Apparently itās true that the āGolf Pressā and maybe even many of the professional golfers themselves are a bunch of silly, sophomoric, whining weenies.
At the conclusion of the recent Ryder Cup matches this weekend, Phil Mickelson was asked why he thought the U.S. team had lost. He responded,
"We had a great formula in '08 and I don't know why we strayed from it. I don't know why we don't even try going back to it. But what Zinger [Paul Azinger] did was really a good formula. And maybe we ought to re-invent something like that."
You would think he called team captain Tom Watson a child molester, judging from the hysteria of the pressā reaction to these profoundly un-remarkable thoughts.
The 2008 Ryder Cup was the last time the United States took home the trophy. In 2008 Azinger came up with an unconventional "pod" method of pre-tournament training in order to find the right pairings. He put his 12 players into three groups of four prior to the event and kept them together through practice rounds and into the matches.
As we all know, golf is not a āteamā sport in any conventional sense of that term. The only possible cooperation between teammates would be āhelpā in reading a putt, but given the egos of professional golfers, even that tiny bit of cooperation is not usually offered, as the recipient may be resentful or, worse, use it as an excuse for missing the putt in question. But Azinger came up with a way of making them feel like teammates, and it seemed to work. Certainly the results would point that way. Thatās all Mickelson was saying.
There was nothing controversial about what Mickelson said, and it not only applied to Watson, but to all of the three captains since 2008 who have chosen not to replicate Azingerās program.
I guess with Tiger not there, the Golf Press had to jump on this non-story to try to excite their readers/
At the conclusion of the recent Ryder Cup matches this weekend, Phil Mickelson was asked why he thought the U.S. team had lost. He responded,
"We had a great formula in '08 and I don't know why we strayed from it. I don't know why we don't even try going back to it. But what Zinger [Paul Azinger] did was really a good formula. And maybe we ought to re-invent something like that."
You would think he called team captain Tom Watson a child molester, judging from the hysteria of the pressā reaction to these profoundly un-remarkable thoughts.
The 2008 Ryder Cup was the last time the United States took home the trophy. In 2008 Azinger came up with an unconventional "pod" method of pre-tournament training in order to find the right pairings. He put his 12 players into three groups of four prior to the event and kept them together through practice rounds and into the matches.
As we all know, golf is not a āteamā sport in any conventional sense of that term. The only possible cooperation between teammates would be āhelpā in reading a putt, but given the egos of professional golfers, even that tiny bit of cooperation is not usually offered, as the recipient may be resentful or, worse, use it as an excuse for missing the putt in question. But Azinger came up with a way of making them feel like teammates, and it seemed to work. Certainly the results would point that way. Thatās all Mickelson was saying.
There was nothing controversial about what Mickelson said, and it not only applied to Watson, but to all of the three captains since 2008 who have chosen not to replicate Azingerās program.
I guess with Tiger not there, the Golf Press had to jump on this non-story to try to excite their readers/
