Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Does Tiger Belong On The Ryder Cup Team?

My two cents' worth:

-- Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin said last weekend that Tiger Woods isn't an automatic choice to be on the U.S. Ryder Cup team this fall if he doesn't qualify on points. Only the top eight in the points list automatically make the team, leaving Pavin four at-large choices. Woods, right now, is in 11th place.

I agree with Jack Nicklaus who, while overseas, said Pavin would "need a brain scan" if he left Woods off the team.

Of course, Woods needs to be on the team unless he's physically unable to play. He's Tiger Woods. He has more major championships than everyone on the team combined will have. Maybe twice as many. You're going to take Dustin Johnson over Tiger Woods? No offense to Dustin Johnson, but no.

If Tiger wants to be in Wales in early October, he'll be there.

-- I'm not sure Mark Calcavecchia has gotten the credit he deserves for being a very good player for a very long time.

He's won 13 times on the PGA Tour, including a British Open, and he finished second 27 times. That's 40 times in the top two. That's a heckuva career.

Calc is headed to the Champions Tour after he turns 50 on June 12 and the Memorial next week will be his PGA Tour farewell. Media types, in particular, will miss him because there's no better quote than Calc.

-- A very cool thing is scheduled the day before the British Open begins at St. Andrews in July. A group of 28 former Open champions will play a four-hole exhibition on the first, second, 17th and 18th holes at the Old Course.

The group includes Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Peter Thomson, Robert de Vicenzo, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros, among others. Given Ballesteros's health struggles, his presence should give the event an extraordinary emotional feel.

-- Concord's Cydney Clanton, who is completing her junior year at Auburn, is on the U.S. Curtis Cup team which will face the European team near Boston next month. Clanton has the game to make her a star when she turns pro.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Might want to check Kitty's record on the Ryder Cup team before you go endorsing him too highly. 10-13-2 is not a stellar record, especially when you're supposed to be the best player in the history of the universe. And that was when he was playing well. Lately Kitty has been playing like an ordinary tour pro, and that doesn't cut it for the Ryder Cup team. The U.S. has one all of one Ryder Cup since the Kitty era began. Yeah, he's really gonna be missed if they leave him off it.

Coulwoodwarlord said...

Its true, Tiger has never rescued the Cup for our team, and has looked blantantly average in most outings. But, I have to agree with Nicklaus, it makes no sense leaving him off. Let me qualify this by saying that I am not a Tiger fan, and would just a soon see Jack's record stay intact. Having said that, if I was Pavin, the decision would be a no brainer, because somewhere down the line, Tigers gonna bust open a can of " Who's your Daddy " and someones gonna be short.