My Biennial Obsession

If I seem a bit distracted this morning it's because my biennial obsession--the Ryder Cup--is underway already this morning in Scotland.  I live and breathe the Ryder Cup.  It has everything that I love in golf: The United States versus Europe--so you've got that jingoistic angle going...it's match play--the best way to play golf--just you versus your opponent, par doesn't matter...and it has Foursomes--or alternate shot format--which is completely foreign to most Americans, but is a fast, frustrating and fun way to play.

I started looking forward to this edition of the Ryder Cup about two minutes after leaving the 2012 Ryder cup at Medinah outside of Chicago.  You may recall, the US blew a huge 10-4 lead on Saturday afternoon to lose 14 1/2 to 13 1/2.  I looked back on My Two Cents from the Monday after the Meltdown at Medinah and wow, was I an angry man.  I hoped that perennial losers like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker would never make another Ryder Cup team again.

Well here we are two years along and I got half of my wish granted.  Tiger is not on the team due to his back injury--and horrible play most of the year--and Steve Stricker is just an Assistant Captain.  Phil and Furyk are back which causes me some concern.  But like the eternal optimist, I still have a good feeling about this year's American team.  There is a new wave of young players at Gleneagles.  Young players who don't have the scars of getting drubbed by the Euros in six of the last eight matches.  Guys like Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed--who play aggressive fearless golf and fit perfectly with match play golf.  And what's more, they want to win.  They've got the fire inside--the fire that so many of us US fans have as well--and are so frustrated not to see in the previous generation of players who have let us down so often.
And sure enough, Spieth and Reed are dominating in their Fourball match already this morning--while the Ryder Cup washouts Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson are getting their butts handed to them--again. 

So I will be up at 2:00 am again tomorrow and about 4:00 on Sunday--jacked up without any coffee necessary--to watch the Red, White and Blue try to shut up the chanting and singing of the equally passionate Euro fans.  And if I get disappointed again Sunday afternoon, it's just one-year, 11-months, 27-days, 15-hours, 29-minutes and 30-seconds until the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine in the Twin Cities.  I'm already looking forward to being there.