The Talking is Over…

It’s nearly here.

Ryder Cup week inevitably seems long because of the build-up, which is two years or four practise days, depending on how you think about it. But all the talking is about to stop and just after dawn tomorrow morning, the 39th Ryder Cup will be off and running.

As preliminaries go, it has been quite a quiet week. Apart from Ian Poulter’s quote about wanting to ‘kill’ the opposition, which got a few of the tabloid boys excited, there was very little animosity between the two sides. A couple of American Ryder Cup captains (Paul Azinger and Curtis Strange) were dug up, to try and add a bit of spice; but it was hardly ‘Sandwich-gate’ (Valhalla 2008).

The course at Medinah has been set up as all Ryder Cup courses should be set up; with little rough, and lots of room for aggressive play. This is meant to be a birdie-fest after all; not a US Open slogathon.

Two of the four finishing holes have water on them, and are classic matchplay gems. At the par-4 15th, a lot of players will try and drive the green; and – as a result – many matches will turn here. And, at the par-3 17th, water fronts the green and swallows anything short. This morning, the final European grouping of Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter and Francesco Molinari made a right meal of it, putting four out of the first five balls they hit here, in the drink. We can only hope they approach it better tomorrow.

Everyone here seems to be expecting a very close contest; not least because all 24 players are inside the top-35 in the world rankings (the first time this has happened) and come into the week playing well. The draw – at 10-1, seems an eminently good bet.

A number of fascinating questions are about to be answered. Can European dominance in this event (they’ve won six of the last eight) continue? Will Tiger finally produce the sort of golf in the Ryder Cup, which he has shown in 72-hole events? Will the world number one, Rory McIlroy, lead from the front? Will anyone be overawed by the noise on the 1st tee, where Davis Love has made sure that there will be more people witnessing that first tee shot than ever before? Will Ryder Cup stalwarts like Westwood, Poulter and Sergio produce the goods once more?

The Opening Ceremony passed by without a glitch, if you ignore the fact that the official fly past never actually flew past, and Davis Love forget where his player Jim Furyk came from. As far as the pairings went, there were no real surprises, except perhaps that Davis Love put a rookie in his first three pairings. “They’re not really rookies” said Davis, when asked about it. “They’re all playing well.” Presumably, given the final pairing of Tiger and Stricker against Poulter and Rose, there will be a bit of talk in the team rooms about Hank Haney’s recent book, in which Tiger made some less than flattering remarks about Ian Poulter.

As our American cousins are fond of saying… ‘Bring it on’.

Friday morning foursomes
7.20 a.m. Jim Furyk and Brandt Snedeker v Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell
7.35 a.m. Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley v Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia
7.50 a.m. Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson v Lee Westwood and Francesco Molinari
8.05 a.m. Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods v Ian Poulter and Justin Rose