The Golfer's Wife

The Presidents Cup

This week is The Presidents Cup. I could just link to my Ryder Cup post and say ‘read this and just substitute Presidents Cup everywhere it says Ryder Cup’. But that’s not quite right.  As mentioned back in that post, the Ryder Cup is a team competition between a team made up of players from the US and a team made up of players from Europe, which was started back in 1927. It has a long and storied history, and lots of Tradition. And if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a hundred times, and I’m sure I’ll say it again, Golf is nothing if not Tradition. And for decades this was fine, because 99.5% of professional golfers were either from the US or Europe. But golf was not immune from globalization. The game made inroads in other parts of the world, and people outside of the US and Europe became infected with the fever. Most notably people in South Africa and Australia. But if you look at the list of current PGA players you will see players from Japan, Korea, Argentina, Columbia, and Fiji, just to name a few. Which meant that every other year, while European and US players played the Ryder Cup, some of the best golfers in the world could only sit on the sidelines and watch.

In order to rectify this situation and, lets be honest here, in order to keep the TV revenue flowing in the off years when there wasn’t a Ryder Cup, in 1994 the PGA created The Presidents Cup. The format of which is the same as the Ryder Cup, but the two teams consist of the US and ‘the rest of the world except for Europe’.

The Presidents Cup is a good match play tournament, and it is great golf. But it’s not the Ryder Cup. To see how the golfing world feels about it all you have to do is look at the press coverage. Ryder Cup points are tabulated and re-tabulated and there is speculation for months before hand about the captain’s picks. And once the teams are known the possible match ups are discussed endlessly. There are months of articles leading up to it, and non-stop speculation as to the outcome of various matches. It is all the golfing world talks about for weeks leading up to the actual tournament.

For this years Presidents Cup the big stories are the fact that there was a fertilizer mishap on some of the greens at Harding Park ( the course where this Presidents Cup will be played ) and they got burned pretty bad, and would they be ready for play, and the fact that 2 weeks before the tournament the ‘rest of the world’ team captain Greg Norman announced that he and his wife of just 15 months, tennis star Chris Evert, were separated. Which was a bit of a shock since they had both left their previous spouses to marry each other. Even the staid world of golf has it’s little soap operas.

Anyway. Players do consider it an honor to be on the Presidents Cup team and, since the teams do consist of the worlds best players, it is, as I said, great golf. It’s main problem is that it just hasn’t been around long enough. In golf 15 years is not nearly long enough to have established Tradition. And without Tradition, it’s just another tournament. Give it another 50 years or so and it will have acquired enough Tradition that people will have totally forgotten it was originally created to grab TV revenue.

Meanwhile, here are the basic facts for this year, including team members, format, and TV times and stations. We will be watching it here in The Household. Well. Except for on Thursday and Saturday ( and hopefully on Sunday ) when it conflicts with Rockies playoff games. Playoffs over Presidents Cup any day.

THE Open - 2009

This weekend is The Open.  Here is what I had to say about it last year. Which pretty much covers it.

This year it is being played at Turnberry. The Golfer has rather strong feelings about Turnberry.

" Last year, I wrote a little blurb about The Open, and I mentioned the pilgrimage we made to Scotland.  One of the courses we played, Turnberry, is the site of this years Open.   We played 10 courses while we were there, and surprisingly enough, it was my favorite.  I say surprisingly, because it held bad memories for me.

Turnberry is where Tom Watson beat Jack Nickalaus in 1977.   It was also the first Open I watched in full.  Previously, it was something of a curiosity that got in the way of the Saturday morning comics.

But this was a battle.  My parents were fully into watching Jack win.  And after Tom beat Jack in the Masters everyone was looking for revenge.  I was riveted.  And Jack lost.  So any reference to Turnberry hurt, and I wasn’t looking too forward to playing it.

That had changed by the 5th hole.  Of course, it didn’t hurt that it was the only course we played that we managed to get down to the short sleeve shirts (for about 4 holes, in July no less).  It also didn’t hurt that I beat The Brother.

It is a beautiful course, a great test of golf. Maybe not for the big boys, Nick Price said it’s a great par 67.  But for the rest of us, it’s a great place to golf.

So, I’ll be watching this weekend.  Knowing I played each hole (yes from the tips).  They made some changes to toughen it up, I’ll be curious to see how it holds up. "

The fact that it will be tivo’d and we will watch every minute goes without saying.

Duly Noted

The Golfer wants me to be sure and point out that, after Thursdays round, he predicted that Angel Cabrera would win The Masters. And he did. However, this doesn’t mean I think you should bet on his choice to win The Kentucky Derby.

So that was one heck of a final round wasn’t it? Tiger and Phil played a whole tournament all by themselves. And although The Golfer thought Angel would win, we were actually rooting for Kenny Perry. We golfers-of-a-certain-age need to stick together. But he just couldn’t pull it off in the end.

And so another Masters is in the books. Which means Spring is now officially here, the Golf pre-season is over and the real season has truly begun, and, most importantly, Mr. Feherty is back on the airwaves on a regular basis.

Just....no

You all know my feelings on golfers, of either gender, wearing white on the golf course. And, Ian Poulter not withstanding, I pretty much thought white was as bad as it could get. I was wrong.

This is Ryo Ishikawa showing up for his practice round at The Masters today.

This is a picture a bit more close up.

I know the kid is only 17. And I know he is from Japan, and the teen age dress code is probably different over there. But duuuude. NO. Seriously. NO.

Please. Someone ( who is not Ian Poulter ) take the kid shopping. Somewhere they don’t sell pants in femin…uh….pastel colors. Or checks. In any color.

And pleasepleasepleaseplease do NOT let this start a trend, okay guys? Seriously. **shudder**

Diamonds and Azaleas

We like sports here in The Household. Golf tops the list of course. But baseball runs close behind. Big fans. For a long time we didn’t have a team of our own out here in The Wild West. But we had cable, which meant we could watch games all over the country. We do have a team of our own now, and we spend many afternoons at the ballpark.

Today was Opening Day. Our team’s home opener isn’t until Friday. We have tickets( as we do every year ). There is great anticipation. Don’t tell them, but I will be playing from hooky from work. I will be ‘working from home’. At least until its time to go to the ballpark.

I listen to sports radio. Yes, I do. The Golfer laughs at me. He doesn’t listen to sports radio. None of his friends listen to sports radio. But his wife listens to sports radio. I don’t care, I like it. All the afternoon shows are local. And today they were all talking about Opening Day. And they were talking about what they would be doing on Friday. Who they would be hanging out with. Where they would be sitting in the ballpark. What they were going to eat. We here at The Household are far from the only ones here in The Wild West that just can’t wait.

Then they starting talking about how Opening Day means Spring is here. Even if it snows ( which it’s done ). Just being at the ballpark. Seeing home plate. Looking out over center field. Watching the battle between hitter and pitcher. Spring doesn’t really start until Opening Day. 

And of course, much as I love baseball, I had to disagree. Doesn’t matter how beautiful Opening Day is, Spring starts with The Masters. The green of the diamond just can’t match the green of Augusta. The azaleas, the dogwood, the wisteria, the magnolia. All in perfect bloom the second week of April every year.

And it is the second week of April. Masters Week. Spring around here officially starts with the first tee time of the first round on Thursday. After work we will all sit down and watch the ESPN coverage that was tivo’s. We will go to the ballpark on Friday and enjoy Opening Day to the fullest ( I wonder if they sell StrongBow at the ballpark? I know they sell Guinness. ), and then we will come home and watch the 2nd round of the Masters, which we will have tivo’d. And on Sat. and Sun. of course we will be glued to the tube. And yes I know Sunday is Easter. But we are all going to the MIL’s. The MIL is A Golfer, and I wouldn’t be surprised if instead of setting the table, she sets us all up with trays in front of the TV.

Here is what I had to say about The Masters last year. Here is what The Golfer had to say. And of course, because he always has something to say, here is what Jigger had to say.

It’s Masters Week again, and everything in those posts still holds true. As they probably will for decades, because The Masters is nothing if not TRADITION.

And of course there is my own personal little harbinger of Spring. After weeks in the dreary, snarky, wasteland that is golf coverage by Johnny Miller, the sun will at last come out, the birds will sing, and the lovely lilting tones of Mr. David Feherty will once again flow across the airwaves. And all will be well in the golfing world.

So glad you're back.

This weekend is the Accenture Match Play Tournament. More importantly for the golf world, this weekend Tiger returns. More excitement. More challenge. And of course, higher ratings. I’m sure you’ll be watching, right? 

Match play format is different than the normal stroke play format. For a description of match play here is what I wrote last year about this time.

For a description of how the tour feels about Tiger’s return see below. 

Programming Note

The FBR Open is being played this weekend. Here is what I had to say about the FBR last year. It applies this year as well. Fun tournament to watch. You know, if you need a change of pace from all the hoopla going on around that other sporting event that happens on this same time each year.

2008 Ryder Cup wrap up

Alright, I know I’m late with this. But I was out of town. And it always takes a few days to catch up again. Anyway. The USA won, for the first time since 1999. Every golf pundit out there has weighed in on the strategy of both captains, who played well, who played poorly, the condition of the course, the, uh, enthusiasm of the crowd, and the players etc. Since I only saw a bit of the final matches on Sunday, I will defer to their judgment. On most things. But let me just say, I could have told you who was going to win. All I had to do was take a look at the uniforms. You did notice that each team had a different shirt/pants combo on each day, right?

There was a short lived sit-com on years ago, whose name and actual premise I don’t remember. But at the beginning of one show there was a group of waitresses getting ready to open a restaurant. One of the male employees came up and handed them the weekly football pool. He made some comment about the fact that the waitresses had won every week. He also made a snide comment about the fact that they probably made their picks based on the color of the uniforms. The waitresses got very huffy, and demonstrated their complete knowledge of the game. The male employee walked away saying that maybe they did know what they were doing. The waitresses waited until he was gone, then proceeded to make their picks, based on the color of the uniforms. Ha ha. But I think they were on to something. You can’t win if you don’t feel like a winner. And a big part of feeling like a winner is dressing like a winner. If what you are wearing doesn’t project confidence and power, you won’t win. Just ask Mr. Red-Shirt-Black-Pants-for-the-final-round Woods how important what you wear can be for your psyche. And how it can psych out others.

So, with that in mind, lets take a look at what the teams wore, shall we?

Day 1

     

                 USA                                                                 Europe

A nice asymmetric argyle with black pants vs. a white shirt with a blue stripe and grey pants that matched the collar.  Who looks like the winner here?  I have to go with the argyle and black pants myself.

Day 2

USA

Europe

Seriously. Is there any question? White pants? No one wearing white pants ever won a golf tournament. And then to top it off, do they at least have a black shirt? No. Some kind of baby/turquoisey blue. Sheeze. They lost the minute they left their hotel rooms dressed like that.

Day 3

    

                         USA                                                                Europe

 

I couldn’t find a good frontal shot of the Europeans here, but you can tell from this it was a white shirt with some blue down the sides, and blue pants. Against a red shirt and blue pants. No contest. ( Anthony Kims USA bling probably didn't hurt either )

So the pundits can pontificate all they like about player readiness and captain strategy. But personally, I think the waitresses knew best.

The Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup starts this Friday. The Ryder Cup itself is a large gold chalice originally given by English seed merchant Samuel Ryder. ‘Originally’ meaning back in 1927. Since 1920 there had been several unofficial matches between teams of American golfers and teams of British golfers. Ryder himself was an avid golfer, and though accounts vary, the general story is that he very much enjoyed watching a match played in 1926 in England and was persuaded to give a cup, and the sum of 5 pounds, to the winning team, for an official event to be played in 1927. The first official Ryder Cup was played in Worcester Massachusetts, at the Worcester Country Club. It has been held every other year since then, except for the World War II years and the year 2001. It was supposed to take place the week after Sept. 11. It was cancelled that year and moved to the next year. This resulted in the Cup moving from odd numbered years to even numbered years. When it began the Ryder Cup was the only official team competition for professional golfers. Several others have since started up, but most of them are fairly new, since the 1990’s or so. The exception to this is The Walker Cup, which is like the Ryder Cup, but for amateurs. The Walker Cup began in 1922.

And that is all the history you will get here. Books, essays, articles etc. have been written about the Ryder Cup ad naseum( Personally I would recommend this one.). If you feel the need to dip deeper into it’s origins and past matches, feel free. The Ryder Cup is one of golf’s great traditions, and ( repeat after me ) golf is nothing if not tradition. So there is a wealth of information out there. As for us, we will deal with the here and now.

So. The basics. The Ryder Cup is a series of matches played between a team of American golfers and a team of European golfers. ‘European’ in this case being defined as any player that is a citizen of a country that is part of the PGA European Tour. So Ernie Els and Vijay Singh, although great golfers, are not eligible to play in The Ryder Cup. The event itself is held every other year, alternating between American and European courses. So this year it will be played at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2006 it was played at The K Club in Straffen, County Kildare, Ireland and In 2010 it will move back to a European course.

Each team consists of 12 players. The team captains are chosen by their respective PGA organizations. So the head of the PGA of America chooses the American captain, and the head of the PGA European Tour chooses the European captain. The captains for the next cup are named within a few weeks after the current cup finishes.

The way players get on a team is by earning Ryder Cup points. The way the points are earned differs between the American and Europeans. The Americans are basically awarded 1 point for each $1000 they earn in the non-Ryder Cup year, 2 points for each $1000 they earn in a Major during a Ryder Cup year, and ½ point for each $1000 they earn in a non-major during a Ryder Cup year. There are some slight variations to this, but that is basically how it works, and that’s good enough for this discussion. The 8 players with the most Ryder Cup points are automatically on the American team. The last four are ‘Captain’s picks’. Meaning the captain of the American team picks the last 4 players, based on who he thinks is hot at the moment, and will perform well under match play conditions. There is much discussion/commentary/second guessing every time a captain is named and then again 20 months later when he announces his picks. It’s the kind of thing that keeps the golf writers in business.

European players earn points based on the money they make at PGA European Tour sanctioned events. The European tour knows that it’s players will play in many of the American tour events, because of the money to be made, so many of the American tour events are also European tour sanctioned events. But not all. And a European player will have to play in several events actually in Europe, in order to earn enough Ryder Cup points to make the team. Players earn 1 point per Euro earned. For the European team the top 10 players make the team, and the captain only gets 2 picks.

The format for the tournament is match play. The matches take place over 3 days. The format has changed slightly over the years, but this years format is:  Alternate shot Friday and Saturday morning, Best Ball Friday and Saturday afternoon, and singles matches on Sunday. What this means is that Friday morning 4 sets of foursomes will play a round of golf. Each set will contain a team of 2 American players and a team of 2 European players. The players on each team will alternate teeing off. So player 1 will tee off on hole 1, player 2 on hole 2, player 1 on hole 3, etc. They will then play alternate shot ( they alternate hitting the ball ). Which ever team uses the fewest strokes to get the ball in the hole wins the hole. At the end of the round the team with the most holes wins the round, and 1 point. In the afternoon the captains adjust and change the teams, according to how well the players are doing, and 4 foursomes of 2 teams tee it up again and play another round of golf, this time best ball. Which means each player plays his own ball through the entire hole. The score of the best player on the team counts for the team, and the team with the best score wins the hole. And once again, the team with the most holes, wins the match, and 1 point. Friday night the team captains make further adjustments, and Saturday they all get up and do the same thing again. Not all players have to play on Friday and Saturday. The captains can pick any 8 players to play in any of the 4 rounds. On Sunday there are 12 singles matches, one American player against one European, basic match play format. The winner of each match gains 1 point for their team. At the end of the 3 days the points are added up ( okay actually the points are continually added up, and the possible permutations gone over, and over, and over again by the commentators. To the point where eventually you just put the TV on mute. )  and the team with the most points wins. Until 1985 the team with the most points was always the Americans. Since then it has been about 2 – 1 Europeans.

It is the job of the captains to arrange their teams for the best chance to win each match. And as you can imagine there is much discussion/commentary/second guessing on each team the captains set up. Golf writers and commentators LOVE the Ryder Cup. It gives them pages and pages and hours and hours of material. Add to that all the stories about it’s history and TRADITION that can be used as filler, and the coverage is basically 24 hours non-stop for the 3 days. This year’s Cup has the added advantage of being played on a course that was hit by the remnants of hurricane Ike. The possible stories are endless.

Unless you are part of a golfing household, have Tivo, subscribe to The Golf Channel, and 6 different golf magazines, most of this saturation of coverage will probably pass you by. Since that sentence describes things here at The Household, it obviously won't be passing us by.

But actually I recommend watching it. You will have to listen to Johnny Miller, and coverage that, like The Masters, consists of a lot of golf history. But it is like no other tournament. And it is always interesting to see how all these top players, who spend their careers playing an intensely individual sport, handle playing on, and being part of, a team. Sometimes with other players who they don’t particularly like. Also, the American fans tend to be a little, well, enthusiastic. Doing things like chanting ‘USA’. And wildly cheering good shots by American players. Which has caused some, shall we say, consternation, among the European players, who are used to more well behaved crowds. Things could get a little heated.

Personally this year I will be out of town this weekend, and I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to watch. Which is a shame. But I’m sure Jigger will be happy to re-cap it all for me when I get home.

The FedEx Cup - some clarifications

Well. A certain canine apparently has some strong feelings regarding the current goings on, on tour. That, and squirrels.  But we’ve always known how he feels about squirrels.

He got a lot of things right, but a few things….uh. Well, since he reads this, and I would not appreciate having any of my shoes chewed up, let’s just say some things could use a little further explanation.

The first FedEx Cup was last year. As you might expect, Tiger won. And as with anything new like this, it had a few kinks, and things have been changed a little for this years cup.

The players accumulate points from the Mercedes-Benz Championship at the beginning of January through the Wyndham Championship in mid-August. The top 144 players then continue on through ‘the playoffs’, which are actually just the last 4 tournaments of the season. This year at the start of the playoffs the points will be reset. The top player will be set to 100,000 points, 2nd ranked to 99,500, 3rd ranked to 99,250, and so on. For a full explanation of the point structure and money distribution see here. Now there are all kinds of discussions on how this works, and if it means players have to play in more or less tournaments, if it gives more players a chance to make it, if the big guys can sit out a few, the fact that it is possible to win the cup without winning a tournament….and on and on. If you are a college football fan, it has become like discussing the BCS. The permutations are endless and make for a lot of good sports talk radio. For most of us the up shot is, players get points through the season, and the points are reset for the playoffs. The player with the most points at the end of the playoffs wins the FedEx Cup.

And lots of money. The other change this year is that not all the money is put into the players retirement fund. See, one of those afore mentioned geniuses figured out that if Tiger won the cup 7 times ( which is entirely within the realm of possibility, considering that, even though he hasn’t played since July, he still had the most points going into the play offs ) he would have a retirement fund, which is tax deferred, of over $1 Billion. And the genius figured that the Federal Government might take a dim view of that, and start looking into things, and maybe passing laws. So this year the winner gets a $9 million dollar check, and $1 million goes into the retirement fund. Any player who finishes out of the top 10 after the playoff has all their winnings put into the retirement account. So if you want to make any cash off of this, you need to finish in the top 10.

Now, about the play off. It consists of 4 tournaments. The top 144 players play in the first one. Points are added to their total based on where they finish. Then a cut is made and only the top 120 players move onto the second tournament. After the second tournament another cut is made and only the top 70 move on to the third tournament. And only the top 30 play in the last tournament. Whoever has the most points after that is the winner. Now. You don’t have to do much math to figure out that if you are say, in the top 10 in points, and you win the first tournament, you get enough points that you have more than enough points to keep you in the top 70 and you don’t really need to play in the next two tournaments. You could play in the last one, finish 3rd, and still end up with the most points and win the cup. But if the top players choose to sit out one or two of the last tournaments, that’s not good for business. So this year they tightened the point spread. Meaning the difference between the points for winning, and coming in second etc., has been greatly reduced. This is supposed to help keep more players in the running and make it much harder for the top players to skip a tournament and still stay on top. 

At this point two of the play off tournaments have been played: The Barclays and The Deutsche Bank Championship. Vijay Singh won both of them and currently has the most points. Sergio is in second place and Mike Weir is in third. If you care about the complete current standings, click here. Next up is the BMW Championship then The Tour Championship. Both The Barclays and The Tour Championship have long histories outside of being part of the playoff. The Deutsche Bank was started in 2003 and the BMW is the reincarnated Western Open. The Western itself was the third oldest tournament on the tour before becoming the BMW and part of the playoff. The Tour Championship has traditionally marked the end of the season. So it became the final playoff event, finishing the season with the FedEx cup bang. This year is a Ryder Cup Year ( several posts up coming on that ) and there is nothing those geniuses could devise that would place the FedEx Cup ahead of the Ryder Cup for any golfer in the world. So The Tour Championship was moved back a week this year, to accommodate the Ryder Cup schedule.

And I think that clarifies the major points. This may be only the second year but endless articles have already been written on the FedEx Cup. If you want to know much, much. much more, just type FedEx Cup in Google and you will get hours of reading. If you want a quick over view here is the PGA FAQ.      

I will just add that, although I am reserving judgment on this whole thing for a few years, to see if they can shake it out into something worthwhile, I do get a kick out of the playoff commercials.

And one final note: perhaps you haven’t noticed, but I CERTAINLY have, Mr. Feherty is gone from the airwaves. The CBS announcing team is done for the year, The Barclays was their last tournament. The FedEx Cup tournaments, and MOST unfortunately, The Ryder Cup itself, are broadcast by NBC. Which means Johnny Miller. Ugh.