*** Rory holes our bunker shot on final hole! He sits T-6 and is in contention at the DP World Tour Championship. He is tied with… are you ready… Grace, Grillo, Willett, and Fitzpatrick. Good stuff.
*** After Graeme McDowell won Monday, I did a Google News search on his name to read the latest articles. One from Golf Digest that popped up: “Graeme McDowell to open second Nona Blue restaurant, putting him one-up on Tiger Woods.”
Even for the golf media, that’s embarrassing. Graeme opens a restaurant and Woods goes in the headline? Seriously, the author of that piece needs a new job. If I were his boss, I’d send him looking for one.
Lanny H Golf 
For God’s sake Lanny, why are you babbling on about this stuff? Didn’t you read the news? Tiger is going to be an assistant captain at the Ryder Cup! Why are you talking about anything else? Lord knows that Golf Channel will be on this topic for months.
Can anyone offer a valid reason why Woods is a VC on this team?
Because regardless of the personal qualities that would make someone a good captain, any formerly great, past-his-prime American player starts on the path to being a Ryder Cup captain. In other words, it’s Woods’s turn.
Terrible way to choose a captain. I think the captaincy is overrated, but since they make such a big deal out of it, they should change the process. Every RC captain has always been a major champion. Why? Europe doesn’t have this limitation and they’ve done rather well. If a captain like Azinger has success, why not let them remain captain until they resign the post? They pretend that the captaincy is so important, yet they award the position as a ceremonial, career achievement position.
Why not someone like Fred Funk? He was well liked on tour. He was a former college golf coach who is familiar with match play format. And, most importantly, he has experience dealing with a mix of disparate and spoiled personalities.
A question, and for the multi-time captains, this applies to their first. Give me a valid reason for any of them to be selected?
Speaking for myself, I don’t know. I don’t even know why they play the event. And I can’t imagine the captain, or co-captains, makes any difference whatsoever.
What kind of ticks me off is how much the media pushes the Ryder Cup, but the WGC World Match Play is almost the only event the mainstream golf media dares to criticize. And it’s the best non-major event of the year. In some regards, I think it is the only worthwhile WGC event.
Still waiting for a valid reason.
Well, naming Stricker was not going to bring any headlines. Nor the other guy they picked, whoever that was. (I’ve already forgotten.)
It’s like that basketball player who OD’d on drugs at a legal prostitution place in Nevada. It was a “story” because he used to have a TV show with the Kardashians or something. It’s a race to the bottom.
Anyway, I’ve used this comparison before. There are certain times where I get so fed up with the… I don’t know… grotesqueness of the people who seem to never leave the “celebrity” headlines. I read a book once, a horror novel, and the main character was half-dead or something, and his flesh was rotting off. It made a horrid stench. Because of this he covered himself in cologne to try to hid the rancid odor. THAT is what these constant non-stories about Woods remind me of. That’s the effect they have on me. I don’t care to participate in the “I like Tiger, yay, yay, whee, whee” camp vs “He’s scum, basically” camp. I may be in the second camp, but I don’t see what is gained by arguing the same arguments with the same people and helping to perpetuate the childishness.
Of course, some will knee-jerk a response of, “Oh, but Lanny, you do it!” First off, this website is a non-profit. I have no idea or desire to have it be anything other than a depot for the truth about Tiger Woods. Or inside trader Phil Mickelson, or corrupt Tim Finchem.
How the hell can Woods and Galea be investigated by the FBI and not a damned member of the media getting the public records showing Woods had some sixty visits from Galea and Lindsay, putting the lie to the Haney/Woods/Finchem narrative. Instead we had to wait five years for the Garcia-Roberts/Elfrink book about A-Rod.
Anyway, getting back to the point, they connect Woods to the team somehow or other and they generate a few headlines, but all I smell is cologne over rotting flesh.
By the way, contrary to what some may imagine, the Ryder Cup doesn’t get all that great of ratings. NBC probably forced this, so they can include Woods in promos, hoping to fool some of the idiot Woods Only crowd to mistakenly tune in.
Think of the things the golf media will NOT investigate. The real reason Vonn left Woods. The Terez Owens report — still up after two years; contrast to Olsen radio interview.
Okay, now will there be a rash of golf articles with titles like, “Should Tiger have been made Ryder Cup vice captain?” Rest assured, they will “attack” along the most boring lines: poor Ryder Cup record; lack of enthusiasm (maybe; they never really will say Woods and Duval and Rory were right: it’s a damned exhibition). “Polite” arguments against. They will never say, “He’s a freaking laughingstock, an embarrassment to both the Tour and the country.” Hell, no, they won’t say that. You won’t see that in a poll, either, because that answer would get 80 percent of the votes.
By the way, I’m going to write something about Fonseca’s first “golf bullshit” attack article, his declaration of independence, his opening salvo against the mainstream golf media. It had the most toe-the-line comment I’ve ever seen. I was nice all last week, now it’s time to blast him, ha ha.
Personally, I love the Ryder Cup. Match play adds a wonderful raw element to golf. I was brought up on a diet of match play. I wish clubs would encourage match play. It would help rid us of 5 hour rounds.
The 2016 is already a farce from a USA standpoint. Woods virtually named himself as a VC a few weeks ago. Love didn’t have the fortitude to tell him he makes the decisions.
Match play is great for regular people. Like you said, it speeds things up. I always liked it, too, because a couple of early bad holes doesn’t ruin the day.
IMO It should be compulsory for most golfers most of the tIme. Every golfer should know then it’s time to pick up and move on to the next tee. Plumb-bobbing for an 11 must be one of the most ridiculous things in all of sport.