Ryder Fatigue

Former Assistant Captain Olazabal and his team.

The Ryder Cup takes place this weekend. What used to be one of the most anticipated events on the golfing calendar seems to have lost a lot of its lustre. What happened to this once prestigious event? Like a Greek tragedy, the Ryder Cup's slow death can be attributed to its evil brother, the President's Cup.

Formally, the Ryder Cup offered golf fans a different sort of tournament; a match play event pitting once country against another. The unique format made it exciting and different, the fact it only happened every two years added to the prestige. Add to that, the top quality players who participated, and you had quite the event on your hands, exciting for fans and profitable for the organizers, the PGA. But by the early 1990's, golf began to change, as players from different parts of the world rose to prominence. Names like Greg Norman, Ernie Els and Nick Price. Not being from Europe or the Untied States, they were not eligible for the Ryder Cup, and the PGA was unable to showcase many of the game's top names. Unfortunately, greed crept into play, and brought the world the President's Cup, a bastardization of the Ryder Cup, played under the false pretence of "patriotism." A more contrived event has never existed in the world of golf, and I'm including the 84 Lumber Classic.

Captain Picks Tiger

So Tiger Woods was one of Corey Pavin’s captain's pick for the 2010 US Ryder Cup team. I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody, as he is the sport's most recognizable star. However, should notoriety be the criteria for making the team, or should it be quality of play? Myself, I think it should be the latter, and I don't feel Tiger has earned his way onto this team.

The first thing that struck me was while I was listening to ESPN radio on Tuesday night, where the announcer wondered aloud, 'Would Tiger have been picked if he hadn't been playing well of late?' So this is the first argument of why Tiger should be on the team, because he's been playing so well of late. In the past few months Tiger has finished T46, T23, T78, T28, T12, T11. I guess he's finished in the top 100 every tournament, but I’d hardly consider those finishes to be 'playing so well of late.' I can guarantee that lesser-known players wouldn't have been selected with those stellar finishes.