Mickelson, Cink Show Class in Defending Mahan

Okay, okay, enough already… I know, I gave him a D in my report card below. Phil Mickelson we’re talking about, of course. But sometimes more important things take precedence over playing well and winning. And to that, I must say, Lefty gets an A+ for being a class act.

Hunter Mahan will see his botched pitch shot replayed over and over for the coming weeks and months, and it’ll probably find itself on some stupid, irrelevant Top 10 programming on The Golf Channel. But to be put in such a significant position to fail, in itself, speaks volumes about the talent and character that Hunter has. Stewart Cink said it best that afternoon in the press tent. “If you go up and down the line of the tour players in Europe and the U.S.  and asked them if you would like to be the last guy to decide the Ryder Cup, probably less than half would say they would like to be that guy and probably less than 10 percent of them would mean it. Hunter Mahan put himself in that position today. He was a man on our team to put himself in that position.”

 

Monday Finish Awaits Ryder Cup

The Europeans did everything that was expected of them on Sunday, as the Americans dug their hole even deeper. Things were so bad for the Americans that the only bright spot on the day was a halved match between Cink/Kuchar and the Molinari brothers. And even that match was bittersweet, as Francesco Molinari’s birdie on the par5 18th won the hole and zapped the chances of a single American point being put on the board for the day.

Captain Corey Pavin didn’t seem overly bothered by things, however. In fact, Pavin hasn’t seemed overly concerned with anything this week, not even the faulty rain gear that was brought to his attention a few days prior to the start of the event.  Well, except the fact that he’s proud that his team has honored the Twitter ban, of which has obviously made an enormous difference the past three days.

The Americans go into Sunday needing a “Brookline” miracle of sorts, as the Euros need only 5 points to reclaim the Cup. After not winning a single match on Sunday, team USA finds themselves 3 full points down to the Europeans, 6-1/2 to 9-1/2.

The Monday Pairings and Pecking Order

1st match:Stricker vs Westwood
2nd match: Cink vs McIlroy
3rd match: Furyk vs. Donald
4th match: D. Johnson vs. Kaymer
5th match: Kuchar vs. Poulter
6th match: Overton vs. Fisher
7th match: Watson vs. Jiminez
8th match: Woods vs. F. Molinari
9th match: Fowler vs. E. Molinari
10th match: Mickelson vs. Hanson
11th match: Z.Johnson vs. Harrington
12th match: Mahan vs. McDowell

USA Cable Network will air live coverage of the Ryder Cup finale Monday morning, starting at 4 a.m. EST

Monty and Pavin Issue Tweeting Ban During Ryder Cup

The things that former Ryder Cup captains like Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin never had to put up with… back then, phones still had cords on them and a majority of mail still required postage stamps. Of course, compared to today, those were primitive times.

We’ve come a long way since then. Two decades ago, a shopper looking for an iPad would’ve most likely begun their search in the feminine hygiene aisle. And Blackberries were near the bananas in the produce department. But along came a fellow by the name of Bill Gates, and the world as we knew it would change seemingly overnight….

Two of professional golf’s more esteemed tweeting stalwarts, Stewart Cink and Ian Poulter, will certainly be impacted by the rule. Cink recently tweeted on his twitter account, “We’re finally off to Wales!! Won’t be tweeting until we get back. I guess I’ll have to pass the down time actually reading or something.” Poulter hasn’t said anything about the issue on his Twitter account, which leads me to believe that either (a)he’s not acknowledging it, or (b)he’s putting on his game face and will completely comply with the request from Captain Monty. As someone who follows both of these guys on Twitter myself, I can attest that they’re easily the two most active tweeters in pro golf, and it will be unusual to log in and see no comments from either of them over the weekend.

The esteemed 2008 Ryder Cup captain and noted Twitter newbie, Paul Azinger, tweeted Sunday on the decision to ban social networking sites from the players starting Friday as well. “U.S team will be better off without distraction and comments on twitter. If forced, bad idea. If it’s a consensus, good idea. Press will ask.” But, of course, Azinger will fill the tweeting void while they’re offline, as he has made it a point to say that he will be tweeting his perspective of things throughout the event. As someone who follows Zinger as well on Twitter, I can’t wait to get his tweets on things this weekend.

We live in a different time and place, it seems, and I’ve certainly become a party to it….

NO TWEETS ALLOWED