Telegraph On Rickie's Haircut: "Exhibition Of Thuggish Jingoism"

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It was slipped into the end of my Fleet Street roundup for The Loop but in hindsight The Telegraph's Oliver Brown went all out in denouncing Rickie Fowler's USA haircut in just the kind of beautifully sculpted over reaction we needed to kick off a fairly drama-less Ryder Cup build-up.

Brown calls the haircut an "exhibition of thuggish jingoism that on any normal day would give grounds for many a club secretary to throw him off the premises in a heartbeat."

Even better, Brown takes Team USA Captain Tom Watson to task for endorsing the look.

Watson, pressed on his reaction to Fowler’s provocatively cropped look, tried to sound emollient. “I thought I was terrific,” he said. “It brings a light spirit to the team. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if even Ted Bishop puts USA on the side of his head if it means we’re going to win.” For the record, Bishop, the president of the PGA of America, is 60 years old and without even half the hair required to carry the look off.

Was this the same Watson who for almost five decades has been heralded as the gentleman golfer, embodying the virtues of grace, humility and understatement? The same Watson purporting to the great guardian and protector of the “game of golf”? Quite what he would have thought had one of own three sons made this type of marine-style statement is anybody’s guess.

Tweeter Alliss wondered if Bubba Watson might do some patriotic sculpting of his own.