Danny Willet

Curly head

Hello all,
Sad to see the run of bad form by Danny since his big win last year. The row with his caddie, lifelong friends apparently is a sign of the pressure they are playing under. The rewards are huge but the downside can be huge as well. Hope all will turn back for him.

Halfprice

His brother has a lot to do with it also. Going to your first Ryder Cup and not getting to enjoy it the way you should of because your brother mouths off cant be easy to get over. Especially since he won his first major and it been a Masters and he'd be thinking before that, i cant wait. He probably just needs a different view now. Like him though and hope he comes back to his best soon.

CMOTDibbler

The pressure of being a major winner and Masters champion for the last year would have been enormous for a guy who was averaging less than one win a season. Dealing with that pressure, the limelight and then his brother bringing him notoriety at the very time when he would have been hoping to make headlines for very different reasons would all have combined to damage his confidence and concentration when he needed them most.

He needs to relax now and just play his golf. Changing caddy might actually help as it's a fresh face with none of the baggage from what's gone before.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Halfprice wrote: »

His brother has a lot to do with it also. Going to your first Ryder Cup and not getting to enjoy it the way you should of because your brother mouths off cant be easy to get over. Especially since he won his first major and it been a Masters and he'd be thinking before that, i cant wait. He probably just needs a different view now. Like him though and hope he comes back to his best soon.

What his brother did was harmless.It was clearly a joke and everybody involved should have laughed it off.Darren Clarke responding to it in such a serious manner is what the big problem was with that situation Willet should have laughed it off as well.

CMOTDibbler

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

What his brother did was harmless.It was clearly a joke and everybody involved should have laughed it off.Darren Clarke responding to it in such a serious manner is what the big problem was with that situation Willet should have laughed it off as well.

Yeah, Clarke's reaction was way ott. Completely the wrong thing to do as a captain and leader. You should be trying to keep the pressure off your players, not pile it on. He should have dealt with that himself, pointed out that it was a joke (albeit not at all funny) and told Danny not to worry about it.

Instead he marched off to the course, collared Danny and pretty much made him make a statement about it. Unbelievably bad management of the situation.

lawred2

Clarke acted like a total bellend

Mantis Toboggan

It was a huge story in the American media at the time, especially with Willett the masters champion.
Clarke was forced to come out strongly against it. That possibly didn't help but it was awful timing from Wiletts brother.

In any case Willett was not playing well and winning the masters certainly had a major effect on him. (pun intended)

lawred2

Tyson Fury wrote: »

It was a huge story in the American media at the time, especially with Willett the masters champion.
Clarke was forced to come out strongly against it. That possibly didn't help but it was awful timing from Wiletts brother.

In any case Willett was not playing well and winning the masters certainly had a major effect on him. (pun intended)

No he wasn't. He fed into making it a huge story.

CMOTDibbler

Tyson Fury wrote: »

It was a huge story in the American media at the time, especially with Willett the masters champion.
Clarke was forced to come out strongly against it. That possibly didn't help but it was awful timing from Wiletts brother.

In any case Willett was not playing well and winning the masters certainly had a major effect on him. (pun intended)

He didn't have to drag Danny off the course and parade him in front of the TV cameras to apologise for his brother.

Absolute madness to do that to one of your players. Clarke should have handled that himself, played it down as poor humour and moved on. Damage limitation is the name of the game and Clarke absolutely made it far worse for Willett.

Telecaster58

He's the new Ian Baker Finch.

PokeHerKing

lawred2 wrote:

Clarke acted like a total bellend

You mean to say Clarke acted like Clarke..

CMOTDibbler

PokeHerKing wrote: »

You mean to say Clarke acted like Clarke..

I had my concerns about him after the way he treated McGinley when he was up for captain. All of those concerns borne out by his subsequent behaviour. He seemed to be more interested in glad-handing everyone available and lapping up the Ryder Cup captain adulation than actually managing the team and working towards their success.

WHIP IT!

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

I had my concerns about him after the way he treated McGinley when he was up for captain. All of those concerns borne out by his subsequent behaviour. He seemed to be more interested in glad-handing everyone available and lapping up the Ryder Cup captain adulation than actually managing the team and working towards their success.

As an earlier poster said, Clarke acted like Clarke... a lot of very knowledgeable people contend that Clarke was given the captaincy "to lose the Ryder Cup" and rekindle a bit of interest in it. Europe's dominance in recent years makes it harder to keep the Yanks interested and for the relative Tours to market the competition... a monopoly, in any sport, is only good for the monopoliser!

CMOTDibbler

WHIP IT! wrote: »

As an earlier poster said, Clarke acted like Clarke... a lot of very knowledgeable people contend that Clarke was given the captaincy "to lose the Ryder Cup" and rekindle a bit of interest in it. Europe's dominance in recent years makes it harder to keep the Yanks interested and for the relative Tours to market the competition... a monopoly, in any sport, is only good for the monopoliser!

That makes some warped kind of sense. But Europe were going into it as rank underdogs and a bit of an effort might have made some kind of a match of it. Surely losing in a closely fought match would be best for the competition?

WHIP IT!

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

That makes some warped kind of sense. But Europe were going into it as rank underdogs and a bit of an effort might have made some kind of a match of it. Surely losing in a closely fought match would be best for the competition?

Yeah but how they gonna fix that??

Keano

This is not the Darren Clarke thread, either get back on topic or we close it.

valoren

Telecaster58 wrote: »

He's the new Ian Baker Finch.

A Shaun Micheel or a Todd Hamilton perhaps.

Baker Finch was widely regarded as one of the games best players, his short game was the envy of many. He tried to get longer, started missing fairways and lost his game. Willett was seen as a european tour regular, a win here and there but certainly none of the potential of Ian Baker Finch.

Willett was a generous benefactor of Spieth's meltdown on 12. He still had to hit the shots down the stretch when needed and where others who could have leveraged Spieths collapse came up short.

You may be an 18 handicapper or a Masters champion, but the one theme through all of it is that Golf is bloody hard. Willett's loss of form is testament of the level the elite game is at. Your scoring average rises a shot or two per round and suddenly you're in the doldrums.

Mantis Toboggan

7 over at the players!!

Mantis Toboggan

valoren wrote: »

A Shaun Micheel or a Todd Hamilton perhaps.

Baker Finch was widely regarded as one of the games best players, his short game was the envy of many. He tried to get longer, started missing fairways and lost his game. Willett was seen as a european tour regular, a win here and there but certainly none of the potential of Ian Baker Finch.

Wasn't Willett not in top 10 in the world when he won the masters? Also almost won the race to Dubai the year before. There's a notion going around that Willett came from nowhere to win the masters but it's not true.

Tom.D.BJJ

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Wasn't Willett not in top 10 in the world when he won the masters? Also almost won the race to Dubai the year before. There's a notion going around that Willett came from nowhere to win the masters but it's not true.

12th before, 9th after

valoren

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Wasn't Willett not in top 10 in the world when he won the masters? Also almost won the race to Dubai the year before. There's a notion going around that Willett came from nowhere to win the masters but it's not true.

He certainly was a known name.

I guess my point is that while he was in a rich vein of form, there was no expectation that he would win a major. At most it would be a welcome surprise.

I'd compare Willett then to Alex Noren now. He is a euro tour regular, a consistent winner, he doesn't have the burden of expectations on his shoulders about having to win majors. While he obviously has private goals to win a big one, if he never did in his career, we wouldn't dare suggest he was a 'nearly man'.

Willett was similar in that regard. He won the Masters. It was a welcome surprise. If Alex Noren wins the US Open or the Open this year, it too will be a welcome surprise but we will think in hindsight that we shouldn't be that surprised.

With Baker Finch, after he won the Open, it was a case of how many majors is he going to win. He was that well regarded. He tried to tinker with a winning formula and it backfired.

I don't think anyone expects Willett to win the career slam for example. Another major is not out of the question obviously.

LuckyGent88

He withdrew after 9 holes today. Was 4 over for the 9 holes and 11 altogether.

Said he needs to rest physically and mentally.

fullstop

LuckyGent88 wrote: »

He withdrew after 9 holes today. Was 4 over for the 9 holes and 11 altogether.

Said he needs to rest physically and mentally.

Could he not have just finished the round FFS

Podge_H

Apparently since taking his PGA Tour card 13 months ago, his non co-sanctioned event results read as follows:

2016 Players MC
2017 Honda MC
2017 Heritage MC
2017 Players WD

It looks to me like he doesn't want to play in the US, may even have felt obliged to take a PGA Tour card after his Masters win.

He certainly didn't look like he was enjoying himself when going from bunker to water on 17 today...

Curly head

Looks to me the last place he wants to be right now is on the course. For me it shows the huge mental strength needed to win a major when your not really expected to. He wasn't managed properly in the Ryder Cup as said n that didn't help him. However he has to dig deep n get his head straight, he has the skill n he's a nice lad to go with it. Hopefully we see him playing good golf in Portstewart in the summer