Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Welcome to Montgomerieshire

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Welcome to Montgomerieshire

    Announced Cardiff airport, as the American players flew in for the Ryder Cup this morning.



    Captain Colin seems to bending over backwards to be the genial host and to give his game plan away. He's already announced that all twelve of his players will feature at some point on the first day. That's not necessarily a bad thing; certainly one of the mistakes of 1999 was not giving three of the players a match before the Sunday singles, a tactic that may arguably have helped Europe build up the 10-6 lead in foursomes and fourballs they held, but certainly contributed to none of those players (Coltart, Sandelin and Van De Velde) even reaching the 16th green in their singles games, when they did get the chance to play. If the Ryder Cup has all the pressure of a major (and many players say it's far worse) surely the last thing you want is rookies picking a club up for the first time, on Sunday, in a singles match without even a team-mate to help them along. It was tantamount to tossing 3 of that 4 point lead away, that year, before the singles had even begun.

    Montgomerie has also, bizarrely, already admitted he's written a gracious losing acceptance speech. Not something I can imagine a Vince Lombardi, or an Alex Ferguson, doing.

    It's certainly a different style of captaincy to ones we've seen before. Fascinating to see if it works.

    #2
    Welcome to Montgomerieshire

    Also, the part of Corey "Crazy" Pavin is clearly being played by Billy Bob Thornton.

    Comment


      #3
      Welcome to Montgomerieshire

      Comment


        #4
        Welcome to Montgomerieshire

        I was contemplating starting a Ryder Cup thread, but thought that Rogin was bound to. Didn't predict the title though.

        First thing I noted when the American team arrived yesterday was the photoshoot on the steps of the plane as they disembarked. Each player with his wife/partner to his side. And Tiger Woods by himself, eyes hidden by a pair of shades.

        I heard on the news yesterday evening that both captains warned their players not to use social networking outlets to discuss team affairs. The cynic inside of me reckons it's because pre-tournament speculation about the pairings is a major part of the event, and maintains media interest for the week leading up to Friday. Besides, the captains will want to leak the pairings on their terms, as they tend to do at the Ryder Cup. Stricker & Woods looks likely, as does Westwood & Kaymer. No prizes for predicting the Molinari brothers or the Ulster Two-Ball.

        I'll have my usual few punts, as always. I claimed a tidy sum two years ago when I backed Hunter Mahan to be top US points scorer, and this time around my money is on Matt Kuchar & Luke Donald to be their respective sides top scorers. Both look likely to play at least four, if not all five games.

        I'll predict a European victory, but the Ryder Cup needs a tight finish on the Sunday to make it what it is. So another Brookline would be better than another K-Club.

        Comment


          #5
          Welcome to Montgomerieshire

          The Ryder Cup has recently come down to excruciatingly close finishes, making it the fantastic event it is, but normally because one side has performed far better than expected. Pretty much up until last time that was the lower-ranked Europeans producing amazing performances they'd never replicated as individuals but to be fair, last time it was the relatively unknown Americans who turned the tables.

          This year's is so amazing because the two teams are really so closely matched going into the event. The Americans, once again, dominate the top of the World Rankings, but neither Woods nor Mickelson (1 and 2) are anywhere near on form (although Furyk, number 5, certainly is) whereas Europe's strength lies just beneath those players - Westwood, Donald, Kaymer, McIlroy, Molinari, Poulter.

          This will also be the first Ryder Cup ever where two of the European team (McDowell and Kaymer) have won major titles on American soil during the season. That in itself has to be a huge psycholgical advantage that Montgomerie must play on, especially if either of them come up against the players they beat to win those titles (notably of course Dustin Johnson).

          The Ryder Cup is deliciously impossible to predict, simply because we have absolutely no "form" to go by in terms of how pairings will perform in fourballs and foursomes. The Molinari brothers won the World Cup last year at that format, with McIlroy/McDowell second for Ireland, but that will mean nothing come Friday.

          I predict at least 20 of the 28 matches will reach at least the 17th green. I also think, on balance, that the US will win at least 7 of the 12 singles on Sunday. I want to see Europe holding a 2-point lead on Saturday night on that basis, and if it comes to the very last match on the very last day I want to see Martin Kaymer in the European slot.

          Comment


            #6
            Welcome to Montgomerieshire

            Incidentally, whose bright idea was it to hold a golf tournament in October in Wales?

            Comment


              #7
              Welcome to Montgomerieshire

              Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:
              The Molinari brothers won the World Cup last year at that format, with McIlroy/McDowell second for Ireland, but that will mean nothing come Friday
              Couldn't the South find two players of their own?

              Comment


                #8
                Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                Even in sports that I don't like, I understand what events are big deals. I still can't for the life of me understand why the Ryder Cup is a big deal. Maybe it's because I don't understand the scoring. Maybe it's because no one I know gets worked up about it, or would ever mention it to me. Maybe it's because I find the idea of teams or nationalism in golf to be silly.

                Still, I heard that the USA captain went to UCLA. Go USA.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                  See, the only time I'm ever even slightly interested in golf is during the Ryder cup, precisely because the fact that it's a team event gives that extra frisson. Especially with the immediacy of matchplay. I don't care how many times badly dressed overpaid git A bats a ball with a stick compared with badly dressed overpaid gits B to Z during the course of a week or however long the Open lasts, but put them up against each other in teams and make them play hole for hole, and it all becomes marginally more meaningful. To me, like.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                    Why almost everyone who's the slightest bit interested in "sports" should be into the Ryder Cup. 1.01.

                    (If you're not the slightest bit interested in "sports", then why are you even looking at this thread?)

                    The Ryder Cup is a biennial contest between American and European golfers. It was first proposed as a contest back in the 1920s, when those brash Americans were first doing things like playing golf, as a way for them to demonstrate that they were in some way equivalent to their old colonial masters in the civilised arts like, well, playing golf at country clubs.

                    In no short order, America began winning and retaining the Ryder Cup, year after year after year. Often by some frankly embarassing margins. In the 1940s I think they once won it about 30 points to 2.

                    That pretty much remained the state of play until the 1980s, when in 1985 a European team led by Tony Jacklin had the temerity to actually win the fucking thing back.

                    But then a bizarre thing happened. Despite the American golfers remaining more celebrated, and more successful, Europe kept winning the Ryder Cup. They won it in 1987 on American soil, then retained it in 1989. They lost it in 1991 on the very last putt of the very last game, but won it back again in 1995.

                    The Americans won it back in 1999, in one of the worst examples of poor sportsmanship ever demonstrated in world sport, an incident that really should have pre-empted another world war.

                    Since then, virtually every Ryder Cup (it's switched ownership with almost every edition since) has been right on a knife-edge in terms of its outcome, because the teams have been so evenly matched. It's remained the most evenly balanced, and (because of its "us vs the US" nature) fascinating contest in world sport.

                    I can't wait, me.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Welcome to Montgomerieshire



                      For motivational purposes Monty should stick this picture up on the clubhouse wall with the TV showing NBC's coverage of the end of the 1999 tournament on continuous loop.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                        Why the scare quotes around sports?

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                          The stampede across the 17th green at Brookline is the only time I've ever been seriously angry watching golf. Those hideous shirts, with pictures of former US Ryder Cup team (see above) merely compounded it.

                          The ungentlemanly edge only became a feature of the Ryder Cup when Europe began to compete and Seve Ballesteros began to shoot his mouth off. Kiawah Island 1991 was it's zenith - Corey Pavin and the Desert Storm caps, early morning phone calls to the European team hotel, the cheering of missed putts. Throughout the 90's it was the norm. But there was alot of soul-searching after Brookline 1999 and participants endeavoured to return to proper golfing etiquette ahead of the 2001 Ryder Cup at the Belfry. With the event postponed due to the 9/11 attacks, by the time it was played the following year, neither side seemed willing to stoke the fires. And it's been relatively calm since.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                            Brookline was one of (unfortunately many) occasions on which I was ashamed of my citizenship. It especially pained me that it occurred on a course that I have very fond memories of (it's Harvard's "home course") and in a town known for its progressive politics.

                            C'mon Monty.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                              Why do I keep seemingly upsetting people by use of so-called "scare" quotes when I meant nothing of the sort? Especially when I myself have noticed myself doing this in the past? I'm a cockwit.

                              Anyhoo, it really does look like it might piss down all weekend all over Newport, golf fans. Knee-jerk prejudice says this should favour the Europeans, who (heh heh) are used to playing in the rain, but actually all professional golfers are equally pampered ponces nowadays who rarely venture outside if the wind's blowing, so I don't think it will make much difference to either side. McIlroy and Fowler, the two young rookies, will probably be the only ones in the teams who've had recent experience of being told to "go out and get on with it", from their amateur and college careers. Harrington's won an Open in a downpour before, but he did his best to fuck that one up when the pressure got to him (double-bogey down the last to scrape into a playoff) so you could hardly call him a wet-weather "specialist".

                              Europe does have one player at its disposal who plays the best golf in the world in the midst of a hurricane, Paul Lawrie, but he didn't qualify and Monty didn't pick him.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                                This is the first time I've managed to see the opening games on the Friday morning since 1993. Then, it was because I pulled a sickie and my mother fell for it. Now, it's because of unemployment.

                                It's becoming a wash-out already at Celtic Manor. Surface water on the greens and swathes of the fairways are flooded. But they're soldiering on. The rough is going to be a killer as it's so saturated that it's impossible to control the ball. And as I type, Lee Westwood has had to take a drop in the bunker as water has gathered there. That will become a feature of today's play, I reckon.

                                Europe up in the first three games, US up in the final game - the strange rookie pairing of Bubba Watson & Jeff Overton.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                                  S*y-less here... any links? (D'ya see what I did there?)

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                                    Forget it; it's off.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                                      That Brookline thing would have been OK if they'd conceded Olazabal's put.

                                      The weather looks almost as bad as when me and my Dad when to see the Open at Birkdale. How anyone got round in less than 85 that day, I'll never know. Sandy Lyle and Rich Beem didn't get round at all.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                                        Rumours currently washing around South Wales that they are going to have to switch the event to somewhere it's got a better chance of actually happening, maybe Delhi.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                                          Sky have made an ad for this showing a famous Welshman talking about his pride at hosting the event.

                                          Max Boyce? No Ratboy Bellamy.

                                          edit- it may have been something to do with the Welsh Tourist Board, not Sky. Which is even more bizarre. Was Tony Lewis unavailable?

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                                            The first couple of days seem a bizarre format. I assumed this was set in stone an unalterable but they said on TV just now that as recently as 1987 there was a serious attempt to change it, by putting an extra day of singles in. Can there not be 5 games in each phase (morning and afternoon)? That's an extra match to follow.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                                              They tinkered with the format as recently as four years ago, when they switched the order of the fourballs and foursomes matches on the first two days (for the life of me I can't remember what the point of that was), so it's certainly not set in stone.

                                              Not a good day today for Sun Mountain golf - they'd made the US team's wet-weather gear and it wasn't up to the job. After about ten minutes the players were changing into alternative gear bought from a shop in the tented village.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                                                They're resuming at 5, but with preferred lies. I'd rather they waited until tomorrow. The teeth have been drawn from this course by the rain anyway, allowing them preferred lies on top of that will just turn it into a pitch-and-putt.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Welcome to Montgomerieshire

                                                  "Preferred lies" is what some us call "winter rules", right? That's basically a way of not damaging the course. It's not a basis for competitive golf.

                                                  I might have asked you this before.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X