The Ryder Cup is back and I don’t mean on this side of the Atlantic…although that’s cool. If the US would have stunk it up this year we would be watching the replay of Oklahoma-Nebraska 1978 on ESPN Classic two Septembers from now…the Ryder Cup would be a memory.
For whatever reason, The PGA of America lost the plot they’ve been so good at over the last few years at this year’s championship last month in Detroit. That is make the courses playable and create a great tournament with lots of birdies in the process…see David Toms at Atlanta Athletic, Vijay at Whistling Straits, and of course His Tigerness at Medinah and Southern Hills.
There for a while the Boys in Sansabelt didn’t want to be the toughest dog on the street, they seemed to want a fun tournament for fans to watch…and it was.
Then came Oakland Hills. I’ve had days driving eight hours through the country when the only thing on the radio were crazy preachers yelling that were more fun than that. Pretty good the last 1/2 hour but man what a grind.
So why did they have Valhalla set up the way they did? Did they learn from the past that both sides would eat it alive with no rough to speak of and accessible pin placements? Did the fact no final scores are reported allow them to ease up on the course set-up? Did Captain Azinger know the US would win a putting battle?
I hope so because it delivered. Nice work PGA.
The other reason we won is our team was finally uglier than theirs. They just looked tough with Boo, JB, Kenny, Furyk…these are not handsome men. The Euros looked like an ad from GQ and played like an ad from Vogue…just my take.
