Ryder Cup Winners and Losers
by TwoNuse on Aug 10, 2010 11:49 AM EDT
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Hunter Mahan - Catapults onto the team with a tremendous front nine performance Sunday at Bridgestone. Reignites the next great young American golfer talk (for those who forgot Anthony Kim was injured). He still has to win a major before I can forgive him for premature logo-ization.
Matt Kuchar – Mahan got all the attention, but with a tie for 9th Kuchar continues his consistent 2010. He is 7th on the standings, but even if two players pass him up, how can you turn him down as a captain’s pick?
Anthony Kim – Forget the result. Kim played four rounds without his surgically repaired thumb causing any problems. For a US Ryder Cup side looking more and more like a substantial underdog, the jolt of energy a healthy Kim would supply is greatly needed.
Political Talk shows not on NBC – With Tiger Woods (more on him later) looking unlikely to be on the squad, more people will be watching Christiane Amanpour and Bob Schieffer than if the #1 golfer (until it seems Jordan Spieth makes it to the tour) was playing.
Losers are after the jump!
Losers
Sean O’Hair – A pedestrian 71 on Sunday dropped him from the lead to fifth, costing him valuable Ryder Cup points. If Corey Pavin is paying attention, how can O’Hair be a captain’s pick if this is how he reacts to pressure down the stretch?
Sergio Garcia – How bad is Garcia’s mindset if he is all but begging off of the Ryder Cup? Could the second half of 2008 (losing The Open and the PGA to Padraig Harrington, then a poor Ryder Cup where he was both public enemy #1 and smoked by Anthony Kim in singles) crushed his confidence to the point he is done as an elite professional?
I think he is making a mistake in eliminating himself from Ryder Cup consideration. Even taking 2008 into consideration, he is one of those players who shines brightly during international team competition. Plus, if Colin Montgomerie were to use the pod system Paul Azinger used last time, he could put Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Alviro Quiros (who I desperately want on the Euro team) together.
Tiger Woods – Duh.
If Tiger put a middling performance at Bridgestone, the calls for him to be a candidate for a captain’s pick would still be alive. Not to mention the pressure NBC and the PGA of America would put to bear. Tiger might even be able to convince himself he would be a asset to the team. Flirting with DFL squashes all of that.
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Mahan and Kim are by no means the only “next great American golfers” in the conversation. Certainly one has to include Rickie Fowler in that conversation. And Dustin Johnson. Among many others.
Kim’s game is based on relentless attacking, which tells me he will always be an up and down sort of player, not a consistent top 10 kind of a guy unless he goes into a protracted streak of great play. At the same time, he will always be prone to other kind of streak too.
Mahan, yeah, his game is getting better and better. Now we’ll just have to see if he can put the competitive edge that all great champions have.
Kim may have played The Bridgestone pain free, or relatively so, knock on wood putting him on the “winner” side right now. Whistling Straights has a lot of lies that could really cause some pain in that hand. He still has a lot of rust on the game, too. We saw Paula Creamer in a nasty lie that really caused some pain.
Political talk shows ? (LOL – good one) NOT so fast, my friend ! (oh wait – that’s Football Saturday) Leaders won’t be off until well into the afternoon, but if Tiger isn’t in contention….and he makes the cut…he could very easily be on the course between 11 and 12 eastern, taking away attention from those talk shows.
Jordan Spieth ? lol
Sergio has already pulled his name out – so he’s not on either list.
LOTS of points to be picked up this week with a lot of guys from 9-16 playing well – so we know Wendy will be pulling for a top 3 from Cinky-baby. :-)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
It's complicated!
I’m as fascinated about the make-up of the US team as the European team. Teasing apart, I don’t think Stewart is playing well enough to have a top 3 at PGA. However, I’m not convinced that Azinger’s pod strategy won last time – the individuals just played better IMO.
It was their turn Wendy
And Zinger did a good job with them. Harrington, Garcia and Westwood, our big guns, played poorly as well. can’t win em all .
Sorry Easing
Still not convinced that Zinger’s strategy won it. There’s something about being put in the “boring pod” which is self-defeating. Our big guns didn’t deliver – their young guns did.
It may also be that I prefer Pavin to Zinger of course.
He wasn’t expected to win The British either, and look how that turned out. Don’t turn your back on him now, Wendy – it could ruin him !! :-D
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Mock away Court!
I took my bet on Stewart at 150:1 for The Open. I don’t turn my back on those I support but neither do I feel it fair to place unrealistic expetations on them. Would you take him as a pick for RC?
How is that mocking ? That was 100% encouragment for you to stand by your man ! :-)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Nah, Court is all bark, then some more bark.
Yet his sarcasm can often be biting.
HEY now…“why don’t you make like a leaf, and get outta here ?” (lol)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
The leaves don't fall far from the tree.
(That sounds like something Chief Wild Eagle would say. F Troop reference.)
yep – Chief Wild Eagle of the Hekawi tribe. (asked how they got their name – they were a roving band of indians who got lost in the wilderness. one day they came across a village – they went in and asked “where the heck are we ?” and the name stuck)(one of THE funniest scenes ever on F Troop)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Totally agree. Wild Eagle was the best character on that show,
then Agarn.
“It is balloon!!!”
He's got a pretty respectable RC record though, Easing
Last time I didn’t like him being paired with Chad Campbell – we’ll see what PGA throws up in rankings.
talk shows
I believe Ryan was referring to the talk shows not on NBC on Ryder Cup weekend, being that this is a Ryder Cup post. The political talk shows probably won’t be worrying too much about Turner’s morning coverage at the PGA this weekend, even if Tiger is right in their window.
AK!
I’d love to se AK on the team, but is he really ready? And Tiger is still Tiger… match play would probably be the best thing for him right now. Each hole is a new opportunity.
Tiger hasn’t been Tiger since he hit that water hazard at the end of his driveway last November.
by Charles Boyer on Aug 11, 2010 4:48 PM EDT up reply actions
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