By Will Pearson, europeantour.com
at Whistling Straits
One man is making his first foray into Major Championship golf this week, the other has already won two of the game’s oldest and grandest tournaments this season alone. But for Emiliano Grillo and Jordan Spieth, an old friendship runs much deeper than all that.
Spotted joking around on the Whistling Straits range ahead of this week’s US PGA Championship, Argentinian Grillo and American Spieth, the reigning Masters and US Open champion, were a picture of comfortable rapport – all back slapping, playful ribbing and laughs aplenty as they tuned up for the season’s final Major.
Both aged just 22, the pair played a practice round together on Monday afternoon, giving the Resistencia native a front row seat to watch golf’s hottest property in action and another chance to pick the formidable mind of the man born almost 8,000km away from him in Dallas, Texas.
I get a lot of information and inspiration from him.
Emiliano Grillo
“Jordan and I have known each other since we were 14 or 15 years old,” said Grillo, who travelled between Buenos Aires and the States to attend the David Leadbetter Academy before moving permanently there aged 16.
“I played all my junior golf in the US so I got to know him very well and he is a good friend. I got to play nine holes with him on Monday which was nice as I got to see how he works, how he sees the course.
“The funny thing is that Jordan does do anything different to us, he just goes out and plays a different game on the weekend when it really matters.
“But I was looking at him, asking him a couple of questions about how the course played the week before when he practiced here. He told me it was way different and it got really windy on one of the days he played. So I got a lot of information and inspiration from him.”
In addition to top six finishes in Qatar, China and Spain, Grillo has been hugely consistent in 2015, missing just one cut from his 14 events on The European Tour this season with his performances earning him plenty of plaudits.
A confident character – Grillo might well have absorbed some elements of double Major winner Spieth’s renowned mental tenacity – his swing is rhythmic and powerful despite not being the tallest of guys, while his aggressive, attractive golfing outlook was in evidence in working his way into the top five heading into the weekend at Wentworth in May.
Proof, perhaps, that he won’t struggle with all the lengthy approaches needed this week!
The Argentinian has also made his mark in limited starts on the US PGA Tour, missing out only in a play-off at the Puerto Rico Open as a top ten at the Barbasol Championship four weeks ago also helped Grillo cement a place inside the top 100 in the World Ranking and a place in the year’s fourth and final Major.
“I’m just going to go out and play, I have no expectations,” he continued. “I just have to go out there and do my thing and let the rest take care of itself.
“But it’s nice to play in my first Major and nice to be back in the States. I’ve already had a top ten finish in America this year and I’m getting used to playing here. It’s great to be at a big event and at a nice place like this.
“I’ve been working a lot on my short game and trying to do things different here and there it is paying off. Practice and hard work has got me here, got me just into the top 100 on the right day, and I’m going to enjoy it.”
Grillo is one of six European Tour members making their US PGA debuts in Wisconsin this week, along with BMW PGA Championship victor Byeong Hun An plus a quartet of young Englishmen in Tyrrell Hatton, James Morrison, Eddie Pepperell and Andy Sullivan.
It has been a good year or so for young English golfers on The European Tour, with multiple wins for Sullivan at the South African Open and Joburg Open, an Open de Espana triumph for Morrison and near-misses for both Hatton and Pepperell too.
For the latter of that foursome, who grabbed a runner-up spot in Ireland and a tied fourth place in Scotland, some might see host venue Whistling Straits – a place inspired by the classic links of the two aforementioned countries – as offering the 24 year old a decent chance to shine on another of golf’s biggest stages.
“This is the third out of the four Majors I’ll have now played – every one bar Augusta – and I’m really looking forward to it,” said Pepperell, who also impressed in The Open at St Andrews with a third round 66.
“It’s some golf course – a bit different to what we’re used to playing back home so that will provide a new challenge but I’m feeling good coming into the week.
“It’s softer than I imagined it was going to be, it’s quite target golf at the moment even though visually it doesn’t look like it being such a rugged piece of land so if it stays that way I think it will probably play a little easier than if it was firmer.
“But it’s a great golf course. You literally have to stand up there and hit a good shot. There’s no point in getting nervous, getting fearful or anything because you know that if you miss a green it’s going to be very tough so that almost makes your decisions for you – it’s quite black and white in that sense – so it’s going to be a good test.”
Having proved himself as one of the game’s most impressive thinkers – intellectual, always erudite, nicknamed the ‘Wise Old Owl’ – Pepperrell has improved year-on-year in his fledgling European Tour career.
I’m not seeing any part of my game that has a big weakness at the moment.
Eddie Pepperell
Two top tens in his maiden campaign in 2013 led to a 76th place finish in The Race to Dubai; six top tens the following season yielded an improvement of 27 spots; while in 2015 the Oxford native lies 35th in the rankings as he continues his hunt for a maiden European Tour title with dogged determination and hard graft.
“I haven’t played competitively for a few weeks so it’s a bit of an unknown coming into the week,” Pepperell reflected. “I’m just trying to improve my game week-by-week and month-by-month and I feel like I’m doing that.
“All the main aspects of my game are moving forward and I’m not seeing any part that has a got a big weakness at the moment which is something I’m constantly trying to work on. If you can maintain that over a period of time then things will only get better for you.
“So I’m quietly optimistic not just about this week but moving forward to the end of the year. It’s an opportunity for me to play some big events and do well.”
Four years ago, Keegan Bradley won the US PGA Championship at his first attempt, can anyone from this European Tour rookie sextet do the same this week in the Badger State?
Good luck, gentlemen, the world is watching.
