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In what may be the single most questionable, Captain’s picks in Ryder Cup history, Nick Faldo yesterday chose Paul Casey and Ian Poulter, as his two choices.

In doing so, Faldo omitted Daren Clarke from the 12-man European squad. Clarke is a two time winner on the European Tour this year including a heroic victory two weeks ago in the KLM Dutch Open. More importantly though, Clarke, has been a mainstay of the European team for the last 12 years, and is an immensely likeable player who creates great team chemistry.

Clarke has a 10-7-3 record in the Ryder Cup. 8 of his ten wins have come being paired with Lee Westwood. Their partnership is one of the top pairings in the history of the event. Their collective record as a tandem is 8-1-1 which gives them an air of invincibility.

The consensus amongst the European players was that Clarke was a certainty to be picked (and we have been guilty of assuming that was a given, in the last blog). There will be an incredulous reaction to this decision by those players and a general outcry of “what was he (Faldo) thinking?”

The controversy that will be sure to follow will do nothing but damage the European team. In fact, this decision may be the single most beneficial one…..for the US Team.

Nick Faldo has always been his own man. As a player, he was aloof, rude and arrogant. It seems that, despite Faldo’s “Mr. Nice/Funny Guy” demeanor as a TV commentator, a leopard does not change its spots. This decision reeks of someone who basks in controversy and it makes positively, no sense.

Faldo may have just destroyed the single biggest advantage that the Europeans have had for the last 20 years; team camaraderie. It breathes new life for the underdog Americans.

It has been said in the past that the Ryder Cup Captain has very little to do with winning the Cup, but this may be a situation, where the Captain is responsible for losing it.

The Ryder Cup is coming in a few weeks to Valhalla G.C in Kentucky. In a contest that was once dominated by the American team it has now become a lop-sided affair in which the Europeans have been victorious for the last 9 years.

Here are the Top 10 reasons why the Euros will keep, Samuel Ryder’s Cup:

1. No Tiger. Given the fact that this is not Tiger’s favorite event, his absence on the US team, is a void that nobody can fill.
2. The European team actually all know each other and many of their players are close friends. In 2006, at the event in Ireland, Tiger Woods had never even met two of the other US team members before that week. Enough said.
3. The European team dresses better. Ian Poulter vs. Ben Curtis? No contest.
4. Darren Clarke just won the KLM Dutch Open. Clarke who may not have made the team before this week’s win, all but cemented his spot with his superb play. Clarke will be a huge boost to the Euros, for both his play and his persona.
5. The US has lost 5 of the last 6 Cups.
6. Any European player would give their left arm to be on the team. Many American players are ambivilant about playing.
7. Michael Phelps is not on the US squad but there is the potential for Aqua Man (aka Woody Austin) to be a part of the festivities.
8. Padraig Harrington. Sergio Garcia. Lee Westwood. Darren Clarke.
9. Not one of the American players has a winning record on their Ryder Cup resume.
10. There are no Irishmen on the US team.

There is at the moment, a great debate about Golf being introduced as an Olympic sport.

We love golf but it should not be an Olympic sport.

The Olympics should be about sporting events that have evolved from the ancient Greeks and the events that they participated in. It should also be about amateur athletes; which of course, has become a thing of the past.

The Olympic Games have always been the platform to watch sports that we do not ordinarily watch. It is the arena in which we can see athletes represent their countries for the sheer joy of competition and the pride that goes with that participation.

The Olympics are a celebration of human achievement and endeavor.

It is not about grossly overpaid, basketball players. Or for that matter, professional golfers. The games should be just that, games; not business.

You can watch any number of golf events on any given week. Tournaments and Tours abound around the world and those are the respective stages that the sport should be performed on.

It should be about Nadia Comaneci, not LeBron James. Michael Phelps not Tiger Woods.

When else does the average person watch swimming? Or rowing, or track and field or marathon running? The answer is for most people, once every four years.

If we want to see the best basketball players play, we watch the NBA. If we want to see the best tennis players, we watch Wimbledon. Mainstream sports have all of their respective avenues to thrill us. Let the Olympic Games have their moment, and allow it to be what it is supposed to be.

Irish eyes, that is.

14 months ago, Padraig Harrington was a very good player.

In the intervening months he has become an icon.

Harrington’s victory at the PGA Championship at diabolical, Oakland Hills, was stunning golf. After trailing the hapless, Sergio Garcia for most of the day, Harrington made three huge putts on the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th. greens to seal a two shot victory.

It was a battle for the ages with both players playing one magnificent shot after the other. It was compelling theater in which no matter who you were rooting for, you wished that there were no loser.

Sergio Garcia played brilliantly as evidenced by his last two rounds of 69 and 68 on a course that many players believe to be the hardest Championship lay-out in the world. Showing a new maturity and making several clutch putts (up until recently, his nemesis), Garcia proved that like a good wine, he is maturing with age. His time will come.

Ben Curtis also played with a great deal of heart. Starting the fourth round as the 54 hole leader, Curtis shot a brave 71 which under most circumstances would have been the winning score. Curtis was the shock winner of the Open Championship fives years ago and was immediately labeled as a “one hit wonder”.

Since that time he has won two more PGA Tour events and played his way onto this year’s Ryder Cup team with his second place finish yesterday. Curtis has never been given the respect due of his resume but his play at this Championship should prove to one and all that he belongs in the top echelon of American players.

If the golf world has been looking for a replacement for the injured Tiger; it has just found it’s man. Padraig Harrington tamed the mighty Oakland Hills with a pair of 66’s on the weekend. This on a course that most players reckoned a par score of 70, to be remarkable.

In doing so, Harrington becomes the first European player in 74 years to win the PGA, and the only one ever, to win the Open and PGA back to back. Combined with his stirring win at last year’s open Championship, that gives Harrington, three of the last 6, Major Championships.

At 36, Harrington has a very good chance to eclipse, Nick Faldo’s 6 Majors, the most by European-born players, before he retires.
It wasn’t very long ago, that Harrington was the ‘heartbreak kid’ as evidenced by his 17 runner-up finishes while only recording three wins on the European Tour. His sheer will to win and his devotion to improve have made him, a superstar. This everyday man has become the golfer that every man would like to be like.

It was with great sadness, that I learned of the passing of Orville Moody, yesterday. Orville Moody was one of the finest ball-strikers of all time and a genuinely nice human being.

I first met “Sarge” as he was known in 1986. I was beginning my career as a club professional at Lake Arbor GC in Arvada, Colorado. Sarge had owned the golf course but had run into financial problems and had to sell his interest to the City of Arvada.

Sarge and I shared a common bond in that both of us struggled with our putting. Sarge showed me how to use a long putter, which at the time was a very new and strange device. Despite all the troubles and pressure he must have been under, he spent two hours on the putting green with me.

Things were about to change for the better for Sarge. At that time, the Senior Tour (or Champion’s Tour as it is now known) was in its infancy but Sarge had managed to win two tournaments in 1984. With the advent of big corporate sponsors, what was once a nostalgic get together of old friends, began to be a very lucrative endeavor. Sarge would go on to have a great career on the Senior circuit and won 11 times.

The most famous of his victories though, was his win at the US Open in 1969. After having served in the US Army for 14 years, Sarge had turned professional in 1968. His concerns about giving up his secure Army salary of $5,000 per year were quickly put aside when he won almost $300,000 in prize-money in 1969.

That win in the 69 Open would be his only win on the PGA Tour although he would have 5, 2^nd. place finishes in the ensuing years. His putting was his downfall. It got to be so bad that players’ who he was paired with, couldn’t even watch. Sarge had one of the most chronic cases of the “yips” of all time. He would frequently miss one and two foot putts. That he was able to compete at all is testament to how superb of a ball striker he was.

The Senior Tour gave Sarge second life. After a series of failed business ventures, it provided him with financial security but more importantly, it allowed Orville, to show the world what a great player he was. One of the first proponents of the long putter, Sarge, was a new golfer with it. In one of those great golfing ironies, Sarage actually led the Senior Tour in putting statistics in 1989.

Caddying for him in many of those wins was his daughter, Michelle, which was one of the great joys of Sarge’s life. Michelle actually read most of his putts for him, which is also very unusual as most top players read their own putts and only occasionally ask their caddies for help.

“We are all going to miss ‘Sarge’ who was a patriot first and a professional golfer second,” said PGA Tour commissioner, Tim Finchem. “He embodied a bit of golf’s everyman whom we all could identify with, having risen from his Oklahoma roots as part (Choctaw Indian) and serving his country in a 14-year Army career.”

Sarge was one of the kindest and generous people you would ever meet. He was devoted to his family and unfailingly loyal to his friends. Golf lost one of his great characters, yesterday, when Sarge left us. He was 74.

Sarge, we salute; you.

The winner of the British Women’s Open at Sunningdale is not someone that US golf fans may have heard about; but she will be someone that you will be hearing a lot more about, in the coming years.

Ji-Yai Shin is a 20 year old Korean player who does not have a weakness, which is extraordinary for a player so young. Shin’s swing is flawless. She has a very repetitive move devoid of any wasted motion which makes the effect seem effortless.

Shin’s victory was her ninth win in her last 20 starts. Does that resonate? Her 9^th. victory in her last 20 events. True, that the other eight were on the Korean LPGA tour but that may be even more impressive. Here’s why.

The Top 5 players at the Women’s British Open were all Asian born players. In the last 10 LPGA Tour events, 8 of the Champions are Asian (seven of them are from Korea).

10 of the Top 20 players on the LPGA Money list are from Asia.  

And that list does not include, yesterday’s winner, Shin. Shin has not yet decided if she wants to play on the LPGA Tour, although her victory gives her exempt status.

Thee winners of the last three LPGA Major’s (and their respective ages) are:

Yani Tseng 2008 McDonald’s LPGA Championship 19 years, 4 months, 16 days
Inbee Park 2008 U.S. Women’s Open 19 years, 11 months, 17 days
Ji-Yai Shin 2008 RICOH Women’s British Open 20 years, 3 months, 6 day

These girls can play.

Any remaining sympathy that we may have had for Michelle Wie just flew straight out the window.

We have hesitated to write about the once phenomenal, Wie, during the last year to avoid ‘piling on’. After all, she was 18 (she is now 19), and although she or her family were guilty of some terrible decisions, the thought was to just report about things that mattered.

Sometimes you have to wonder; “what are you thinking?”!!!

Michelle Wie will be playing her ninth PGA Tour event at this week’s Reno-Tahoe event.

This is absolutely absurd. Wie has never made the cut in any of her previous forays on the Men’s Tour and she won’t be making this one either.

Wie withdrew from qualifying for the Women’s British Open (she no longer gets all the exemptions she used to, to play the LPGA Tour) to play at Tahoe.

Wie will be taking the spot in the field that would have otherwise gone to a regular member of the Tour. The rationale that people have is that she is a draw and will bring in a lot more gate paying fans to watch. Kind of like how people queue up to watch a car wreck.

Michelle Wie has no business playing the PGA Tour. As a matter of fact she has no business playing the LPGA Tour since she has not gone to qualifying school to earn her card.

Someone needs to help this young person out. Someone (and obviously her greedy, over-bearing parents will not be any help) needs to show her some tough love. Someone needs to stop this train before it becomes a monumental wreck.

In one way a fairytale ended and in another one was fulfilled.

For Greg Norman, it was a story that has he has written many times before. He held the lead going into the final round of a Major Championship, only to let it slip away. Except that on all the other occasions we expected him to win and therefore, the ways in which he lost were, heartbreaking.

That the Great White Shark once again blazed across the links with his swashbuckling gait and dynamic style, will endure as a cherished spectacle. Looking more like a 33 year old than a 53 year old, part-time golfer, Norman was splendid. He reminded us all that it is never too late, nor are we ever too old; but it was not to be.

Padraig Harrington won his second consecutive Open Championship and he was clearly, the year’s Championship golfer. Most all of the contestants who were interviewed said that it was the hardest 4 consecutive days (weather and course conditions) of tournament golf that they had ever played. Harrington handled the elements better than anyone but he also, played magnificently.

With a two shot lead on the 71^st. hole, the 5 wood that he hit to five feet for his second shot (he made the putt for eagle) will undoubtedly go down as one of the great shots in history. At the time he had a two shot lead, which under these circumstances, can vanish quicker than you blink.

There may not be a player today who works harder at his game, than Harrington. There are more gifted players in the world, but nobody who deserves his success more than this everyday Irishman.

In interviews throughout the year, Harrington has said that while wining his first Major was rewarding and fulfilling, he did not want it to be his only one. Now it isn’t. He becomes only the fifth modern player to win back to back Open Championships. A potentially great career is now on it’s way to being a Hall of Fame career. It is so richly deserved.

They will be celebrating this one in the Emerald Isle, for a long time.

Greg Norman has found something even more important than another Claret Jug. He has found joy. While he may not ever again be a contender in a golf tournament, he seems as though he has found what really matters.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

It’s only Friday and the second round of the British Open (otherwise known as “The Open”) is not even finished but the second round leader is none other than the “Great White Shark”; Greg Norman.

Norman has shot two, even par rounds of 70 in atrocious conditions. Pretty good for a 53 year old, part time golfer. Could this be the ‘golf gods’ way of paying back Norman for a career filled with heartbreaking losses? Only time will tell.

In the world before Tiger, Norman reigned supreme and was for the 10 years before Tiger’s ascendancy, the face of professional golf.

Norman was a superb player and won 86 tournaments around the world. He was also sometimes tragic in the way that he managed to lose tournaments. Bob Tway’s holed-out bunker shot at the 1986 (that was the year that Norman led every Major after three rounds but only managed to win the British), Larry Mize’s chip-in at the 1997 Masters in a playoff, and Norman’s collapse to lose to Nick Faldo, after leading the 1996 Masters by 6 shots on the final day.

There are those who would say that Norman was the unluckiest player of all time, while others would say that he was the author of his own disasters. As an example, he led the 1986 PGA Championship (Tway’s chip-in) by 5 shots with six holes to play, so those people would say that he lost the tournament rather than Tway winning it.

Greg Norman always handled his defeats with grace and honesty. His movie star looks and ‘stiff upper lip” drew people to him and even people who were not fans of his, felt his anguish. There was always a sadness to his greatness. Kind of like watching a Greek tragedy, unfold.

At 53, Norman has found the happiness that may have eluded him until now. Last month he married, all time tennis great, Chris Evert. Norman has never seemed more content and comfortable (two things that he never appeared to be in his heyday).

Norman admits to playing more tennis than golf these days and is by all account becoming a very proficient tennis player.

This weekend, though, The Great White Shark has taken golf’s biggest stage by storm. It is as if the hands of time have been turned back 20 years.

It would perhaps be the most unlikely victory at a Major Championship, in history. Older bones don’t handle these type of weather conditions very well. It has been 9 years since he was in serious contention at a Major event. Will his swing hold up? Will his nerves stay the course? The next two days will tell that story.

Perhaps the most important story though, has already been written. Greg Norman, for all his fame and fortune, has finally found the joy that he has been looking for, all of his Life.

CONGRATULATIONS! TO: ERIKA HAYFLICK

Erika is a relatively new golfer but has made remarkable progress is a very short time, with her teacher, the incomparable, Tim Peightal. Erika was playing at Whistling Straits, on the Straits course, on July 6, 2008. Erika was playing with her boyfriend, Mark Kiesel, who is himself a superb golfer, when “magic” struck!

On the 12th. hole, under a beautiful blue sky, Erika had, the rarest of all shots; a hole in one! The hole measured 69 yards and she used a sand wedge. What makes this even more memorable is that Mark captured her swing on camera. On the picture to the left (below) you see Erika just after impact and the picture to the right ….the result!

WELL DONE, ERIKA!