http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/day-1-fourballs-2014-ryder-cup/
The Friday morning "fourball" Ryder Cup matchups have been decided. The afternoon "foursome" matchups will be picked after the morning wave has been completed. (From now on "fourball" will be referred to as best score and "foursome" as alternate shot, as the latter terms are better descriptors). With best score, each player plays his own ball. Each team takes the best score it makes, with the lower score obviously winning the hole. However there are intricacies and strategies unique to this format, one being the ability to play out-of-turn if your partner is away.
Anyway, here are the best score matchups:
2014 Ryder Cup
Friday Morning Best Score
USA vs. Europe
Match one:
Bubba Watson/Webb Simpson vs. Justin Rose/Henrik Stenson
Match two:
Rickie Fowler/Jimmy Walker vs. Thomas Bjorn/Martin Kaymer
Match three:
Jordan Spieth/Patrick Reed vs. Stephen Gallacher/Ian Poulter
Match four:
Phil Mickelson/Keegan Bradley vs. Rory McIlroy/Sergio Garcia
The general consensus among golf punditry is that Europe is the favorite although with a pressure to win it hasn't felt before. This seems mostly correct, however what is overlooked is how top-heavy Europe is. The Americans sitting in the morning, which include Jim Furyk, Hunter Mahan, Matt Kuchar, and Zach Johnson; are just as skilled as the eight teeing it up. Europe, which has Graeme McDowell, Jamie Donaldson, Victor Dubuisson, and Lee Westwood sitting; sees a larger drop off from its best players of McIlroy and Garcia.
Of course some of this is due to McIlroy's (and Garcia's) excellent play of late, but about any twosome American captain Tom Watson puts out would be favored against a Bjorn/(struggling)Kaymer or Donaldson/Dubuisson pairing. Of course Europe could counter by having its stars--McIlroy, Garcia, Stenson, Rose, and Poulter (since this is a Ryder Cup)--play all four Friday/Saturday matchups in order to limit the matches played by its lower ranked players. This isn't unprecedented, in 2012 low-ranked Peter Hansen played only one of the four Friday/Saturday matches and Rory played all four.
There is downside to this however. One problem is rust as the weaker players do have to eventually play on Sunday. A guy who hasn't played much the first two days isn't going to be much use for you in a singles match on Sunday. Case in point: Peter Hansen who lost to Jason Dufner in 2012. A second problem is fatigue for the guys who play a lot Friday/Saturday. The guy who goes 72 holes in the span of about 36 hours is more physically and emotionally drained for the Sunday singles match than the guy who goes only 54 or 36; although the only Ryder Cupper who did this in 2012, Rory, won his singles matchup (he did almost missed his tee time).
Anyway, if the matchups play out as they should, Europe should do better in the team portion where it is traditionally stronger and can hide its lower-ranked and struggling players; and the US should be slight favorites in at least eight of the twelve Sunday singles matches depending on how they stack up.
The Ryder Cup gets underway at 1:35 am Central Time, 7:35 am local time in Scotland.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Drew Brees: System Not Transparent
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11583698/drew-brees-new-orleans-saints-critical-commissioner-roger-goodell
With the hysteria surrounding whatever the latest off-the-field issue is in the NFL, it is refreshing to hear the thoughts of someone who can step back and look at how the various incidents have been resolved and analyze things from a meta-level.
"Too many times, I'd say especially over the last few years, a punishment's been handed down and nobody has really seen the evidence except for those in the league office -- supposedly," Brees said. "So decisions were made in kind of a, 'Hey, trust us.' But did the public see any of the facts? Did the accused see any of the facts? In most cases, no."
America loves a good criminal trial (Casey Anthony, George Zimmerman) as much as it loves a good off-the-field controversy like say, Bountygate or the Ray Rice assault; but strangely very little is made about how differently these situations are handled. Beyond the question of justice--whether or not the defendant is guilty and will be punished for his crimes--Americans seem to enjoy the process of the legal system as well. And as Brees' comment implies, the process itself is important in determining justice is meted. Echoing Brees, teammate and Saints union rep Zach Strief says:
"So there needs to be a system of checks and balances in place, and I think there needs to be transparency in how that all goes down. I'm tired of this veil of secrecy behind it. You get stuck in a situation where nobody has a clue what's going on, you deal with assumptions, and it's a circus."
Both Brees and Strief are intelligent guys who graduated from solid academic institutions (Brees-Purdue, Strief-Northwestern). It isn't surprising they've seen the disconnect between classical American jurisprudence and the authoritarian NFL. An intriguing question is why hasn't the media?
With this question, Sports with a View is launched in order to provide thoughtful commentary to an irrational sports landscape.
With the hysteria surrounding whatever the latest off-the-field issue is in the NFL, it is refreshing to hear the thoughts of someone who can step back and look at how the various incidents have been resolved and analyze things from a meta-level.
"Too many times, I'd say especially over the last few years, a punishment's been handed down and nobody has really seen the evidence except for those in the league office -- supposedly," Brees said. "So decisions were made in kind of a, 'Hey, trust us.' But did the public see any of the facts? Did the accused see any of the facts? In most cases, no."
America loves a good criminal trial (Casey Anthony, George Zimmerman) as much as it loves a good off-the-field controversy like say, Bountygate or the Ray Rice assault; but strangely very little is made about how differently these situations are handled. Beyond the question of justice--whether or not the defendant is guilty and will be punished for his crimes--Americans seem to enjoy the process of the legal system as well. And as Brees' comment implies, the process itself is important in determining justice is meted. Echoing Brees, teammate and Saints union rep Zach Strief says:
"So there needs to be a system of checks and balances in place, and I think there needs to be transparency in how that all goes down. I'm tired of this veil of secrecy behind it. You get stuck in a situation where nobody has a clue what's going on, you deal with assumptions, and it's a circus."
Both Brees and Strief are intelligent guys who graduated from solid academic institutions (Brees-Purdue, Strief-Northwestern). It isn't surprising they've seen the disconnect between classical American jurisprudence and the authoritarian NFL. An intriguing question is why hasn't the media?
With this question, Sports with a View is launched in order to provide thoughtful commentary to an irrational sports landscape.
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