Thursday
Aug202009
Commentary: The Ryder Cup also runneth over
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 11:07PM
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Writing from Town and Country, Mo.
Eventually, the 105th Western Open, being played for the second year under the banner of the BMW Championship, will be started and finished. Then the attention of the golf world – which isn't exactly on Bellerive Country Club this week, if the half-full press tent is any indication – will be turned on the Ryder Cup.
That's down the highway near Louisville in two weeks, after the PGA Tour does absolutely nothing next week. That will allow the players to recover after the task of playing 72 hours in three days here, give Kentucky native Kenny Perry a few days to buy more tickets, plus allow the pressure to percolate in the heads of the 24 players.
The U.S. PGA side has six rookies on a team that will try to break a streak of three straight losses, the last two by wide margins. The European PGA side has a quartet of newcomers trying to ride a wave that has seen the Euros win five of the last six cups. The "What if?" scenarios have been replaced by "Who's he?" Soren Hansen of Denmark may need his passport to walk onto the first tee.
Hunter Mahan, better known here but almost as unknown in Europe as Hansen is here, is one of the new kids on the American block. He may be one of the few players who is rational enough to realize that having teammates doesn’t mean that you have to everything for them, but can also rely on them as well. Strength in numbers, so to speak.
"It's just you against the two guys or the one guy you've got in front of you (in a match), and I think that's so neat," Mahan said as rain pelted Bellerive. "You don't have to worry about the field. You can just play one hole at a time and just play aggressively and just have fun at it."
Mahan played in the Junior Ryder Cup at The Country Club in 1999, then hung around to see the U.S. PGA team author the "I've got a feeling" comeback captained by Ben Crenshaw. He's also played in the President's Cup, the PGA Tour-knockoff of the Ryder Cup that substitutes the rest of the world for Europe.
"The President's Cup was amazing; it was great," Mahan said. "But I think it's pretty obvious the Ryder Cup is amped up a little bit more. There's so much more history. It's a little bit more of a rivalry now, since they've whupped us the last few years.
"Just watch the reactions when it's over. Guys are chugging champagne, they're spraying everybody, and you can see in their faces how much it meant for them to win."
Mahan, Steve Stricker, J.B. Holmes and Chad Campbell were the picks of U.S. captain Paul Azinger. Stricker, for all his accomplishments, is also a Ryder Cup rookie.
"I think it's going to be good that there are some guys that haven't been there, haven't experienced the losses of previous Ryder Cups," Stricker said. "We'll be the underdogs, which is fine. It should take some of the pressure off us."
Perhaps not. Padraig Harrington, having gone through it as a rookie and a veteran, sees it differently.
"As a rookie, you've got to play well Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday," Harrington said. "I know my first time, in Boston, I played really well on Tuesday and Wednesday, and when Mark James selected the team, I wasn't starting (Friday). It was only on Thursday, Ollie (Jose-Maria Olazabal) felt he wouldn't be up for the foursomes that I got put in.
"But I got put in because I played so well (in practice). Certainly, for the rookies, the competition starts early. They've got to prove themselves."
There's one other thing, Harrington said. The first tee.
"I know the first shot I hit in the Ryder Cup, I couldn't see the golf ball," he said. "I was just so nervous I couldn't even see it. You've got to expect that in your first Ryder Cup. It was the same as when I played in the Walker Cup (in 1991)."
Harrington noted something else that made complete sense.
"In a given week, you're only watching the guys who have played well going into the last round," he said. "In the Ryder Cup, guys are asked to play well cold. Most players are doing well if they (play their best) one in three weeks, and all of a sudden they'll be thrown into a week where they're expected to be like they were leading a tournament, where they don't necessarily have the confidence of having played the first 71 holes to be feeling like that.
"It's definitely a harder tournament to manage the pressure. You're kind of thrown in at the deep end."
Don't tell that to Mahan. He doesn't know any better. Yet. Eventually, he'll be introduced as representing the United States, and he won't be able to breathe.
- Tim Cronin
Writing from Town and Country, Mo.
Eventually, the 105th Western Open, being played for the second year under the banner of the BMW Championship, will be started and finished. Then the attention of the golf world – which isn't exactly on Bellerive Country Club this week, if the half-full press tent is any indication – will be turned on the Ryder Cup.
That's down the highway near Louisville in two weeks, after the PGA Tour does absolutely nothing next week. That will allow the players to recover after the task of playing 72 hours in three days here, give Kentucky native Kenny Perry a few days to buy more tickets, plus allow the pressure to percolate in the heads of the 24 players.
The U.S. PGA side has six rookies on a team that will try to break a streak of three straight losses, the last two by wide margins. The European PGA side has a quartet of newcomers trying to ride a wave that has seen the Euros win five of the last six cups. The "What if?" scenarios have been replaced by "Who's he?" Soren Hansen of Denmark may need his passport to walk onto the first tee.
Hunter Mahan, better known here but almost as unknown in Europe as Hansen is here, is one of the new kids on the American block. He may be one of the few players who is rational enough to realize that having teammates doesn’t mean that you have to everything for them, but can also rely on them as well. Strength in numbers, so to speak.
"It's just you against the two guys or the one guy you've got in front of you (in a match), and I think that's so neat," Mahan said as rain pelted Bellerive. "You don't have to worry about the field. You can just play one hole at a time and just play aggressively and just have fun at it."
Mahan played in the Junior Ryder Cup at The Country Club in 1999, then hung around to see the U.S. PGA team author the "I've got a feeling" comeback captained by Ben Crenshaw. He's also played in the President's Cup, the PGA Tour-knockoff of the Ryder Cup that substitutes the rest of the world for Europe.
"The President's Cup was amazing; it was great," Mahan said. "But I think it's pretty obvious the Ryder Cup is amped up a little bit more. There's so much more history. It's a little bit more of a rivalry now, since they've whupped us the last few years.
"Just watch the reactions when it's over. Guys are chugging champagne, they're spraying everybody, and you can see in their faces how much it meant for them to win."
Mahan, Steve Stricker, J.B. Holmes and Chad Campbell were the picks of U.S. captain Paul Azinger. Stricker, for all his accomplishments, is also a Ryder Cup rookie.
"I think it's going to be good that there are some guys that haven't been there, haven't experienced the losses of previous Ryder Cups," Stricker said. "We'll be the underdogs, which is fine. It should take some of the pressure off us."
Perhaps not. Padraig Harrington, having gone through it as a rookie and a veteran, sees it differently.
"As a rookie, you've got to play well Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday," Harrington said. "I know my first time, in Boston, I played really well on Tuesday and Wednesday, and when Mark James selected the team, I wasn't starting (Friday). It was only on Thursday, Ollie (Jose-Maria Olazabal) felt he wouldn't be up for the foursomes that I got put in.
"But I got put in because I played so well (in practice). Certainly, for the rookies, the competition starts early. They've got to prove themselves."
There's one other thing, Harrington said. The first tee.
"I know the first shot I hit in the Ryder Cup, I couldn't see the golf ball," he said. "I was just so nervous I couldn't even see it. You've got to expect that in your first Ryder Cup. It was the same as when I played in the Walker Cup (in 1991)."
Harrington noted something else that made complete sense.
"In a given week, you're only watching the guys who have played well going into the last round," he said. "In the Ryder Cup, guys are asked to play well cold. Most players are doing well if they (play their best) one in three weeks, and all of a sudden they'll be thrown into a week where they're expected to be like they were leading a tournament, where they don't necessarily have the confidence of having played the first 71 holes to be feeling like that.
"It's definitely a harder tournament to manage the pressure. You're kind of thrown in at the deep end."
Don't tell that to Mahan. He doesn't know any better. Yet. Eventually, he'll be introduced as representing the United States, and he won't be able to breathe.
- Tim Cronin
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