The heat is on

With the clock ticking down to the start of the Ryder Cup, all eyes are on the players who could make the difference at Le Golf National in Paris. The BMW Championship has certainly been giving us an insight into who’s in form, with players from both sides of the Atlantic performing well. Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy are the pick of the bunch for Europe, with both players sitting pretty at the top end of the leaderboard. For the USA, Tiger Woods once again proved he’s right back in the thick of things after a stunning opening round of 62, whilst Xander Schauffele has given himself every chance of being picked as Jim Furyk’s final Captain’s Pick with a very strong performance.

However, Europe Team Captain Thomas Bjorn may be ruing a missed opportunity to choose Matt Fitzpatrick as one of his wildcard picks, after the Englishman beat Denmark’s Lucas Bjerregaard in a play-off to win the Omega European Masters title in Switzerland. Fitzpatrick won the same tournament last year, and becomes the first golfer since the great Seve Ballesteros to defend the trophy – so he’s certainly following the right footsteps!

Fitzpatrick said in his post-victory comments that he didn’t have his ‘A game’ in his final round, emphasizing how he ‘managed to grind it out and made some crucial birdies’. This is a lesson which we can all take to the course – even if you aren’t striking the ball as you’d like, you can still make a success of your round if you get your head down and power on through.