Fit-again Nocera raring to go in Solheim Cup

by Graham Otway

Despite the information restraints imposed by his family-run management team, Rory McIlroy’s battle to recover from his torn ankle tendon has been reasonably well-documented.

He was unfit to play in The Open and could only sit back and watch on frustrated as America’s Jordan Spieth briefly occupied his place at the top of golf’s world rankings.

And in the past week it has emerged that it could take a year for him to fully recover, hence the European Tour’s decision to let him play in the end-of-season DP World Championship in Dubai, even though he will not be able to fulfil the minimum 13-tournament requirement for qualification to the event.

The fact that the injury was simply a freak accident suffered as he was engaging in an everyday laddish kickabout with old school chums has earned him sympathy, because it has shown that – despite his elevation to golfing mega stardom – he has not lost touch with his roots.

However, one person looking in from the outside has followed every step of McIlroy’s attempted recovery programme with a particular fascination, not based on Rory’s status, but in the hope of recapturing her own golfing career.

For tomorrow, France’s Gwladys Nocera will embark upon the most heavily pressured three weeks of her season on the Ladies European Tour.

She begins as a local crowd favourite when the Evian Championship – the Ladies’ last major of the year – gets underway in the Alps.

Then she will travel to Heidelberg as a member of the European team attempting a Solheim Cup defence against the Americans. Finally, it is back home to play in the French Ladies Open in the South of France.

And as she attempts to play a total of 13 rounds of golf in 18 days at the highest competitive level in the ladies’ game, she is hoping – on the same wavelength as McIlroy – that a freak ankle tendon tear will be able to stand up to the strain.

“It happened in April,” said the 40-year-old, who has won 14 times on the Ladies European Tour. “I fell on a course in Spain doing a photoshoot.

“I was getting off a golf cart and slipped and as I tried to get hold of the cart to rescue my balance, the cart moved, my ankle twisted and it broke a ligament.

“So when I saw what had happened to Rory I had a lot of sympathy for him, because I knew how much work he would have to do to get back out on the course and I knew it was not going to be easy for him.

“But it can be done. I worked hard after my injury and feel now that the ankle is back in good shape.”

And neither will things be easier for Nocera over the next few days as she attempts to add to her one victory this year at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco, which came a month before she suffered the injury.

“I love playing the Evian because the course is so beautiful with the views out over Lac Leman,” she said. “But it is on a hillside and there is never a flat lie.

“Most shots are played with the ball below or above your feet and that is hard enough to get the ball on the right line into the greens. But for me as well, I will be thinking about the ankle if I get an awkward lie.”

Nocera has played three previous Solheim Cups, but the last of them was in 2009. She was left to watch Europe’s 2013 win by the massive margin of 18-10 in Colorado – their first ever win on American soil – at home on TV.

Now, having earned an automatic place in Carin Koch’s team largely on the back of her Morocco victory, she believes Europe have a good chance of chalking up another win over their traditional rivals in Heidelberg.

“The fact that every member of our team has played in the Solheim Cup before has got to be good for us,” she said. “It’s good to have all that experience and not have the nerves of playing in it for the first time.”

But Nocera insists that both the Solheim Cup and the French Open will be furthest from her mind when she prepares to hit her drive off the first tee at Evian, where a best finish to-date was a lowly 67th tie in 2013.

And she knows it’s going to be a tough week because not only are her American Solheim Cup rivals in the Evian field, but also all of the best ladies from golf’s emerging Far East, like Inbee Park, who has already won the PGA Championship and the Open this year.

“Evian and the Solheim Cup are two different weeks,” said Nocera. “One is all about individual golf whereas the other is about playing for the team.

“Yes, you have to work hard and prepare yourself for both weeks, but at the Evian I will not be thinking about the Solheim. You cannot do it. You have to concentrate on the game you are playing.”

That, however, should not prevent the Europeans wanting to seek a mental victory if they get drawn to play in the Evian alongside any of their Americans counterparts.

Shooting lower than a Solheim rival in week one could count for a lot if the same pairing comes out of the hat for the head-to-head matches when they clash in Germany.

There’s an awful lot to play for…

Tagged Evian Championship, Gwladys Nocera, Rory McIlroy, Solheim Cup