Too Close to Call

With the teams seemingly even matched, the 2012 Ryder Cup could once again come down to the wire.

Rise of the Rookie

Nicolas Colsaerts will be the only rookie on the European Ryder Cup team and his participation caps a quite extraordinary rise from obscurity. Nicolas Colsaerts could be a surprise package

Four years ago Colsaerts, the tall 29-year-old was ranked outside of the top 1,000 golfers in the world and enjoying a lifestyle in which he played much harder than he worked. At the time, he had a reputation as being something of a party animal. Much has changed.

Colsaerts' receipt of a captain's pick from José María Olazábal will make him the first Belgian to appear at the biennial match. In a country where golf has a battle to generate any form of coverage, Colsaerts is suddenly a prominent sporting figure.

"I knew I had it in me, but I knew I was going to be a bit of a clown before I got there," says Colsaerts. "I had my mid-life crisis at 25, which was a good thing. I got it out of the way. People took me aside to have a word, to tell me to knuckle down a million times, but that decision has to come from you. Everyone is busy doing their own things – no one has time to babysit out here."

Colsaerts got the message and, in 2008, travelled to Australia to get away from the tour and concentrate on his game. "It was a great hideaway place for me," he says. He returned to Europe and won twice on the Challenge Tour to earn his way back onto the main tour.

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