2010 Ryder Cup

[Zeph]

Don't know if it's rained too much during the night, but the forecast is not too bad for today. It's reported 4-5mm rain early on, and is supposed to stop around noon.

[bananas]

Does coverage start at 1am pst or 12pst? i'm comfused... and buzzed :)

[Zeph]

It starts 04AM ET, which is 01AM PST.

Sadly it is raining and blowing hard this morning, so play will probably not start for some time yet.

Move the Ryder Cup to September, or even August!

[bananas]

oh i thought it might start at 12pst since the weather. Thought they might start at 12 like the last two nights.

[acj990]

Official statement just came down...

No golf until 12:00 BST or 7:00am EST, 6:00am Central, and so on and so forth. That's when NBC's coverage was slated to start anyways. Should be interesting to see what happens. GO USA, lets get it together!

[bananas]

that means it's bed time if no golf till 4 am!

[Zeph]

So they will get 7 hours of play today? With the bottom fourball being at hole 5, they won't be able to finish today.

[wrx_junki]

So they will get 7 hours of play today? With the bottom fourball being at hole 5, they won't be able to finish today.

They play at a super slow pace as well so that won't help any.

[acj990]

Yeah, it will be a close one. No way can they do 12 matches and finish the others beforehand. Damnit and I even have tomorrow off from work. Why Lord!? WHY!?!?!

[bogie]

If the American can rally and make the final team session score 8 to 8 then here is my hypothetical singles order for Europe (based on past European captain practices.)

1. Westwood, 2. McIlroy, 3. E. Molinari. 4. Kaymer
5. R. Fisher, 6. Poulter, 7. McDowell, 8. Donald
9. Jimenez, 10. Harrington, 11. F. Molinari, 12. P. Hanson

General Tendencies
* European captains tend to front-load with their top ranked players.
* Most matches are clinched in slots 7 - 10. It used to be unheralded players for the EUROS clinched cups when they won. Today you can see the depth of the EUROS in slots 6 - 8.
* European captains tend to put their least experienced or lowest ranked players in the last two slots.
* European captains tend to intersperse two more of the lower ranked players in the first two quartets. (In my hypothetical I used Kaymer in slot 4 to separate E. Molinari from Fisher.)
* In my hypothetical that left Harrington and Jimenez. To paraphrase Captain Montgomerie he said if the cup were on the line he'd be confident with Harrington putting for it, so I have the Irishman potentially closing the deal before the 2 rookies.

Hypothetical US singles order (based on POD system and "odd # pressure points"
1. Mickleson, 2. Overton, 3. Mahan, 4. Z. Johnson
5. Furyk, 6. Watson, 7. Woods, 8. Fowler
9. Cink, 10. D. Johnson, 11. Kuchar, 12. Stricker

In the first quartet one hears either the words front-loading or aggressive.
* Mickleson has struggled but hopefully the leadoff spot and anticipating taking on one of Europe's best would get him going.
* Overton's aggression and good play in the matches so far has earned him a chance to go out early.
* Mahan sits in the third spot.
* Z. Johnson is out fourth as a steady, no-frills scrapper to anchor this aggressive pod.

In the second quartet Azinger went with those who can influence or be influenced. Here's where I tweaked it as opposed to 2008.
* Woods is in slot 7 because if singles turns out to be razor close, this match on an odd number is historically a swing match. It may take him some time to start winning majors again but I'd still take my chances on him in a singles match-play situation.
* Furyk is in slot 5 to separate Z. Johnson from B. Watson. Just placing a grinder to hopefully set the tone for this quartet.
* Fowler is in slot 8 because he showed bounce back ability from his error in the alternate shot match and his previous success at the Walker Cup.

The last quartet Azinger went with the steady players. Basically the last 2 players though were the least effective for the Americans in 2008.
But my hypothetical also slightly tweaks this.
*Cink is in slot 9 the same as 2008. This is a spot that has clinched cups before, and his play thus far has earned him this responsibility.
* Stricker is in the anchor spot because his strength is putting. The two rare times it has come done to the anchor match (1983 and 1991) came down to the flat stick.
* Kuchar is in slot 11 where Ben Curtis was in 2008.
* Finally I went with D. Johnson in slot 10. In my hypothetical the choice came down to him and Z. Johnson. Z. Johnson ended up in the first quartet because I just wanted more experience and a dash of grit up front.

Comments:
The head-to-head pitting at the President's Cup is fun because relative strength and pedigree are matched up against one another.
However the blind draw at the Ryder Cup requires a different strategy based on momentum and "pressure points." It also results in some match-ups which in the past that has ended with surprising results.

[EnergyMatt]

Very unlikely to start at 12:00 IMHO - these are from c.9:45

http://web21.twitpic.com/img/1717610...84610-full.jpg
http://web5.twitpic.com/img/17176600...84610-full.jpg
http://web19.twitpic.com/img/1717638...84610-full.jpg

[James_Black]

Play is resuming at 1.30 pm (GMT)

the skies are cloudless over here in limerick so the evening should be really good.

[Hollister]

Singles were moved to Monday. Hurray, another day watching Golf at work...

[nevets88]

Jeff Overton is the incredible Hulk.

[wubskis]

Hahahahaha, Jeff Overton is so awesome .

[Zeph]

Well, Tiger and Steve certainly got pummeled this time.

[muzz]

Woods and Stricker had better play better in their singles match, cuz that was beyond pathetic.

[tws1098]

Jeff Overton is the incredible Hulk.

haha, agreed.

As far as woods/stricker goes...Westwood and Donald brought their A game from what I got to see.