Ryder Cup shaping up to be pressure-packed event
| • | UH men's golf benefit slated for Turtle Bay |
| • | HOLES IN ONE First ace at ripe old age of 7 |
| • | Tour money leaders |
| • | Golf notices |
By Bill Kwon
Special to The Advertiser
Football has its Super Bowl, baseball its World Series and soccer its World Cup.
Associated Press
In golf, it's the Ryder Cup.
Chris DiMarco, "is going to emerge as a real powerhouse for the U.S. team," says golf analyst and Maui resident Mark Rolfing.
"It's the most exciting event in golf," said Mark Rolfing, a golf analyst who is with the NBC crew televising the 35th Ryder Cup starting tomorrow at the Oakland Hills Country Club just outside of Detroit.
"I have never seen pretournament hype like this one has. All of Detroit, which has hockey, the Pistons and Lions, are going nuts. They're talking nothing but the Ryder Cup. There were 40,000 people out here on a Tuesday," said the Maui resident.
Rolfing thinks it will be perhaps the most intense and pressure-packed Ryder Cup of all — not just because the Americans are hunkered down in a "Us against Them" mentality these days.
He thinks it's a must-win situation for the Americans, who have a lot riding on it in terms of pride and country.
The Europeans have won three of the past four Ryder Cup matches and still don't consider themselves as underdogs even though this year's event is in America and on paper it should be no contest.
You're talking about a team led by Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Davis Love III, against Padraig Harrington, who at No. 9 is the highest ranked European player, and teammates who are hardly household names — Ian Poulter, David Howell and Paul McGinley.
I mean, even Jack Burke — who is to American team captain Hal Sutton what Mouse Davis is to Hawai'i football coach June Jones — told Sports Illustrated that he couldn't pick members of the European team out of a police lineup.
Yet the match itself will be too close to call. Rolfing thinks the Americans, if they can keep it close the first two days, will win by one point, 14 1/2 to 13 12, when the shouting is all over on Sunday. And believe me, there will be a lot of raucous shouts by the partisan fans as the matches get serious.
This year's Ryder Cup could surpass the intensity at the 1991 "War on the Shore" at Kiawah Island, S.C., and the "Battle at Brookline" at the Country Club in Massachusetts in 1999.
According to Rolfing, one of the major reasons why the Ryder Cup grew in popularity is because of the closeness of the matches in recent years.
It used to be a breeze for the Americans when only players from Great Britain made up the opposing team. The United States won every year from 1935 through 1977, except in 1957 and a tie in 1969.
Rolfing
Then Jack Nicklaus suggested that players from the continent of Europe be made eligible to play. The first two continental Europeans were Seve Ballesteros and Antonio Garrido, who played in the 1979 Ryder Cup. Since 1985, the Europeans have won six of the nine Ryder Cups for an unduly share of bragging rights.
Rolfing was involved in a recent Golf Channel discussion on whether players from the rest of the world should be eligible for the Ryder Cup.
After all, the world's No. 1 player, Vijay Singh, and top-ranked golfers like Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Mike Weir will be spectators this week.
It will never happen since they're now part of the international team playing the Americans in the Presidents Cup during the non Ryder Cup years.
Besides, Rolfing said, the international team would probably be the stronger because of a larger talent pool.
The Presidents Cup turned the corner in terms of prestige after last year's stirring 17-17 tie in South Africa. But it can never replace the Ryder Cup, which has a 77-year tradition on its side.
Associated Press
"I don't see the Americans ever getting revved up for the Presidents Cup as they would the Ryder Cup," Rolfing said.
Since 1985, the Europeans have won six of the nine Ryder Cup competitions, including three of the past four.
There is no comparison between the two. The intensity and the passion aren't the same.
"You're going to see a lot of birdies because the course will not be in U.S. Open type condition. The rough won't be that high," Rolfing said. "It'll be better for the fans."
Another reason for its popularity is the match-play format, according to Rolfing.
"It's what every golfer in the world plays. You see more exciting shots because players take more chances in match play than stroke play," he said.
Rolfing thinks the star of the American team will be Chris DiMarco, not Tiger Woods.
"Chris is going to emerge as a real powerhouse for the U.S. team. He wanted it so much, having been snubbed as a captain's pick before," Rolfing said. "And he's playing well except for a meltdown in the International."
As for Woods, who is 0-5 in opening-day matches in the Ryder Cup, Rolfing thinks that if Tiger wants to be recognized as the greatest player of all time, he needs to improve his record (5-8-1) in the event.
"It isn't that good," Rolfing said.
Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.
