Ryder Cup: Gary Moran's Blog
by Gary Moran
Excuse the delay in filing this final blog entry - I was waiting for Nick Faldo to give a straight answer to a straight question but finally gave up and fell asleep.
While I am not a fan of Faldo, I am not going to condemn him outright for the simple reason that the European players maintained a united front of support for their skipper and some at least have been full of praise for his performance in the team room. I'm not allowed in there so I just don't know.
However, I do know that Faldo's performances in the media center and at the opening ceremony were awful. As he always was as a player, and it was probably a useful quality to have as a player, he was full of himself. If Faldo was an ice cream, he'd lick himself.
If he got a question he didn't like he would either try to belittle the person who asked it, refuse to answer it altogether, reply with some inanity that didn't answer the question at all or try to make light of it with some quip that only he found funny. He doesn't do full sentences either and it is amazing that he is one of the highest paid broadcasters in American golf.
His track record as player, his Junior Series work, his other charitable initiatives and the public support he had from his players here are on the plus side of the ledger. For me, his Ryder Cup captaincy goes on the minus side and not just because of the result.
My most memorable moment of the tournament was watching the opening shots of Sunday's singles. I joined hundreds of fans on the elevated ground to the left of the ninth fairway looking down on the thousands more that surrounded the first hole.
The atmosphere was electric when Sergio Garcia and Anthony Kim were introduced to the chanting supporters - hairs standing on the back of your neck and all that. It was sporting theatre at its best and when the silence descended the players boomed massive drives down the fairway, hit their approaches to a few feet and halved the hole in birdies. Awesome!
Other standout memories include Graeme McDowell and his recoiling fist pump as he holed clutch putt after clutch putt. He revelled in the Ryder Cup atmosphere and really looks like he has the stuff to go even higher up the world rankings.
And then there was Boo. If the whole thing is an act then Mr Weekley should have a cupboard full of Oscars. Not everyone liked his comic antics but the sport, like any sector of the entertainment industry that relies on paying and viewing customers, needs more characters who differentiate themselves from the pack and Boo certainly does that.
His giddy-up gallop down the first fairway yesterday was as harmless as it was outrageous, by the end of the week he had his team mates and the media hanging on is every word (including the newly coined 'compatibate' which is Boo for 'gel', as in gel with a team mate) and he backed it all up with superb golf including the best figures of the day in his singles win over Oliver Wilson. He has become an international golfing star.
Soon if will be off to the airport. On the way over I had a lengthy wait in Atlanta but couldn't leave my rucksack in a locker. Why? Because use of lockers is forbidden when the Department of Homeland Security's terror-threat is at level orange which apparently it is now. For Europe, it was all too red at Valhalla.
