USA Blew a Huge Ryder Cup Lead

Just my two cents from the Ryder Cup.

So we had a nice lead going into the final day of singles match-ups, 10-6.

All we need is 4½ points among 12 matches.

It's a big lead.. one of biggest leads going into Sunday singles that the USA has ever had.

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OK, you've got to figure Olazabal's thinking is to put his hottest guys first, right? But some will say that since we only needed 4½ points, Davis should put our hottest guys out first. But why would he do this? Didn't he think ahead as to where Olazabal was gonna put his big guns? And if nothing else, mix it up a little, and make it tough for Olazabal to predict - even if he wanted to!

Going into Sunday singles:
Bradley & Mickelson were both 3-0
Dustin & Kuchar were 2-0
Bubba was 2-1
Simpson was 2-1
Zach was 2-1
Dufner was 2-1
Furyk & Snedeker were 1-1
. . . .
Tiger was 0-2, and Stricker was 0-3.

I'm not gonna predict the order in which Olazabal would've played them. Not now, and not necessarily if I were captain, other than the fact that I know he's GOT to put his weaker players at the end, right? For this event, that would be Molinari, Kaymer, and Hanson. You've gotta realize Rose, McIlroy, Donald, and Poulter are going near the beginning!

That's why you set it up this way:
Jason Dufner
Zach Johnson
Webb Simpson
Bubba Watson
Tiger Woods
Steve Stricker
Jim Furyk
Brandt Snedeker
Matt Kuchar
Dustin Johnson
Keegan Bradley
Phil Mickelson

I'll be back later after having the time to do a little more stats to determine if my lineup would've done better on Sunday. The hole by hole thing is a little more time-consuming than I anticipated.

The European team played lights-out on Sunday, and I give them a ton of respect for it, but I think our team went into Sunday a little too relaxed, and expecting an easy win. Davis is a good captain, and I'd like to see him return, but things could've been so much different on Sunday. I'd like to know what Freddie's input was.

Golf These Days

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OK Tiger Woods won a tournament today - for the first time since the 2009 Thanksgiving scandal came out. In the 2 years and a few weeks as he's been "coming back", he dropped from 1st to 52nd in the Official World Rankings, which is actually a short fall relative to most golfers.

That's how far ahead of everyone else he was by the PGA Tour's world rankings statistics!


In almost the same 2-yr period, Fred Couples has turned 50, and dropped from about 25th to 310th, yet NO ONE has won more money on the Champions Tour in that span - than him.


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In fact, I'll blow your mind a little more.. In the same timespan:

Fred Couples has won $4,156,334 in 39 events on two different tours (PGA Tour and Champions Tour).

Tiger Woods has won $1,955,003 in 21 events on the PGA Tour.

Freddie's earned $106,573 per event -- Tiger's earned $93,095 per event. Freddie played almost twice as many tourneys, though. And he's the old guy. Freddie's 52. Tiger will be 36 later this month.

I don't really know why I'm comparing these two, but then again I do.

This is incredibly huge for Tiger Woods. A lot of people doubted he could ever get back to this place again - including myself. It was a long 2 years. Once he went a few majors and a few more tourneys, when he wasn't back, we all knew he'd be back eventually.

Actually we didn't.

But then again - is he all the way back? Here's a super little Woods/Nicklaus comparison.

The Masters - four months from now - is gonna be incredible! The golf world in general is about to become important again..

Couples Therapy

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Overnight Entropy

Click to enlarge..

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Sunday at The Masters: The Leaders

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Masters Sunday

Magnolia Lane. Every one of us would love to drive down it, and follow that up by playing on the course, or at worst, getting onto the property to look around. For 99% of us, it ain't gonna happen!

What a spectacular Saturday at Augusta! Phil came within a few inches of eagling 3 straight holes - something no one's ever done. Freddie eagled on a chip-in at 15, and even Kenny Perry provided some late-round heroics.

Now it's all Westwood, Phil, Freddie, and of course Tiger.

Five or six other guys could make history by posting a very low number, too, but I believe your winner will come from those four. Gotta love Freddie & Phil!

An Amazing Masters Leaderboard

Let us all embrace this incredible Masters leaderboard. Three of my all-time favorite players are showing their teeth. Phil, Freddie, and Tom Watson. Wow Tom is 60! Freddie is 50, but that's no surprise, as he's won 3 of his first 4 tourneys on the champions tour. Watson was probably my dark horse favorite golfer as I grew up. Yeah I knew it was all about Nicklaus, Palmer, Norman, Price, and Faldo...

It's just an incredible leaderboard after round-1.

Tiger? Yeah he's right there with his "best Masters 1st round ever".

Sigh.

Have fun!