Tony Wrighton: "What would Seve do?"

Seve Ballesteros

Europe's popular and dignified captain Jose Maria Olazabal didn't have a perfect week. One wondered whether his intensity had rather stifled his team in the opening two days. And the ‘Fergie-style roasting' (as G-Mac put it) that he dished out after a disappointing Friday didn't seem to help.

But one of the many outstanding decisions he did make was to kit his team out in ‘Seve colours' on the final day, with an image of the great Ryder Cup legend on their shirt.

Sometimes sports psychologists will ask a struggling golfer to ‘model' someone that they admire. By that they mean study every aspect of the way another top player conducts himself on and off the course, and then find key points to emulate.

Wearing Seve's image on their shirt seemed to have the same effect on the Europeans. Every time they needed inspiration, determination, or fight, they had a reminder on their sleeve. What would the greatest Ryder Cup player do? What would Seve do?

Tony Wrighton is a presenter on Sky Sports' Golfing World and Sky Sports News, and has written a number of best-selling books on self development and NLP techniques.

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