Whoa: Tiger Shoulders Blame For Recent USA Ryder Woes

Not that I don't trust Steve DiMeglio, but I did have to go read Tiger's transcript to see that I wasn't hallucinating when he took some of the blame for the U.S. losing six of the last eight Cups.

"Certainly I am responsible for that, because I didn't earn the points that I was put out there for," said Woods, who is 13-14-2 in the Ryder Cup. "I believe I was out there, what, in five sessions each time, and I didn't go 5-0 on our side. So I certainly am a part of that, and that's part of being a team. I needed to go get my points for my team, and I didn't do that."

Sheesh, next thing you know he's going to be apologizing to the fire hydrant, nominating Hank Haney for a Pulitzer and announcing that he's joining the Peace Corps.

"Greenkeepers have played a starring role in home-team preparation since at least the 1980s when the Ryder Cup became more competitive after decades of U.S. dominance."

Mark Peters files an excellent WSJ look at the various course setup tactics, fetishes and other neurotic acts of Ryder Cups past, whether they really matter and how Medinah super Curtis Tyrrell will be doing his part for Team USA.

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Tyrrell, the director of golf-course operations, was zipping around Medinah in a cart overseeing last-minute preparations as corporate tents and concessions rose around the course. Even as players and fans start to see some of the gamesmanship Mr. Love has planned, other plans remain private.

"Some of it is real obvious, with the mowing heights in the rough," Mr. Tyrrell said. "But there are a lot of things that are meant for the team only."

There is also an audio segment featuring Peters talking to Tyrrell.

PGA Encourages American Fans To Wear Red This Sunday, Even If Sitting At Home In Their Favorite Jammies

From the Team USA portion of RyderCup.com--yes we're still splitting the website into teams--an unbylined report on the PGA of America encouraging a "Red Out" to make Sunday look like a Nebraska Cornhuskers tailgate party.

Fans attending the Ryder Cup are encouraged to wear red clothing on Sunday at Medinah to show their patriotic pride, while fans watching from home are encouraged to the same.

What is this, the Tavistock Cup?

Review & DVR Alert: War By The Shore

With the captivating documentary War By The Shore, core golf fans will have one less thing to bemoan about Golf Channel's neglect of the game's rich history. In yet another shining example of the Comcast/NBC merger benefiting golf fans, this artfully produced film takes full advantage of NBC's original 1991 Ryder Cup footage and intermixes the highlights with historic photos and an extensive mix of interviewees to relive one of the most thrilling events the game has ever witnessed. Beyond retelling the story of an epic match, the 51-minute Ross Greenburg produced documentary makes an open-and-shut case for this as the transcendent event in the Ryder Cup. And maybe even in golf's place in the network pecking order.

Directed and edited by George Roy from a script by Steve Stern, the first nine minutes are devoted to the Jack Nicklaus-inspired 1979 switch to a competition against a team from Continental Europe. By 1987 when the Europeans dominated at Muirfield Village and Jose Maria Olazabal broke out in a celebratory dance across Muirfield Village's 18th green, there was "bad blood" and the arrogance was viewed as an "affront" to the Americans, Paul Azinger says in the film.  A 1989 tie was remembered mostly for Captain Ray Floyd's "twelve best golfers in the world" remark at the opening ceremony. Throw in a testosterone boost from the Gulf War even though the U.S. and Europe were allies, and the stage was set for the 1991 event at Kiawah Island's Ocean Course.

The early week antics recalled in the Peter Coyote-narrated film are many, from footage of the opening dinner (everyone had so much hair and Sir Nick had such lovely highlights!), the Steve Pate limo accident (didn't need to see Pate shirtless though) and even the traditionally-diplomatic President George Bush giving a pro-American taped message shown at the dinner (he refers to the bi-annual matches…nice job presidential speechwriters!). It all eventually pales compared to the on-course dramatics: Seve Ballesteros coughing-in Chip Beck's backswing, the ball compression controversy between Azinger and Seve, and even Azinger suggesting teammate Corey Pavin's ode-to-the-troops camouflage hats "crossed the line" (now we know why the two eventual Captains weren't sharing many notes in 2010!). The combination of rarely seen footage, fresh memories and a nice cross section of players and media interviewed, makes for terrific television. (Included is Curt Sampson, who has a new book on the matches. Excerpt here.)

One pleasant surprise to even this viewer--who was glued to the whole thing live and still has VHS copies of all three days--was the reminder that this was a breakthrough television event. The first Ryder Cup aired on network television, NBC's Dick Ebersol made a bold decision to stay with Saturday's Fred Couples/Payne Stewart v. Olazabal/Ballesteros match a whopping 90 minutes into American prime time. The resulting match, played in stunning late light on an Ocean Course that was firm, infinitely more fascinating and aesthetically rugged back then, set the stage for Sunday's singles while introducing a new audience to emotion-fueled golf like no one had ever seen.

For the final day, the film glosses over the decision by Pate to not play due to the car accident injury and instead focuses on the two matches everyone involved will forever remember: Mark Calcaveccia's meltdown against Colin Montgomerie and the finale between Bernhard Langer and Hale Irwin. We learn that Monty was going to concede a short putt to Calc after the "smother top" into the par-3 17th hole's lake, but then something urged him to resist and Calc missed, sending the match to the home hole. Then there was that unforgettable finish between Irwin and Langer which, while getting the full treatment, doesn't feel quite as dramatic as it did in last Tuesday's re-airing of the original telecast. Still, it's a minor quibble as the Greenburg team packed a lot of into 51 minutes of gripping and never dull Ryder Cup memories.

War By The Shore airs Tuesday, September 25th at 9 p.m. ET on Golf Channel. Here's a preview:

Tour Championship Sunday Overnight: 2.2, Up 57%

Overnight Nielsen ratings for the Tour Championship: 2.2 Saturday (up 100%!) and 2.2. Sunday. It was the best Sunday for the TC since 2009 (3.3), and stands as the 3rd best TC final round overnight in ResetCup history (since 2007/3.3).

NBC drew a strong 4.0 for Notre Dame-Michigan (maybe thanks in part to golf's improved lead-in?) and a second-best ever 14.3 for Sunday night's New England-Baltimore NFL game.

It's A Good Time To Be Peter Millar, Whoever That Man Is!

John Strege on the sale of upscale golf clothier Peter Millar to Richemont, parent of brands like Alfred Dunhill, Cartier and Montblanc.

Couple that with a Brandt Snedeker Tour Championship win and it sounds like at least one golf company had a good week!

Even better, Strege answers one of the great mysteries in golf: who the heck is Peter Millar? And you say this blog doesn't lead you to life changing information?

Snedeker: “That’s all I needed.”

The AJC's Steve Hummer with Brandt Snedeker's emotional Saturday winning $11 million in the Tour Championship/ResetCup but starting the day with a trip 11 miles away to the Shepherd Rehabilitation Center to visit the badly injured Tucker Anderson, son of his instructor Todd.

Only natural the subject of the Tour Championship would arise.

So, Tucker, you think I can beat Rory today?

Tucker Anderson had been involved in a near fatal car accident in Florida two weeks ago and was transferred to the Shepherd Center for treatment of a traumatic brain injury. The teen can’t speak yet. But as Snedeker relayed later, Tucker answered him with a wink.

“That’s all I needed,” Snedeker said.

C’mon, how you gonna beat that?

Bob Harig feels Snedeker's clean victory in the Tour Championship made his ResetCup win better too because the algorithms stayed out of the affair. Those poor calculability codes and rolled up Oxfords in PVB that couldn't bring the attention off the golfers and onto the suits!

The fact that Snedeker won the Tour Championship by 3 shots over Justin Rose and kept the typically contrived and confusing points scenarios to a minimum makes for a nice bow on that FedEx package.
Even Rory McIlroy, who finished second to Snedeker in the final FedEx standings despite two playoff victories, a major championship and a total of four wins this year (to Snedeker's two), was left to give a golf clap to Snedeker while having to "settle'' for his $3 million bonus.

"I'm a little disappointed, but at the same time, Brandt really deserves to win," McIlroy said. "If you look at his stats the whole way [throughout] the week, he played the best golf out of anyone. He knew what he needed to do. He needed to come in here and win. He controlled his own destiny, just like I did, and he was able to come and do that. Because of that, he really deserves it."

Rob Matre posts a lovely album of final day shots and also this awesome shot of Snedeker making a key putt.

Snedeker's entire post round interview transcript.

For those of you counting at home, the aggregate scoring concept for the Playoffs would have finished this way:

Rory McIlroy, 41 under (-1) -42   
Dustin Johnson, 36 under (-1) -37  
   

Tiger Woods, 34 under (-2) -36
Brandt Snedeker, 25 under (-10) -35
Ryan Moore, 24 under (-6) -30
Phil Mickelson, 31 under (+1) -30
Louis Oosthuizen, 34 under (+7) -27

And for those of you favoring the "Plus One" concept endorsed by Brandel Chamblee and Johnny Miller last week, that means the final foursome after the Tour Championship play would have been McIlroy, Woods, Johnson and Snedeker, playing either one round or 36 for the $10 million prize.

Now that's one reset I'd love to see!

ESPN's Sportscenter highlight package:

Update on 2012-09-24 14:49 by Geoff

**Tim Rosaforte in Golf World Monday with more on the bond between Snedeker and Tucker Anderson.

Tour Championship Final Round Open Comment Thread

It's the day we've all been waiting for, the last PGA Tour round before the Ryder Cup!

I'm sure the algorithms will work themselves out and at some point there will be a chance for a statistical tie, forcing NBC's Steve Sands to hit the white board. Goosebumps just thinking about those permutations and data matrixes.

Your tee times here. The leaders go at 1:50 ET.