Friday, September 22, 2006

The US Team

All 12 Americans on the same hole, and the 20,000 people tryingto see them. The captain of the team later apologized for the decision to have them all practice at the same time, realizing that the fans were VERY disappointed.
The US squad with Tiger in the middle.
Fuzz Cowan, a journeyman caddy who used to work with Tiger, but has been on the PGA tour for over 18 years...
Betting for Putts..

The US team walking up the 7th fairway.

The European Team

Darren Clarke walking on the backside of the course (I never did figure out the hair...)

Serigo on the driving range. Most of the European Team came out to the driving range while the US team stayed indoors because of the bad weather, until late in the afternoon when they played the front 9 and just chipped & putted. An omen for their play over the weekend.


The old guy with the hat to the left was the secret weapon of the Europeans. He coached every single player that came out. In between smoke breaks that is

The first european 4-some on the 10th fairway. They all hit within feet of eachother, except Padraig Harrington who was about 10 yards up.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

The 2006 Ryder Cup in Ireland




ESPN.com - GOLF/RYDERCUP06 - Barton: Money talks at The K Club

Well. We were on the course, but to be honest I was a little disappointed by the whole experience... The course was beautiful, but, as Murphy's Law would have it, Brehan & I happened to be scheduled for the day when the last of the hurricane hit Ireland; the trains & busses were cancelled, people were told to go home " the course was closed for the day", when they decided to re-open at 9am, the trains moved, the European team showed up, but the Americans were AWOL until 2 in the afternoon when they decided to play as a 12-some and only work on chipping & putting. Basically it was great to see them, butit was the Europeans that gave us the rush. Watching them on the driving range and then walking along on the 10-13th holes with them was amazing. At one point during the 4 some all of the drives were lined up about 300 yards off the tee, except for Padraig Harrington whose drive was 10 yards ahead of everyone else. So this does not bode well for the team USA this weekend if they won't even practice because it was too windy and all the Europeans could hit the middle of the fairway with the wind.