Mentor behind Jonny's Rugby World Cup win has now transformed the golfer's game
It is time for the English to conquer the world again, they say, time for the young golfers of Albion to stand up and redress an Open void which now stands at 18 years. But where to go for the inspiration?
To Sir Nick Faldo perhaps, the last countryman to lift the Claret Jug? Justin Rose and Ian Poulter certainly see the value of his experience, regularly dining with the six-times major winner to pick up tasty titbits. However, our Nick never has been to everyone's taste.
Well, how about looking further afield, out of the country club gates and on to the pitches of England's last great sporting glory? How about to Jonny Wilkinson and that boot which conquered the world? How about applying his disciplined regime to a pursuit which requires the mental side to back up the physical side more than any other? Luke Donald is doing just that and here this week he and the coach who gave Wilko his radar, Dave Alred, have been hard at it on the practice green. The similarities are obvious. Repeated kicks at the uprights; repeated strokes at the hole. The connection was waiting to happen.
