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Far From Funny

© Russell G. Bell

I am quite late in delivering this month's article because I have found nothing funny about Golf these past few weeks. If I can't feel funny I can't write funny and the recent Ryder Cup fiasco took all of the funny out of me.

I have to ask the question, "Are these the best that the U.S. could muster to face off against the Euro team?" and I can only answer I hope not. Perhaps the selection process is flawed in that it selects Prima Donna stars who have a hard time thinking in the team mode.

Now let's look at the qualifying aspect of the Ryder Cup team. Points are awarded to the top ten finishers of a major tournament. This can be a max of 129 points for a first place finish and be doubled if the event is a major. This presumably is how Tiger Woods made the Ryder Cup team as he made a lot of top ten finishes in the past two years. I don't know about you but I would shy away from having someone on the team who can't hit a fairway or can't get it together enough to come back on a Saturday or Sunday to win the event.

Tiger seems to be content to earn $200,000.00 for a fifth place finish when he should really be concentrating on the $1 million-plus first place money. I am a little disturbed when the relative unknown playing with Tiger on the final day beats him by four strokes. I have been and still am a fan of Tiger Woods but his attitude needs as much adjustment as his swing. The same goes for Phil Mickelson: he has a tremendous history of not being able to win a major event. Okay, he finally won a major event and got that monkey off his back and once again seems to be complacent with his above average game.

Complacency and poor shooting should have no place in the Ryder Cup. Each and every round they play at the Ryder Cup should be for the whole bag of marbles. There is no room for the "I'll do better tomorrow" mindset as each and every round is the only chance they get to win that day's point.

At one time the Ryder Cup was between the British Isles and the U.S.A. and then someone complained they should also include other European countries such as Germany, France and Spain. Next they will ask for South Africa to be part of the European team after all they were a British colony at one time. If South Africa could be considered part of Europe it is only fair the Fiji and Australia be considered part of the U.S.A. Now we are talking equity.

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