All Rory All The Way

[Slim Buddha]

Take your bets on Rory playing for Team Ireland or Team GB

Some Irish team that would be: Rory, G-Mac and Darren, if he is still around!

[DCon]

Some Irish team that would be: Rory, G-Mac and Darren, if he is still around!

All 3 could be Team GB

[Slim Buddha]

All 3 could be Team GB

Exactly!

[Monetpenny]

I don't get the fascination & media interest with golf.

This is a very elitist hobby that hardly anyone ever plays, and hardly anyone watches or is interested in, but boy do those that are enthralled with it bang on about it ad nauseum.
The only thing exceptional about golf is that it has the greatest windbag followers in the world.
At the time of Tiger’s assault by his missus I heard an American sports journalist talking about the ‘Tiger’ effect.
When Tiger didn’t play in the last round of the then most recent American major there was only 2.6m viewers of the last round.
When Tiger played in the last day of the next most recent American major there was 6.2m viewers of the ‘action’.
6.2m viewers! In a country where golf is at its most popular in the world. A country with the highest participation of golf in the world, a country with 314m people & less than 2% watched the last day of a major.
In a country where 111m watch the Superbowl & more people watch the Daytona 500, Kentucky Derby, college football & basketball, ladies soccer & many other sports than golf, it shows how insignificant a hobby golf is.
But we never hear the end of it.

Usually what happens is talented sportspeople become wealthy.
In golf we have the chubby sons of wealthy people who are too slow to run & not athletic enough to play other sports take up golf & become bigger millionaires than their parents.
There are fit people on the golf courses but they are carrying the equipment for the participants.
It would only be equalled for ridiculousness if professional darts players hired someone to carry their darts to & from the darts podium.

There have of course been exceptions who have not been the sons of wealthy parents & again we constantly hear about them.
People say Seve Ballesteros was poor, but I don’t know how accurate that is as his uncle was Spanish professional champion 4 times & his 3 brothers all became professional golfers. But wealth & poverty are relative & compared to Diego Maradona, Ballesteros would’ve been from a very wealthy background as his father had a job.
I’ve heard people claim that Tiger’s family was poor.
Tiger’s father was a Lietenant-Colonel in the US army & the current salary for such a rank is between 80-140k pa.
That’s not exactly breadline territory. But then maybe he is from a poor background compared to other professional golfers.

Also when Seve started playing golf there were 17 golf courses in Spain.
In a country of 34million people there were 17 golf courses.
That is a golf course for every 2 million natives & with all the tourists playing this outdoor pub game very few Spaniards would get to play at all
Could you imagine if there were only 2 GAA pitches in Ireland in the 70s & the majority of people that got to play hurling or gaelic football were US/British tourists?

When I was growing up there was a solitary 18 hole golf course in our county & that was many miles away.
There was also a 9 hole golf course much nearer to home. But the proximity didn’t matter.
You had to pay approx IRE£6k to become a member & IRE£1,200 as an annual subscription & there was a 3 year waiting list to negotiate.

I tried to get interested in it but after a short time I realised that the standard of professional golf is very bad.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that it is the sporting equivalent of a 1m 0-60 handicap around Wolverhampton or Junior B football in Limerick.

Golf is an outdoor pub game played by people that need 3 & a half hours to count to a number ranging between the mid-60s & the mid-70s in increments of 1.
They have avoided other pub games like poker, 45, rings & darts as the added complexity of division, multiplication & subtraction are too great to overcome for golfers.

I feel so sorry for these guys in the media & the half-wits in the canteen who talk about the Rorys, Darrens, G-Macs & Tigers of the world.
Golf is like left-handed, blind-folded nose picking. Hardly anyone does it & being the winner of a left-handed, blindfolded nose picker competition is not something to be lauded.
It is an embarrassment.
I believe that at the very least golf leads to bad decisions & may even cause stupidity.
It has been scientifically proven that female executives are much more successful than their male counterparts.
For some reason the researchers don’t know why.
The answer is pretty obvious.
Male business executives play a lot more golf than their female equivalents.

How many of you have been in a meeting where one of the attendees (usually a marketing guy) thinks it is perfectly acceptable to practise his swing or putting with an imaginary golf club in the middle of the meeting?
These people are obviously deranged.
Do stamp collectors mime putting stamps in their collections?
Do anglers mime fly-fishing?
These golf fans should mime masturbating in these meetings as that more accurately reflects what they are.

If you look at the financial crisis we are enduring & wondered what caused it?
The answer is golf.
The idiots that made these decisions that ruined us, the bankers, the politicians, the financial regulators all across the world, all played golf.

If we want to get out of this mess we have to appoint people to positions of authority that don’t play golf.
But instead the public are bombarded with tales of golf & golfers & we are doomed to wallow in this golf created mess until there is a worldwide ban on golf & playing, discussing or watching golf becomes a crime amongst politicians, top-level bankers & other business executives.

Never played it & don't intend doing so but I would like the young fella (5yrs) to play it as the standard compared to other sports is obviously so appallingly bad that as long as he has reasonable eye-hand co-ordination he has a great chance of being in the top 10 for a couple of decades & raking in all that easy money & I could bask in his reflected glory.
However, he doesn’t like golf.
When I asked him why he doesn’t like golf he says it is because there is a hole & you have to eat sandwiches.... & I know he doesn’t like sandwiches.

[Dr. FIVE]

Two slots for Olympic non story on drivetime

[DCon]

McIlroy and McDowell just won Europe's first point in the Ryder cup


USA USA leading 2-1 but Europe should take the last game and finish the morning session tied at 2-2

[DCon]

USA USA leading 5-3 after the afternoon session

Europe will have to play well tomorrow

[DCon]

This Ryder cup is going down to the wire

Great day for Europe today. Great tournament

Projected finish at the moment is 14 - 14, meaning Europe would retain the cup

That could change though

[DCon]

Europe won

14 1/2 - 13 1/2

[PaddyJoe]

This thread really bugs me because I keep clicking on it thinking that it's about Rory Gallagher.
Saving your presence and all that Count
I'll get my coat...

[Sam Lord]

The European bourgeoisie must love the Ryder Cup. Despite all their ambitions, hitting a little ball into a hole remains the only activity in which their much vaunted EU can outdo the yanks.

[Slim Buddha]

The European bourgeoisie must love the Ryder Cup. Despite all their ambitions, hitting a little ball into a hole remains the only activity in which their much vaunted EU can outdo the yanks.

It has nothing to do with the EU, Sam. It just made sense back in the 80s to change the format and expand Great Britain & Ireland to Europe to make it more competitive and since the change it has been an event that has provided a great level of excitement for those who like golf.

As for your comment about it being all about "hitting a little ball into a hole", I think that is a rather petty comment unworthy of you. You like cricket, which I find tedious, but that is just me. Each to his own, as they say, but I try to refrain from disparaging the choices in sport of others.

As for yesterday's play, this was immense stuff from the European team. Ian Poulter is a captain in waiting. His passion for the Ryder Cup is limitless and his 4-0 weekendmade up almost a third of the European score. Fabulous stuff.

[Richardbouvet]

Rory is a Brit. We could cheer for Justin Rose and it would be the same thing.

[Slim Buddha]

Rory is a Brit. We could cheer for Justin Rose and it would be the same thing.

Does it matter in a team called "Europe" when we are referring to the Ryder Cup? I dont think so. Ok, Harrington was not in the team this time but that doesn't matter that much either. It is still USA v Europe and we are not part of the USA. If one of our own players were in form and qualified for the team, we would definitely want Europe to win. Because Rory is a "Brit" as you referred to him, does it make any difference? Not in terms of the Ryder Cup, it doesn't. I really enjoyed watching Ian Poulter's performance in winning 4 points for the European team.

[DCon]

Rory is a Brit. We could cheer for Justin Rose and it would be the same thing.

How is he a Brit?

Even if he does choose to carry a UK passport, his passport will say he is a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Ergo, Northern Ireland is not part of Britain.