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Russell Knox


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Good to see Russell competing well again this week, after a poor Masters, with a tied 2nd place (with Luke Donald) in the RBC Heritage tournament at Hilton Head, South Carolina.   As an aside, I played a few courses on Hilton Head Island about 20 years ago with 3 pals, but even back then the Harbour Town course, where this week's competition was held, cost $250 a round, and was way out of our league.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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1 hour ago, Caley Mad In Berks said:

Congratulations to Russell.  He has just won another PGA tournament (7 Aug)

Held his nerve well.  Surely that should cement a Ryder cup place for him.  Talking point of the tournament must be the 58 shot by Jim Furyk in the last round.  That's the first time anyone has shot a 58 in USPGA history.  Prior to that Furyk was one of only 6 to ever shoot 59.  I'm happy just to get under 60 for 9 holes.

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Unfortunately he's not been picked. I can understand the reasons for the captain's decision but it does seem harsh. He is after all ranked at about 20 in the world and that should be good enough , one would have thought. Living and playing in the States would also bring advantages. Looks like he will need to comit to the European Tour if he wants to be in with a chance in two years time. 

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Russell Knox is Scotland's highest ranked golfer.  As such he had the privilege of picking his playing partner to represent Scotland in a 2-man team in the World Cup of golf taking place in Australia next month.  You would have expected him to pick one of the top Scots from the European tour.   But, no, he has picked his old buddy from his Inverness days, Duncan Stewart, who is a struggling member of the Challenge tour, and has earned less than £2k a year from golf.

Good on him.  Many I'm sure will feel that it is a stupid move that will damage Scotland's chances of doing well in the lucrative event. But Knox says he is comfortable playing with Stewart, and that it was good fortune that his (Knox's) career blossomed when they left college in the US, and that it could easily have been the other way round.

Great gesture of true friendship which I hope works out well for both of them.  I shall follow the event with added interest next month.

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Can't say I agree with that. Stewart has certainly had a good recent spell on the Challenge tour and has risen to 320 on the world rankings but he remains well behind Laird,Ramsay and Warren who are all surely far more deserving.  Stewart's current position is a result of a good few weeks only and is way better than he has ever reached before.  There really is no way he should be considered for this.

showing friendship is fine but this is an event in which players are representing their country.  Knox really has a responsibility both to his fellow professionals and to Scottish golf to pick players who have earned the right to represent their country.  Knox's pick may be a reaction to his omission from the Ryder Cup and a snub to the establishment, but whatever the reason it really isn't on.  Handing a mate a very large pay check at someone else's expense will not make him or Stewart popular with fellow professionals.  

A far better gesture of friendship would have been to pick someone more deserving and then pay for his mate to come and watch.  With the money he has won this year the cost of that would be small change for him.

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I am sure most folks will agree with you DD.  And you are right in that Knox will not have endeared himself to the other  "more deserving" Scottish pros, by picking an unknown as his partner.  Maybe that is where the fault has arisen, in letting the no. 1 Scot pick his own playing partner, rather than the team be picked in the conventional way by either world rankings or by a selection committee.

I can't agree with your last paragraph where you say it would have been a better act of friendship for Knox to just pay for his mate to come and watch. Pretty sure Duncan Stewart would not agree either.

Anyway, it is all very interesting and I look forward to seeing how it pans out.

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