US of Who?

[Retrograde assault]

Was off today and watched the Ryder cup. Enjoyed watching Boo and the rest of the US of WHo team take a 5 1/2 to 2 1/2 lead.

[Gopher]

Watching all eight hours through DVR right now... I already saw the results, but this is one of my favorite sporting events of all-time. Easily on my top three of events I want to someday see in person. The only tough part is trying to watch it AND NFL games on Sunday. Good thing I have picture in picture.

[HowboutthemCowboys]

[Retrograde assault]

Great team win. Euro's can play some golf.

[Gopher]

Great team win for the U.S. I watched pretty much all three days in their entirety:

 

- Even though Justin Leonard struggled on Sunday (and lost badly), his performance on Friday/Saturday was key to getting the U.S. team off to a good start... He's an extraordinary putter, and he was at the top of his game for those two days. Not only did his play seem to spur great play from his partner, Hunter Mahan, it also seemed to uplift the entire team and give them a huge amount of confidence to start the competition. I think a huge part of this win was the U.S. leading the entire three days. Had they been down after Friday or Saturday, I'm not so sure they would have been able to overcome the disadvantage (mentally, more than anything) and come back to win.

 

- Having six players on the U.S. side who have never participated before was also key... I think Azinger found the right mix of experienced guys as well as talented young players who didn't know any better. Part of the problem in the past has seemed to be having a core of 7-10 guys who have been there before, which can be a problem when the majority of them seem to have a hard time believing they can win it.

 

- Garcia, Westwood, and particularly Harrington did not play well, especially on Sunday. Not taking away from the U.S. win, but they certainly did not beat the European team at it's best. Of course, the same can be said for past Cups that went the European way, where the U.S. played nowhere near the way they were capable of. That said, hats off to Ian Poulter, Karlsson, and some of the other lesser-known Euro's who played extremely well.

 

- Nick Faldo was a great player, and is a decent commentator, but why does he have to slip in these little comments about how close it was, and how his team just lost by "inches" to the U.S. team? They were beat fairly handily, so just admit it. The U.S. has done so for the last decade, so show a little class and just admit when the other team was simply better... not just barely better, but enough so that the competition was over with 2-3 matches still undecided. By Ryder Cup standards, that's not that close.... Not a blowout, but I've seen several that were closer. I'm not sure what Faldo's deal is, but I saw several interviews where he made a point to say that it was so close, and that it could have gone either way, etc. I know golf is a "game of inches" in many ways, but this really wasn't as close as Faldo made it sound.

 

- Boo Weekley is a riot, and a heck of a golfer. Definitely not your typical pro golfer, that's for sure.

 

- J.B. Holmes hits the golf ball a LONG ways. Incredible.

 

- What a great way for Kenny Perry to top off a dream season. Good for him.

 

- Course looks like a really fun/challenging course to play. Lots of balls going into hazards. I know the strategy is a bit different, especially during the 4-ball portion, but even on Sunday, it's unusual to see so many "mistakes" by the pro's. It seemed like the course was set up in such a way that, on some holes, players had no choice but to go for certain greens. Probably something Azinger did intentionally, as it's his call where the tees are placed to a certain degree (moved up or back, etc.), but both teams had a surprisingly high amount of holes lost to balls being hit into hazards, etc.

[Gopher]

Wow... Apparently, Mr. Faldo is getting shredded by the British media today.

 

Faldo

 

Maybe his comments about the matches being so close was a weak attempt to divert everyone's attention from the real issue, which according to the European fans, seems to be the order he picked for Sunday's singles matches. By the time the hottest European players neared the finishing holes, the competition had already been decided.