"We've had a coalescence of three different things come together"

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In another of golf's worst kept secrets, the tours are taking the WGC World Cup to China. Announcing the move were George O'Grady, Jon Linen, Tim Finchem and various dignitaries from new host site Mission Hills.

Wow, it looks like the World Cup has been sav...eh, maybe not...

Q. So it will not be the World Cup after two years, or it could be?

GEORGE O'GRADY: It could be; it's unlikely.
Q. So Jon, your reaction to that, are you already investigating other possibilities beyond the two year period?

JON LINEN: We would work with the Federation and cross that bridge when we get there. Right now we know we're going to be where we're going to be for the next two years.

We know we're going to be where we're going to be for the next two years. Whoa, I think that calls for a little mop-up from the $7 million man.

TIM FINCHEM: If I could just comment on this, I think what's happened is we've had a coalescence of three different things come together. One is the opportunity to have a World Golf Championship event supported in China for more than a decade; the second is that we feel strongly that at this particular point in time the priority is to bring top flight PGA TOUR level golf to China and to Asia; the third thing is we want to perpetuate the World Cup.

So we've addressed all of these things in a way that we've unfolded here today, which is we're going to take advantage of the commitment that China and Mission Hills has provided, we're going to perpetuate the World Cup for the next two years at Mission Hills. We intend to have World Championship golf for the ten years beyond that, but how that unfolds after the next two years is yet to be determined for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is as George mentioned, the world calendar is reasonably set through 2008. There are issues with the tournament structures and dates after that, in addition to these format issues.

So we will address those as we get to them over the next year, year and a half, but in the meantime we're going to focus our energies on making the World Cup as good as we can make it at Mission Hills for the next two years.

Ah, much better. Those multiple "perpetuate" references are so much tighter than "We know we're going to be where we're going to be for the next two years." That's why he gets the big bucks!

Q. Is there a fear that the World Golf Championship events will be devalued by the fact that most or all will be in America for the next ten years, foreseeable future, and then the next one will be in China for 12 years; will it become stale after so many years?

GEORGE O'GRADY: From a European Tour point of view? I think everybody can have a view on it. I think it's been well chronicled that when all the World Golf Championships or the stroke play events, the Accenture, have been played in America. Not all of us were totally best pleased. But if we have to look at the force of the world economy where it goes, I mean, if we are sitting here, if I'm allowed to say so, a tremendous European victory in the Ryder Cup Matches just finished, and various people have said, why. Now, reading the papers for the last two days, better people than myself can work that out in a playing sense.

Say what?

Q. With that said, George, when is the next window of opportunity for one of these things to be in Europe?

TIM FINCHEM: After 2010 probably.

Nice rescue by the Commissioner. 

Johnny, The Cough Button Is Your Friend

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Alan Bastable at Golfonline reports what Johnny Miller said off-air and which was picked up in the media center and the U.S. team locker room.
While chatting off-air with his colleagues, Miller said Tiger Woods was  "playing like crap" and that he hit one shot like a "cripple."

Only Miller wasn't entirely off the air.

Unbeknownst to the NBC crew, its off-air banter had actually been piped into the U.S. team's locker room (as well as the media center).

While expressing continued exasperation with the U.S. team's performance, Miller also referred to Scott Verplank as a lead weight and said that U.S. Captain Tom Lehman should have benched Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the afternoon's foursome matches, but that he didn't because Lehman was afraid to "take the heat" he would face for shelving the world's No. 1 and 3 ranked players.

The NBC team learned about the locker room feed when David Toms alerted on-course reporter Mark Rolfing. Rolfing immediately told his colleagues, and an awkward silence ensued. Miller, seemingly unfazed, then sent greetings to the U.S. team.

Within minutes, the NBC feed to the media center went silent.

"He was active until the last second"

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138.jpgThe Dallas Morning News' Brad Townsend and Bill Nichols pen the best of the obits on Byron Nelson.
Nelson's wife Peggy came home from a Bible class around 12:30 p.m. and found her husband on the porch, longtime friend and business manager Jon Bradley said.

"He had been gone for a while," Bradley said.

He said Peggy told him Nelson was feeling good Tuesday morning, and may have been headed for his golf cart when he collapsed.

"He was active until the last second," he said.
Richard Goldstein writes the New York Times obituary and Thomas Bonk pens the LA Times version.

SI digs up Walter Bingham's 1995 piece detailing the win streak.

Of course, Dan Jenkins contends that it was actually 13.

Ryder Cup Clippings, Final Edition Vol. 3

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SI posted a poll of PGA teaching pros from Golf Magazine's 100 best, asking them to pick the next Ryder Cup Captain. The results:

Corey Pavin      35%
Paul Azinger     26%
Fred Couples     26%
Davis Love III     10%
Jeff Sluman        3%

Well that's settled. After all, we know how the PGA of America always listens to its constituents.

Lawrence Donegan offers his final thoughts on the Ryder Cup:

Even those who are not in the gang, such as Sergio García, are granted temporary membership for Ryder Cup week. Colin Montgomerie, too. At the start of the post-victory press conference, a US journalist asked the team to sum up the Scotsman's contribution to the European cause.

"Careful lads, careful. Make it good, " interjected Montgomerie, perhaps mindful that several of his team-mates are less than complimentary about him the other 51 weeks of the year. But he need not have worried.

"Monty is simply a leader on the course and off it," volunteered Westwood. "He's proven today that he is an inspiration when he goes out first in the singles. He's a pretty quick player, too, so he likes going out first." As eulogies go it was hardly WH Auden but this contribution spoke of the mentality of the European team, every one of whom was happy to lay aside ancient enmities in the greater cause of victory.

From Alan Shipnuck's SI game story:

Why can't Johnny win? Maybe because the players on the PGA Tour get so rich with a few top 10s that they never learn how to close the deal. Maybe it's because Europeans grow up competing in more match play, or that the far-flung logistics of their insular tour breeds more camaraderie. Maybe Americans' obsession with making technically perfect swings has de-emphasized the art of scoring. Or maybe Europe simply has better players: Coming into the Ryder Cup, eight members of its team were in the top 20 in the World Ranking, compared with just four for the Yanks.

These arguments, and others, have been kicked around for the better part of the last decade, but one point is indisputable -- an event in which only pride is at stake brings out the best in their stars and the worst in ours. 

And John Huggan weighs in at Golfobserver with this point about Mickelson, which I suspect will be made many more times in the coming months:

The question is simple: Is he willing to take golf even remotely seriously after the PGA Championship in August? If not, Mickelson should forfeit his place in all future US sides. That he should pitch up in Ireland not having played competitively for a month was a disgrace, an insult to his teammates and indicative of his less than enthusiastic approach to representing his country in golf's most compelling event. Instead of being on the course these past few days, the 36-year old Californian should have taken the advice offered by a wonderfully 'Irish' sign at the K Club: "Lost people should go to the information centre in the tented village."

And Huggan addresses the idea of the U.S. becoming "The Americas" team:

Then again, one has to wonder what Jack Nicklaus was thinking as he surveyed from afar the carnage that was America's Team. Was he musing the possibility of the hapless US side being bolstered by the likes of Canada's Mike Weir, Angel Cabrera of Argentina and Columbian Camilio Villegas in a newly constituted 'Americas' team? To even suggest such a thing can no longer be dismissed as frivolous or mere mischief making. After two successive nine-point shellackings that hardly bode well for the new world's prospects at Valhalla two years hence, it is a question that brings with it a growing legitimacy.

And, how can you not love this:

Finally, on a personal note, your correspondent is sure he is hardly alone in taking an enormous amount of pleasure from the delicious last day moment that saw Woods' caddie, the despicable Steve Williams, slip on a rock left of the 7th green and drop his boss's 9-iron into the drink. The only pity was that the endlessly boorish New Zealander did not do likewise.

That would have been the perfect end to a memorable week. Well done Darren. Well done Ireland. Get a grip America.

Tilghman, Faldo, Lerner and Foltz

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Ron Sirak and Stu Schneider report that The Golf Channel will pair Kelly Tilghman with Nick Faldo in the main booth, with Rich Lerner and Jerry Foltz (!?!?!?) on the 17th hole.

If nothing else, this news will bring legions of new readers to this site thanks to this very post.

Yes, one of the oddities of blogging is the ability to see how people reach your site. And believe it or not, based on one measely mention of Tilghman in a post a while back, 10-20 visitors a week find this site running searches for "Kelly Tilghman" and "pictures," or sometimes, her name and "nude photos."

What a wonderful world! 

Byron Nelson, R.I.P.

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nelson_byron.jpgOne of the greats passes away.

One Last Ryder Cup Question...

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...well, for today anyway.

If the rumored move to a Thursday-Sunday setup happens in 2008, this would significantly alter the Captain's strategy on day 1.

As a trusted observer pointed out to me today, the pressure on the Captain's to make their afternoon foursome's selections creates one of the few moments where the Captain's have to make big decisions under the gun.

A move splitting the opening four-ball and foursomes play would eliminate one more bit of strategy and pressure.

Big deal or not? 

Ryder Cup Clippings, Final Edition Vol. 2

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ryder_cup_logo.jpgLet the Monday morning quarter...actually, the matches would have to be close for there to be any second guessing.

No, the stories continue to marvel at the slaughter and the potential fallout for American golf.

Sandy Lyle gloats to The Scotsman's Mike Aitken:

"At the moment the future is looking very strong for us," said Lyle, one of Ian Woosnam's backroom men at the K Club. "I think we'll need to have a handicap system if it continues like this. We are producing very strong teams and they are on the ropes. Long may it continue."

Asked why the pendulum had swung so far in Europe's favour, Lyle added: "The European Tour has been getting stronger and stronger for many years.

Also, we have to thank Tiger Woods. We look at him and we see how hard we have to work on our games to try to get to his level."
James Corrigan asks questions in the Independent and highlights some of the more critical U.S. writers.
 

Maybe the best critique came from Peter Dixon in The Times:

In reality, the Americans are a bunch of rich individuals thrown together for a week. Brett Wetterich, among the four faceless rookies in the team, had never met Woods until a few weeks before the Ryder Cup and probably will never meet him again.

The US team may well have “fun” in the team room, but they do not come across as great friends. Who among the Americans is as close as Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, Sergio García and Luke Donald? When the chips are down, it is such friendships that can pull you through. Ask Clarke.

Perhaps the most telling statement of the week was Mickelson’s, when he said that it was “awkward” not having the likes of Davis Love III and Fred Couples in the side, great players “you expect to see on US teams”. What he should have said was: “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here.”
Oh but he's not done... 
Much more of this and you could see Tim Finchem, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, being put under pressure to put a cap on the number of overseas players allowed to join the tour.

There is plenty of squealing in the women’s game in the US because of the number of South Koreans walking off with the lion’s share of the prize-money. How long before the men start complaining?

Finish in the top 80 of the PGA Tour and you will earn about $1 million in prize-money alone. That is a huge sum for mediocrity. This is a society for whom winning is everything, but its golfers, metaphorically speaking, have flabby underbellies — and boy were they exposed at the K Club.

Monty weighs in with a guest commentary for the Telegraph, and you would think his lead is a joke, but it's not.

If our team had a secret over the week, it was the way we boosted each other's self-esteem at every possible opportunity. It was Ian Woosnam's idea. Every time one of us was about to tee off at the first, Woosie, or one of his assistants, would be there to say, "You're a great champion," or something along those lines.

Wow, I thought our guys were simple!

Silverman WSJ Interview with Updike

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Jeff Silverman interviews John Updike for the Wall Street Journal's weekend edition. A few highlights:

WSJ: But you do have that big-headed driver.

MR. UPDIKE: Occasionally, a sweet hit will go farther than my drives usually do. I just don't have enough of them. We all like technology when we can use it, but the best club in the world and the farthest flying ball in the world aren't going to straighten out your drives for you.

WSJ: Do you think that far-flying ball goes too far?

MR. UPDIKE: Not when I hit it. It can never go too far for me. I would think if you're going to make an adjustment in the game the ball is much easier to tinker with than the clubs. I don't think it should go any farther than it does now. And already, the fact that the pros miss so many fairways indicates to me that the ball may just be flying too far.

WSJ: Technology and its costs -- both in dollars and cents and how it's made some of the classic courses obsolete -- are aspects of the game that many complain about. What irks you?

MR. UPDIKE: There's a certain agony in waiting. It takes the best part of the day to play a round.

And...

WSJ: You've written quite movingly about golf in its simplest form vs. the flower beds, cart paths, breaches of etiquette and excessive costs. Is it getting worse?

MR. UPDIKE: I don't see it shrinking. When you do go to Scotland or Ireland and play on the unnamed, unknown courses, you realize what a simple and charming dip this is into the countryside. It's too bad that American courses trend the other way, becoming more manicured, ergo more expensive, more fuss about getting into the clubs, more and more a rich man's sport, where in Scotland and Ireland it began as a poor man's sport.

WSJ: Where have you liked playing over there?

MR. UPDIKE: I went up to Dornoch, and that's really worth it because there you really see a majestic, natural course up there in the twilight zone. I played St. Andrews once in the twilight serendipitously. My wife was with me. I rented clubs and she walked around with me and we joined up with a twosome, father and son, and had a lovely round that ended in the gloaming. That was a great lyrical experience. They're all kind of fun and shaggy and no fuss, and I like that kind of golf.

WSJ: You witnessed the 1999 Ryder Cup at the Country Club in Brookline as a marshal. Another cup is coming up. You've observed that the event gets our blood boiling. Is that good for the game?

MR. UPDIKE: You hate to see the partisanship become so extreme that the crowds heckle the golfers. The game is meant to be a gentleman's game in which you call rule infractions on yourself, and you shake hands before and after, never show hostility, and I think in the Ryder Cup there's the danger of all those manners being suspended. The Ryder Cup I was at was the one where Justin Leonard sank an amazingly long putt and suddenly we went from being losers to being winners and they mobbed him and trampled all over the green [before the match was completed]. That left a bad after-feeling.

WSJ: Do you read much about golf?

MR. UPDIKE: I follow the newspaper accounts. I don't read everything written about the game because it detracts from my writing, but my first acquaintance with golf was through writing -- in murder mysteries. English murder mysteries often have a golf course with a corpse on it.

WSJ: Why is golf such a writer's game?

MR. UPDIKE: It's contemplative. You kind of think your way out of corners. Often you find yourself both in plotting and in golf in an awkward situation of your own making and you try to get out of it. And I think both writing and golfing involve a patient temperament that can be content with slow progress. And you can play golf very happily and hardly talk to anybody for four hours. All those things are appealing to a writer.

WSJ: What do you see as the cornerstones of the golf library?

MR. UPDIKE: I would put certainly one or two of P.G. Wodehouse's golf tales. They're so funny and yet so vivid and you really come to understand golf. And Bernard Darwin's accounts of the British courses and British tournaments. A book that I learned from was Tommy Armour's "How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time," which I find more helpful than Hogan's.

WSJ: If you could fix one thing about the game what would it be?

MR. UPDIKE: You can't really do much about attitude except maybe try to emphasize the basic principles of golf etiquette. Beyond that, it would be nice if you could disconnect golf and money. You lose something when it becomes a privileged sport. It was nice when everybody was out there swinging away with their lessonless, self-taught swings.

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Week 38

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pgatour.jpgThe PGA Tour driving distance average jumped to 289.6 yards from 289.3 following the Texas Open.

There were 6 drives over 400 yards bringing the season total to 30, two shy of the PGA Tour high mark in 2004.

There were 18 400-yarders in 2005.

FYI, the long bombers in Texas were Scott Gutschewski (425), Bubba Dickerson (420),  Harrison Frazier (416), Charley Hoffman (411), Brandt Jobe (404 and 401).

Tape Delayed No More?

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Golfobserver's Peter McCleery analyzes NBC's Ryder Cup telecast, focusing his criticism on the outdated nature of tape-delay coverage in the Internet era. He says sucked the life out of the Friday/Saturday telecasts here in the States, and I would agree. But even on tape, NBC could have done better...

If you're going to tape everything, use the time more wisely. As it was, there was 20 minute of nonaction to fill on Saturday, and the 20 minutes before that featured only one match still in progress.

Might NBC suggest that they didn't have enough time to edit the dreadfully slow morning four-balls, even though we know they did based on those tacky Rolex clocks decorating each tee?

Anyway, McCleery concludes: 

Here's hoping this is the last tape-delayed Ryder Cup ever and the last walkover in a while. The PGA and NBC have another four years to figure it all out. That's twice the time that the American players have. It should be enough to finally get this thing right.

They just had two years since the last Cup to devise an Internet strategy for this year's event, announcing the exclusive online coverage the day before the matches started.

However, there may be hope for U.S. viewers when the matches are played at Celtic Manor in 2010. It has been rumored that Friday Ryder Cup play may be spread out over two days (like the Presidents Cup). This would allow for 1 p.m. tee times on new host network ESPN, meaning a respectable start time in the east coast. And of course, we know that's all that matters.

This would also allow for a 10 or 11 a.m. start at Valhalla, allowing European viewers to go to bed at decent hour.

However, a Thursday start still doesn't solve the Saturday-on-NBC issue. And of course, we know that's all that matters.

 

Ryder Cup Clippings, Final Edition

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T1_0924_ryder3.jpgLots of great coverage, so let the celebration (and questions) begin:

Lawrence Donegan in The Guardian:

The Americans arrived in Dublin as underdogs, played like underdogs and will be cast as underdogs for as long as the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson fail to produce their true form in the context of a team event. Indeed, so one-sided was the contest that at times during yesterday's session of 12 singles matches it seemed the impossible was on the cards - a Ryder Cup without drama.

Fortunately there was enough raw emotion in the air to ensure the day will live long in the memory. Woosnam's victory address will not trouble the compilers of the Oxford Book of 21st Century Speeches but the much-derided Welshman showed a wonderful touch when he sent Clarke out in the seventh tie of the day. Four points ahead overnight, Europe needed 4½ points to win the trophy. This left the Irishman, whose wife Heather died from breast cancer six weeks ago, with the maximum chance of delivering the ending the home crowd and his team-mates so desperately wanted.

Doug Ferguson summarizes each of the singles matches if, God forbid, you want to relive the rout.

Gary Van Sickle on SI.com:

This was the best Ryder Cup because -- and Darren Clarke is going to hate this sentence -- it was all about Darren Clarke. This Ryder Cup belonged to him -- no, it was for him, although he'd be embarrassed by your attention and feel uneasy about your sympathy. Clarke deserved this Ryder Cup week and maybe, if not probably, he needed it. Ryder Cups are always thick with emotion, but there's never been one this emotional.

David Feherty on Golfonline:

You can bet half your ass the American players always care about the event and each other, and bet the other cheek on the fact that this carousel will come around. It will come around even quicker if all fans of American golf get behind it and push.

Moving into the "what-to-do-next" division, Scott Michaux in the Augusta Chronicle offers a few thoughts, but first he has to get this off his chest:

The only thing more embarrassing than the final result was DiMarco fist-pumping his birdie on the 17th hole that extended his match with Lee Westwood. His comeback effort from five down with seven to go against a player who was ill overnight and carrying a fever on the course was meaningful only to himself. It was like doing a dance after a sack with your team trailing by seven touchdowns. Hitting two balls in the water on the 18th was his just reward.

The Golf Gazette's Ken Carpenter offers his suggestions for turning things around on the U.S. side.

Have you ever seen wives and girlfriends jumping on the pile after a team wins the World Series? No. Do significant others wear matching “uniforms” at an NFL game? No. Do NBA organizations allow wives and girlfriends to travel on the team plane? Rarely, if ever. Do significant others march into an Olympic stadium during the opening ceremonies? Never.

There were reports last week that the wives were in the USA’s team room when captain Tom Lehman was addressing the troops. Has Bill Belichick ever invited the girls into the Super Bowl locker room? Yeah, right . . .

And...

Motivate Mickelson: If Phil Mickelson wants to “shut it down” after the PGA Championship every year, then he should give up his spot on the team and go to the beach. In the last two Ryder Cups he’s 1-7-1; in the last two Presidents Cups he’s 3-5-2 — that’s an abysmal 4-12-3 record, totally unacceptable for someone annually ranked in the top three in the world. In 2008, Mickelson needs to play his way into shape prior to the event — assuming he isn’t fully retired by that point.

ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski weighs in on the what-to-do-about-the-U.S. subject, as does AP's Jim Litke, who talks to Michael Jordan about what ails America.

James Lawton in the Independent says the Americans need to start playing better or the Ryder Cup will be diminished.

The truth, and it is a bitter one for anyone embracing the idea that the Ryder Cup has a format and a tradition that makes it one of the great jewels of the sporting universe, is that the long months of hype, the millions of euros of investment, delivered something rather less than glittering. What was forthcoming was not a serious collision of some of the most talented and best rewarded sportsmen in the world but another day when the blue of Europe covered the scoreboard almost as though it was spilling from a can of paint. It meant that those who believed the humiliation inflicted on the United States in Michigan two years ago would concentrate the collective mind of an American team boasting four major winners - Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, David Toms and Jim Furyk against Europe's one, Jose Maria Olazabal - to make a real contest this time were not so much confounded as embarrassed.

The Telegraph featured this commentary by David Leadbetter, who writes:

But in its structure, the American golf system is simply not set up for these grand team events. Even at junior level, the focus is overwhelmingly on individual scores, rather than team dynamics. An event such as the Ryder Cup, squeezed into an already tight schedule, is almost a nuisance to them.

Douglas Lowe looks at Tom Lehman's dismissive response to the idea of adding Canada and South America to the U.S. Ryder Cup equation.

I'm not so sure. Lorena Ochoa might be an upgrade?

T1_0924_ryder6.jpgMartin Johnson approached the same topic but also covered Woosie's celebratory cleansing:

In the battle of the captains, Ian Woosnam had the easier job because he had the better players, and it was no great surprise when the Ryder Cup went to a bloke who wasn't much taller than the trophy itself. After spending months practising his speeches in front of the bedroom mirror, one of golf's great bon viveurs had promised himself a small libation at the end of it all, but we didn't think this would involve an attempt to down an entire jeroboam of champagne in one herculean swig.

The end result was a blowback of such Vesuvian proportions that the eruption of escaping champagne flew out of every visible orifice bar Woosie's ears.

Back to the state of U.S. golf, Thomas Boswell in the Washington Post:

Lehman insisted that his players were "prepared" and played "their best" with "heart and courage." Because it's presumably true, that only makes these back-to-back 18 1/2 -9 1/2 scores more damaging to the PGA Tour's reputation. Asked if more such wipeouts might send this mega-money-making event "back in the other direction" toward lessened popularity, Lehman said: "That sounds a little insulting. . . . Things have cycles. There will be a time when we'll be sitting here saying to the Europeans, 'Is this [event] in danger of becoming a little bit in trouble because the American team is on top?'

"That will happen."

Image buffs, SI's shots from Sunday are here, Golf Digest's here. Golfonline's do not feature a direct link.

Oh, and it was an unnamed photographer from Getty Images who captured the shot of Stevie losing Tiger's 9-iron. Nice work Stevie! tiger1.jpg

Rob Hodgett on the BBC blog analyzes the Dublin comedy festival that broke out during the Euro press conference. I think it's one of those "you had to be there" deals. It did seem funnier on TV.

The Chicago Tribune's Ed Sherman looks ahead to 2012, yes, 2012 and Medinah, forecasting the U.S. roster for those matches. 

Here's a guess at the makeup of the U.S. squad at Medinah:

Captain: Davis Love III. The six-time Ryder Cup player will get his shot.
Woods: Might have 21 majors by then.
Furyk: Will he still be paired with Woods?
Chad Campbell: Looks to be a U.S. fixture.
Zach Johnson: Performed well as a rookie in 2006.
Vaughn Taylor: Fellow players are very high on him.
Ryan Moore: Expect him to be a star.
Ben Curtis: Proved that 2003 British Open victory wasn't a fluke.
Lucas Glover: Big hitter could make Ryder debut in 2008.
Sean O'Hair: A load of potential that should be fulfilled.
J.B. Holmes: Long hitter could be a Ryder Cup force.
Captain's picks:
Mickelson: Star sliding, but Love still takes him.
Michelle Wie: She couldn't do any worse than her predecessors.

Mark Garrod confirms that Phil Mickelson is not playing in this week's AmEx event in England.

And finally, Hodgetts at the BBC blog has the quotes of the final day.

Why Is This Enjoyable?

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ryder_cup_logo.jpg I admired the U.S. team players, our captain and their sportsmanship throughout the matches.

Yet, why is it that I and (a surprising number of) Americans derive just a wee bit of pleasure watching the U.S. Ryder Cup team lose?

Is it the notion that these losses reinforce the unsophisticated nature of American golf, where one-dimensional formats, setups and courses seem to render even our best players vulnerable in Ryder Cup match play settings?

Obviously part of this had to do with Darren Clarke's amazing play and emotional comeback.

But no, it's something else. Please help.

Ryder Cup Clippings, Sunday Edition

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ryder_cup_logo.jpgOne more day before we get to spend the next two years hearing about the U.S. team's efforts to build a stronger bond. Or maybe we'll get lucky and Captain Paul Azinger will just tell them to make more putts.

In the meantime, there are still 12 points up for grabs Sunday and anything can happen. Well, not if you ask the world's great inkslingers.

John Huggan offers capsules of Sunday's singles matches, which will probably be underway by the time you are reading this.  He also looks at Sergio's epic Ryder Cup play.

Chris Lewis is a guest contributor at the Scotsman's Sunday edition and he's trying to figure out how it came to be that the American rookies played great while the stars fizzled.

Doug Ferguson offers these capsules of Saturday's matches.

tiger_morning.jpgFor photo buffs, Golf Digest offers these images while Golfonline's best stuff from day 2 is posted here.

Golfweek's Alistair Tait is already declaring Ian Woosnam the superior captain for not screwing this up while Golf World's John Hawkins has already begun to figure out where it all went wrong.

The European Tour's George O' Grady is already assuring everyone that there will be plenty of nearby parking at Celtic Manor in Wales. Boy it must be bad at The K Club!

The Principal says the combination of monsoons and helicopters constantly flying in and out made The K Club feel more like Vietnam circa 1968 than Ireland. Incidentally, Arnold Palmer cited the impressive helicopter operation when talking on NBC about what a great job the Irish are doing this week.

Gee, I wonder how Arnie's getting to the course?

Speaking of Palmer, it seems he was charged he played Bandon Dunes recently, the first time since he was 17!  Thanks to reader Van for this from David Davies in the Telegraph:

Arnold Palmer, who designed this Ryder Cup course, earned a special tribute in Ian Woosnam's opening ceremony speech.

"He's been an inspiration to us all... a legend," Woosie said. Arnie is a famous face among sporting personalities in America, except, it seems, at the Bandon Dunes resort in Oregon. He arrived to have a look at the course which recently hosted the Curtis Cup and, on deciding to play, was asked: "How would you like to pay for this?" One credit card imprint later and Palmer, 77, remarked wryly to friends: "That's the first time I've paid to play golf since I was 17."

The Golfweek crew chimes in with various blog observations on Saturday's play.

Marina Hyde in The Guardian looks at Tom Lehman and his WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelet along with other religious elements of his captaincy.

And finally, the BBC blog's Rob Hodgetts offers the best quotes of the day on the BBC blog.