Ryder Cup Clippings, Final Edition Vol. 2

Let the Monday morning quarter...actually, the matches would have to be close for there to be any second guessing.

No, the stories continue to marvel at the slaughter and the potential fallout for American golf.

Sandy Lyle gloats to The Scotsman's Mike Aitken:

"At the moment the future is looking very strong for us," said Lyle, one of Ian Woosnam's backroom men at the K Club. "I think we'll need to have a handicap system if it continues like this. We are producing very strong teams and they are on the ropes. Long may it continue."

Asked why the pendulum had swung so far in Europe's favour, Lyle added: "The European Tour has been getting stronger and stronger for many years.

Also, we have to thank Tiger Woods. We look at him and we see how hard we have to work on our games to try to get to his level."

James Corrigan asks questions in the Independent and highlights some of the more critical U.S. writers.
 

Maybe the best critique came from Peter Dixon in The Times:

In reality, the Americans are a bunch of rich individuals thrown together for a week. Brett Wetterich, among the four faceless rookies in the team, had never met Woods until a few weeks before the Ryder Cup and probably will never meet him again.

The US team may well have “fun” in the team room, but they do not come across as great friends. Who among the Americans is as close as Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, Sergio García and Luke Donald? When the chips are down, it is such friendships that can pull you through. Ask Clarke.

Perhaps the most telling statement of the week was Mickelson’s, when he said that it was “awkward” not having the likes of Davis Love III and Fred Couples in the side, great players “you expect to see on US teams”. What he should have said was: “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here.”

Oh but he's not done... 

Much more of this and you could see Tim Finchem, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, being put under pressure to put a cap on the number of overseas players allowed to join the tour.

There is plenty of squealing in the women’s game in the US because of the number of South Koreans walking off with the lion’s share of the prize-money. How long before the men start complaining?

Finish in the top 80 of the PGA Tour and you will earn about $1 million in prize-money alone. That is a huge sum for mediocrity. This is a society for whom winning is everything, but its golfers, metaphorically speaking, have flabby underbellies — and boy were they exposed at the K Club.

Monty weighs in with a guest commentary for the Telegraph, and you would think his lead is a joke, but it's not.

If our team had a secret over the week, it was the way we boosted each other's self-esteem at every possible opportunity. It was Ian Woosnam's idea. Every time one of us was about to tee off at the first, Woosie, or one of his assistants, would be there to say, "You're a great champion," or something along those lines.

Wow, I thought our guys were simple!