RYDER CUP TRIUMPHS AND DISASTERS ARE STILL IMPOSTORS!

by Doug McAllister

And with that, the end of another Ryder Cup. Now, the eternal analysis begins! Why? Because we are disasterologists. We are drawn to it. We have to try to make a drama out of a game, complete with a script befitting a Shakespearean tragedy!

That being the case, let's get started.


DONE BEFORE IT STARTED?

Johnny Miller, when analyzing the failed shot of a competitor in a Major Championship, once observed, "That shot was missed before he ever hit it! Look at where he placed the ball. Look at where his feet are. He missed that shot with a bad set-up!"

Could the same be said of the U.S. Team at this year's Ryder Cup? I think so. Just compare it to what happened in 2008. There was no Tiger nonsense in 2008. Nothing there to draw Paul Azinger's mind away from the golf. No wild guessing games as to who would make it and who wouldn't. No melodrama.

This year everything centered on Eldrick! And with the farce the attention was drawn away from how the team would compete. How do you think the players who qualified felt? They qualified with their play and yet they were simply bit players in our drama. It was as if the PGA said to them, "Oh...yes...you. Congratulations! Now, go sit over there and be quiet. We need to see whether Tiger will be playing."


AND A STEP EVEN BEFORE THAT!

But, the real problem began when Corey Pavin was tapped as captain. Spare me! I can hear the objections already. "But he's the bulldog! He deserved it! It wasn't his fault!"

Wasn't it? If Pavin is a, so-called, bulldog, then what does that make Paul Azinger? A grizzly? What does it make Ben Crenshaw? A saber-tooth! Surely, there has to be some difference!

What was the difference? Azinger was in charge from the beginning to the culmination of impressive victory in 2008. Crenshaw believed in fate and had "a good feeling!" Pavin simply stood around with the look of a lost little boy who had somehow wandered onto the course at Celtic Manor! Always with that little forced smile of his.

Interestingly, there was never an air of his being in charge. When he announced his captain's picks he sat there with that silly look on his face. It was as if he half expected someone to relieve him of command for his choices.

Maybe someone should have.


THE RUB OF THE GREEN!

Those are arguments that have and will be made. But — truth be told — there was nothing nefarious or scandalous or triumphant or tragic about any of this year's Ryder Cup proceedings. No, there was no questionable gamesmanship by Colin Montgomerie involving delayed reports about U.S. play or involving piling hoards of British fans into the course on the last day (although he did handle things masterfully, didn't he?). There was nothing weird or staged about the weather-forced changes in format (unless, of course, Montgomerie was able to call in a marker with God in order to get it to rain like it did).

In the end, there was nothing tragic about Hunter Mahan's fouled chip at 17. This isn't, after all, the sport of ancient Aztec competition which saw the losing team killed and sacrificed to the gods of the winning players! This is a game. A game that, in its playing out, is as entropic as anything in nature! Think of it. One bit of grass leaning just wrong can transform a championship-winning putt into a Dante-esque disaster! A routine chip, then, can become a career-making triumph or goat-making chunk! And, no, I don't for an instant label anyone as the goat of this year's event!

How very fitting it is that it was a Scottish poet, Robert Burns (perhaps a golfer, himself?), who penned the applicable lines:

"The best laid schemes of mice and men
"Go often askew,
"And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
"For promised joy!"

No doubt everyone involved planned victory, sought "promised joy." No doubt everyone hoped for the best. No doubt the "schemes" for a win were seemingly "best laid" on both sides of the competition. So, what happened?

Well, to use the most appropriate term from golf, Europe's win and the U.S.'s loss was nothing more than a proverbial golfing "Rub of the Green!"


SO, LET'S ALL TAKE A DEEP BREATHE!

Nothing was really lost or won today! Nothing! In fact, Colin Montgomerie cannot say that he finally has his "Major" as a result of today's European win. Last I looked, winning a Major still means playing in and coming in first at one of the four of Golf's Major Championships! But, if it makes him feel better...

Hunter Mahan really doesn't need to feel badly about missing his chip on 17. Oh, of course he would have liked to make it. But he really should feel more badly — as should all of the U.S. competitors — that he lost his match on Sunday, when Europe won 5 1/2 out of 6 points and took a three point lead into today's singles matches! Mahan is still one of the best up-and-coming players in the game and it would be a real shame if this "artificial" setback were detrimental to his ongoing success.

Comparisons will abound as to whether Corey Pavin or Paul Azinger or Tom Lehman or Ben Crenshaw is the better or worse Ryder Cup captain. Luck plays far too much into any of those discussions so it might be best to let sleeping dogs lie. Consider it. Had Justin Leonard missed his putt at Brookline, something that, given the level of his play that week, he probably should have done, Crenshaw would be another also-ran in the long line of loser U.S. Ryder Cup captains instead of being, according to many, the "Patron Saint" of modern American golf. Something to think about.


And with that, the end of another Ryder Cup. Thank goodness! Good thing this year's triumphs and disasters are still, according to Kipling anyway, still impostors.

Treat them exactly the same and get out there and...

Hit 'em Long and Straight!