HARRY HALL, the Englishman who is a virtual unknown to all but the most diehard golf fans, can make a massive push for a Ryder Cup debut this week.
Hall – easily spotted even without his trademark white flat cap as he stands at an imposing 6ft 4in – will aim to give European captain Luke Donald one final reminder of his talents at this week’s Tour Championship.
There are no qualifying points on offer in Atlanta. But if Hall can reproduce the form that earned him a last-gasp spot in the 30-man field, it will boost his chances of claiming one of Donald’s six wild cards.
Heading into last week’s BMW Championship in Maryland, it looked as if the Cornishman had no chance of breaking into the top thirty on the FedEx Cup rankings.
But a brilliant performance saw him finish sixth, and rocket from 45th to 26th place on the rankings.
That put him even more firmly on Donald’s Ryder Cup radar, after Hall was included among the 20-odd players the skipper had measured for European uniforms, and invited to a get-to-know-you dinner at last month’s Scottish Open.
Hall, 28, only climbed two places from 19th to 17th on the European Ryder Cup list last week. So he will have to improve on last week’s finish to earn a pick from the European captain.
But he is definitely in the reckoning. So just who is the big man known for his dynamite short game?
Hall was born in Camborne and took up golf at the age of six, learning to play at the picturesque West Cornwall Golf Club, which overlooks St Ives Bay.
His golf bag from his appearance in the 2019 Walker Cup – the amateur equivalent of the Ryder Cup – is on display in West Cornwall, along with memorabilia celebrating the club’s most famous player. ‘Long Jim Barnes’.
CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS
Barnes won four Majors nearly a century ago, and is a member of the Golf World Hall of Fame.
Barnes always played in a flat cap, a habit adopted by Hall’s golf-mad grandfather. It was their influence that persuaded Hall to carry on the tradition.
Even though he has been based in the USA for the past ten years – spending four years at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas before playing his way onto the PGA Tour in 2023 – Hall still considers Cornwall as his home.
And he still has a Cornish accent, although it has been diluted a bit by his time in the States.
Hall won a couple of times on the “feeder’’ Korn Ferry Tour before making his PGA Tour breakthrough by winning last year’s Isco Championship.
He has enjoyed another successful season, and has climbed to a high of 54th in the world rankings – and is almost certain to crack the top fifty this week.
When he booked his place in the Open for the first time earlier this year, Hall announced he would “buy a beer for everyone who travelled up from Cornwall” to watch him compete in his final qualifier, at Burnham and Berrow in Somerset.
If he makes it onto Donald’s Ryder Cup team, he will probably buy champagne for everyone in the county!
.
Source
