USA vs Europe

I fully appreciate the atmosphere and am enjoying seeing the USA pumped up for this, even though I'm a European. It's great to watch.

I wonder, however, whether the scenes from the last 25 minutes are indicative of an AC Milan celebrating a 3-0 lead at half time against Liverpool in the Champions League?

The USA are celebrating a great days golf. And I understand. But to be parading around with the star spangles flying from team carts at the end of day one smells a little premature.

Neil18, you said it yourself, we are celebrating a good day of golf. Both teams have played very well. This is the best the American team has played on opening day for quite a few Ryder Cup years. Also, as Americans we know that Saturdays matches could very easily give us a sour stomach come Sunday morning. The Euro team is that good, and can easily turn this around. Our celebrating is nothing more than the home team playing well in front of it's fans and the fans having a good time due to some well played matches. Boo said it best, that he just wants everyone, including the fans to enjoy the moment, and that no malice is intended towards anyone. We are not being "premature"......yet. We are just happy to be winning (perhaps lucky?) at this point in the matches. GJS

i heard azinger wants the crowds to cheer when europe miss a putt.
hope this is not the case , but just journalistic stirring.let's see what happens on day 2.

It could be true about Azinger. He is one competitive SOB, no holds barred.

I believe he said "it is ok to cheer when they miss a putt"

He later explained that it was meant not so much cheering missed putts but that USA is winning a hole regardless how it is won. Which according to him European fans is very good at when the matches are in Europe.

I thought the behaviour of the USA supporters, and indeed some of the USA players, was dispicable. Boo Weekly and Kim behaved like absolute clowns. You would have thought that Kim had carried the team over the three days by the way he strutted about. It fact, Michelson carried him for the first 2 days!!. Sadly, their loutish behaviour was started by the Captain - the image of him sailing around the course whipping up the crowd should leave him feeling totally ashamed. What an idiot. It`s a pity that USA didn`t have more gentlemen like Furyk, Perry etc. Talented gentlemen.

my only concern here is that the ryder cup does not turn into an unsporting contest, the exact opposite of it's original intention.
from what i can gather, players from europe were abused, which in the next encounter could escalate further , and then the contest may be cancelled.i see nothing wrong with the air punching etc from the usa players, they were winning on home soil for the 1st time this century .

My understanding is that this is not the first time that such claims of abuse have been made. Just about about every ryder cup some claims have been made by the visiting team. It seems there is a small % of fans on both sides who enjoy yelling at players. When there is only a smale # it is harder to catch and remove fans for such behavior. My guess there will always be the few who attend who rather yell and cause trouble rather then watch good golf.

I did not think the US players crossed the line. I think they were excited and showing natural emotions and letting the crowd get into the action. Europe celebrated a lot over the last couple of years and showed a lot of emotion during those matches. Now if Poutier's claim that Kim droped a shoulder and ran into him intentionally is true that is a diferent matter. No call for that.

then we agree!! i think the best team won , around the greens the usa were superb.imo faldo did a good job,especially with the dumb press , but knowing our newspapers he will probably come in for some critisism!

I would concur that the players didn't cross the line, although a couple of them were standing firmly on it. Mr Weekley and Mr Holmes certainly didn't help the cause by continually trying to whip the crowd up after every shot by egging them on. They were already cheering and whooping and "Booing" (an unfortunate turn of circumstance which may mean that every event he plays in will now see Boos ringing around the course. Yuck.) so encouragement was not needed.

I saw the clip of Azinger talking to the crowd in Kentucky. Not only did he say "we can cheer their missed putts". He said it twice. As if to drive the point home. Something about Seve saying the US team is 11 nice guys and Paul Azinger, springs to mind.

As I said before, I fully understand that the Ameicans were excited about what was happening and am actually pleased for them as they all played superbly well. But it seems that the decorum of the post 9/11 matches has already been lost and forgotten. There needs to be a bit of perspective from both sides. It's not life and death. It's a golf match.

I agree that some individuals can spoil it for the many, but you would never see an en-mass European crowd creating that sort of border-line hostile atmosphere in an effort to intimidate the opposition into submission. Some of it turned my gut so much that I may never watch another State-side Ryder Cup again.

It just ain't golf.

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I'm from England and of course I'm disapointed that we lost.

However, I think it was good for the competition. We can't win everytime. It was America's turn to win and they deserved to. Europe didn't play badly, it was the American's who played incredible golf.

I don't think the crowd were that bad. They wanted to win and of course when American's miss putts over here, we cheer.

The American team seemed to have a much better attitude this time. They looked confident and played without pressure.

I wonder what Tiger Woods is thinking ?

I think it should the USA team are better without him. I think he has a negative effect on the team because it makes them overwelming favourites when he is in the side !

Done and dusted now I guess, I have to congratulate the US team on their win, they deserved it. There is always a meat-head in there somewhere, unfortunately this one was the US Captain.

Us Double-Yews did our best to support the Euro team with my son (head of the US Double-Yew contingency) present. He had been briefed by me (UK Clan Godfather) that "Jolly got shot there Sir" was the order or the day, but "Get in the hole!" would bring automatic banishment from the isles at her majesties pleasure.

TBH the better team over the three days won. If we'd played better we'd have silenced the crowd, which, in passing, I don't think was that bad - apart from the BOO ESS A chants, amusing once, tedious the hundredth time

I have to say though Brian that Poults did the business and I'll now formally withdraw the "can he walk the walk" question.

The boy did well

Just some random thoughts and observations...

No Tiger = no US pressure. The US team was (finally) no longer the heavy favourite. It's tough to play when you're expected to win.

The only true solution to fan interaction is to eliminate fans on the course. Since that's not happening, we can only wax nostalgic about the pre-Tiger era where only golf fans attended matches.

It's apparent that most modern PGA players are much like their spectator counterparts - much less interested in the history of the game and apparently much more interested in making it entertaining for themselves. Otherwise tournaments would look more like church on Sunday than the wrasslin' on Saturday night.

There was some very good golf played - on both sides. I wasn't able to watch all the coverage, but did get to watch some (as well as watching the highlight reels and read the post-play coverage). It was interesting that every US player put up points.

Azinger is an idiot. The captains picks were excellent on both sides (much to the chagrin of the media) but for Zinger to have to actively 'remind' the galleries to boo Euro misses was a horrid display of gamesmanship.

Only when Boo Weekley plays is it acceptable to boo - and only after Boo hits.

It seems to me that every year, the visiting side pisses and moans about something. Suck it up, buttercup. If it's that bad, make sure you decline your spot on the Cup team next time around.

It was awesome to see Sergio step up and take some of the heat off Faldo during the post Cup press set. Funny how when it's wins, the players win it, but when it's losses, the coach blew it.

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