Well, as the saying goes: Better late than never. The Vivendi Seve Trophy, a biennial competition pitting 10-man teams from Great Britain & Ireland and Continental Europe, is due to be staged at Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche outside of Paris, France, from October 3-6. The event is staged in non-Ryder Cup years. The event has been on the 2013 schedule but was without a host course which made the event somewhat of a question mark. According to Graham Otway of the Daily Mail, organizers at Saint-Nom, which has hosted the two previous installments of the event, did not wish to continue hosting due to the lack of paying spectators. On one of the four days, only 53 fans came through the gates. Personally, I don't blame the tournament hosts for being reluctant to host an event of this magnitude if it means that spectators will not attend. Vivendi, a French media company, has agreed to once again sponsor the event. They became title sponsors in 2009, the first year that the event was staged in France. In 2011, GB&I defeated the heavily-favored Continental Europeans, 15.5 to 12.5.
The lack of spectator interest has me wondering why the event is not moved to Spain (birthplace of Seve Ballesteros, one of the key forces behind the creation of this event), England, or Ireland (there is only one regular European Tour event in these final two countries). Economic reasons might prevent the competition from returning to Spain (hosted the event in 2003), but the fact that the 2018 Ryder Cup will be staged in Paris at Le Golf National gives me a hunch that the Seve Trophy will remain in France until at least 2017. A team event such as this will give spectators a small slice of the action that will be taking place in 2018. It can only benefit the popularity of the sport in France.
2014 Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley has the task of naming the captain for each team. My guess would be Darren Clarke (GB&I) and Thomas Levet (Continental Europe). Regarding the selection of captains, McGinley said, "At the moment, the points are still running. I'm a little bit reluctant to go ahead and choose now who the captains will be, but I would say in the next couple of weeks, particularly after this week, I'll have a good idea as to where we'll go with the captains."
The selection of players is determined from the top-5 in the Official World Golf Rankings and the top-5 in the European Tour's Race to Dubai. This year (and for the first time), the event will count towards a player's minimum of 13 tournaments required to remain eligible for the Race to Dubai. If the points race ended now, the rosters would read as follows:
Continental Europe: Henrik Stenson (OWGR), Sergio Garcia (OWGR), Matteo Manassero (OWGR), Peter Hanson (OWGR), Martin Kaymer (OWGR), Mikko Ilonen (Race to Dubai), Thorbjorn Olesen (Race to Dubai), Thomas Bjorn (Race to Dubai), Nicolas Colsaerts (Race to Dubai), and Francesco Molinari (Race to Dubai)
Great Britain & Ireland: Rory McIlroy (OWGR), Justin Rose (OWGR), Graeme McDowell (OWGR), Luke Donald (OWGR), Lee Westwood (OWGR), Ian Poulter (Race to Dubai), Jamie Donaldson (Race to Dubai), Stephen Gallacher (Race to Dubai), Chris Wood (Race to Dubai), and Scott Jamieson (Race to Dubai)
Unfortunately, a few of the dual-members of the European and PGA Tours will most likely skip the competition as they gear up for the "Final Series," the new term for the lucrative last four events on the European Tour schedule. The rosters will be finalized on the Monday after the Italian Open (September 19-22) to incorporate the world rankings weekly announcement. Players began earning points at the beginning of the 2013 season, the first counting event being the Nelson Mandela Championship (December 6-9). Including this week's U.S. PGA Championship, there are six events left for players to accrue points.
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