High above the village of Sion, Aussie Brett Rumford chipped in at the first play-off hole to deny Warrington's Phillip Archer his maiden victory in the European Masters. Phillip's consolation is that he is top of the Ryder Cup rankings.

With nearly a year to go before Nick Faldo announces his side, it may seem like scant reward, but as we have said in this column before, Phillip just needs to believe in himself more. This latest performance will help him down that road.

Rumford: Uses 'Tilt and Stack' method

Brett Rumford has never found winning easy. He struggled over the line in the Irish Open in County Meath a few years back, and I was not surprised he found this win an emotional one.

Outside the top 100 before the week began was way too far down that list for a player of his quality. The likeable Australian has changed his technique over the past two seasons to the relatively new 'Tilt and Stack' method preferred by the likes of American professional, Mac O'Grady.

Others to have used this way of playing are Simon Khan of England and fellow countryman Graeme Storm. Both of these golfers are enjoying good seasons, and Aaron Baddeley, along with Terry Price, has also converted.

It's a controversial way of swinging with many of the top coaches saying there is too much of a reverse pivot on the way back.

At Gleneagles last week, I spent an hour with Rumford and Price on the range during one of my breaks. They explained the method to me, and I believe it has its merits. After all, is there a perfect way to swing a golf club? And are two swings the same? The answer is probably not. It's what you can repeat that is important. Jim Furyk is the perfect example of that.

Brett is an intelligent golfer, and has many more years on Tour ahead of him, but when he is done playing I believe he will be one of the game's top coaches. He has a tremendous understanding of where the clubface should be at any given time of the swing and his golf clinics and trick shots are well worth seeing.

All eyes on Solheim Cup

The Tour moves to Germany this week and an elite field have qualified for this prestigious event by Mercedes Benz. In Ryder Cup year it is vital to get off to a flying start. The Dunhill Links event kicks off in October and that is followed by tournaments in Madrid, Majorca, Portugal, and of course the season-ending Volvo Masters which celebrates its 20th year in the first week of November. All of these events, and more, are across our Sky Sports channels

However, it's the girls that take centre stage this week as the biannual Solheim Cup gets underway in Sweden. The venue is Halmstad, which has hosted European Tour events in the past.

It's one of the country's top three venues with its narrow fairways framed by tall pine trees, and there will be a premium on accuracy as well as power. Over 100,000 fans will be there, with the majority cheering on a European side that has four Swedes, a Dane and a Norwegian making up 50 per cent of captain Helen Alfredsson's team.

Helen is a fine girl and she will be her team's inspiration. She has the respect of her 12 players and I'm sure there will be a calmness about her that was certainly not evident when she was a full time player. Her life so far has been interesting to say the least. In her younger days she was a model in France. As well as driving drag racing cars, she thought nothing of steering her Harley Davidson motorbike across America.

Her golfing talent was completely natural and if you were to ask her she would say she should have won more events than she did. Whatever she has tried, and I have touched on just a few of her exploits, she has done in a style that is exclusive to her. I would like to think 'Alfie', as she is affectionately known to her friends, would have the Cup in her hands next Sunday, but the Americans have a strong side with a nice mixture of youth and experience.

Their captain is the veteran, Betsy King, who has a huge experience of Solheim golf, and like her counterpart, is feisty and competitive. It is all beautifully set up and, like the Ryder Cup, Sky Sports will give this exciting event the full treatment as we begin the story at 6.30am on Friday morning.

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