Running Ryder Cup '06 thread - SPOILERS (like you couldn't figure that)

Please...are you telling me you think the International team, pound for pound is not as good as the European team.

Vijay, Ernie, Weir, Retief, Michael Campbell, Adam Scott, Stuart Appleby, Immelman, Allenby...these guys are less players than Europe?

 

I think the International team is easily more talented than the Euros, but we keep overlooking how important it is to actually support your partner and keep him loose in stuff like alternate shot. Look at what Sergio does -- he's putting his arm around guys, high-fiving them, picking them up when they're down, smiling his ass off as he strolls up every fairway. That takes pressure off the other guy. Who wants to play with Tiger and get the death stare if you hit a poor chip or snap hook a drive? (Although I somehow doubt Furyk gave Tiger a nasty look when he hit a snap-hook on Friday that made him look like a 20-handicapper.) I don't buy the argument that these guys are too comfortable with just making money, finishing 14th and voting Republican, and that they can't handle the intensity of the Ryder Cup. In order to become a professional athlete and reap the rewards, you pretty much have to be a cutthroat mutherfucker from age 13 on up. I think they care TOO much, but we also have to realize that you can't build comraderie with one trip to the K-Club three weeks before the event. We need our younger generation of golfers to step up and get consistently good so that they can play in five or six Ryder Cups, because it's obvious that this just isn't Tiger and Phil's thing, and neither is getting any younger. Guys like Charles Howell III and J.B. Holmes need to figure out if they're going to be players or not.

 

Double Down...like your style dude.

You can't me be more dead on. The US team is disecting each shot, the Euros are saying, hey, If I execute this shot, I'm going to beat you and if I miss this shot, I'm going to get it up and down and still beat you.

That's a different mind set

 

Maybe PGA Tour pros under 30 ought to do a foreign study year abroad on the Euro Tour. It'd be a scholarship award and you wouldn't lose your card for it.

 

If Tiger is on the team where he can be a mentor it could work. Hell he made a great team with Chris Riley for the one chance they were able to play in 2004 (although Riley begged out of the afternoon session for whatever reason). He views Furyk and breast man as his enemy. That's always going to be his mindset, those guys in the upper echelon are his enemies and are always trying to gain a mental edge on him whether they are on the same team or now.

Pair up Tiger with one of the Ryder rookies and he might've went 4-1 instead of 3-2. Pair him with someone who'll look up to him and allow him to build their pysche.

As for Phil, he's just been awful in the last two cups, awful...

Also something has to be said for the last group of great Euro Ryder players. That group of Langer, Monty, Woosman, Faldo, Olazabal, etc. has changed everything. As they fade out it's possible the U.S. guys in their late-30s and 40s will assume that role.

 

Sorry I was out at a game and watching football, Verplank just made note of the camraderie of the Euro's that is lacking on the US side and the US sticking with combinations that had obvious flaws.

 

Probably like Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (father last name forllowed by mother's, I believe)

But, he has chosen one, for simplicity's and marketing's sake, I would guess.

 

Final graf from Ryan's Monday column...

http://www.boston.com/sports/golf/articles/2006/09/25/at_ryder_cup_hard_to_defend_this_ugly_american_performance/?page=2

 

Can the U.S. use amateurs instead of pros in 2008?

 

You could, they won 12 1/2 to 11/1/2 over GB and Ireland's amatuers in the Walker cup last year.