The Best In Golf » Ryder Cup

The Cup Is Back

thebestingolf — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:35:02 +0000

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.

Just My Take on Ryder Cup ’08

thebestingolf — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 19:15:00 +0000

Two of the really cool things about working from home are conference calls in your jammies and watching something interesting on TV at an odd time of day

This morning it was the press conference from Valhalla where the 2008 captain, Paul Azinger, was announced. Now I know you’re worldly and educated, but I’ll bet you didn’t know that “The House of The Slain” was in Kentucky…I thought it was in Ireland at The K-Club. Shows what I know.

Zinger was witty and did well but that’s no surprise. He had some great moments in the Ryder Cup to be sure…but then again so did all our other captains…Lehman, Sutton, Strange, Wadkins…all great drama and great winners.

So it’s not our cast of captains that are the problem…in fact let’s put them all on the team and see what happens. We’ll add Raymond Floyd and Tom Kite and kick some Sergio ass…OK, maybe not but it felt good.

So what’s Paul gonna’ do to keep us from getting killed in The Blue Grass State? His plan is to treat the team like the thoroughbreds they are…if they stumble, they get one good one right between the eyes…a carrot last meal and boom.

No what he’s really going to do, with the PGA’s help of course, is change the way the team is picked…brilliant!

We need the hottest golfers at the time…oh really? We haven’t quite taken to the Euro way (which is nothing counts until the year before the matches) but we are getting closer.

Now I have to tell you…maybe because I feel like a bit of an underdog overachieving C student myself, if I’m Vaughn Witterich or J.J. Taylor, I’m pissed! I got on your Ryder Cup team by your rules…and with some exceptions, I played pretty well. And who would have made the team if you went by the new system?

Somebody better? Who?

If the Ryder Cup is about team, country, integrity, and sportsmanship, then let’s quit saying that it’s all of the above but, oh yeah, we HAVE to win too. If I have to listen to another expert say we don’t want it enough I’m going to puke…Team USA wants it so bad they can’t even walk up to buffet right.

Here’s what I mean. If I told you to get up and answer the door, you would do just that without a thought.

But if I told you to open that same door but this time you had to walk on a sagging 2 X 4 over a 50-foot drop and if you fell you were letting down your wife, your girlfriend, your countrymen, your teammates, your mom, your dad, and your spaniel, you just might fall on your butt.

That’s what’s happening at The Ryder Cup, Cappy, not the points system. When we win one, we’ll win a bunch…just my take.

The Best $90 I Ever Spent

thebestingolf — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 22:36:00 +0000

I used to think the fake Rolex I bought in New York was the best $90 bucks I ever spent. It had a blue face and a calandar…slick. But alas, it said water resistent on the back…what I learned was it would break if it got wet…but reluctantly.

So that was money well spent until I saw the end of The Ryder Cup this morning. I placed a bet with my two friends Blair (Scotland) and Shane (N. Ireland) on this year’s matches.

Surely we couldn’t get beat again, at least not by the crazy ass-whuppin’ margin as Oakland Hills two years ago, right? His Tigerness is 5-0, Furyk is #2 in the World with his win in Canada…made something like 54 out of 57 10-footers or less? C’mon, who can beat them? Sure we had rookies but so did they. We had DiMarco, Mickelson, Cink. We had 17 Majors, they had 2. And those belonged to the oldest guy on the team!

But what we didn’t have was Darren Clarke. If you are a fan of golf at all you had to believe the Euros would be rallying behind him after losing his wife to cancer just a few weeks ago. My wife was out of town for the weekend so it gave me a miniscule feeling of what it’s like without her.

Not anywhere in the league of Clarke of course, but I missed her just the same. This is where my pals, including the two named above, are going to skewer me for saying such a thing…very unmanly. Oh well, occasionally it needs to be said.

Just about everyone I know and hang around with has a happy and healthy family. Not all, but just about…even the ones with challenges are full of love.

So my brilliant $5 a point wager has lost me $90. What surprised me is the bargain it became when I saw the mugging Clarke received from his teammates, their wives, and caddies…tears flowing…here too. It was a lot more than a golf round for all of them and it should be for us too. I never knew how much perspective you can buy for less than the cost of a new wedge.

Not to worry, Best In Golf will be back as cynical and sarcastic as ever next post. Promise.

Hate Day at The Ryder Cup

thebestingolf — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 22:02:00 +0000

Don’t you hate Sergio Garcia? I do…you hate him like Eagles fans hated Emmitt, Troy, & Co. Like Red Sox fans hate Jeter…or Jeetah if you are unfortunate enough to live in New York. As hard as you try you can’t beat this f***ing guy. Even the fans of the Euros can’t stand him because he’s from freakin’ Spain.
And am I the only one who wonders why he yells at the ball in English? Why not “MUERDALE BASTARDO de TOOTLESS” or “GOLPEE a UNA AMA DE CASA”!!!
Maybe I answered my own question
How about those 3-woods by Zach Johnson. Birdie-Birdie-Birdie? Are you kidding me?
J.J. Henry makes 12 birdies in the morning and carries the umbrellas in the afternoon? Hate that.
Why does everybody hate Jimmy Roberts so much? Did you see the look on the faces of Tiger, Furyk, and Lehman? Even Sergio and Luke Donald looked at him like a child molester…and they won!

Or is it that the Ryder Cup should be stopped? When the game gets dragged into cheering for shots pulled into the water (Furyk, 18, afternoon) something is not right.

Cheers to Darren Clark a few short weeks after losing his wife. Can’t imagine what’s going through his mind. Just goes to show you if you have friends, you can accomplish anything.

Note to Blair and Shane The $5/point bet we made may be void. It appears that contracts made via e-mail are unenforcable in South Carolina and Georgia.