As a young man I used to dream of being kept up into the wee small hours by a passionate woman.
As a 50 year old being kept up to 3 am by 24 passionate women was not quite what I imagined!
I never thought it would be because of golf!
The 7 hour time difference is killing me! BUT I am loving every minute of it!
Today Europe go into the final days singles knowing 4 points gives them their first ever win on American soil, 3 1/2 points is all the need to retain the Solheim Cup.
America need 9 points to regain the trophy, nothing less will do.
Can they do it ? Of course they can, we have had the miracle at Medinah so why not resurrection in the Rockies ?
This is match play, for me golf at its purist form, ANYTHING can happen.
Given that Europe are currently leading I can say this without it sounding like sour grapes.
The behaviour of some of the American team this week has been quite frankly adolescent!
For example??
The 16th yesterday during the four-ball the camera’s cut back to Michelle Wie holing a birdie putt on 16, she hooped and hollered as if she had just holed the putt that won the cup, never mind a point. She charged off the green high fiving any one and everyone, gesturing to the crowd to make more noise and then her and Jessica Korda marched off to the 17th tee, point won?
Well em no!
The camera cut back to Caroline Masson on the green with a putt for a half! Wie had not even won the point!
This was a show of ignorance and arrogance. The total lack of respect she paid to her opponents was pathetic to say the least but what’s worse she showed a total lack of respect for the game.
Even in the Ryder Cup you see players from either side try to quiet the crowd if they have holed a huge putt to show respect for their opponent, you certainly never see them try to whip the crowd into a frenzy before their opponent putts! Well Brookline being the exception.
Quite frankly the referee should have awarded the hole to Europe for unsportsmanlike behaviour!
But as it turned out, in true Germanic fashion, Masson kept her head and holed the putt for a half. Not that Ms Wie or Ms Korda would have known.
Now lets be honest here Team USA were not alone, step forward Myles Blackwelder.
Myles is an American who caddies for Jodie Ewart-Shadof and son of Cristie Kerr’s caddie Worth.
Paula Creamer had a par putt on the 7th on the same line as Lexi Thompson had a birdie putt, as Paula stood over her putt Blackwelder called to her it was good, then all hell broke lose!
For the record a caddie can NOT concede a putt for a player, Creamer should have known this, but there are two stories making the rounds on this.
One is the Europeans overheard Phil Parkin of the golf channel saying they should concede Creamer’s putt to avoid Lexi getting a read, the second is vice captain Annika Sorenstam told the caddie to concede the putt.
I don’t know which explanation is worse! But the bottom line is only a player can concede a putt and everyone involved should have known that!
And then we had 16 and another rules farce!
This developed into a she said, she did argument with hand bags at dawn.
I think it took over 31 minutes to sort out.
Am I the only person who thinks some of these rules officials turned up thinking they were on some form of jolly??
The officiating so far has quite frankly been poor and very very soft.
Beatrriz Racari blocked her drive into the hazard, Cristie Kerr also went into the same hazard.
Recari wanted to drop 1 side of the hazard, were she thought it went in, Kerr & Pressel believed it went in at a different point.
All Brad Alexander, yes the same guy as 15 on Friday, needed to do was say “my ruling is” but no, there was so much faffing around it descended into pure farce.
It maybe that Alexander confidence has gone after the 15th on Friday but he needs to be more decisive.
But I will reiterate what I said yesterday, DROP ZONES!, why is there no drop zones ??
Too much like common sense ??
Lets hope for a day of brilliant golf from both sides, no rules cock ups and some etiquette shown from all the players.
As a 50 year old being kept up to 3 am by 24 passionate women was not quite what I imagined!
I never thought it would be because of golf!
The 7 hour time difference is killing me! BUT I am loving every minute of it!
Today Europe go into the final days singles knowing 4 points gives them their first ever win on American soil, 3 1/2 points is all the need to retain the Solheim Cup.
America need 9 points to regain the trophy, nothing less will do.
Can they do it ? Of course they can, we have had the miracle at Medinah so why not resurrection in the Rockies ?
This is match play, for me golf at its purist form, ANYTHING can happen.
Given that Europe are currently leading I can say this without it sounding like sour grapes.
The behaviour of some of the American team this week has been quite frankly adolescent!For example??
Well em no!
The camera cut back to Caroline Masson on the green with a putt for a half! Wie had not even won the point!
This was a show of ignorance and arrogance. The total lack of respect she paid to her opponents was pathetic to say the least but what’s worse she showed a total lack of respect for the game.
Even in the Ryder Cup you see players from either side try to quiet the crowd if they have holed a huge putt to show respect for their opponent, you certainly never see them try to whip the crowd into a frenzy before their opponent putts! Well Brookline being the exception.
Quite frankly the referee should have awarded the hole to Europe for unsportsmanlike behaviour!
But as it turned out, in true Germanic fashion, Masson kept her head and holed the putt for a half. Not that Ms Wie or Ms Korda would have known.
Now lets be honest here Team USA were not alone, step forward Myles Blackwelder.Myles is an American who caddies for Jodie Ewart-Shadof and son of Cristie Kerr’s caddie Worth.
Paula Creamer had a par putt on the 7th on the same line as Lexi Thompson had a birdie putt, as Paula stood over her putt Blackwelder called to her it was good, then all hell broke lose!
For the record a caddie can NOT concede a putt for a player, Creamer should have known this, but there are two stories making the rounds on this.
One is the Europeans overheard Phil Parkin of the golf channel saying they should concede Creamer’s putt to avoid Lexi getting a read, the second is vice captain Annika Sorenstam told the caddie to concede the putt.
I don’t know which explanation is worse! But the bottom line is only a player can concede a putt and everyone involved should have known that!
And then we had 16 and another rules farce!
This developed into a she said, she did argument with hand bags at dawn.
I think it took over 31 minutes to sort out.
Am I the only person who thinks some of these rules officials turned up thinking they were on some form of jolly??
The officiating so far has quite frankly been poor and very very soft.
Beatrriz Racari blocked her drive into the hazard, Cristie Kerr also went into the same hazard.Recari wanted to drop 1 side of the hazard, were she thought it went in, Kerr & Pressel believed it went in at a different point.
All Brad Alexander, yes the same guy as 15 on Friday, needed to do was say “my ruling is” but no, there was so much faffing around it descended into pure farce.
It maybe that Alexander confidence has gone after the 15th on Friday but he needs to be more decisive.
But I will reiterate what I said yesterday, DROP ZONES!, why is there no drop zones ??
Too much like common sense ??
Jessica Korda did not run off (as Wie did) - Jessica was right there with the caddies and the bags off to the side of the green, which is easy to see. The Golf Channel announcers got it wrong, and retracted their comments regarding Jessica the next day. Now you should follow suit and do the same.
ReplyDeleteHowever - I will agree it was pretty poor sportsmanship in general for the US team. Congrats to the Euro Team!