Parnevik to target Europe in search of Ryder place

Family matters decree that Jesper Parnevik must spend the next three weeks away from the golf course, at his home in South Palm Beach, Florida, with his wife Mia who is expecting the couple's third child soon. But the Swedish golfer's determination to force his way into the European Ryder Cup team - rather than rely on a wild card pick - will mean a return to tournament play on the European PGA Tour next month when he tees it up at the TPC of Europe in Heidelberg. And so will begin in earnest his campaign to play his way into Mark James's team.

As things stand, Parnevik, an impressive winner of the Greater Greensboro Open on Sunday, is a lowly 104th in Europe's Ryder Cup table. It seems inconceivable that Parnevik won't be part of the team to face the United States in defence of the trophy at Brookline at the tail-end of September but he has some work to do if he is to play his way into the automatic 10 and avoid relying on being picked by the captain.

Time isn't on his side. He is only playing four tournaments in Europe - plus the three US majors which also count in the Ryder Cup rankings - but he stated: "I want to qualify on my own if I can because there are too many guys outside the team right now."

To that end, Parnevik has decided to play in the TPC which has prize-money of €1.7 million and the following week's Volvo PGA at Wentworth, which has €1.8 million on offer.

Interestingly, Australian Steve Elkington is of the mind that Parnevik shouldn't bother playing in Europe and, instead, play so well in America that James would have no choice other than to pick him. "It's hard for the Europeans," conceded Elkington. "Jesper is trying to make the top 30 (on the moneylist) here and the Ryder Cup there. That's a lot of pressure. When he gets to Europe, he needs to finish in the top five every week to get his Ryder Cup spot. It's not easy to spend your time in two places and play proper golf too. If it was me, I'd just concentrate on here (the United States) and hopefully get picked."

Parnevik has decided to ignore the Australian's advice, however, and he will return to the European Tour in buoyant mood after securing his second US Tour win on Sunday. His previous win was at the Phoenix Open last year, but this one was most unexpected because of problems he has experienced with his putting in the early part of the season. His total for the four rounds of 23-under-par 265 was the second lowest all-time score on the US Tour.

"There's a lot of luck involved in winning. I remember two years ago I finished runner-up five times. I don't know what it is," said Parnevik. And, ever the unconventional, the Swede, who is known to eat volcanic dust, added: "I have these vitamins, vitamins that I have been giving all the players on the tour and they have been winning pretty much. But I couldn't figure out why? I was taking the same vitamins as them. So, I doubled my dose in Greensboro. Maybe that's why I won."

Whatever, the victory marked a dramatic turn-about from the previous week when Parnevik was disqualified from the MCI Classic in Harbour Town for brushing away debris in his putting line.

He promptly fired his caddie Loren Duncan, who had backed up the observations of a spectator that the player had actually touched the line with his glove, and had a new man, former tour player Lance Ten Broeck, on his bag in Greensboro. And in that bag too was a new putter.

Parnevik's early-season woes were principally caused by poor putting, but in Greensboro this was his salvation. He birdied 27 of the 72 holes on his way to a score that beat the previous best at Forest Oaks - the 1977 scores of Sandy Lyle (who won a play-off) and Ken Green - by six shots. His 72-hole total was also the best on the tour this year, beating by one stroke the target established by David Duval in the season-opening Mercedes Championship.

The Swede hadn't included the Greensboro tournament on his original schedule but changed his mind after the disqualification in the MCI, knowing that the imminent arrival of his third daughter would require some time at home and might limit his appearances in early-May.

Parnevik hit only 10 of 28 fairways in his final two rounds - "I guess my swing felt kind of the way Olazabal swings, and maybe I'll start driving like him," he joked - on the way to his wire-to-wire win that put some extra pressure on his short game and his putting.

He delivered this time, and the win moved him back into the top 20 in the world rankings, to 17th from 26th, to which he had slipped last week. For good measure, he also got the opportunity to meet the legendary Sam Snead, an "idol" from his childhood days, who was waiting at greenside to congratulate him. Upon securing his latest victory, Parnevik, a non-smoker, duly lit up a Havana cigar which has become his winning statement. He did the same after the victory in the Phoenix Open last year and also after his success in the Scandinavian Masters last season. "I don't smoke, it is purely a fun thing," explained Parnevik, who added that the box of cigars was given to him by his chiropractor.

"He asked me to light up any time I won just to show that I was thinking of the work he had done for me," said Parnevik.

Parnevik became the second Swedish player to win on the US Tour this season - Gabriel Hjertstedt won the Tucson Open, a tournament that clashed with the Andersen Consulting world matchplay - and the third European to win Stateside, following Jose Maria Olazabal's US Masters victory.

The decision of Parnevik to rejoin the European Tour late last year - after a period when he dropped his membership - and, now, his decision to actually return to the circuit where he honed his skills before migrating across the ocean means that the son of Sweden's most popular comedian has played his cards right. Even if he fails to force his way into James's side, the odds are that he is the front-runner to win one of the captain's two picks.

James, though, would be happier if Parnevik did manage to make it without any help, which means all he has to do is jump up 94 places in the table before the qualification period ends at the BMW International in August.

Meanwhile, Bray's Keith Nolan, the former Walker Cup and Eisenhower Trophy player, failed to make the cut in last weekend's Nike Tour event. Two successive rounds of 74 left Nolan with another idle weekend, but he continues his quest to avoid a return to the tour school in November when he competes in the Upstate Classic in Greenville starting on Thursday.