2012 Ryder Cup Saturday Afternoon Four-Ball Thread

/

The US takes a huge lead into the afternoon four-balls and Captain Davis Love appears to be pulling all of the right strings while Captain Olazabal's lack of depth has been a detriment to the Europeans.

But the commercial breaks have been sensational! And so many of them too.

The afternoon fourballs:

Watson/Simpson vs. Rose Molinari (12:05)

D. Johnson/Kuchar vs. Colsaerts/Lawrie (12:20)

Woods/Stricker vs. Garcia/Donald (12:35)

Dufner/Johnson vs. McIlroy/Poulter (12:50)

2012 Ryder Cup Saturday Foursomes Open Thread

/

Europe must pick up a point or two in the all-crucial Saturday morning foursomes, first tee time at 7:20 a.m. CT. NBC does not come until 8 a.m. but is promising "live look" (take that contract attorney!) coverage on Golf Channel during "Live From" coverage from 7-8 am CT.

You can track scoring here.

The matches:

J. Rose / I. Poulter    vs.    B. Watson / W. Simpson
L. Westwood / L. Donald    vs.    K. Bradley / P. Mickelson
N. Colsaerts / S. Garcia    vs.    J. Dufner / Z. Johnson
R. McIlroy / G. McDowell   vs   J. Furyk / B. Snedeker

This And That From 2012 Ryder Cup Friday

/

A thrilling day of Ryder Cup golf that featured a bit of something for everyone, confirming the place of match play, team play and no rough as the best things in golf. The U.S.A. takes a 5-3 lead into Saturday's play.

Doug Ferguson's game story leads with Keegan Bradley and his amazing Friday performance partnered with Phil Mickelson.

Gene Wojciechowski on Bradley's sticking "a very large needle into Team Europe's balloon."

Alan Shipnuck talked to the significant others to better understand the Keegan-Phil bond.

Amy Mickelson shared that confidence. "At one point Jillian said, 'Oh, I'm sorry, Phil's in the trees.' I said, 'He's used to it, he'll be fine.'"

Adam Schupak of Golfweek--btw, it's so moving to see him back on the masthead!--has the money quote from Keegan's girlfriend on the bromance: “They look at each other like they are in love."

Dave Kindred analyzes the ass slap.

We saw the Dufner fist-bump. Then we saw Mickelson slap Keegan's ass and we loved it all because we've seen a zillion sweaty, dirty baseball players do it out of habit but here, in golf, where everything is manicured, it's the last thing we expect to see. Would Hogan slap Snead's ass? Nicklaus Watson's? Woods Mickelson's?

As for Tiger, Lee Trevino would have sat him down after the morning play. But Lee also reminds us he lost the one time he was captain. Bob Harig with the details.

Harig also on Davis Love benching Woods Saturday is all about Tiger being a gimpy geezer not wanting to play anyone five matches.

"We just felt like we didn't want anybody to have to play five matches on this golf course," Love said. "It's a big, long golf course. It's tough. And exactly what we said was going to happen happened to one of our best teams. They played very well this afternoon, and just happened to get beat on the last hole."

Jeff Rude isn't so keen on the idea of benching Woods but otherwise loves Love's moves.

James Corrigan on Captain Olazabal's moves.

Olazábal’s selection for the afternoon session was inevitably questioned as he dropped Ian Poulter after the Englishman, in partnership with Justin Rose, had beaten Woods and Steve Stricker in the morning foursomes 2&1. But nobody should deny America’s excellence in the fourballs.

The Guardian's Ewan Murray on Nicolas Colsaerts and the round of his life. Murray also notes the key decision by Captain Olazabal to pre-determine his afternoon lineup to get everyone on the course Friday.

With that in mind, it seemed curious that Olazábal omitted García, Luke Donald and, particularly, Ian Poulter from yesterday afternoon's play. Even more notable is the fact that call appeared to be premeditated, made before cognisance of the foursomes had been taken.

Randall Mell with the American perspective on the amazing Colsaerts.

Martin Samuel thinks Rory McIlroy looked mentally exhausted late in the morning session and definitely in the afternoon.

Derek Lawrenson's Daily Mail game story also includes some stellar Getty Images from the day.

Martin Dempster was not impressed by Medinah's first tee atmosphere, calling it "standard stuff."

Gary Van Sickle thinks the 15th proved pivotal and certainly drivable.

Michael Smith at Sports Business Journal on the PGA of America telling vendors to expect as many as 60,000 a day and also reports on monster merchandise sales. All for such a good cause, the PGA of America's coffers!

Golf.com images. Golfweek images.

Golf Channel's highlight package.

Sportscenter's highlight package.

The Lee Corso Ad ESPN Ran 18 Times And Other Atrocities Brought To You By The PGA Of America

/

To be clear, the mostly NBC produced pictures, sound and announcing from Friday's Ryder Cup made the fantastic golf that much better.

Unfortunately, over the course of 11.5 hours, we were actually deprived of coverage.

We all know they have bills to pay, but showing a promo 18 times over the course of 11.5 hours? Obnoxious.

The primary atrocity committed by ESPN and the PGA of America was the call in three instances to leave live, thrilling Ryder Cup golf. Twice they showed a Scott Van Pelt narrated highlight package and most painful of all, an interview with PGA of America president Allen Wronowski that not a single person on the planet wanted or needed to hear.

John Strege noted the intrusions in his media column.

Thankfully, the Sky Sports feed was online (thanks reader Tim) and showed twice as much golf with solid commentary from Butch Harmon and Colin Montgomerie, among others.

Too many times in the past decade the PGA of America has shown a complete lack of interest in requiring their partners to present a fluid telecast and instead allows networks like ESPN to run every promo imaginable without regard for the viewer. (Including on-air spots read by the announcers plugging broadcasts competing with Saturday's Ryder Cup telecast.)

The agony was compounded by the unwatchable RyderCup.com stream, which was avoiding competing with ESPN's telecast, leaning heavily on pre-packaged highlights and full screen graphics.

For the 19th and final time (hopefully), the Lee Corso spot...

House Painter Calls, Wants Michael Jordan To Give Him His Jeans Back

/

Ryder Cup honorary assistant captain Michael Jordan today at Medinah, captured by the Golf Digest photography staff.

An unbylined AP story on Jordan today and the various things the gallery has said to him.

After seeing that, I'll never make fun of all the groupees and hanger-on types wearing team uniforms again. This week, anyway.

2012 Ryder Cup Afternoon Four-Ball Open Thread

/

It's 2-2 after a wild morning and the Captains are already under fire for their afternoon pairings. More great golf to come...

The matches:

P. Lawrie / P. Hanson vs.
B. Watson / W. Simpson

R. McIlroy / G. McDowell vs.
P. Mickelson / K. Bradley

L. Westwood / N. Colsaerts vs.
T. Woods / S. Stricker

J. Rose / M. Kaymer vs.
D. Johnson / M. Kuchar

Viral GIF: Phil, Uh, Encouraging Keegan

/

The Big Lead with the GIF of Phil Mickelson giving Keegan Bradley a little pat on the tush. Over and over again.

2012 Ryder Cup Friday Foursomes Open Thread

/

You've spoken and the Mickelson/Bradley v. Donald/Garcia match is what you are looking forward to most, and I would agree.

ESPN's coverage starts at 8 am ET with the Furyk/Snedeker v. McDowell/McIlroy slugfest.

But it's hard to imagine a better Ryder Cup scenario: the forecast is sensational, the course is immaculate, the setup figures to have some fun twists and the crowds will be primed and ready. Best of all, now we'll finally find out if too much table tennis will mess up the American team putting touch.