There were more ups and downs last week than a day in the life of a hotel lift.
Two massive downs were the amazing decision by Nick Faldo not to select Darren Clarke for his European Ryder Cup team and then Lee Westwood waking up on Sunday morning at Gleneagles with a bad case of tonsillitis when in contention for a 30th worldwide win.
I was positively baffled by Faldo's decision and the British Press were genuinely surprised but not half as much as their American counterparts, one of whom suggesting that if he could conjure up an American passport then they'd definitely have Darren on their team.
Journalists in America certainly saw the shock omission as a big plus for America's chances of winning. Personally, I'm not sure how Nick came to his decision because he's not been seen much in Europe this season and he hasn't been in a team room since 1997 so has no idea what Darren brings to the team. Lee will miss his partner on the course, but the team will miss him even more.
The positive for Darren is that in his quest to get in the team he has worked tremendously hard all year and has not only won twice, but also rushed up the world rankings There's a lot more to come from him, believe me.
The dynamics of the European team room will be vastly different this time, but I still feel we have a strong enough team to keep our hands on the trophy. If Nick Faldo wins he will be perceived as a hero and if he doesn't he can return to America and continue with his commentating career.
Other plusses last week were a couple of returns to form. It was great to see David Howell playing golf with a smile on his face and competing well at Gleneagles and it augurs well for the closing months of the season.
A quick trip over to Boston also allowed me to watch the closing nine holes of the Deutsche Bank TPC of Boston event where the Big Easy, Ernie Els, finished a highly impressive third to give him a major boost for the Fedex Cup countdown.
But without doubt the biggest positive of the week was the return of Andrew ‘Freddie' Flintoff to superstar status. Richie Benaud said to me about five years ago that I needed to get through to Freddie was the need for him to be still there at the end of an innings.
He's managed quite brilliantly to do that in the last two matches and finished up with an average of 197. It's a huge relief for him to be playing pain free and the confidence he has is plain for all to see. Suddenly there is a massive backbone to the team with KP, Freddie and a rejuvenated Steve Harmison coupled with the potential of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad.
