It remains an anomaly that a player ranked No. 15 in the world can not feature at Hazeltine because he chooses not to join the European Tour. And yet, the Northern Irishman headed straight for the East Lake driving range on conclusion of his media duties as he sought to improve on inconsistent iron play.
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But he felt progress, and that’s what mattered to him. “I actually should have a good weekend because I’ve been experimenting a little bit these first few days or this past week”.
Westwood is best buds with the Euro captain Darren Clarke, and whether directed or not, he spent much of the interview needling Clarke’s counterpart.
Love calls Woods his “tactician”, a man who once thought his way around a golf course perhaps like no other and now has spent weeks and weeks devising player pairings and lineup orders Love will rely upon. The 2002 Ryder Cup came down to Paul McGinley saving par on the final hole with an 8-foot putt (and Phillip Price, the No. 119 player in the world, beating Mickelson).
It was the Spanish duo of Ballesteros and José Maria Olazábal that formed one of the greatest Ryder Cup partnerships ever witnessed and transformed highlight reels forever, winning 11, halving two and losing only two of their matches together. A four-time site of golf’s major championships, Hazeltine is a bomber’s course with testy Robert Trent Jones-style greens. That’s a significant difference.
So, I reckon we can assume that Clarke is quite happy that his mate has started throwing grenades. “He just likes to drive the needle in once in a while”.
It was here where Ignacio Garrido followed in his father Antonio’s footsteps by representing Europe and, in the process, the Garridos became just the second father and son combination to have played in The Ryder Cup after Percy and Peter Alliss.
“Yesterday the misses were huge”.
“The relationships you form the week of these team events, because you’re dealing with such emotional highs and lows and challenges and excitement, you create bonds that last a lifetime”, Mickelson said. “But these things are tight, they’re tilted, and they’re very hard to hit”. While the USA team, more often than not, have the higher ranked players, when it comes to gelling and banding together as a team, Europe always seem to do better.
It’s his first time at the Tour Championship since 2013, and Lefty didn’t mind sacrifice a chance to win to work on his longer driver.
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The statement – which was magnified on social media and ridiculed by Europe’s most experienced player, Lee Westwood – was surprising since the USA has not won a Ryder Cup in eight years.
