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I’ve never been in a situation where I want someone to lose so much, but want a team to win. I find myself in that situation now regarding Nick Faldo and Europe at the Ryder Cup.
I admired Faldo hugely as a golfer, but as a man (and now as a captain) I really don’t like the bloke. He is an arrogant, cockey and rude individual who thinks he is above everyone. I can’t wait for his big fall but unfortunately that will probably come this weekend and mean that Europe will lose the Ryder Cup.
Faldo’s picks (Casey and Poulter) were based on personal decisions rather than professional ones. He has admitted to having a close relationship with the English guys who play on the PGA Tour as he works for American television and spends most of his year over there. Those English guys are Rose, Poulter and Casey.
It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to recognise that Faldo and Monty don’t get on and I can’t help but feel that Poulter and Casey were always going to get picked ahead of the ‘Mr Ryder Cup’ (Monty that is). Of course, Faldo will never admit that he made a personal decision and his reasons for omitting Monty were his lack of form (note to Faldo; Poulter two top 10 finishes all year, Darren Clarke two wins and seven top 10 finishes this year so the ‘lack of form’ excuse for Monty is a bit of a contradictory one).
Yesterday I watched amazed as our golfers made some dreadful mistakes – Garcia finding that water twice on the 13th from less than 100 yards, Casey (one of Faldo’s picks) playing woeful golf and finding the water himself during his dreadful round.
I also watched what Europe is all about and what Europe lack without the passionate, influential, inspirational and vastly experiended Clarke and Monty. That was Lee Westwood and his two magnificent comebacks (albeit with his partners) to snatch a half point from the jaws of defeat. Westwood was brilliant and has assumed the senior role in the team, encouraging the rookies and younger members as they struggle to play well amongst a partisan crowd.
What does Faldo do next? Trailing by three points, he omits Westwood (Europe’s joint top points scorer) from Saturday’s foursomes.
I have to admit to shaking my head in disbelief at this decision. And to omit Sergio Garcia (who has played brilliantly in America the last month despite his shaky form yesterday) just makes me wonder does Faldo have a clue what he is doing?
Is Faldo consulting anyone when making these decisions? He has already been smug enough to say that he doesn’t need help and he can do it all himself. Poor Olazabel is only there as a translater isn’t he?
I hope Faldo falls flat on his face, but then again I hope Europe win – I guess I’m in an awful no win situation this weekend.
Good luck Europe.
Mike
Can’t disagree with much of that at all, Mike (though I’m still of the opinion that Casey was the dodgier pick). Nice post.
I’m mostly flabbergasted that Faldo has been so ignorant as to not see the complete role-reversal Azinger has pulled on him with the teams. The opening ceremony gave the big clues IMO as to who had who’s number.
I didn’t take that much interest in golf when Faldo was at his peak as a player but I get the impression from what I have read and heard that he was not too popular with the players or the media. So far the body language of the european players suggest that Faldo is not being an inspirational captain and the team spirit that I have seen from the europeans at previous Ryder Cups does not seem as strong.
It was a bad start for Faldo when he picked Poulter instead of Clarke as this was sure to unsettle a lot of the european players. The next mistake he made was to decide that he did not want more help and he could cope with just Olazabel as his aid. One thing I will say though is that Europe should change in the future to having four captain’s wild picks instead of two which is how the USA does things now.
Some of the media got it hopelessly wrong when they stated that this is a poor USA Ryder cup team. The USA have better players now compared to 2006. Kim and Mahan are both very good young players and Holmes, Leonard, Perry & Weekley have all won this year on courses similar to the one at Valhalla. The USA also have the world’s best player ( in Tiger’s absence ) with Phil Mickelson.
Faldo’s decision to drop Westwood and Garcia does appear to be strange and suggests that he is a bit desperate but maybe it will work? Europe have won before from a bad start and they could do so again…..but I am not betting on it.
Pete
Never liked Faldo to be honest, great player in his day but has always come across as arrogant to me. I’ve backed USA at 11/8 so am delighted at the way things have gone so far.
I sensed before the tournament that there wouldn’t be the same togetherness in the European camp as there has been previously, while on the other hand I sensed more of a togetherness in the American camp with the loss of Tiger.
Just little things though like the other day when the camera caught a shot of his picks, why didn’t he handle that situation better? If that was me I’d have said I’d intended for them to be seen so it would give the American’s something to worry about instead of making a joke of it.
Absolutely baffled with the decision regarding Westwood and Garcia and to me that’s showing a real sign of weakness and would give me a huge boost if I was part of team USA.
I can’t disagree with much of Mike’s post either – the selection of Faldo as captain set the alarm bells ringing for me at the time, and little of the weekend so far has convinced me otherwise.
The Westwood incident could resonate long after the competition finishes, especially if Europe loses. Westwood has already been quite unequivocal in saying the decision to sit out this morning was not his, and that no blisters (Faldo’s explanation), real or imagined, would ever be enough to stop him playing a Ryder Cup rubber.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Well what a tremendous days golf that was.
The four matches tonight were as good as it gets, an unbelievable standard of golf with the tension and excitement to make it a real spectacle.
Still stand by what I said earlier about Faldo, but to be fair to the guy one of the decisions he’s taken the most stick about has been fully justified today. Ian Poulter was outstanding along with McDowell in securing a very important point in their match, Casey though on the other hand wasn’t so good.
Yes it was unbelievable golf at times. The Poulter/McDowell pairing shot eight birdies in the last twelve holes and only went from being level to winning one up such was the standard by Furyk (mostly) and Perry.
Then there was Robert Karlsson firing in birdies all over the place to secure a half point in his match – brilliant golf.
Faldo’s selections yesterday were questioned by many, including myself and some very knowledgable guys in the media, but Europe won the day and closed the gap narrowly on the Americans – you can’t ask more than that. As you rightly say, Poulter has been outstanding.
It’s going to be a cracker today, though again Faldo’s ‘tactics’ will be questioned putting his best men out last when it’s possible that American will win enough points early. I hope for his and Europe’s sake it works out well. I will be the first to acknowledge a (what would be) tremendous achievement if it does.
Mike
I’m not going to crab Faldo again, other than to say why the hell isn’t Poulter out first today? He’s been a revelation and was surely the best man to face Kim (who was a pretty obvious number 1 for the Americans).
Could that have just been the defining moment of this Ryder Cup?
A magnificent putt from Hunter Mahan in what looks a crucial match, when you look at the rest of the board. If Casey can win the 18th and get a half point, then it could get intersting.
If Hanson can stop Holmes from winning then it looks like going down to the last match
If Holmes wins then it’s all over
Although I dislike Faldo as much as the next man, it’s hard to point the finger of blame at him IMO.
Europe’s big experienced guns failed to turn up:
Garcia: 2 halves from 4 matches
Jimenez: 1 half from 2 matches (can’t win singles now)
Harrington: 1 half from 3 matches (singles looks dodgy too)
Westwood: 1 half from 3 matches (should win singles though)Agree with the above David except in Westwood’s case.
He looked up for the fight until being dropped on Saturday morning – from that moment on he looked deflated. He had two magnificent comebacks on Friday to snatch two halve points and by all accounts was raring to go on Saturday morning.
When he was ‘benched’ on Saturday it’s reported that he was far from happy with Faldo and some strong words were said. From that moment on his body language suggested he didn’t want to be there. Yes you can blame him for taking that attitude, but should Faldo have reigned him back when he was raring to go?
Europe’s ‘big three’ golfers have always been regarded as Monty, Clarke and Westwood and yet on Saturday morning (for the first time in around 20 years) neither of them were involved in a fourballs/foursomes – and Garcia wasn’t there either.
Regarding Harrington then he has to be a major worry. This is two Ryder Cups in a row now that he hasn’t performed. He is a tremendous golfer and very much a single-minded one. He focuses immensely on the big tournaments during the summer and you can’t help but feel that he is mentally worn out come September/October.
I have no worries about Garcia. He has a fantastic Ryder Cup record and is as passionate as anyone, but his game just wasn’t there this weekend. He will be back. Jiminez seems to me to be a tournament player rather than a match-play player.
All in all the picture isn’t anywhere near as bad as is being painted by the media this morning. We won three cups in a row and narrowly failed to make that four despite some players under performing and arguably one of our better players (Luke Donald) being absent through injury.
European golf is in a fantastic state at present and come 2010 our squad will be brimming with talent. Garcia, Westwood, Harrington (if he get his head right), Poulter, Donald, Casey, Rose etc will all be around, while players like Martin Kaymer, Ross Fisher, Oliver Wilson, Oliver Fisher, Rory Mcilroy, Francesco Molinari and Nick Dougherty will have taken their game up a notch. Add to that, players like Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson then there’s 16 players you wouldn’t mind having on your side without me even going deep into the memory bank.
If I had the patience (and I don’t) to wait two years for a bet to be landed then I wouldn’t be against backing Europe now to win in 2010 – though there isn’t much point considering their price will be roughly the same when it starts
Mike
Faldo is sure to be criticised for some of his selections and tactics.
Garcia, Harrington and Westwood didn’t look up to it as much as normal judging by their demeanour. This may have been due to lack of motivation by Faldo or it may have been due to illness as Sergio was reportedly not feeling well and Westwood has recently had acute tonsillitis which meant him missing tournaments building up to the Ryder Cup. Padraig has complained of fatigue after a busy and very successful season.
Paul Azinger arranged for the course to be prepared to suit the USA team more and the crowd were a big help to them. As I mentioned previously, the USA team are much stronger now than in recent Ryder cups and there is a danger that they will not get the credit they deserve because Faldo’s captaincy will be given as the reason for their win.
I love the pga tour in the USA and the American win will be a great boost for the tour so it’s a case of ‘ every cloud has a silver lining ‘ as far as I am concerned.
It would not surprise me if Ian Woosnam becomes captain of the Euro Ryder cup team again with the next event taking place in his native country.
Pete
Don’t follow golf particularly closely and having been on holiday sans TV and PC didn’t watch the Ryder Cup, so can’t comment on whether it was Faldo’s captaincy that was to blame for the defeat, but have to say I was surprised he was chosen – or chose – to be captain in the first place as he’s never been a team man, is not ‘clubbable’ and due to his introverted, insular, fiercely driven nature was never ‘one of the boys’ when playing, though grudgingly admired. Hence hardly the type to motivate this team or run a happy ship.
Attributes – or lack of – I most certainly don’t regard as character flaws. On the contrary, they very much explain why he was a winner in a sport where the focussed loner of super-resilient temperament tends to thrive. But no good in the locker room or the general apres ski
Always liked the bloke myself.
Paul Azinger arranged for the course to be prepared to suit the USA team more and the crowd were a big help to them.
All true to a great degree; but given how many of the European line-up have either been regulars or semi-regulars on the US tour in recent times, and given that Oliver Wilson went through university in the States and honed his golfing abilities over there, I really wouldn’t have had the course down as playing that alien or disadvantageously to the "away team" here.
The crowd influence one can only really guess at. Certainly Lee Westwood has his ideas on how poisonous the home supporters were at their worst, but the consensus of the Five Live team and one or two other media outlets to voice an opinion appears to be that their conduct was still rather better than at renewals such as Brookline in 1999 or Kiwah Island in 1991. All a matter of speaking as you find, I suppose.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Why did they pick on Westwood and what type of things were they saying that upset him?
Probably because they saw him as a threat Crizzy. They’ve done it to Monty countless times and unfortunately it’s something you now expect when playing in America.
Not sure what type of things they said but Lee looked quite upset about it and to say it was shameful must mean they said some dispicable things to him.
I was quite shocked to see the footage of Azinger in down town Louiseville telling the people to cheer when Europe missed a putt. Was this footage shown before the Ryder Cup started? I certainly never seen it. He looked as though he’d had a few beers, got on stage, took the mike and told the crowd to cheer when the Americans hole a putt and to cheer when Europe missed a putt – that in itself was quite shameful in my opinion.
Mike
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