ROBERTSON SAYS HE WANTED THOMAS & HOWARD TO BE IN TEAM

“Absolutely, I would have loved to have had more Irish on the team”, said Walker Cup Captain Dean Robertson when asked about picking only one Irishman on a team for a match to be played in Ireland.

“I spoke to Thomas at length this morning on the phone, and he was brilliant. We went through in detail some feedback from what I had seen watching him. He had a brilliant year.
He stood up and he won the Europeans for Ireland in Estonia. He makes more birdies than any of the other players in the team, but he offsets that with a lot of bogeys as well, and that’s why the likes of Josh Hill just gets ahead of him.”

“But I do think he’s going to have a fabulous career, given that if he can raise his floor, he is already able to do all the great things once he starts to improve in areas like maybe a little bit more rhythm on the golf course. He can take a little bit of excessive time and maybe indecision in short selection or commitment. These are things we spoke about or I gave my feedback, and he agreed with all of it, and we had a lovely conversation, and he was absolutely class.”

“I spoke to David as well today. David is in Spain on holiday. He flew out this morning. David Howard wasn’t somebody that I knew of, really under the radar until he qualified through Dundonald to play at Birkdale, narrowly missing out. He was so impressive at Lahinch.”

“I so wanted him and Thomas to be in the team, but it just wasn’t to be, and the selection I’ve made is a fair selection and it’s an unbiased selection.”

Photo: Dean Robertson watching South Of Ireland Final at Lahinch Golf Club. (by Gerry Ruddy).