Bjorn starts to turn it around

The Great Dane has been known to bite. On his Ryder Cup debut at Valderrama two years ago, Seve Ballesteros used his own particular brand of man-management to tell the rookie to "relax". Normally one of the game's most laid-back performers, Thomas Bjorn glared over at the skipper, then snapped back: "I am relaxed!"

And he went on to prove it by partnering Welshman Ian Woosnam to victory over the formidable pairing of Justin Leonard and Brad Faxon. That was then, and golf was a simple game. The year 1999 hasn't been so kind; not on the course, at least.

Most of this season, in fact, has been pretty disastrous for Bjorn, who hasn't made a cut since the Doral Ryder Open on the US Tour last March. In fact, one of the few high-points was the birth of his daughter, Fillipa, five weeks ago. "That's the key to my life right now," he remarked, although he didn't go to the same extremes as Phil Mickelson who wore a beeper as an expectant father. "I did have an arrangement with the Tour, however, that they would let me know if any call came through. It wasn't necessary."

However, on the golf course, it was a case of going missing at the weekends as a string of missed cuts dented his confidence, and he has plummeted to 73rd on the European Order of Merit. He also had the ill luck for his golf clubs to be stolen from a club in Copenhagen after he'd enjoyed a social round with some friends.

"My bag was discovered beside a lake, so I got some divers I know to scour the bottom of the lake for me," explained Bjorn. They found his driver, three-wood, two-iron, five-iron, seven-iron and three wedges. "The rest can stay in the water - once I got those clubs back I was happy," he insisted, and made up the rest of his bag with some old irons.

One of them was a four-iron, and on the 17th at Druids Glen yesterday it brought him a hole-in-one, his first in tournament play. "I was in between clubs, four or five, so I hit a soft four."

Six holes later, it looked as if his bad luck had returned.

In the rough on the long fifth, it appeared as if fate had taken another evil swipe at him. After his tee-shot veered into the right rough, and nestled in the thick grass, Bjorn's face took on the contortions of a mime artist as he injured his wrist when playing his recovery.

"I had to hit it as hard as I could, and the club just wrapped up in the grass," said Bjorn. For his troubles, he was left wringing his hand for a couple of minutes and fearing he had sustained a serious injury. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as he feared and a visit to the medical unit (after his round of 66 for six-under-par 136) confirmed there was no permanent damage. It was strapped as a precaution.

In his present plight, the Ryder Cup at Brookline seems an unlikely aspiration. But Bjorn wants to be there. "I don't keep the Ryder Cup in my mind. I need to win at least a couple of tournaments, and you never know . . . at this time of year if you start to play well in the right tournaments you can move up 50 spots in a day. I'm not worried about it. I've been there, and I want to be there again. The team would be better with me in it."