2010 Ryder Cup wrap

The 2010 Ryder Cup was one of the best golf tournaments I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. It was spoilt only by the Welsh weather and the programming of OneHD who did not play the final round live.

The Europeans prevailed beating the USA 14.5 to 13.5 with Graeme McDowell winning the final match to bring the Euro’s home.

Matchplay
Simply the best golf format to watch…and play.

The weather and Wales
Staging the Ryder Cup in Wales, in October is not the greatest option despite the course being well prepared for rain. At first it just looks like poor organisation but the October start was forced on them due to the FedEx Cup now running into late September, which is run by the PGA Tour. They do not control the Ryder Cup had no vested interest in its success.

Rules infringements
Rickie Fowler is a little guy but can play golf. He ran into trouble with the rules during his Saturday foursomes round with Jim Furyk. Furyk hit his tee shot which was plugged in the fairway. Rather than picking that ball out and dropping it, he pulled a ball from his pocket and dropped that. effectively swapping golf balls in the middle of a hole. Two shot penalty in strokeplay. Loss of hole in matchplay.

The cigar guy in the greatest golf photo of the year

OneHD and the Australian TV coverage
For three days, OneHD did its job perfectly. Australia had great viewing times with commentary from the UK (much better than Johnny Miller and the US commentary) but when the event ran over to Monday, things got bad. The Commonwealth Games took precedence even though Ten were playing the same thing. Only after midnight was the Ryder Cup broadcast on a three hour delay. Disgraceful.

The tweets of Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter

These two snuck in tweets all week. I’m not sure which insights I found more interesting, the shots of Padraig Harrington and Miguel Jiminez sleeping in the locker room or a shot of Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods cleaning up on the ping-pong table (see photo below).