Ryder Coup
The US was thrashed. Why? Why is it that a team comprised of some of the world's top players (at least by Sony rank) can be so comprehensively drubbed? Phil Mickelson: where were you? David Toms, a solid player, and a solid piece of lead on the ocean of Ryder history. Stewart Cink ... tried hard and at least put that whelp Garcia in his place. Tiger ... you are the world's number one player and least you won more than you lost. But why?
The answer must lie in the differences in golf as played in Europe and the United States -- otherwise, if all was the same, you'd expect to see a closer result. So what distinguishes the Euro-pro from the US-pro? Is it the person, or the game, or both?
I have to believe that it is both. You see, the US golf pro is a solitary beast and typically has been so since he left college, assuming he played on a college team at all. The US-pro has focused solely on his own performance over 72 holes as a FINANCIAL matter. That is his job. And, as we all know, the average American is exceedingly concerned with financial matters. More is good. Lots more is better. Excess is best. Europeans, by contrast, focus on other matters apart from the financial. Matters in terms of pride, nationality and honor have always been front and center to the Euro-psyche. This leads to very different approaches in problem solving.
The American solution to any problem has been to throw enough money at it so as to make it go away. The Europeans, who as a general rule have had less money to squander over the last 50 years, tend to be more creative in coming to a solution. Pride and necessity are the mothers of more than invention, they are excellent motivators too. Indeed, the image of the English boffin laboring in a shabby lab coming up with brilliant innovations is to the point here. Come up with the idea, then take it to America to commercialize. To make money.
Pride is something that you just don't see when you look at the US-pro. That wight only looks at whether he has made the cut ... that is, whether he will make that week pay for itself. When the English or Irish pros make the trip to Spain or Dubai or France on the European Tour, they are also taking with them their national pride and heritage. The US-pro is simply moving from state to state chasing sponsor cash. There is absolutely no notion of belonging to anything at all. It is lining up to access the ATM of cash that is PGA golf in the US. And the pros play like that.
You can draw a very clear correlation between the demise of US golf performance in the Ryder Cup and the rise of insane purses on the PGA tour: the Americanization of golf. Europe better watch out for this, if they are to avoid the joke that has become the US tour. You can win a half million dollar prize for coming in second at the Bo-jangles Chicken Tour Classic played at the TPC of podunk. Do the "top" players even bother to attend? No, because their appearance money at the 7-11 pro-am invitational played at Sunny Acres in Florida exceeds that. Plus they can helicopter over there from their houses at Isleworth.
US tour courses are manicured to within an inch of their lives -- perfection every time that you tee it up. European courses retain a lot more "golf" in them. In many parts of Europe, if you are in the rough, you are in deep poop indeed. Try to get out of the damned grasses that line the Irish and English seaside courses: you will break your wrists if you are so foolhardy as to try. As a consequence, the pros that play these courses day in and day out are far better equipped to hit creative golf shots, are better ball strikers and are better all round golfers than their US counterparts. If all you ever play on are lawns, you are a croquet player, not a golfer. Does this explain why the US does not do better when they play on super-courses like the the K club? Yes. Because the Euros are better ball strikers and they find a way to win because they need to.
That is, the Euros have better spirits, that essential something that lets one dig down deep to find a way to win. Spirit is bred into the player and also trained for. In the US, golf is solely concerned with "how many." Not "how." The pretty shot is not rewarded, the creative shot irrelevant. It is how many. In US club golf, the low score is the Valhalla, low gross, low net. Matchplay is not stressed. Why? Because our heros that we see every weekend are shooting for low score. Team golf is rare. Go to the competition board in ANY European club, you will see lists of matches to be played against other golf clubs. Matchplay competitions. You just don't see the same in the US. At the lowest club level, European golfers learn to play in team events, to fight for the honor of their club. American golfers are only concerned with breaking 70 (or 80) and did you see my new driver?
If the Ryder Cup was a competition over 72 holes, each player minding his own ball and totalling the score of all the players at the end of the day, then I think that the United States would crush the Europeans. Statistically this would appear to be so -- as it is this sort of golf for which the US-pro tunes his game. Oh, Sergio, where are you in the Sony rankings? What are your greens in regulation, total driving, putts per green, etc? How do you do when you play on the US tour? In that NARROW interpretation of golf you suck. But, that is not the Ryder Cup.
The Ryder Cup is far more than that. It is about pride, strategy and raw ability to hit the ball under pressure and here the Sergios excel. If the US-pro has a bad day on tour, he misses the cut. Big deal. In Europe, the payday for the also-ran is far slimmer. You can't just shrug it off. And if you are a Brit playing in Germany, you want to slam that down the throat of the German crowd. And the Spanish have their heritage to live up to. Can you imagine the Californian golfers getting their dander up against the Texan golfers? Euro-pros have multiple identities, they are sports celebrities in their won countries and represent their countries every tournament. The US-pro is, by and large, another faceless drone looking for a paycheck. And I don't see this changing anytime soon.
I prefer the pretty shot, the elegant solution, over raw score. It is the difference between Mickey D's and fois gras, between Velveeta and brie. Both feed you and both with make you fat. But the fois gras is so much more than some chopped liver and Velveeta ... is it even cheese? Play a round on a blustery day in Scotland, then compare that to a round at one of the Disney super-resort courses. No doubt both provide golf, but one is memorable and requires creativity. The other values a high wedge with spin to a perfectly smooth and predictable green.
Gotta get me over to Europe to get some golf in.
The answer must lie in the differences in golf as played in Europe and the United States -- otherwise, if all was the same, you'd expect to see a closer result. So what distinguishes the Euro-pro from the US-pro? Is it the person, or the game, or both?
I have to believe that it is both. You see, the US golf pro is a solitary beast and typically has been so since he left college, assuming he played on a college team at all. The US-pro has focused solely on his own performance over 72 holes as a FINANCIAL matter. That is his job. And, as we all know, the average American is exceedingly concerned with financial matters. More is good. Lots more is better. Excess is best. Europeans, by contrast, focus on other matters apart from the financial. Matters in terms of pride, nationality and honor have always been front and center to the Euro-psyche. This leads to very different approaches in problem solving.
The American solution to any problem has been to throw enough money at it so as to make it go away. The Europeans, who as a general rule have had less money to squander over the last 50 years, tend to be more creative in coming to a solution. Pride and necessity are the mothers of more than invention, they are excellent motivators too. Indeed, the image of the English boffin laboring in a shabby lab coming up with brilliant innovations is to the point here. Come up with the idea, then take it to America to commercialize. To make money.
Pride is something that you just don't see when you look at the US-pro. That wight only looks at whether he has made the cut ... that is, whether he will make that week pay for itself. When the English or Irish pros make the trip to Spain or Dubai or France on the European Tour, they are also taking with them their national pride and heritage. The US-pro is simply moving from state to state chasing sponsor cash. There is absolutely no notion of belonging to anything at all. It is lining up to access the ATM of cash that is PGA golf in the US. And the pros play like that.
You can draw a very clear correlation between the demise of US golf performance in the Ryder Cup and the rise of insane purses on the PGA tour: the Americanization of golf. Europe better watch out for this, if they are to avoid the joke that has become the US tour. You can win a half million dollar prize for coming in second at the Bo-jangles Chicken Tour Classic played at the TPC of podunk. Do the "top" players even bother to attend? No, because their appearance money at the 7-11 pro-am invitational played at Sunny Acres in Florida exceeds that. Plus they can helicopter over there from their houses at Isleworth.
US tour courses are manicured to within an inch of their lives -- perfection every time that you tee it up. European courses retain a lot more "golf" in them. In many parts of Europe, if you are in the rough, you are in deep poop indeed. Try to get out of the damned grasses that line the Irish and English seaside courses: you will break your wrists if you are so foolhardy as to try. As a consequence, the pros that play these courses day in and day out are far better equipped to hit creative golf shots, are better ball strikers and are better all round golfers than their US counterparts. If all you ever play on are lawns, you are a croquet player, not a golfer. Does this explain why the US does not do better when they play on super-courses like the the K club? Yes. Because the Euros are better ball strikers and they find a way to win because they need to.
That is, the Euros have better spirits, that essential something that lets one dig down deep to find a way to win. Spirit is bred into the player and also trained for. In the US, golf is solely concerned with "how many." Not "how." The pretty shot is not rewarded, the creative shot irrelevant. It is how many. In US club golf, the low score is the Valhalla, low gross, low net. Matchplay is not stressed. Why? Because our heros that we see every weekend are shooting for low score. Team golf is rare. Go to the competition board in ANY European club, you will see lists of matches to be played against other golf clubs. Matchplay competitions. You just don't see the same in the US. At the lowest club level, European golfers learn to play in team events, to fight for the honor of their club. American golfers are only concerned with breaking 70 (or 80) and did you see my new driver?
If the Ryder Cup was a competition over 72 holes, each player minding his own ball and totalling the score of all the players at the end of the day, then I think that the United States would crush the Europeans. Statistically this would appear to be so -- as it is this sort of golf for which the US-pro tunes his game. Oh, Sergio, where are you in the Sony rankings? What are your greens in regulation, total driving, putts per green, etc? How do you do when you play on the US tour? In that NARROW interpretation of golf you suck. But, that is not the Ryder Cup.
The Ryder Cup is far more than that. It is about pride, strategy and raw ability to hit the ball under pressure and here the Sergios excel. If the US-pro has a bad day on tour, he misses the cut. Big deal. In Europe, the payday for the also-ran is far slimmer. You can't just shrug it off. And if you are a Brit playing in Germany, you want to slam that down the throat of the German crowd. And the Spanish have their heritage to live up to. Can you imagine the Californian golfers getting their dander up against the Texan golfers? Euro-pros have multiple identities, they are sports celebrities in their won countries and represent their countries every tournament. The US-pro is, by and large, another faceless drone looking for a paycheck. And I don't see this changing anytime soon.
I prefer the pretty shot, the elegant solution, over raw score. It is the difference between Mickey D's and fois gras, between Velveeta and brie. Both feed you and both with make you fat. But the fois gras is so much more than some chopped liver and Velveeta ... is it even cheese? Play a round on a blustery day in Scotland, then compare that to a round at one of the Disney super-resort courses. No doubt both provide golf, but one is memorable and requires creativity. The other values a high wedge with spin to a perfectly smooth and predictable green.
Gotta get me over to Europe to get some golf in.
posted by Zaphod at Monday, September 25, 2006
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