts on the greens. She

politely did as she was told. What

happened next? Only that she started

holing them from all over the place.

"Can

I keep it?" she asked.

On Sunday, canning all the putts that

mattered down the stretch, the striking

blonde became the first Norwegian ever

to win a major championship.

A European

winning a major. Now there’s a

thought to take into this week, isn’t it?

Herb Lottman, by the way, is the

amateur in demand from the pros.