From Masters win to world 496 and back again - Willett's redemption road leads to Ryder Cup
- Published
Danny Willett's best shots as he won the Masters
Danny Willett knows what is coming. The 31-year-old Englishman has lit the blue touch paper on a potentially redemptive Ryder Cup return.
Three years ago, Willett made his debut in the biennial match against the United States as the reigning Masters champion. There were six rookies in the European team but, as a major winner, he was regarded as a potential on-course leader.
His experience at Hazeltine was a nightmare. The form that brought him a Masters Green Jacket had been lost and he played under added pressure after his brother published an article savaging American golf fans.
Willett lost all three of his matches as Europe crashed to a 17-11 defeat, and the player's golfing world fell apart. Those close to him say he seemed indestructible until that bitterly disappointing week in Minnesota when everything changed.
His progress from world number one amateur to major winner had been largely seamless as he became one of the top 10 golfers on the planet.
But niggling injuries kicked in, the pressure of major expectations grew and his form disappeared. Willett plummeted down the rankings and he began to question the certainties that had previously taken him to the top of the sport.
Things are much better now. Willett's season-ending victory at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai last November told us - and, more importantly, him - that he could still compete and win.
This year was steady until it turned spectacular at Wentworth on Sunday as he held off world number six Jon Rahm in the PGA Championship to win on British soil for the first time.
Willett is now just the fourth Englishman along with Sir Nick Faldo, Tony Jacklin and Justin Rose to win seven European Tour events, if you include majors.
And that brilliant PGA Championship triumph came in the first qualifying event for next year's Ryder Cup, which will be the first to be staged in the United States since the horror of Hazeltine.
"I have got a year of this now, I'll get this question a lot," Willett laughed when I pointed out the Ryder Cup hype his victory generates.
"When I won at Augusta people were asking about the grand slam - that quickly diminished," he added with dead-pan timing.
And this is the striking thing about Willet these days. He is blessed with a humour and perspective that can only come from emerging out of the depressing period that followed his Ryder Cup debut.
"The world rankings are what they are," he said. "When I was 496, I didn't feel like I was 496. When I was nine, after Augusta, I probably didn't quite feel like I was nine.
"You are where you should be in that moment in time, it doesn't mean you can't achieve great things and you can't go up or come down."
Danny Willett failed to earn a point for Europe in the 2016 Ryder Cup
The quality of Willett's golf at Wentworth should give Europe's captain Padraig Harrington cause for optimism.
Gaining nearly 11 strokes on the field with his putting, the Englishman finished 20 under par - a winning score few envisaged at the start of the week.
Of course, form fluctuates - something Willett knows better than most - but he has a clear idea of his ambitions for next year.
"I do want to be part of the European team," he said. "I want to get my own back on what I feel like was a disappointing end of 2016 when it should have been one of the best years of my life. It ended up being a pretty poor year in the main.
"It'll be nice to just keep playing golf. There's another 40-odd weeks left - but yes, it is definitely a nice way to start the qualifying process."
Willett is revelling in being able to play golf free of pain and with a swing that no longer puts destructive pressure on his body. This was not the case at Hazeltine three years ago.
"You want to go there at full fitness and on full steam and really be able to try and perform," he said.
"There's no excuses, whatever happened happened, but I was playing poorly. You can't be swinging it poor and be in a poor frame of mind when there is that much pressure on certain golf shots. It doesn't synch up right."
So is he looking for a Ryder Cup return to somehow atone for the most disappointing moments of his career to date? Once again, we can glean an impressive level of maturity.
"Redemption?" he pondered. "No, it would just be nice to be back in a team environment and to try and help the team. But it is a hell of a long way away.
"If I don't make the team it is what it is, if I do make it then great. It's one of them where we keep doing what we're doing and see what happens."
Crucially, Willett knows that he cannot afford to get ahead of himself. There is much to play for in the remaining weeks of the European season having risen to ninth in the Race to Dubai.
"It means we are in all the last tournaments," he said. "It makes life over the next couple of months a bit easier regarding where we have to travel to and all that kind of stuff.
"But it's a real exciting time. We've put ourselves up there on the Race to Dubai and we'll see if we can get a nice strong finish to the season."
If he succeeds in that mission, Willett should be perfectly set up to navigate the path leading to even greater excitement at Whistling Straits in 12 months' time.