GB&I PGA Cup Captain DJ Russell On The 2022 Matches At Foxhills
The PGA Cup is, if you like, the club professional’s answer to the Ryder Cup, albeit contested by a GB&I rather than European team still from this side of the Atlantic. It was inaugurated in 1973 and was played annually until 1984 when it switched to a biennial staging.
There are ten players on each team and the winning side is presented with the Llandudno Trophy. Since the outset, the USA have won 18 times, GB&I seven times, with four matches tied and honours pretty even over the last few stagings. Home venues have included Muirfield, Turnberry, The Belfry, St Mellion and Gleneagles over the years.
2022 GB&I PGA Cup captain, DJ Russell
(Image credit: The PGA)
For 2022, the Longcross course at Foxhills in Surrey is the venue for a second time and former tour pro turned club pro turned course designer, DJ Russell, is the GB&I captain…
How big a deal is the PGA Cup captaincy for you and how did it come about?
It’s a real honour to be offered it by The PGA. It was a complete surprise. During the original lockdown period, chief executive Robert Maxfield rang me up and said he’d like to offer me the role. It’s an absolute privilege to be doing it. As a PGA member it’s my highest achievement or accolade.
You’ve done a club pro role as well as playing on tour, haven’t you?
I started off as a PGA assistant. When I first turned pro I was at Penina in Portugal with Henry Cotton. And when I came back from there I was at Kedleston Park in Derby with a chap called Gavin Christie. I did my PGA training and then became better at playing and went on the tour. I packed up playing in 1996 to take the job at Kedleston Park, which I honestly thought would be for the rest of my days.
Do you think your experience in the backroom team at several Ryder Cups was why you were chosen?
I think so, yes. The difficult thing is that I’m 68 years old and these kids are in their twenties and thirties, so the fact that I could bring in Christopher my son, who is more from their era, as assistant captain has…
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