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Tiger Woods hasn't registered a point so far, but will he have enough to do the job should it go to the last match?
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Crouching Tiger
Tiger Woods hasn't registered a point so far, but will he have enough to do the job should it go to the last match?
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Dublin's Best New Comedy Club
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- Hugh O'Connor
- Hugh O'Connor is an Irish student, stand-up comedian, and avid golfer/cricketer/snookerer living in Dublin. He has been commentating on golf and cricket in his living room to the annoyance of his family for over a decade, and is hoping he'll be able to find a more appreciative audience for his musings. He is a member in Woodbrook Golf Club, which hosted the Irish Open throughout the '60s and '70s, and in Mount Juliet, host of the '93, '94, & '95 Irish Opens, as well as the 2002 and 2004 WGC American Express Championships. His cricket is mainly played on the beach in Derrynane and any cricket ground he can sneak into. He currently plays off a handicap of 7, but hopefully won't for much longer. His initial ambition is to get to 0.4, in order to enter the qualifying for the Open Championship. After that he'll be ready to open the batting and bowling for Ireland, once he's asked.
1 comment:
It's important to remember that it's not Poulter's fault he's been chosen. I hope and pray that he'll be up to the task, but it seems to me that Faldo's picked him because he holed one putt in the British Open to lose to Harrington. Clarke got the pick last time for mixed reasons, including sentimentality - this year, he did enough to get the pick. You can't leave him out of a Ryder Cup if he's on any sort of form - he's just too good. It was also interesting to see how much Harrington was pushing for Clarke and Monty - Faldo may think Harrington's going to step up to the plate and become the new team leader, but being the highest-ranked golfer isn't the issue. Harrington's a fantastic golfer with a decent Cup record, but he's not that kind of player. He's not selfish, but he is very focused on his own game, and doesn't have that Monty/Clarke factor. His support for the others looks like he knows that as well. Westwood for me is the natural elder statesman of the team - he's a hell of a Ryder Cup player, and he's also a grounded and popular guy, so I think he'll have to take over.
Clarke is the sort of player who is made for the Ryder Cup; he's an ideal wildcard, because that's the sort of golfer he is - wild. It doesn't always work in 4-day strokeplay, but put him beside Westwood and they're almost unbeatable.
Faldo has a great talent for putting people's backs up - I was at the Seve Trophy last year when Paul Casey was having a wretched couple of days. Faldo got out of his buggy, took Casey's club off him, and started showing him something mid-hole. Casey just looked the other way. I think Europe are still going to win - US have some good pairings in Kim and Weekley, but I don't think it's enough. The greatest strength of the Europeans each Cup is their team spirit, and some of that will be missing this time around - partly due to a not particularly popular captain, and partly due to the lack of a clear leader.
The fact that Faldo is one of the best golfers in the past 30 years does not mean that he is a good Ryder Cup captain any more than it means he has good judgment. He doesn't seem to understand that it's not Poulter's and Clarke's world rankings that matter, it's how they will perform for and with the team. I'm not saying Poulter is bad for the team, but a team needs someone like Clarke or Monty. I'm all for younger players coming into the team; we definitely need to keep it turning over. The fact is that there are four rookies in the team on merit, and it is so much of a support for them to have a Clarke/Monty figure in the team. In the future, who knows? Oliver Wilson may be the leader of future teams. This team seems to lack it.
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