Golf Review / Craig Dutton / 02 October 2007 / Leave a Comment

Craig Dutton looks back at a Seve trophy that featured good golf but failed to capture the imagination of punters and fans alike

The singles matches provided healthy solace for the GB & Ireland this past weekend. After suffering a defeat with the pairings, they bounced back on the final day to clinch the Seve trophy, their fourth in as many years. The biggest talking point to come out of the weekend was the absolutely abysmal impact of the event. It grew small, small crowds for a golf event as the fans stayed away in droves. Picking no Irish players won't have helped, and though Faldo would want to field his strongest side, surely having some kind of atmosphere is just as beneficial as picking Simon Dyson. Personal issue or not, he still should have picked McGinley. Not to discredit the quality of the action, as the play was of a high quality, but clearly any potential spectators had much better things to do. The atmosphere really suffered for it.

Part of the blame can rest in the overexposure in golf events over the last few years. It seems there isn't a week goes by without another 'major tournament'. Clearly everything can't be significant, so these tournaments begin to become Mickey Mouse tournaments. Players withdraw, find excuses, can't be bothered, and crowds suffer as a result. In fairness, it has been mirrored in all walks of life, where every dead horse has been repeatedly flogged. The maxim of quality above quantity has been the victim of a gruesome beheading across many sports.

Within the horseracing industry, it seems that all in positions of senior authority want to be best friends with the bookmaking fraternity, and base the frequency of meetings on the bookmakers' need for betting content. Whilst I doubt those in golf have such relationships, an event so poorly received as the Seve Trophy can have no benefits for bettors. For exchange players, the liquidity is such that big traders have a huge power over any markets that attract small interest. No bookmaker can have done thousands this weekend; many punters, you would have to assume, weren't even bothered. And if the players aren't, why should we be?

The only positive impact the Seve Trophy has had is firming my belief that Europe will beat the US in next year's Ryder Cup. Whether Faldo's presence causes dissension in the ranks or not, Europe are too strong to be turned over next year. As we speak you can only get £27 on at 2.02. I can only hope the layers get on there as quick as possible, and preferably while I'm logged on so I can hoover up the value like a turbo Dyson.* If anyone has a couple of thousand they want to waste, lay Europe for me!**

*Not Simon.

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