Thomas Bjorn signalled a continental flavour to his captaincy of Europe in next year’s Ryder Cup in Paris with the announcement of fellow Scandanavian Robert Karlsson as his first vice-captain.
The Swede, a former European No 1 and twice a Ryder Cup player himself, is the first of five assistants to be named by Bjorn and perhaps signals a departure from the usual faces that have filled back-up roles in the team room for Europe in recent years.
Karlsson has won 11 European Tour events in his 567 starts. He won the European Tour’s Order of Merit in 2008, and his most recent victory was the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in 2010.
He also has lost in a play-off on the PGA Tour in the USA twice, in 2010 and 2011 at the same tournament, the St Jude Classic.
Given that vice-captaincy has developed into a progression to the top job, the 47-year-old is an interesting addition to the list of former European Ryder Cup players now jockeying to be captain in future years.
Bjorn fittingly made the announcement at the Nordea Masters in Sweden, describing Karlsson as “a truly great friend, one of the longer-serving members of the Tour, a successful Ryder Cup player in himself and also a former European No. 1.
“It’s a question of having people I have 100 per cent faith in,” continued Bjorn. “Robert brings a lot of experience, he’s got a very analytical mind and has played both a home match and an away match.
“Obviously the people that are going to be around me are people that bring something to the table, and I believe Robert ticks all those boxes that I want.
“He’s thorough, he’s calm when needed to be. All those things put me in a position where I’ve just got good people around me to deliver the job in hand.”
Karlsson described the appointment as “obviously a great honour”.
“I’m really, really looking forward to the next year and a half,” he said. “It’s fantastic to be part of the team again, even if it’s only on the outside or behind the scenes.
“I’ve now had a few meetings and an idea of the framework of how things are going to work. It’s definitely a bigger role than what most people see from the outside. It’s something that’s going to be very challenging and inspiring for the next 18 months.”
He believes the home advantage is one Europe needs to exploit, having played at the K Club in a winning team in 2006 and at Valhalla in the losing team in 2008.
“It’s such a big difference playing home and away,” he said. “The spectators, the atmosphere are a huge difference obviously.
“We in Europe have played on Paris National for many, many years, and again this year and next year.
“To have a course that we know very well is also a big advantage. I think in general the American Team probably hit the ball further than the Europeans. So both the accuracy and the course knowledge is a huge advantage.”
Bjorn added that his conversation with Karlsson about taking up a vice captaincy started “a while ago” but it came to a quick conclusion. He hopes to make one more vice-captaincy decision this year and leave the rest until the late summer of next year.
“There will probably be one more announcement made maybe this year and then the last ones will come right at the end,” he said. “I don’t really want to get there too quickly.
“I need one or two people around me that I can have discussions with, Robert being the first one, but primarily I need people to concentrate on playing golf.
“I want the other guys to play concentrate about their own golf game, and then whatever will be, will be. There’s no rush.”
