European Team / Ralph Ellis / 29 June 2010 /

Ralph Ellis tells us how England's match with Germany affected top sportsmen in addition to just your average football fan, none more so than Ryder Cup hopeful Justin Rose.

The team are home, the flags are coming down, and two weeks of World Cup fever are pretty much over. Yes, we'll watch the rest of the tournament (and in my case hope for a return on the few bob I invested in Argentina when I picked them out as the big value back in April). But basically its back to work as usual.

The only people who didn't seem to be caught up in the excitement of South Africa were the wretched players. Four years after blaming the WAG culture and the easy-going regime under Sven Goran Eriksson, this time their excuse was Fabio Capello's "boot camp" regime.

Everybody else, even in the sporting world, was completely distracted from their own jobs. Andrew Strauss even had to issue his cricket team with a warning on Sunday that nobody was to be inside the dressing room watching the telly while his England were batting, they had to be out supporting the team.

Which brings us to Justin Rose, who, it seems to me, allowed his enthusiasm for England's football team to disrupt his chance to win his second PGA Tour event. Why else did he let a three shot lead slip in the final round of the Travelers Championship?

Forget about the theory that nobody can protect a last day lead any more. True, on the same day that Rose was blowing up, David Horsey was coming from nowhere to give the European Ryder Cup team another English contender as he took the BMW International (he's a handy [80] to come up with another triumph at the French Open). That's just a coincidence.

The clue for Rose's failure was in his reaction on Saturday. He'd followed up brilliant opening rounds of 64 and 62 with a decent 68. And he reported to the media that it was "mission accomplished" - because a late tee-off time on Sunday would give him the chance to watch the football first.

You can't tell me that lack of concentration, getting caught up in the emotion and the anger of seeing John Terry and Matthew Upson defend like nine-year-olds, didn't play a part in his final round 75.

He's been clutching at straws since, telling today's papers: "It would take a pretty unusual sequence of events to knock me out of the Open now". But just as we're all back to concentrating on work, so it should be business as usual for the 29-year-old now and that ought to mean a return to form at the AT&T National. He's fourth favourite at a very tasty looking [32.0] behind Tiger Woods ([4.6]), Jim Furyk ([16.0]) and Sean OHair ([26.0]). For a player who is in such commanding form (apart from that one round), that's good value - as is the [48.0] you can get for him winning The Open.

It's 12 years since the 17-year-old Rose stunned everybody as an amateur by defying horrendous weather and almost winning The Open at Royal Birkdale. Funnily enough that was a World Cup year too. Maybe he can give us something to get the flags back out for!



Five things you might not know about David Horsey

1. Born April 1985 in Stockport, he was 14 before he took up golf, joining his local club Styal who gave him a 28 handicap.

2. By the time he was 21 he was number one amateur in Europe, and top scorer for the 2007 Walker Cup team before turning professional a few weeks later

3. He's a big Manchester United fan and is sponsored by businessman Ged Mason who also backs Ricky Hatton and owns racehorses with Sir Alex Ferguson

4. He plays wearing a pink wristband in honour of his mum Anne who is recovering from treatment for breast cancer

5. He works with Darren Clarke's putting coach Phil Kenyon

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: