(Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Tiger Woods was asked yesterday how the President's Cup is different from the Ryder Cup. He said it was different because the fans are very familiar with all the non U.S. players, who all play on the PGA Tour. By contrast, almost half of the players on the European Ryder Cup teams play exclusively on the European Tour.
Tiger uttered these words in a distinctly unexcited monotone.
What he did not say and was probably thinking was this: "Why on earth did you guys haul my butt out here? Not only do we play against these same guys every week, we practice with them every day because they all live at either Lake Nona or Isleworth in Orlando."
I couldn't agree more with the Tiger's imagined thoughts. The Tavistock Cup has more juice than this thing.
Ihe 1920s and 1930s was the only time that international team golf really mattered. At the time, Britain was the center of the golfing universe. Upstarts like Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen were challenging its dominance, just as the United States was challenging Britain's global economic and military supremacy during the same period. Fans on both sides of the pond looked forward to finally seeing in person the golfers they had heard so much about in the newspapers and newsreels.
That all faded away with the collapse of British golf in the aftermath of World War II. Guys like Nicklaus and Palmer were fascinated by the old Ryder Cup matches, as children and gamely kept the Ryder Cup spirit alive during the 60s and 70s.
Today, American and international players are all multi-millionaire buddies twittering each other all day in their gated Orlando enclaves.
How mad can you get at a guy when you married his nanny?
They can mouth the politically correct answers as much as they want to, but it's obvious they don't care. Then why should we?
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