Golf stuff

Wentworth and the European Tour has been at the centre of the golfing world but not for the right reasons.

The week began positively, with all 12 Ryder Cup heroes from Medinah reunited for the first time at the Tour’s annual dinner.

New captain Paul McGinley made his first big decision by increasing his wild cards from two to three.

That just gives him a bit more ‘wriggle room’.

If a player with a stellar Ryder Cup record like Ian Poulter or Luke Donald gets injured or loses form and doesn’t make enough points to qualify, McGinley now has the insurance of one extra pick to guarantee their selection.

Paul will have thought this through carefully, but I’m certain he’ll stress to all players the importance of playing your way into the team.

He just wants the best 12 Europeans with him at Gleneagles next September.

Meanwhile, from 2016, belly and long putters will be outlawed, after the game’s governing bodies, the R&A and USGA, pressed ahead with their decision.

The consultative period ended, but their minds were made up a long time ago.

They think that belly putters make life easier on the greens, as well as not looking right.

If that was the case, why isn’t every player using one?

Most pros have tried one but it normally only works for a short period. That happened with me on the Senior Tour.

But when people’s livelihoods are at stake, emotions run high.

South African Tim Clark, who’s used a long putter for years, admitted that he’d already spoken to his lawyers about it.

And when the lawyers get involved, it never looks good.

If that was bad, what has happened with Sergio Garcia has been downright ugly.

Our sport has received very negative headlines and the image has been badly knocked.

Garcia gave a stupid, reckless answer to a stupid question. And it could have a huge effect on his career.

When Fuzzy Zoeller made a similar crass comment about Tiger Woods in 1997, he lost all his big sponsors and his reputation never recovered.

It would affect Sergio badly if he was dropped by his main backers, Taylor Made.

We’ll have to wait and see if there’s a backlash against him when he next plays in America.

But this spat, which surfaced at the Players’ Championship two weeks ago, underlines a psychological weakness in the Spaniard.

He has been completely out-psyched by Woods.

Garcia has been badly scarred by all Woods’ successes.

Sergio hits the ball better, but Tiger gets the job done. That’s why it’s 14-0 in Majors in his favour.

Just when we were hoping to move on from this episode, European Tour supremo George O’Grady unwittingly used a word which only inflamed it.