Tiger Woods Bests Francesco Molinari in Ryder Cup. Good Job!

 It's nice to hear someone saying something nice about Tiger for a change. He's had a lot of bad press lately, but I thought he did quite well at the Ryder Cup. Too bad he was part of that record bashing in the 4-play, but otherwise he showed us all that he still has it. Hope he starts winning some tournaments before he actually loses world No 1.
   . . . June


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Even though United States falls at Ryder Cup, Tiger Woods impresses by besting Francesco Molinari:

By Hank Gola DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER Monday, October 4th 2010

NEWPORT, Wales – Tiger Woods may have played his best round of the year Monday in a preview of what his new swing might hold for 2011.

Woods ran his Ryder Cup singles record to 4-1-1 with a 4-and-3 drubbing of Francesco Molinari, storming back from 2-down after three holes. Woods threw seven birdies and an eagle at the overmatched Italian, who had to feel as though he was playing the best player in the world.

'I had a good start and I think I played all right,' Molinari said. 'But if Tiger plays like that, there's not much you can do.'

'I played well today,' Woods said. 'It was nice to turn my match around like I did. I've been close t playing that way for a little bit now but I'm really looking forward to the rest of the year.'

And beyond.

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Will Tiger Lose The World No 1 Spot To Westwood?

 I feel badly for Tiger. He actually played pretty well for most of the Ryder Cup. Unfortunately, he weill be remembered for the their disastrous rout in the last round of 4-Play. It was as though the entire European team caught fire as soon as they saw Tiger going down. It was simply impossible to make up that large lead. I hope that Tiger can take away something good from this game anyway
   . . . June

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Westwood moves to second; No. 1 coming soon
Golf - MiamiHerald.com:

Lee Westwood became the No. 2 player in the world on Monday, then watched his European team claim victory at the Ryder Cup.

Westwood passed Phil Mickelson to earn the second spot, and it may get even better for the Englishman. According to some reports, Westwood may be in line for the No. 1 spot as soon as next week.

Westwood is expected to be in the field Thursday at the Alfred Dunhill Championship. A big finish at St. Andrews, where he finished second at this year's British Open, could be enough to be No. 1 for the first time in his career. Westwood is also expected to play in the Portugal Masters in two weeks and it's been reported he would be No. 1 in the world with just two top-20 finishes.

So Tiger Woods kept the No. 1 spot for the 278th consecutive week, followed by Westwood and Mickelson. Steve Stricker, who defeated Westwood in Monday's Ryder Cup singles matches, stayed fourth, while FedEx Cup winner Jim Furyk, PGA Champion Martin Kaymer, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Rory McIlory and Ernie Els rounded out the top 10.

Matt Kuchar, Dustin Johnson and Graeme McDowell remained in spots 11-13, while Edoardo Molinari and Ian Poulter both moved up one to Nos. 14 and 15, respectively. Hunter Mahan dipped two to 16th.
Retief Goosen and Anthony Kim held on to their spots from last week. Zach Johnson and British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen switched places this week with Johnson up to 19th and the South African down to 20th.
Bill Haas collected his second PGA Tour win at the Viking Classic on Sunday and moved up 25 places to No. 64.

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Tiger Woods Answers McIlroy's Challenge

 I'd sort of like to see this young upstart get his comeuppance, myself. According to the following article,
Rory McIlroy told the BBC he would love to face Tiger one-on-one in the Ryder Cup. 'Unless his game rapidly improves,' McIlroy said, 'I think anyone in the European team would fancy their chances against him.' Apparently, Tiger heard his challenge and offered a terse reply:  "Me too." I'd like to see that too, McIlroy!
    . . . June


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Careful what you wish for: Tiger Woods responds to McIlroy's challenge
Devil Ball Golf - Golf- Yahoo! Sports:

After all that's happened to Tiger Woods in the last year, after the Escalade and the fire hydrant and the 'transgressions' and the apologies and the tantrums and the divorce and the godawful play, we may have lost sight of an important fact: It's not that long ago that Woods was the best golfer on the planet, bar none. And thus, it may not be the wisest move, tactically speaking, for his competitors to get him riled up again.

Later this week, Woods and the 11 other best golfers of the United States will challenge their European counterparts in the Ryder Cup, a biennial tournament that's far closer in atmosphere to an SEC football game than, say, the Masters. The competition is cutthroat, the galleries are raucous, and there's actually trash-talking. No kidding. In golf.

Rory McIlroy, the Irish wunderkind, kicked off the verbal sparring a few weeks ago when he told the BBC he 'would love to face' Tiger one-on-one in the Ryder Cup. 'Unless his game rapidly improves,' McIlroy said, 'I think anyone in the European team would fancy their chances against him.'

Fancy this, Mr. McIlroy: Woods heard your challenge. When asked at a press conference about McIlroy's comment that he'd love to face Woods one-on-one, Tiger leaned forward and offered a terse reply:
"Me too."

Not bad. Not quite an instant classic like Ivan Drago's "I must break you" from Rocky IV, but it'll do for golf's purposes.

Woods has obviously known about McIlroy's comments for several weeks -- there was a rumor going around a tournament a couple weeks back that Woods told McIlroy "careful what you wish for" -- but, as always, Woods only speaks publicly when he absolutely has to.

The U.S. and European teams will play two days of team golf for 36 holes on Friday and Saturday. The two teams only play head-to-head singles matches on Sunday. Even that's a blind draw, so McIlroy only has a one-in-12 chance of facing Woods.


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Saturday Ryder Cup Matches On NBC Will Be Tape Delayed

 According to the article below, live golf will not be available on NBC on the Saturday of the Ryder Cup. Instead it will show the entire Saturday matches in tape-delay. If you're like me, you'll be quite happy that they've done this. It means that here in North America we can watch it comfortably during the daytime instead of in the middle of the night. For the purists, I guess they'd prefer to stay up all night.


    . . . June


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NBC will show Saturday Ryder Cup matches tape delayed
Devil Ball Golf - Golf- Yahoo! Sports:

In a move that will make golf fans shrug their shoulders at Leno over Conan, the National Broadcasting Company, or NBC for short, announced that this Saturday, during the second day of the Ryder Cup, Americans will not be allowed to watch live golf.

Nope, the network that seems to make its decisions wearing a blindfold and tossing dull darts at a random decisions mat, won't give us live golf for 33.33 percent of the Ryder Cup this year, and that my friends, is ridiculous.

On Friday we get live golf. That's because ESPN has the rights to the opening day of play, and will show live golf from 2:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET. While the argument could be made that ESPN doesn't have anything else to show at that time on Friday, it still gives us live golf. This is 2010.

NBC won't do that on Saturday. Instead, it will show tape-delayed golf from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. That will change on Sunday, when it decides to show live golf again, showing the singles matches from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET.

What does all this mean? Here's what it means: If you are a network that can't find it in your schedule to show a big sporting event live, you should forfeit the rights.

Put it on MSNBC. Or CNBC. Hell, put it on Telemundo or Bravo for all we care. You have the outlets and resources to do so, and a lot of Americans care about this golf event as much as any of the majors. If you aren't going to show this thing live, then at least let ESPN or some other network show it live in the early hours, and you can show the tape delay later in the day.

It's ludicrous, really. As my good friend Chris Chase over at Busted Racquet has had to endure countless times with this network, NBC just doesn't get sports anymore. It bumps things to make room for Notre Dame, which is now 1-3 for the season, and continues to be the NBC of the college-football season (stubborn, confusing and downright putrid).

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'Tiger Woods got me to Ryder Cup' says Lee Westwood

 According to the article below, Tiger persuaded Lee Westwood to let his injury heal properly, thus making him healthy for the Ryder Cup. So Lee Westwood will be playing on Colin Montgomery's International Team and  Tigerwill be traveling to Celtic Manor this week as  part of the Corey Pavin's US Team
    . . . June


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Lee Westwood: Tiger Woods got me to Ryder Cup
Golf, Sport - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk:

Lee Westwood has said that it was Tiger Woods' advice that persuaded him to take a six-week break and get himself in what he calls “100 percent shape for the Ryder Cup”.

“I played with Tiger in the first two rounds of the Bridgestone [Invitational] back at the start of the August and I was struggling with my ruptured calf muscle,” the Europe star said.

“Tiger saw me battling on and said to me, ‘God you're stubborn. What are you doing?'

“What he said resonated with me and I thought maybe I should look at this a bit more sensibly, withdraw from that event and the following week's USPGA and do the rehab properly.

“Tiger's right, I am stubborn and if I'd carried on playing I probably wouldn't be at Celtic Manor.”
That he will be is a huge relief to his captain Colin Montgomerie in the run-up to the big showdown, which starts on Friday.

“It was dodgy for a while and that was why I was so pleased when I had the text off Lee two weeks ago saying, ‘don't worry, I'm ready'. He brings a consistency to the team that the others can rely on,” said Montgomerie. “From a captain's point of view to have that sort of player you can rely on is absolutely vital.”
Nevertheless, Montgomerie is prepared to let down Westwood, who has stated his desire to play in every session.

“I think Lee possibly won't play five matches,” he said.

In fact, Montgomerie is considering taking the unprecedented step of resting all his players in at least one of the sessions. Yesterday, Thomas Bjorn, his vice-captain, explained the rationale.

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Tiger Woods commits to Playing the Chevron World Challenge

 Well, I have to hand it to Tiger - he's trying to get back into the winning mode and I hope he succeeds before his top spot on the money list gets overtaken.  Thanks to Phil Mickelson, this gives Tiger another chance to keep his lead in the world ranking, but he'd better get busy and start winning some tournaments because it's only a matter of time before some of those smart young players catch up..
    . . . June


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Tiger Woods commits to Chevron, Phil Mickelson out of PGA Grand Slam of Golf
National golf  Examiner.com:

September 21 -- While the golf world counted down the days to Thursday’s start of (anti?) climactic FedEx Cup playoff finale, Tiger Woods added a stop to his 2010 schedule and Phil Mickelson opted out of one of his.

Following Mickelson’s turn at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club this week, Golf’s No. 1 and No. 2 will meet up in Wales at the beginning of October for the Ryder Cup and then take different routes to closing out a trying 2010 season for both

Woods commits to Chevron. Tiger, who has struggled with his mental game and shot-making since returning to golf in April, will brandish his new Sean Foley-inspired swing at the year-ending Chevron World Challenge. This, after playing in back-to-back events in China and Australia in November.

Lefty, who’s had to deal with a serious arthritic condition, will go home to rest instead of teeing it up with other 2010 major champions at next month’s PGA Grand Slam of Golf.

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Beware Of The FedEx Cup Curse!

 It's true. So far, winning the FedEx Cup hasn't boded well for anyone. Mind you, Tiger Woods can certainly find other reasons for having a bad season this year, with all the negative publicity of the affairs and the very public breakup of his marriage. Lets hope that the Ryder Cup is luckier for Tiger.
   . . . June


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Beware, golfers, of the curse of the FedEx Cup!
Devil Ball Golf - Golf� - Yahoo! Sports:

The FedEx Cup is only three years old, yet in that time it's already amassed a dark and dreadful history of carnage. No man who's won the Cup has escaped Fate's icy clutches the next year!

(Laying it on thick? Sure we are. But hey, there was no PGA tournament over the weekend, so we've got a few over-the-top adjectives to spare.)

Anyway, there's not any kind of legend of a FedEx Cup curse, but there damn sure ought to be. Let's take a look at the winners and what happened the very next year:

2007, Tiger Woods: Just a few months after winning the FedEx Cup, Woods underwent season-ending knee surgery that took him out of the hunt for the season's final two majors. He hasn't won a major since the surgery.

2008, Vijay Singh: The season after his big win, Singh went on the DL with knee surgery -- hmm, just like Woods -- and had his worst season as a professional. He's yet to win a PGA Tour event since the 2008 FedEx Cup.

2009, Tiger Woods: Although Woods did win after the Tour Championship, he posted a godawful winless season in 2010 and didn't even qualify for a return trip to East Lake. Oh, and there was something about an Escalade and a hydrant, but we're a little fuzzy on the details.

So what can we draw from this? Is there a curse at East Lake? Does endorsing that $10 million check torpedo your next year? (Me, I'd take the chance; $10 million cures a lot of woes.) Possibly, possibly not. Either way, Matt Kuchar, Charley Hoffman and the other competitors may not want to make too many plans for 2011 just yet.

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