Ryder Cup Betting / Ralph Ellis / 19 January 2011 /

Europe's 2010 victory at Celtic Manor was all about the captain, but when Jose Maria Olazabal takes charge of the team for the 2012 contest, he will emphasise the collective, says Ralph Ellis.

You can't fly in Concorde any more. One of the supersonic jets which were once the pride of British Airways' fleet sits sadly in a field not far from my home. It is rusting away, and you can't even visit to sit in the luxury leather seats because Health and Safety have recently closed down the tourist trips.

What's that got to do with anything? Well it means that Europe's new Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal will forever keep his record of having holed the longest putt ever known. He once rolled the ball into a tin cup from one end of the aeroplane's cabin to the other at Mach 2, and the mathematicians worked out that meant the ball travelled 9,232 miles!

It always puzzled me why it was that Olazabal became the man to claim that particular piece of golfing history because it was never his style to go for gimmicks or publicity. He's a man who much prefers to walk than to go at the speed of sound. He famously turned down the approaches of the game's first image mogul Mark McCormack to stay loyal to the business manager who handled his affairs from the moment he was first paid for swinging a golf club. And his career has always been about substance over style.
That's shown in his very first action after being confirmed yesterday as Europe's captain for 2012. Where his predecessor Colin Montgomerie made Celtic Manor the "me, me, me" show, Olazaball has immediately looked to ensure the defence of the Ryder Cup will be more about the players than the captain.

He wants to tinker with the qualifying system, just as Monty did. But where the self centred Scot got himself a third captain's pick for the 12-man team, Olazabal says it should be brought back to just two. "The more picks you have the less value you give to the qualifying system", is his argument. "You have to play great golf to be in the top five of the world points list so it would be a shame if the last man didn't make the team."

That's a great step to take away all the arguments about who should or shouldn't play which normally dog the build-up to a Ryder Cup and have caused such fuss in the past. Monty himself never forgave Nick Faldo for not taking him to Valhalla in 2008, and his own decision this year to leave out Paul Casey and Justin Rose was hotly debated.

Olazabal's determination to make what happens on the course count more than friendships off it will be popular with the players. They are all delighted to see him back in decent health - he's even well enough to be playing in the Abu Dhabi Championship tomorrow (he's a [670] shot if you fancy a romantic wager). And it suggests there's value in supporting Europe to keep the trophy at virtually even money by laying [2.02] America to win the tie in Chicago next year.

Just a shame Olazabal won't be able to bring Samuel Ryder's beautiful old trophy back
on Concorde!

Five things you might not know about Jose Maria Olazabal

1. He's had all sorts of different treatments for his rheumatism - including in 1996 a course of injections from Bayern Munich's club doctor which included honey, calves blood, and hylart, a gel-like substance extracted from the crest on top of a rooster's head. It gave him something to crow about, though - he won the Masters three years later!

2. He was born on a farmhouse that overlooked the 9th green at the Royal San Sebastian Golf club near the Basque town of Hondarribia. He later built his parents a new home - by the second green!

3. He once returned a cheque from his ball sponsor Titleist with an explanatory note: "I have not played well all season, I cannot accept your money when I haven't earned it."

4. At the age of 23 he suffered a stress related stomach ulcer because he was unhappy at his performances. And he once punched a hole in the hotel room wall because he'd shot 75 in the first round of the US Open

5. He won the longest ever sudden death play-off - at the ninth extra hole against Roman Rafferty in the 1989 KLM Dutch Open

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