Europe Is Favored to Win Ryder Cup Golf as U.S. Faces Losing Streak Abroad

Europe is favored to take back the Ryder Cup and extend the overseas losing streak of the American team when play starts today in Newport, Wales.

Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson will meet England’s Lee Westwood and Germany’s Martin Kaymer this morning to open golf’s top biennial international team competition at Celtic Manor. The U.S. won the cup two years ago in Louisville, Kentucky, but hasn’t been victorious in Europe since 1993.

“I would like to break that and take the cup home with us,” U.S. captain Corey Pavin said at a press conference on Sept. 28. “That’s what we’re here for. It has been a long time.”
Europe is an 8-13 favorite at U.K. bookmaker Ladbrokes Plc. That means a successful $13 bet brings in $8 plus the original stake. The U.S. is 13-8, with a tie a 10-1 bet.

The teams start with a four-ball competition, contested by two-man teams. The golfer with the lowest score on a hole wins it for his team. The players meet in four-balls and foursomes, or alternating shot, today and tomorrow, with singles matches scheduled for Oct. 3. The U.S. needs 14 of a possible 28 points to keep the trophy, while the Europeans need 14 1/2 to take it back.

Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker of the U.S. will take on Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher in the third match, while Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar will play Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell. The final group will be Americans Bubba Watson and Jeff Overton against Luke Donald and Padraig Harrington.
‘Firepower’

It’s the 38th version of the competition, and the U.S. has lost on the past three occasions it’s been staged in Europe.
“There will be a lot of firepower out there, and it will be the guys who make the most birdies who will win,” Pavin said.
According to the U.K. Met Office, heavy rain is expected today and on the final day, with winds of as much as 26 miles- per-hour (42 kph) in Wales.

“Europe’s players should have a bit more experience of the inclement playing conditions, and we’re expecting them to get off to a good start,” David Williams of Ladbrokes said.
U.K. bookmaker William Hill Plc expects a record 50 million pounds ($78.6 million) to be wagered on the event, with 74 percent of bets backing the European squad so far.
‘It could be a very expensive tournament for us bookies if Europe, the favorites, do win,” spokesman Rupert Adams said in an e-mail.

Hill’s Adams estimates that the previous record was 35 million pounds wagered on the Ryder Cup two years ago. About 27 million pounds was bet on the event last time it was held in Europe, he said.
Woods, Stricker

The pairing of Woods and Stricker is a 4-5 favorite to defeat Poulter and Fisher in the four-ball today, according to William Hill. The bookie expects Europe to be leading after the first session, making it an even bet. The U.S. is a 2-1 underdog to be leading after the four-balls today, with a tie at 11-4.
Europe captain Colin Montgomerie said it’s important for his team to get a good start this morning.

“It’s very important to get that momentum, to win that first series,” he said. “You take on that momentum into the afternoon to take a lead into Friday night. It’s so important to get the crowd behind us and keep them there.”

Ryder Cup's Tweet Irony When it Comes To the United Front of Golf

Golf's desire to censor the banal musings of its players is not just unnecessary – it's to the detriment of its followers.

Did ever a sport strain so painfully to keep up appearances as professional golf, whose desire to be perceived as wholesome, seemly and united gives the rest of us such a laugh? I believe the technical term for it is "all fur coat and no knickers", and we can see its latest manifestation in the Ryder Cup captains' decision to ban their teams from tweeting.

While Corey Pavin's banning appears very much an edict, Colin Montgomerie's seems more of a gentleman's agreement, making Ian Poulter's decision to post some anodyne piece of insurrection after the blackout probably not the Jesus-baiting offence it would be deemed in the US camp, where they take their Christian duty of obedience awfully seriously.

But since then, even Poulter has maintained near radio silence. Thus the millions who follow golfers will find themselves subjected to a world where, for reasons of team cohesion/national security/whatevah, they will have to get by without such 140-character pensées. Hardly a privation, you might say. Yet it is somehow even more concerning that a paranoid blackout should be imposed on players who may have won endless trophies, but who, almost to a man, have never said a single interesting thing in all their puff. For them, the utterance of a bon mot remains the most elusive of prizes – and yet golf's establishment appears to deem them as dangerous as Bill Hicks mainlining truth serum.

I suppose we must salute the latest blow for the powerful tendency which seeks to erase all remaining traces of candour from sport. And yet, is this control freakery really necessary? No one is suggesting that social networking becomes part of the Ryder Cup format – though perhaps one day we could look at formally expanding the competition into foursomes, fourballs, singles and tweets. But whether or not Twitter is your cup of tea, it can't be denied that millions have decided it enhances their enjoyment of sports in which, surely not coincidentally, the powers-that-be have increasingly limited access to major players.

Apologies for returning to the same theme warmed to here last year, when Darren Bent was in the doghouse for tweeting, but the issues endure and will only rear their head with greater frequency as social media becomes a more integral part of the fan experience. Back then, you may remember, Darren was fined the maximum two weeks' wages by his chairman, Tottenham Hotspur's Daniel Levy, for gross insubordination in tweeting (during the close season) that he'd like his transfer to Sunderland to get a move on.

Noting the revenue-gathering possibilities of allowing players to shoot their mouths off, one really does have to ask what's the worst that can happen if sports stars have the temerity to communicate with fans. Disrespect, presumably. In explaining his Ryder Cup tweet blackout, Field Marshall Montgomerie cited the case of Kevin Pietersen, who last month fired off a sweary tweet revealing he'd been dropped. Not for the first time, one had to sigh at Kevin's manners – but no grown-up could possibly have been surprised Pietersen was annoyed at being left out. He was duly fined; the world continued to turn; and cricket was discovered to have rather bigger things to worry about than Kevin Pietersen's apercus.

The media's gripes about access to sports stars are well-worn to the point of cliche, but they are shared by many fans, and to a small extent Twitter has mitigated against the trend for 20-year-old millionaires to snap "talk to my agent" when asked for a chat. A big part of sport is the human connection – however imagined – that fans feel with players, and the more you legislate against that, the closer you get to thinking that sport might as well be played by robots.

It should give golf's bigwigs pause to consider that while the official PGA tour Twitter account has 35,000-odd followers, the Wildean Stewart Cink – Stewart Cink! – has more than 1.2million. Or take Poulter, a livelier correspondent, who just before the ban came into force managed to sneak under the wire a picture of his Ryder Cup hotel room, a veritable Aladdin's cave of sponsors' gifts and goody bags.
The blazers may be too atrophied to realise it, but this is precisely the sort of detail that is of interest to fans whose appetite for a backstage look at the Ryder Cup remains bafflingly unsated by the traditional Stepford Air picture of the players and their wives posed up in matchy-matchy suits on the aeroplane steps. Having said that, hats off to Tiger Woods for working so indefatigably to layer new layers of hilarity on that timeworn snap.

Golf Putting Tips And Instruction to Lower Your Score

The number of putts you take can account for forty percent or more of your golf score. So, the most direct golf putting tip is this: if you desire to lower your golf scores, you have to become an effective putter and focus on your golf putting basics.
What follows are some of the most critical golf putting tips and golf putting drills to rapidly improve your putting game.

Putting Setup
Key to putting setup is comfort over the ball, light grip tension and no breakdown in stroke. Use steady, pendulum-like tempo and accelerate through follow-through. Keep lower body "quiet" throughout stroke. One of the most important golf putting tips is to make sure your eyes remain over the ball throughout stroke.

Distance Control
Proper distance control is the most important aspect of putting. The key to avoiding a "3-putt" is to hit the first putt the correct distance. When putting, look at the cup as an intermediate target and aim 9 to 18 inches past the cup.

Reading Greens
When putting, examine the green and look for highest and lowest points leading up to the cup. The ball will break toward the lowest point – the more severe the "low" the more severe the break. Aim your putt toward the top of the break rather than the cup. Here is an important golf putting tip – when in doubt, play more break.

Consider the Grain and Direction of Putting Grass
The Grain and Direction of the putting surface plays a role in your putt. Look at the putting surface before putting – where the grass looks darker, this means the grain of the grass is against you and therefore your putt will be slower. Conversely, if the grass in front of you looks shiny, then the grain is with you and the putt will be faster.

Golf Putting

Drills
Below are a few key golf putting drills adapted with permission from the Golf Genie Tee to Green Practice Drills guide:

• Distance Control: Putting "Feel" Drill - Perform golf putting drill on putting green
  
  with 15 balls. Initiate drill with 30-foot putts, then shorter, longer, uphill and downhill putts. Identify target line and set up for putting stroke. Turn head and look at the target throughout putting stroke ensuring good putting form. Doing so will help you "feel" the proper putting stroke to control distance. Conduct feel drill for each target, then transfer the "feel" to your normal putting stroke.

• Speed Control: Putting Ladder Drill – Perform golf putting drill with 10 to 15 balls. Place line of tees at regular intervals up to cup. Putt to first tee, then putt to each subsequent tee. If putt too far or short of target, start over.

• Putting Accuracy – Perform golf putting drill with 8 balls. Set up 8 balls in circle around hole—start with 3 foot putts. If make all putts, move balls further out and repeat drill. If miss a putt, start over.

Armed with these golf putting basics and drills combined with a regular practice regimen, you will be well on your way to rapidly dropping your golf scores.

In Golf, Brutal Honesty is Par For the Course

In what other sport do players call rules violations on themselves -- even when nobody else sees them?

September 27, 2010|David Wharton

No one else had to know about the extra club in Zach Nash's golf bag.
The five-wood belonged to a friend, and Zach forgot it was there as he played his way to victory in a junior tournament near his Wisconsin home this summer.
The 14-year-old accepted his medal, celebrated with grandparents who had come from Iowa to watch, and stopped by his country club to share the news. Then his golf pro noticed something amiss.

"Count your clubs," he told the teenager.
Fifteen -- one more than allowed. Zach's eyes filled with tears.
"It registered right away," he said. "I knew it was wrong."
If Zach had just won a basketball championship or a big football game and someone discovered a violation after the fact -- a technicality, really -- it would not have mattered. Bending the rules has become acceptable, if not encouraged, in much of sports.
Look at Derek Jeter, the New York Yankees star who recently faked being hit by a pitch, wincing and grabbing his arm in mock pain, to gain first base. He later acknowledged his deceit, but no one suggested that he be punished for it.
Golf is different. In a win-at-all-costs world, the game holds itself to a higher standard, demanding that competitors know every rule and call penalties on themselves.
"Even the slightest imputation of cheating, maybe you can get away with that in other sports, but not in golf," said Steve Schlossman, a history professor at Carnegie Mellon University who chronicles the game. "That will be used against you."
For Zach, informing tournament officials about the extra club would mean returning his medal. His golf pro told him to go home, think it over.
"It was between Zach and me," Chris Wood said. "It was up to him."
As a philosophy professor and former golf coach at Hamilton College in upstate New York, Robert Simon has some ideas about the nature of the game he loves.
"You could argue that it is a very useful counterforce to the 'if you can get away with it' model that dominates other sports and other parts of society," he said.
This isn't a game where referees watch closely and assume responsibility for the rules. In golf tournaments, dozens of competitors are spread across acres of land, so officials cannot hope to see each shot.

Golf clubs in Wales losing members despite Ryder Cup

Golf clubs in Wales are battling a long term fall in membership with a warning some may not survive.

The profile of the sport has never been higher with the Ryder Cup teeing off at the Celtic Manor in three days time.
But many clubs are increasingly looking to visitors to keep going due to an ageing and declining membership.
Around 40 new nine and 18 hole courses have opened in Wales in the last 20 years with fears there are now too many chasing too few members.
The Golf Union of Wales said it was working with clubs to help them tackle the problem and to increase participation in the sport.
Last year it undertook a major survey on the health of Welsh clubs and said it remained a fair reflection of 2010.
A total of 107 of the 159 affiliated clubs took part with 69% reporting falling membership and just 13% saying it was increasing.

Only 8% said they were not actively seeking new members and only 8% had a waiting list.

Almost a third said annual income had decreased since the year 2000.
Keith Lloyd, chief executive of the Golf Club Managers' Association, said it was not just a problem in Wales, but across the UK and other countries including the Unites States and New Zealand.
"There's an awful lot more people playing but not joining golf clubs," he said.
"It's a trend which has happened over the last 10 years but the last three or four years have been particularly bad."
Mr Lloyd said it was golfers in the 25 to 40-year-old age bracket that no longer tended to join clubs but played on a pay-per-round basis - they have been termed 'nomadic golfers'.

Golf clubs in Wales

• There are 159 clubs affiliated to the Golf Union of Wales
• The majority directly employ between four and eight full-time staff with part-time and seasonal posts on top.
• The average annual membership fee for men is £494 and £462 for women.
• The average club has 271 adult male members, 45 adult women, 39 male juniors (18 and under) and five female juniors.
• 12% of clubs have an annual income under £100,000 while 13% have an income over £700,000.
• 87 of the 98 clubs responding to the question of the most pressing issue facing them said membership.
• Source: Golf Union Wales Club Survey 2009

Research by the association found while most clubs were still on a sound financial footing around one in 20 were in serious trouble.

Mr Lloyd, who has run clubs in Aberdare and Cardiff, said since the late 1980s over 800 new courses had been built in the UK and he believed there were around 100 too many.
"Sadly, yes, I can see some closing," he said.
"My real worry is none of us really know the answer because we are not sure where it [the declining trend in membership] is going to stop."
In Wales around 40 new nine and 18 hole courses have opened in the last 20 years - including the Twenty Ten Course where the Ryder Cup will be played.
Hannah Fitzpatrick, of Golf Development Wales, established as a direct result of the successful Ryder Cup 2010 bid, said it was working to address the membership challenge as the health of golf clubs was vital to the sport.
Membership packages
"Membership over the last few years is going down but participation in golf is going up," she explained. "Golfers are choosing to play differently."
Most clubs rely on membership for the bulk of their income although many increasingly look to visitors as well.
She said help was available for them to draw-up business and marketing plans and to offer free 'taster' or coaching sessions to attract new players - particularly women and juniors.
A Golf Awareness Week run in the spring resulted in 700 new members and 200 trial members for the 100 clubs in Wales that took part. It will be repeated next year.
She said clubs needed to offer more flexible membership packages for those who did not play regularly and work harder at retaining members by providing added value.
"We also need to learn from the nomadic golfer - talk to them about their needs and what would persuade them to join a golf club," she added.