Friday, September 19, 2008

Swedes at the Ryder Cup

A quick nod to the Ryder Cup. Started today. Europe vs. USA. The US tends to lose this event. Europeans come together and beat the Americans. It happens on a regular basis.

And I’ll be honest, golf isn’t really my thing. Mostly because it pisses me off. A lot. It seems so easy. Hit the little ball with a big metal club into the hole. Then the whole physics things come into play. And I took all of my science credits at my university pass/no pass. I realize my weaknesses and, as anyone with half a brain would do, runs the hell away from them without confronting them. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I use a 3-iron off the tee because I can’t manage to hit a driver without slicing it 40 yards. Like I said, run the hell away from problems without confronting them. Or from South Park: “Bail? Bail.”

That being said, I am an avid reader of Rick Reilly. Who is an avid fan of golf. So I checked out his article “There's going to be a miracle in Louisville, I guarantee it.” And stumbled upon this quote for reason number 13 why the Americans would beat the Europeans: “13. Faldo violated the time-honored Too Many Swedes theory. Swedes are the sweetest people on earth. Wouldn't hurt a kipper. No Swede has ever won a major. Faldo's got two on his team.” Reilly failed to mention that the Cup is taking place at Valhalla. Perhaps Faldo is a closet mythological historian and felt the need to pay homage to the Norse Gods.

But after reading that I did three things. First, I laughed, because come on, it is kind of funny. And then I looked up what a kipper was. Turns out a kipper is a herring that has been sliced from head to tail and smoked. Making it hard to further hurt the fish, but I digress. And finally, and maybe most relevant to the Swedish theme, I looked up who the two Swedes were on the team: Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson.

Karlsson’s first match result: halved. Stenson’s first match result: US wins 3&2. Whatever the hell that means.

As a general rule I tend to cheer for the underdog when Sweden meets the US with one notable exception. Hockey. Sweden always gets my support there. I blame Peter Forsberg. And my father. But in the Ryder Cup I can only say “Heja USA.”

Welcome to Sweden.


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5 comments:

  1. Hairy--I'll post a few thought here, since it seems that golf doesn't still a lot of interest in your other readers or they were so captivated by the Ryder cup they haven't found time to post anything.

    You should try hitting a more lofted wood (3 or 5) off the tee--more loft imparts more vertical spin and less side spin (causes slice).

    Rick Reilly IS a genius--who announces that the star is going to be Anthony Kim a 5'8" rookie who kicked the crap out of Sergio in the singles match 5&4 (means he was up 5 holes with 4 holes to play).

    The too many Swedes thing didn't pan out though even though Hansen and Karlsson were 1-3-3 collectively, the big guns of the European team were the ones who didn't show up. Garcia, Harrington and Westwood were 0-7-5...not a single win. They guy who carried the Euros was Poulter, the controversial captains pick.

    In the end Reilly got it right, a Tigerless team with Kim, Boo Weekley, Hunter Mahan & JB Holmes just went out and played like a team. Same thing the Euros usually do to kick the Americans butts.

    We need to win one every once in a while to keep things interesting.

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  2. My mistake, I should have written that Karlsson and Stenson went 2-3-3 knowing that Soren Hansen spells his last name wrong.

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  3. @john - good work. because apparently no one else cared about golf.

    and I had no idea about the loft and the impact on spin. but thats good advie. because Ill be honest... its a bit embarassing rolling up to the tee with a three iron.

    I was also impressed by reilly. he nailed it completely. pretty impressive really. its easy to go back and read the article and think he wrote it afterwards. well done to reilly.

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  4. No kidding, the most important post of this entire blog and no one cares but me.......what is the world coming to?

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  5. clearly a world which has no respect for sports. or golf at least.

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