Over in the UK, we had the Seve Cup on the tee-vee...a matchplay competition pitting the top ten ranked players from England and Ireland versus the top ten from the rest of Europe.
And over here in Canada, Montreal in fact, we have The Presidents Cup going on...a matchplay competition with the top twelve (actually top ten plus two captains picks) from an International roster of players (including Canuck Mike Weir), versus the top twelve players from the United States.
Squeeee!
I love watching match play. Golf is such a solitary sport, and for 51 weeks of the year it's the individual against the field...best score after four rounds wins. But one week a year (Presidents Cup in odd numbered years, even numbered years see the Ryder Cup which puts the U.S. best vs. Europe's best), these snipers of the fairways and greens must place their differences aside and play as teammates. Games like fourball, best ball, alternate shot, etc. are the way its played, instead of best cumulative score wins. And it's a hole by hole thingee, so you will hear scoring related along the lines of teams or players being '1 Up' or '2 Down' or 'All Square' in their particular matches.
Sounds boring I'm sure, but it is as exciting as golf can be, right up there with The Masters....seriously.
However, the Seve Cup began its final day (today) with both teams a mere point apart, but the England and Ireland team won nearly every one of the singles matches to run away with it all. Bit of a letdown.
And in the President's Cup, the U.S. stomped on the International squad yesterday to open up a 7 point lead, 14 1/2 to 7 1/2 (a team needs 18 points to secure victory). It's pretty well over...which is too bad after seeing the past two Presidents Cups go down to the final match on the final holes to decide a victor.
But the captains for each squad came through by pitting Tiger Woods against Canadian Mike Weir in today's singles finale. The International team may have little or no chance of catching the U.S., but fans of golf in Canada will receive a nice consolation prize in seeing our local hero Weir go up against the world's #1 in front of a hometown crowd.
I'll be watching.
UPDATE: Weir grinds out a thrilling 1 Up victory over Tiger Woods...but the American team strolls to a fairly easy 19.5 to 14.5 overall win.
1 comment:
watched it all day....arggg...another "lost" day. And although I find the faux-sophisticate tone of golf coverage incredibly irritating - I DID love hearing the crowd chant...Mikeee...Mikeee - all we needed was a Stompin Tom concert on the roof of the club house and those Yanks would have been talking about it for years.
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