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28

Sep
Fri

In playing Woods again, Love takes a gamble

By Bill Fields MEDINAH, Ill. -- Tiger Woods' Friday morning foursomes match ended with his putter in his hand, for a five-foot par putt he didn't have a chance to make on the 17th hole of Medinah No. 3. Justin Rose had just snuggled a hybrid chip to within inches, ensuring a 2-and-1 victory for he and Ian Poulter over Woods and Steve Stricker and pulling Europe into a 2-2 deadlock with the United States. Photo by Getty ImagesGiven how Woods -- who is now 4-8-1 in Ryder Cup foursomes -- had struggled during the anchor match of the first session of the 39th Ryder Cup, it was plausible that U.S. captain Davis Love III might sit Woods in the Friday afternoon four-ball session. Related: Complete Ryder Cup coverage But Love put Woods and Stricker out again in the afternoon in the third match against Lee Westwood and long-hitting Nicolas Colsaerts. Friday morning losers Jim Furyk and Brandt Snedeker were rested in the afternoon, along with Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson, a pair that scored one of the Americans' two opening-session victories. "We considered it for sure but we had some good inside information," Love said in an interview with ESPN. "We just thought once they started playing best ball they'd get back on their games." That Love decided to stick with Woods-Stricker in the afternoon was in line with what the American captain said on the eve of the Matches. "I didn't go back and study Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker's record before I put them together," he said, answering a reporter who noted the duo had struggled in the last two Cups. "They wanted to play together and they have done pretty well together, so going to let them go." Woods struggled from the outset Friday morning, driving far left into trouble on the first hole, and subsequently spraying tee shots to the right. Better with his irons, Woods hit a beautiful long-iron approach onto the 16th green which appeared to give the U.S. pair a good chance to cut its deficit to 1-down. But Ian Poulter sank a clutch 12-footer to halve the hole. Related: Love enjoying his Ryder Cup captain duties If Woods rebounds in the afternoon (he has a 5-6-0 record in Ryder Cup foursomes), Love's decision to stick with the 36-year-old legend will seem to make sense. If he struggles, though, he will endure the kind of second-guessing that comes with the job. Before a ball had been struck Love was clear about having a plan, and planning to stick with it. "I told some of the guys, [former North Carolina basketball coach] Dean Smith just ran his offense and he ran it and ran it and he ran it until the game was over, and I think that's what we are going to do," Love said. "We have got a plan, we have some great players and we are just going to let them play until we run out of holes. I think everybody around me seems to feel like we have a pretty good plan." Related: Ryder Cup's little trophy looms large European Sergio Garcia, who lost for the first time in foursomes Friday morning, wasn't very interested when asked if he was surprised Woods-Stricker was going back out in the afternoon. "I don't really care what the Americans do," Garcia said. "It's their problem, not mine." Woods birdied the first hole of the afternoon, which had to make his captain feel good, but a long afternoon was ahead. Follow @BillFields1 !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

28

Sep
Fri

Counterfeit Clubs: More arrests in China

The U.S. Golf Manufacturers Anti-Counterfeiting Working Group recently reported a string of raids and convictions of multiple counterfeiters of golf products in China. The efforts are part of an ongoing commitment to prosecuting counterfeiters and...

28

Sep
Fri

After slow start, U.S. salvages morning session

By Dave ShedloskiMEDINAH, Ill. - Europe's big guns held on. America's fizzled. But at the end of the morning foursomes Friday in the opening session of the 39th Ryder Cup, the two teams ended as they began -- all even. Thanks to Englishmen Ian Poulter and Justin Rose knocking off Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in the anchor match, Europe and the United States each won two points in the alternate shot format. That marked the fifth time since 1987 the two teams finished 2-2 in the opening set. While Poulter-Rose hung on for a 2-up victory, Europe's power duo from Northern Ireland, Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy, won the 18th with a 5-foot par putt from McDowell to stop Jim Furyk and Brandt Snedeker 1-up. The Americans were 3 down with six to play, but drew even with their third birdie in a row at No. 16 only to bogey the 18th after Snedeker pushed his drive into the trees, forcing Furyk to pitch out short of the green. "That match to me just personifies the Ryder Cup," McDowell said. "Myself and Rory played some great golf to go 3 up, and then you're playing against two very gutsy players who clawed their way back." Phil Mickelson won for only the third time in foursomes, riding the hot putter of rookie Keegan Bradley to knock off Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia, 4 and 3. Mickelson, playing with his fourth different rookie partner in the last three Ryder Cups, improved to 3-5-4 in foursomes after he and Bradley won the last four holes. "He played some of the best golf, and to be his partner was an awesome experience," said Mickelson, who played with Anthony Kim in 2008 and Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler in 2010. "I love playing with this man. He's just so fun, loves the game and plays with excitement and man, can he roll the rock." The European duo had never lost in foursomes together. Garcia had been 8-0-1 in the format dating to 1999. America also got a point from Zach Johnson and rookie Jason Dufner, who took out Lee Westwood and Francesco Molinari, 3 and 2. Johnson has won his last two foursomes matches, winning last year with Hunter Mahan. The last time the opening session finished 2-2 was 1997.  Follow @DaveShedloski !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

28

Sep
Fri

Sleep? Love says he doesn't need it this week

By Dave Shedloski MEDINAH, Ill. -- The Ryder Cup is nothing to lose sleep over. But don't tell that to U.S. captain Davis Love III. Related: Our complete Ryder Cup coverage To say that Love, son of a PGA professional and a former PGA champion, has been gearing up most of his life for his role as American skipper isn't an exaggeration. So it should be no surprise to learn that as the big week unfolds, Love, 48, is racking up insomnia credits. "I can't sleep. I'm too hyped up," he said standing behind the first green at Medinah CC Friday morning while following his anchor foursomes team of Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods against Justin Rose and Ian Poulter of Europe. "I've waited to do this for a very long time, so it's hard to sleep." The eve of the 39th Ryder Cup, Love had every intention of hitting the sack early. Didn't work. Related: Love enjoying his Ryder Cup captain duties "Robin [his wife] and I are in a suite, and she went to bed and asked if I was coming, and I said I'd be right there," Love said. "Ten minutes go by and she gets up and sees me sitting there reading my notebook. She said, 'I knew you weren't coming to bed.' I was catching up on some reading and e-mails. Too much to do and to think about. But I'll sleep next week." Follow @daveshedloski !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

28

Sep
Fri

Fitness Friday: Strengthen Your Knees Equally

Every week my colleague @RonKaspriske, Golf Digest Fitness Editor, presents Fitness Friday on the Instruction Blog. This week he discusses imbalances in body strength and specifically how that can affect your knees. And check out...

28

Sep
Fri

Harmon On Golf: Strike Your Wedges Solid

Video: To strike your wedges solid, get into a good setup: ball just in front of center.

27

Sep
Thu

Watching Love the elder statesman, remembering Love the rising star

By Bill FieldsMEDINAH, Ill. -- Watching captain Davis Love III at the Ryder Cup this week, it is hard not to turn back the clock. Of the golfers I've covered in one form or another since the mid-1980s, Love, at 48 only five years younger than me, has been a constant. Not only has he been one of the best players of his generation but a familiar face and reliable quote, a class act.I doubt that I'm the only golf writer within a few years either side of 50 at Medinah CC this week who doesn't see Love in his role as captain of the American side and pause to think about where the time has gone. For me, he is a marker of the miles traveled since he was just getting started in his career and I was getting started in mine.I met him on a spring afternoon in 1984, driving up from Southern Pines, where Golf World was then located, to Chapel Hill, where Love was a student golfer at North Carolina. I was doing a story about fathers and sons in the sport. Not only was Love -- one of two sons of the noted teaching professional Davis Love Jr. -- a star for the Tar Heels, but Jack Nicklaus II also was on the team. Related: Fields: Lost In The Fog Left: Love (with his late father, Davis, Jr., and mother, Penta) was a sure thing to be a star on tour.As he would be during many subsequent interviews, Love was cordial and candid when we met at Finley GC. He (and anyone who saw him play at age 20 or so) knew he had a bright future in the game. Being a good talker sure wasn't going to be a bad thing.A few weeks after visiting with Love in Chapel Hill, I saw him win the North and South Amateur at Pinehurst No. 2. The way he dismantled that classic course with his length is still vivid. A 7-iron to the par-5 fourth hole. Lots of wedges to par 4s. Seeing young Love pound a balata ball with a persimmon, steel-shafted driver, harshly unforgiving compared to today's high-tech equipment used by Bubba Watson and company, was an awesome sight.I could only think it must have been the way people felt when they saw Jimmy Thomson or George Bayer bomb the ball with similar equipment in previous eras. Only Love wasn't merely a long-drive specialist. His swing, lovingly tutored by his dad, was textbook: long extension and full turn delivering an explosive hit that could send a 1-iron sky-high, a la Jack Nicklaus.That was where many believed Love would wind up in those days heavy with potential, in the golf stratosphere having won lots of majors and broken plenty of records. Power to burn can be an exponential advantage for a golfer with a complete skill set, and Davis had it.Related: Diaz: The Ride of His LifeThen life happens and putts don't drop, and a man's career doesn't pan out quite as grandly as people thought it might. Measured against Nicklaus' records, Love came up short; measured against most anybody else, he stands tall, the way he always has.Thumbing through the Ryder Cup program yesterday, I saw a photograph of Love and his dad working together. It was a photograph I took on the practice range of the B.C. Open in the fall of 1988. I don't know if it was the last picture anyone took of the two of them together, but it might have been. I had followed Davis around in a practice round at En-Joie GC, and the three of us ate lunch at Wendy's afterward.Just a couple of months later, on a Sunday night that November, Davis Love Jr., 53, perished in a small-plane crash along with three other men on a foggy approach into the Jacksonville, Fla., airport. The tragedy rocked Davis' world, and no one will ever know how much it affected his career. But if, when the tears dried, Davis decided that it might be just as important to make time to ride a Harley or hunt a turkey as to always pursue golf greatness in fifth gear, who could blame him.He didn't seem to possess the killer instinct common to the truly greats, or more important, the putting genius. Nowhere was the latter more obvious than the 72nd hole of the 1996 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills, when he three-putted to blow a fantastic chance to win his first major. He got that major the following summer in storybook fashion at Winged Foot, where the famous rainbow adorned his final putt.That his Winged Foot triumph was his first and only major is still a bit hard to comprehend, given the preternatural talent Love displayed early on, but on the eve of his elder statesman's turn at Medinah he should be proud. Love has won 20 PGA Tour events -- a total surpassed by only 32 others in history -- and when his captaincy is over and he can again concentrate fully on his play, he is not a bad bet to win again.This weekend, though, Love will have the baton, hoping his players make great music. As with all Ryder Cup captains, he will get too much credit or blame for what happens, not that wise decisions don't make a difference.I looked at the transcript from Love's Wednesday press conference. It's more than six pages long. He's still a good talker. I think he'll be a good captain too.Follow @BillFields1 !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

27

Sep
Thu

In Medinah, Jones sees a U.S. advantage

By Dave Shedloski MEDINAH, Ill. -- Rees Jones expects the host U.S. team to win the Ryder Cup, which begins at 8:40 am. Friday EDT at Medinah CC. It seems he believes in a home-course advantage. Jones (pictured left), who renovated Medinah's No. 3 in preparation for this 39th Ryder Cup, said that despite the European players competing more frequently on the PGA Tour, the host Americans hold the edge because of the golf course. "The flexibility in the setup allows [U.S. captain] Davis Love to tailor the yardages to his players," Jones said Thursday. "I truly believe that the U.S. has the advantage because of that. He knows what he wants to do, and his players know. But the Europeans don't know." The par-72 course at Medinah, site of the 1999 and 2006 PGA Championships won by Tiger Woods, can measure up to 7,658 yards. Much of the discussion in regards to setup has focused on the short cut of rough, which will allow for low scoring. Jones, however, said choice of teeing grounds is the real key. Come Friday, the Europeans could be in for a surprise. Related: Photos: Medinah CC up close "It used to be that the golf course was a certain yardage, and that's what you had. But here they can do just about anything." Jones said. "The Americans haven't really been using the tees that they'll be using during the matches because they're trying to throw off the European spies. I mean, we've heard a lot about players laying up on the 15th hole [a drivable par-4]. A lot of Americans have been talking about that. But Bubba Watson said today he can reach it with a 4-wood. So that tells me he knows something." Ah, what would the Ryder Cup be without a little gamesmanship and skullduggery? Follow @DaveShedloski !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

27

Sep
Thu

The Ryder Cup: Where a little trophy looms large

By Dave Kindred MEDINAH, Ill. -- This week, it's about the little trophy. Once upon a time -- say 1927 when English seed merchant Samuel E. Ryder commissioned his little trophy -- American golfers were a species all but unique. The Atlantic separated our multitudes from Great Britain's handful of brilliant players. Australia? Convicts and kangaroos. Asia? Even Christopher Columbus couldn't find Asia. For a long time, the Ryder Cup sent strangers against strangers, Us against Them, so much so that in 1991, at Kiawah Island, our guys showed up in Rambo camo gear to drive back the invaders. As if the event were promoted by the boxing impresario, Don King, we called it the War by the Shore. We won. We rioted. It was shameful. No more. Now we're all in this together. Now, in the ever-shrinking world of professional golf, this week's 24 Ryder Cup players are friends, colleagues, business partners. They travel together, eat together, practice together. They know wives' names, kids' names. They know the other guy's story, as the every-inch-an-American, Bubba Watson, said about the every-inch-an-Englishman, Ian Poulter: "Love Ian Poulter to death. It's amazing, watching where his career started and where it is now. It's amazing to listen to him talk about where he picked up range balls, worked in the pro shop, did everything, and now he's at the Ryder Cup. So I love his passion. I love, I respect him very much, and I love how passionate he is about winning it." Related: Pride, raw emotion make matches special It's the little trophy. Watson, the Masters champion, met the press Thursday morning. He spoke for 15 minutes. Early on, he mentioned "that little trophy." Five minutes later: "It's just for the love of that little trophy." Winding down: "And again, it's the little gold Ryder Cup." Wrapping up: "Any golf tournament we play in, we don't care who we're playing against, we just want to win whatever trophy there is. If it's a green jacket or if it's a big trophy or a small trophy, we're trying to win that trophy. So our passion is for that trophy." The Ryder Cup trophy is 17 inches high. It's nine inches across. It weighs four pounds. The golfing figure on top was modeled after Abe Mitchell, one of Great Britain's leading professionals in 1927, once a gardener and Samuel Ryder's personal instructor. It's a miniature alongside the PGA's 27-pound, 28-inch high Wanamaker beer barrel. It's an understatement next to Augusta National's clubhouse replica (the green jacket gets the glory, but the silver piece is ineffably elegant). Ryder's cup is even smaller than the claret jug, 21.65 inches tall. Even the most gimlet-eyed cynic has to admit, well, OK, maybe it is the trophy because it can't be about the money when there isn't any to take home. In the name of each U.S. player and the team captain, the PGA of America donates $200,000 to charities. Related: How the two teams stack up where it really matters It really is about the players' instinctive sense of competition amped up by thousands of home folks -- all of it there at Medinah Country Club when the players arrived from their money grab at the Tour Championship (where the winner took home $11.4 million and last place was worth $686,000). Webb Simpson, the U.S. Open champion, said he didn't get out to Medinah on Monday. "But Tuesday, first practice round, we get to the first tee and there's 10,000 people," he said. "I felt like I was in the final group of a major . . . ." He played with another Ryder Cup rookie, his buddy Keegan Bradley, "and we were laughing about that first-tee feeling. We've been on tour now for awhile, and you don't really get butterflies in practice rounds or pro-ams. But it was a different story Tuesday." For Matt Kuchar, this is his second Ryder Cup, the first two years ago at Newport, Wales. He said, "I think walking to the first tee on Tuesday, I knew we weren't in Wales. That was just such a big difference to me. It was so exciting knowing that we were on home turf and there was such an eruption of excitement when we got to the first tee. It was an awesome feeling." Bubba Watson again: "The first day, going up on the first tee, I had a pretty big roar, and that was pretty special to know that the crowd was behind us, behind me. It was very nice to see that Chicago and all the fans that traveled here that like me as a person, I guess, cheered for me that loud. . . . I might have teared up a little bit. . ." Related: 10 Burning Questions for the Ryder Cup So there'll be fans in the gallery who've painted their faces red, white, and blue, just as there'll be folks wearing purple fright wigs in honor of their unbarbered boy hero, Rory McIlroy. There will be cheering for American successes that rises to decibels matching those from airliners en route to nearby O'Hare International. And there will be tears -- for that, we have a promise from Watson. "I'm probably going to cry at some points this week because I just cry every week, it seems like," he said. "So there's going to be good shots I'm going to cry about. There's going to be bad shots I cry about. . . " They're not tears of war. No, no, it's not about hatin' on them durn furriners. "It's just," Bubba Watson said, " that trophy." Stay tuned. Follow @DaveKindred !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

27

Sep
Thu

Advantage hype (or why we should follow Seve's advice)

By John Strege The popularity of the Ryder Cup has become such that it is capable of standing on its own, a fact that seems lost on the PGA of America. It relentlessly props it up with a drumbeat of hype that threatens to overwhelm the event itself. The Ryder Cup Gala is just one of the many events adding up to the events itself. Photo by Getty ImagesThe hype for this Ryder Cup began nearly two years ago, when Davis Love III was named the U.S. Captain in January of 2011, and it has culminated with a Ryder Cup week that features four days of hype, three of competition. Advantage hype. The schedule includes a U.S. Past Captain/Celebrity Scramble, a Ryder Cup Captains Challenge Reception, a Junior Ryder Cup Exhibition, a Ryder Cup Gala, Opening Ceremonies and, our favorite, Bagpipes and Blues, which is described as an "Officially Sanctioned Ryder Cup Pep Rally," the words all capitalized to emphasize their importance. Let the games begin. Please. They finally will do so Friday morning, not a day too soon, but rather a day too late. A better idea (and not an original one) is to start the competition on Thursday, making it a four-day affair, thus eliminating a day of hype in favor of the event it is hyping. This idea was advanced by the late great Seve Ballesteros three months before his death in May of 2011. Ballesteros made the case that it was in everyone's best interest to begin playing on Thursday. "The event could go to four competition days, which would be good for everyone," he said. "From the players' point of view because being at a venue from the Monday and waiting four days to play it is sometimes very long, in my opinion. You really want to play and start the competition. For the audience it is also good because they see more golf, and it's good for the sponsors and television. I think that would be a positive change." It would have the additional benefit of building in time in the event of weather delays, as Colin Montgomerie has been advocating since at least 2008, while looking ahead to the Ryder Cup in Wales in October of 2010. Recall that that Ryder Cup was pushed to Monday by inclement weather. Meanwhile, there was this bit of dispiriting news arriving via email Thursday morning: The 2013 Presidents Cup hype will resume on Tuesday. The PGA Tour has announced it will have a news conference featuring Commissioner Tim Finchem, U.S. captain Fred Couples and International captain Nick Price. Sigh. Follow @JohnStrege !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");