Learn to love your 3-wood. Many people's drivers are hit or miss, but the 3W is a far more consistent club. If your driver is misbehaving, your 3W may consistently get you in the fairway 235 yards from the tee. The higher loft on a 3W decreases sidespin, and the 3W can be hit from light rough as well as the fairway. The 3W will hit the ball over trees, letting you cut corners on shorter doglegs. Practice power draws and fades, and the 3W may become your favorite club.
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Europe 18.5, USA 9.5
Europe wins the Ryder Cup in convincing fashion: with a new winning victory margin.
The US had their backsides handed to them yesterday, losing to the European squad 18½ to 9½ in the 35th Ryder Cup matches at Oakland Hills Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan. Not only did the US lose the Ryder Cup, but it did so in an unprecedented fashion: losing by the largest margin in the 77-year history of the Ryder Cup.
"We haven't been winning it," Davis Love III said. "If they keep bringing the cup back on their airplane, we are the underdog." No kidding, Davis. The US has lost seven of the last ten Ryder Cups and shows no signs of reversing that trend. The same comments were made before this Ryder Cup as have always been made: "The Euros have more chemistry," "It means more to them," and - our favorite - "They have more heart."
Mickelson Dropped
Phil Mickelson has been dropped from Saturday's morning fourballs.
Phil Mickelson has been dropped from Saturday's morning fourballs by US captain Hal Sutton, presumably as a result of failing to win a point in his first two matches. His playing partner for those matches, Tiger Woods, will partner Chris Riley in the second match against Darren Clarke and Milton Keynes' very own Ian Poulter.
Bernhard Langer, on the other hand, is ensuring that his remaining rookies, David Howell, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey all play their first matches, while retaining the successful pairings of Garcia/Westwood and Monty/Harrington. Montgomerie will maintain his record of playing in every series since Kiawah Island in 1991, a span of 30 (and counting) consecutive Ryder Cup matches.
Giving rookies their first game in fourballs, as opposed to foursomes, is a shrewd move. It gives them a chance play their way into a match, without the pressure of knowing that every stroke they play is crucial. It also gives them marginally more Ryder Cup experience; they'll hit 60-70 shots in fourballs, and roughly half that in foursomes. Those extra few shots may count for a lot come Sunday.
Inhumane, but Funny
Someone has a sickly funny sense of humor, and doesn't want to meet any golfers in dark alleys.
You're standing on the tee box, fancy driver in your hands. You've been hitting the ball fairly well, and you stare down the open par five. You take a deep breath, and all the stress and worry of the round - your swing, your alignment, the three-putt on the last hole - disappear. You wind up in your backswing, and come down with a smooth, fluid motion.
Your driver sings as you make contact with the ball, and the little white devil just leaps off the clubface. Straight, long, you watch the ball hit the fairway and roll. You smile - no, you beam. Your chest swells and you pick up your bag and take the walk to admire your Shot, with a capital "S".
You walk up to the ball, and look out at the green, thinking to yourself, "If I hit my three wood from here, I could …" Glancing around, you see the sprinkler head and walk up to it to get a range to the green, when you realize that the greenskeeper is a sadistic bastard.
I was using my RSS reader to grab images from Flickr with the tag of "golf" when this image popped into my Inbox. Honestly, I'm glad the groundcrew at my club doesn't have this cruel sense of humor. After hitting that Killer Drive, and feeling like I could take on the green in two, to look down and see that on the sprinkler head …
Okay, who am I kidding? I'd laugh my proverbial ass off.
Europeans Stretch Ryder Cup Lead
After a 3½-½ advantage from the morning fourballs, Europe stretched their lead to 6½-1½ in day 1's afternoon foursomes.
Despite the alarming amount of bleach in their collective hairstyles, Team Europe stretched their lead to 6½-1½ after day one following a 3-1 victory in the afternoon foursomes.
The talking point will of course be the pairing of Woods and Mickelson, who lost their second match of the day. Three up after 4 against Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood, the "Dream Team" were pegged back to all square by the 10th, and fell 1 down on 11, where they remained until they won the 17th. With the momentum seemingly on their side on the 18th tee, Mickelson hit a wayward drive into a position from which Woods could only drop and punch out down the fairway. An average wedge by Mickelson's standards left Woods with a 15-footer for bogey, which he missed - double bogey. After Darren Clarke left his par attempt within gimme range, matchplay's cardinal sin of losing a hole to bogey had been committed, giving the Europeans the hole and the point.
Well, That Hurt…
The US Ryder Cup team gets spanked in the early morning four-balls.
What was that about the importance of the four-ball matches?
Most people would think that, if you pair together Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods - unquestionably two of the best golfers in the world - that they'd win their four-ball match. Sadly for the US Ryder Cup team, nothing could be further from the truth. Woods and Mickelson lost their four-ball match two and one to Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington, capping off a morning of four-ball losses and a European lead, 3½ to ½.
