foozle vt foo-zled; foo-zling (1892): to manage or play awkwardly; a bungling golf stroke

Friday, January 25, 2008

Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, Europe vs. Rest-of-the-World Cup?

I would hazard a guess that the average golf fan cares a heckuva lot more about the Ryder Cup than he or she does about the Presidents Cup. I do for sure, and although I'd generally like to keep some distance between myself and being labeled "average", in this case I'd like to think I agree with the majority of my brethren who follow this great game of golf. The Ryder Cup has more history and drama and media attention/anticipation leading up to it while the Presidents Cup seems to rate woefully less in all of the aforementioned attributes. Its newer and seems more contrived and just less exciting all around. As an American I think part of my complacency with the Presidents Cup is the fact that its played during the non-Ryder Cup year, in the off-season if you will. Even though the Americans seem to have figured out how to win it pretty regularly, its still anti-climactic, to say the least. Whereas the Euros and the Rest-of-the-World-Os have two years to prepare themselves mentally and physically for the team competitions, our boys have to muster up the passion and excitement every year--obviously too often for them to do so if you've seen any of the past few Ryder Cups. So wouldn't it make more sense if the whole thing was played as a Round Robin? Ryder Cup one year. Presidents Cup the next year. And then the Europe vs. The-Rest-of-the-World Cup the next year. Everybody plays two out of every three years, giving the American players a year to regroup and also creating a new and perhaps even more exciting match between two teams that have never faced off against each other. I think its worth dreaming about, at the very least.

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