As noted here earlier, there is something about the upcoming Ryder Cup matches next week in Ireland (perhaps that the American squad has lost four of the last five matches?) that provokes some entertaining reactions.
In this IdahoStatesman.com article, NBC golf color man and former PGA Tour player Johnny Miller rips the American Ryder Cup team:
“This is probably on paper the worst Ryder Cup team we’ve ever fielded,” Miller said during [a] press conference . . .
Miller also expressed reservations about captain Tom Lehman, who will decide how to use his 12 players. He will create four two-man teams for each of the first four rounds.
Miller says it’s imperative that Lehman pair Tiger Woods with Jim Furyk, and Phil Mickelson with Chris DiMarco, because those pairings have worked in the past.
That could leave the team’s inexperienced players, including four Ryder Cup rookies, paired together.
“I believe if he divides those up we’re going to get creamed,” Miller said of the Woods-Furyk and Mickelson-DiMarco teams. “I’m really concerned that Lehman uses the theory that we’ve got to use a good player with a not-so-experienced player.” [. . .]
Miller, a former Ryder Cup player, will call the action for NBC.
“It’s going to be tough to win with the team (Europe has) got,” he said.
I don’t think Miller will be the one pursuing interviews from the American squad members for NBC during the matches. Meanwhile, this blog post of senior GolfWorld writer John Hawkins, an excellent golfer himself, provides a more balanced analysis of the American squad’s prospects.
And just to make sure that the gripping regarding the matches is taking place on both sides of the Atlantic, former three-time European Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher heaped additional criticism (see previous post here) on current Euro team captain Ian Woosnam for failing to tell Euro captain’s choice Lee Westwood that he was on the team before Woosnam made his decision to select him public and said that Woosnam had taken “a massive gamble” by selecting Irishman Darren Clarke, whose wife died last month after a long battle with cancer.
Finally, check out Nike’s new commercial below touting Michelle Wie’s ability to compete against male professional golfers. H’mm, note to Nike — image really isn’t everything!
In the last two weeks you have confused “gripping” with “griping” at least three times. “Gripping” is what one does to a golf club – “griping” is what one does when one’s Titleist ends up in the woods. People will begin to think you are as dimwitted I know you to be unless these editing oversights are corrected.
With my first pick I take Barry Sanders.
Epigone, actually I do know the difference between “griping” and “gripping.” When one is “gripping” in golf, that means that they are gripping the golf club too hard, which is usually the result of anxiety over the pressure of the situation that one confronts. Thus, the word “gripping” is often used in golf circles to describe someone who is showing signs of anxiety of the type that Miller, Gallacher, and others are exhibiting regarding the prospect of losing the Ryder Cup.
By the way, Epigone, if you are who I think you are, you have a lot of experience with “gripping” on the golf course. ;^)
As for being dimwitted, I’m afraid that is an unavoidable condition of being the father of four teenagers.
Thanks for reading Clear Thinkers.