Danny Willett receives the Green Jacket from Jordan Spieth with Augusta National Golf Club chairman Billy Payne (right) after the Yorkshireman won th 2016 Masters.

DANNY Willett’s Green Jacket will always take pride of place in his locker, but an England team blazer remains dear to his heart.

In fact, the 2016 Masters champion rates playing as an amateur in the Home Internationals for England as his favourite team golf experience.

But given his experiences as a member of Darren Clarke’s team at the 2016 Ryder Cup, when he was at the centre of a media storm created by a magazine interview given by his brother, that might not be such a surprise.

But there were several more surprises in a wide-ranging, open and honest online Q&A session, which Willett conducted with England Golf coaches and players.

Willett was the toast of world golf four years ago when he came from three shots back.

He carded a brilliant final round 67 to win the Masters by three shots from defending champion Jordan Spieth and Lee Westwood.

To date, it remains the greatest achievement of the Yorkshireman’s career although his first victory on home soil – in last year’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth – was another major milestone.

And it was a hot topic for discussion during another lively webchat hosted by England performance director Nigel Edwards.

Willett, Lowry, McIlroy, Wood and Edwards featured in elite contests

BOTH Willett and Edwards share more than an England Golf connection.

In 2007, they were part of the GB&I Walker Cup squad – also featuring Rory McIlroy – which narrowly lost out to a star-studded American side including Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Webb Simpson, at Royal County Down.

The pair were also in the same European team that won the Michael Bonnallack Trophy in 2008, beating Asia- Pacific at Valderrama, alongside Gloucestershire’s future Ryder Cup player Chris Wood, and last year’s Open Champion Shane Lowry.

Willett – currently based in Florida’s Isleworth, as he waits for the tours to start on both sides of the pond – talked through his amazing work ethic, his attention to detail and the processes he has followed all his career.

And he recalled with fondness an amateur career during which he won the Australian Strokeplay, the Spanish Amateur and English Amateur en route to becoming No. 1 on the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

Willett said: “I loved everything about team golf with England when you had a group of guys taking on Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

“You maybe had 40-50 of the best players from the UK there and you were trying to impress for Walker Cup places and Jacques Leglise teams.

“You wanted to beat everyone, you certainly didn’t want to lose to a rival country. But there was still a great camaraderie.

“Yorkshire normally had quite a good bunch and we were well represented.

“But you caught up with people you hadn’t seen since the last event and I was good pals with Oliver Fisher and Tom Sherrard among others and it was great to get everyone together.”

Danny Willett (back row right) in the European team that won the 2008 Michael Bonallack Trophy, playing alongside Shane Lowry, Nigel Edwards and Chris Wood.

Danny has not been back to Royal St George since English Amateur victory in 2007

WILLETT, who was a junior at Rotherham GC, has won seven times on Tour and, at 32 years of age, has arguably yet to reach his prime.

As a youth, Willett was always earmarked for a great career – and his English Amateur win at Royal St George’s in 2007 remains a landmark moment.

“It was a great week,” recalled Willett who beat Matt Cryer 3&2 to lift the silverware.

“I played a lot of good players that week and then beat Matt in the final.

“It was the end of a pretty exceptional summer and the culmination of lot of good golf that I played at that time.

“To win any event is brilliant – to win on home soil in front of England officials and organisers it was a really special one to get it under your belt.

“It was a great golf course to win on too – and I’ll now need to wait until next year to go back with this year’s Open postponed.

“Oddly enough I haven’t played there since I won the English Amateur.

“I was looking forward to going back – but it’s more just looking forward to The Open as an event.

“For an Englishman, The Open in England is truly special just as it is for a Scotsman in Scotland or the Irish boys last year at Portrush.

“You take Opens wherever they are – they are always phenomenal, but it’s great to get a home crowd.

“I have fond memories of that place and it’s been a helluva long time since I played it. To go back as professional with a different golf game would have been a lot of fun.”

Willett has seven victories on the European Tour to his name – he also claimed the biggest cash prize in 2018 by winning the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

Danny Willett during the Q&A session with England’s national squads

Rotherham still producing top teenage talents

AS a Yorkshireman, Willett remain fiercely proud of his home county and still keeps one eye on the amateur game.

The rise of Rotherham’s Ben Schmidt in the last year has caught his attention.

Willett added:”I still chat to Graham Walker about the lads coming up through Yorkshire and different bits and bobs.

“There are a couple of players in Yorkshire – Ben being one – and I keep track even though life is busy.

“I’ve tried to help him out for a few things here and there. He’s young, but he has to keep working hard and see where he gets.

“It’s good and well winning, but the scores he was posting were the thing to look out for. That’s the impressive part.

“He’s also won in Australia and if you have a game that travels, then that’s a good thing.”

Fellow Rotherham GC member Ben Schmidt, the youngest-ever winner of the Brabazon Trophy, has been given advice by Danny Willet. Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

•Next in line for the England squads is a Q&A with Ryder Cup player and European Tour winner Chris Wood.

Matt Wallace, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Meghan MacLaren and Bronte Law have all hosted similar sessions.

The post Willett says England Home Internationals win in 2009 was his best team experience appeared first on Golf North.

Cameron Smith is bidding to become the first player to win the Joe Kirkwood Cup Australian PGA three years in a row since Dan Soutar, who claimed the first three national PGA championships held Down Under. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

TWO-TIME defending champion Cameron Smith is bidding to create history this week as he seeks a third consecutive Australian PGA Championship title.

The Australian defeated Jordan Zunic in a play-off in 2017, and finished two strokes ahead of Marc Leishman last year.

That back-to-back win set up an historic second title defence at RACV Royal Pines Resort as he bids for a third victory at his national PGA Championship, starting on Thursday.

Not since Dan Soutar won the first three editions of the historic championship, from 1905-1907, has a player won three consecutive Joe Kirkwood Cups.

Twenty-six-year-old Smith is hoping to back up his strong performance for Ernie Els’ International team at last week’s Presidents Cup match against America, with another successful defence on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

The Australian earned one-and-a-half points for the International’s cause, including a victory over Major champion Justin Thomas in the Sunday singles, at Royal Melbourne.

Smith, who hails from Brisbane, some 50 miles north, said: “It’s a little bit more stressful. Last week was a big week on-and-off the golf course, I’m still a little bit tired.

“But I’m sure tomorrow will hype me up and I will be ready to go. I feel pretty confident in my game – it’s probably the best I’ve felt with my iron play all year.

“To do it on such a challenging layout last week, against some of the best players in the world, was good. I can’t wait for this week and I’m feeling good.

“I like the golf course. I play well around here. It’s just such a good week for me off the golf course – lots of family and friends.

“The support is really good throughout the week,” said Smith, who lost a play-off in the Emirates Austrlian Open won by Jordan Spieth, three yearsa go, at Royal Sydney GC.

“Last week was very team orientated, which was great. I love being around a team,” added Smith who played for Australia as an amateur in the 2012 Eisenhower Trophy.

Smith also represented his country at last year’s World Cup, at Melbourne’s Metropolitan Golf Club.

“The team embraced the underdog mentality, but I’ve got a good record around here,” said Smith, who finished fourth at the 2015 US Open, at Chambers Bay.

“I’m feeling really confident with where my game is at.

“As soon as we were done (at the Presidents Cup), Adam (Scott) said he was coming for me this week,” added Smith, whose only win in three seasons on the PGA Tour, came playing alongside Jonas Blixt at the 2017 Zurich Classic of New Orleans pairs event.

“There’s 150 guys this week all wanting the same thing, so it’s going to be tough to get that trophy on Sunday,”

Cameron Smith with the Joe Lockwood Trophy after his victory at RACV Royal Pines Resort at last year’s Australian PGA Championship

The last player to successfully win a European Tour event in three successive years was Tiger Woods.

The 15-time Major winner won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational from 2005-07, while Ernie Els was the last player to win a non-Major or WGC event three years running at the Heineken Classic from 2002-4.

Seeking to put a stop to the dominance of Cameron Smith, at the event over the last two years, is his Presidents Cup teammate and compatriot Adam Scott, who won the title in 2013 – the same year as his Masters triumph.

Scott said: “My goal is to bring a similar kind of focus that I had going last week to the golf course and try and get my name on that trophy again.

“I’m feeling good, I started playing nicely last week in Melbourne. When you get those good feelings it’s nice to have another event to play in and I’d like to make the most of that this week.

“Things were starting to fall into a good spot, so I’ll see if I can carry that on over here and put some good rounds in.

“I’m really pleased with where my golf is from leaving Melbourne, if I can bring some of that out here this week then I think I’ve got a good chance of getting myself in for a chance to win, that sounds fun to me.

“I’d like to try and take some good momentum into next year.”

Scott returned to the top 20 on the Official World Golf Ranking this year for the first time since 2017.

But the Aussie legend has not won since the 2016 WGC-Cadillac Championship. The 39-year-old earned two-and-a-half points from five matches at last week’s Presidents Cup.

New Zealand’s Ryan Fox – the longest driver on the European Tour in 2019 – has a chance to wrap up the ISPS Handa PGA of Australasia Order of Merit with a strong finish this week, having won the World Super 6 in Perth, in February.

Nicolai Hjøgaard leads off field at Royal Pines

QUEENSLAND is 10 hours ahead of GMT with the first players teeing off at 8pm UK time, on Wednesday evening.

First off the first is Denmark’s Nicolai Hjøgaard, who is looking to emulate twin brother Rasmus by winning on his first European Tour start of the 2020 season – after his twin brother claimed victory in the AfrAsia Mauritius Open, at the end of last month.

Cameron Smith tees off in the first group off the 10th tee at 6am local time, playing with big-hitters Cameron Champ and Ryan Fox, while Scott plays from the first at 11am, with young Australian talent Min Woo Lee, and the 2009 Open Champion Stewart Cink.

•For lives scores from the first round of the Australian PGA click here.

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