Fans attending the Ryder Cup are encouraged to wear red clothing on Sunday at Medinah to show their patriotic pride, while fans watching from home are encouraged to the same.
With the captivating documentary War By The Shore, core golf fans will have one less thing to bemoan about Golf Channel's neglect of the game's rich history. In yet another shining example of the Comcast/NBC merger benefiting golf fans, this artfully produced film takes full advantage of NBC's original 1991 Ryder Cup footage and intermixes the highlights with historic photos and an extensive mix of interviewees to relive one of the most thrilling events the game has ever witnessed. Beyond retelling the story of an epic match, the 51-minute Ross Greenburg produced documentary makes an open-and-shut case for this as the transcendent event in the Ryder Cup. And maybe even in golf's place in the network pecking order.
Directed and edited by George Roy from a script by Steve Stern, the first nine minutes are devoted to the Jack Nicklaus-inspired 1979 switch to a competition against a team from Continental Europe. By 1987 when the Europeans dominated at Muirfield Village and Jose Maria Olazabal broke out in a celebratory dance across Muirfield Village's 18th green, there was "bad blood" and the arrogance was viewed as an "affront" to the Americans, Paul Azinger says in the film. A 1989 tie was remembered mostly for Captain Ray Floyd's "twelve best golfers in the world" remark at the opening ceremony. Throw in a testosterone boost from the Gulf War even though the U.S. and Europe were allies, and the stage was set for the 1991 event at Kiawah Island's Ocean Course.
The early week antics recalled in the Peter Coyote-narrated film are many, from footage of the opening dinner (everyone had so much hair and Sir Nick had such lovely highlights!), the Steve Pate limo accident (didn't need to see Pate shirtless though) and even the traditionally-diplomatic President George Bush giving a pro-American taped message shown at the dinner (he refers to the bi-annual matches…nice job presidential speechwriters!). It all eventually pales compared to the on-course dramatics: Seve Ballesteros coughing-in Chip Beck's backswing, the ball compression controversy between Azinger and Seve, and even Azinger suggesting teammate Corey Pavin's ode-to-the-troops camouflage hats "crossed the line" (now we know why the two eventual Captains weren't sharing many notes in 2010!). The combination of rarely seen footage, fresh memories and a nice cross section of players and media interviewed, makes for terrific television. (Included is Curt Sampson, who has a new book on the matches. Excerpt here.)
One pleasant surprise to even this viewer--who was glued to the whole thing live and still has VHS copies of all three days--was the reminder that this was a breakthrough television event. The first Ryder Cup aired on network television, NBC's Dick Ebersol made a bold decision to stay with Saturday's Fred Couples/Payne Stewart v. Olazabal/Ballesteros match a whopping 90 minutes into American prime time. The resulting match, played in stunning late light on an Ocean Course that was firm, infinitely more fascinating and aesthetically rugged back then, set the stage for Sunday's singles while introducing a new audience to emotion-fueled golf like no one had ever seen.
For the final day, the film glosses over the decision by Pate to not play due to the car accident injury and instead focuses on the two matches everyone involved will forever remember: Mark Calcaveccia's meltdown against Colin Montgomerie and the finale between Bernhard Langer and Hale Irwin. We learn that Monty was going to concede a short putt to Calc after the "smother top" into the par-3 17th hole's lake, but then something urged him to resist and Calc missed, sending the match to the home hole. Then there was that unforgettable finish between Irwin and Langer which, while getting the full treatment, doesn't feel quite as dramatic as it did in last Tuesday's re-airing of the original telecast. Still, it's a minor quibble as the Greenburg team packed a lot of into 51 minutes of gripping and never dull Ryder Cup memories.
War By The Shore airs Tuesday, September 25th at 9 p.m. ET on Golf Channel. Here's a preview:
Karen Crouse travels to St. Simons Island, population 13,000 and branded by a headline writer as the "new capital for U.S. golf." She tries to understand what it is about the wealthy enclave that is spurring so many successful Americans including the Captain and three Ryder Cuppers.
The players were drawn to St. Simons, part of the Golden Isles chain of barrier islands along Georgia’s southeast coast, at least in part by Love, a 20-time PGA Tour winner whom they affectionately refer to as Uncle Davis.
“He’s everything from a plumber to an electrician to a hunting guide to a fishing expert, not to mention a pretty good chef when we grill out,” Snedeker said. “He’s kind of like everybody’s safety net.”
Hunter had no chance!
Matt Kuchar feels at peace with the oaks.
“It has beautiful low-country scenery with the reeds, the marshes and the oceanfront property as well,” said Kuchar, who moved his family here two years ago. “I think one of the things that I may enjoy the most is seeing these big oak trees. Something about going down a drive with just big old oak trees canopying a place puts me at peace. And then having the ocean; something about the natural ebb and flow of an ocean adds an unreal, peaceful rhythm to the place.”
I tried to watch some of the Tour Championship today but with playoff chases in baseball, some decent college football games and those Web.com Tour-sized galleries splattered amidst that distance-diffusing East Lake setup (a 16-yard wide landing area?), the ResetCup was relegated to a distant third on my priority viewing list.
Even then, I tended to land on a commercial break whenever I flipped over.
The Ryder Cup can't come soon enough.
Because as Mark Lamport-Stokes reports, Captain Davis Love's selection Brandt Snedeker is playing super heading into the Ryder Cup and even has a chance to win $10 million Sunday.
Snedeker described his third-round 64 in breezy conditions on a fast-running layout as one of his best displays this year and he has targeted something similar for Sunday.
"I actually won't look at the leaderboard all day," he said with a smile.
Don't worry Brandt, all you'd miss are a lot of ads and recognitions of the host pro, The First Tee and high fructose-laden corn syrup soda pop.
"My goal tomorrow is to shoot as low as I possibly can. If that's 63, it's 63. If it's 72, it's 72.
"Whatever it is, it's going to be everything I've got on that golf course tomorrow. The biggest thing tomorrow is going to be how patient you can stay because this golf course eats guys up that don't stay patient."
Or find those under-20 yard wide strips called fairways!
The PGA Tour's highlights:
For fans of Gary Van Sickle's proposed aggregate stroke play for the playoffs, I've updated the scores of the only remaining contenders based on Jim McCabe's item from after the BMW Championship. So here are the scores heading in, with this week's scores in parentheses and the overall total. As it should be, Rory McIlroy has opened a commanding lead. It wouldn't make for exciting viewing but it would also be a win free of resets and based on a playoff consistency.
Rory McIlroy, 41 under (-5) -46
Tiger Woods, 34 under (-4) -38
Dustin Johnson, 36 under (-1) -37
Louis Oosthuizen, 34 under (E) -34
Brandt Snedeker, 25 under (-8) -33
Ryan Moore, 24 under (-6) -30
Phil Mickelson, 31 under (+2) -29
Oh and Luke Donald hit a super second shot at 14 Saturday, thankfully posted on YouTube so we can see it:
Credit Matthew Norman for saying what needed to be said: this Tiger-Rory bromance must not strip the Ryder Cup of petty, childish, ego-fueled drama.
Did infantrymen on both sides endure the horrors of the War on the Shore in 1991, and the rancour occasioned by the Battle of Brookline eight years later, when the Americans invaded of the green while current European captain José María Olazábal stood over a crucial putt, so that their successors would compete in love and peace?
Golf, as all fans of PG Wodehouse’s Oldest Member stories appreciate, is not the prissy, gentlemanly pursuit of Peter Alliss’s rose-tinted babblings.
It is a vicious, murderous battle of wills, and more than ever in this biennial challenge to intercontinental machismo, there must be a healthy dollop of spite bubbling beneath the mannerly surface.
Captain Davis Love will not be confused with Lanny Wadkins, who infamously had Oak Hill harvest rough in 1995 after admitting to telling the Medinah folks to cut the rough, bring on the birdies and the excitement.
I look forward on re-reading Guy Yocom and John Huggan's outstanding oral history of the 1991 Ryder Cup after Golf Channel's Tuesday, September 18th's 8:30 ET "Classic Ryder Cup Golf" re-airing of the final day.
Something tells me Steve Pate still won't play singles, Calc still shanks it on 17 and Langer still misses that pressure-packed putt. But I will still watch.
Last bit of fun from the Golf Channel/NBC conference call to hype the Ryder Cup, were these comments related to captains and their decisions.
First,before the fun related to the U.S. team, David Feherty about the importance of the Ryder Cup to Euros and reminding us who Captain Faldo did not pick in 2008 and perhaps, why Captain Faldo did not make the pick.
DAVID FEHERTY: They tend to put a lot more weight on a player's Ryder Cup for the record. For instance, Colin Montgomerie is the greatest Ryder Cup player of all time. Something really put the tilt in his kilt; you know, every time he put his Ryder Cup spikes on, he turned into just virtually an unbeatable player. If Nick Faldo had picked him, you know, for his team, he probably would have gone past Nick Faldo's record of the most points ever won in Ryder Cup.
And Brandel Chamblee, talking about American captains and their lack of consistency which does make sense.
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I think that in general, the captains for the U.S. side make mistakes. They consistently switch up the pairings and the players.
For example, Tiger Woods played with three different partners in 2002. I believe Jim Furyk played with three different partners in 2002, as well, and consistently the U.S. Team does that. Whereas The Ryder Cup captains tend to find teams, and whether they have success early or they have failures early, they pretty much stick with those teams throughout The Ryder Cup, and it's worked for them.
And us switching, hasn't worked for us. Paul Azinger I think gave the captaincy its proper due by studying the techniques of The Ryder Cup captains from Europe and employing those. He played Mickelson with only two partners, Kim, until Mahan on Saturday. He played Furyk with Perry. He played Mahan with Leonard. And I think that ‑‑ well, it obviously worked for him.
I think that that's the larger part of the problem, and it's not just a four‑ball that we are getting trapped in. We also get trapped in the foursomes. But we get trapped worse in the four‑ball. I thought it was interesting that Paul Azinger made the decision to not open up with four‑balls for the first time since, I believe, going back to the 80s on U.S. soil.
So Davis Love has followed suit. He's opening up with foursomes. I think the U.S. side is getting let down by Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, certainly Jim Furyk. Tiger Woods, I think it's for a different reason. I think he just intimidates everybody that he plays with.
And I think he'll be different this time and I think Phil Mickelson will be different this time. But I still wouldn't pair Phil Mickelson in the foursomes; I certainly would not pair him in the foursomes the first day because it hurts the morale. And I would be very careful about pairing Jim Furyk and who I paired him with.
I think an assistant captain better plan on heading to Staples to pick up some pins and cork boards. We're still two weeks away and already we've got a nice stockpile of potential motivation material for the apparently hapless American squad.
And the hits keep coming from Wednesday's Golf Channel/NBC conference call, David Feherty:
DAVID FEHERTY: You know, we have covered PGA Championships there, and Medinah is a long slog of a golf course, between some enormous trees, and has a couple of very similar par 3s over the water. It's going to favor, I would say, you know, the longer hitters, that's for sure. And you know, it's got a great finish. We remember Sergio, I think in '99, 16, chopping it out from behind the trees on the right. Then a couple of springbok leaps up there and then the par 3, the stare back at Tiger; a great finishing hole.
You know, it's a good golf course. I don't think personally, you know, that it's great, but if you look at the venues that the Ryder Cup has had, at The Belfry, for instance, which was a horrible golf course to start off with, improved very slightly; it was never a great golf course, but it was a tremendous venue. I think the crowds in Chicago will turn that golf course into something special.
Geoff Shackelford
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning Drive, is co-host of The Ringer's ShackHouse is the author of eleven books.
From the Team USA portion of RyderCup.com--yes we're still splitting the website into teams--an unbylined report on the PGA of America encouraging a "Red Out" to make Sunday look like a Nebraska Cornhuskers tailgate party.
