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.
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.