By the Numbers
3 Number of players who played in all five Ryder Cup sessions – Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan and Ian Poulter.
6 European players who didn't win a Ryder Cup match – Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Paul Casey and Soren Hansen.
54 Number of spots Dudley Hart climbed during the first three playoff weekends on the PGA Tour, into 14th starting the Tour Championship.
Chip Shots
If you've ever wondered which golf club has the best players in the Carolinas, the answer is Prestonwood Country Club in Cary.
At least that's what Golf Digest magazine found when it studied the 10 lowest handicaps at hundreds of private clubs across the country then matched them.
Dallas Athletic Club in Texas has the best players, sporting a combined +2.53 handicap index. Prestonwood comes in fifth with the Country Club of North Carolina sixth and Greenville (S.C.) Country Club seventh. Statesville Country Club, North Ridge in Raleigh and Bulls Bay in Awendaw, S.C., also made the top 50.
If you're a good student at Fort Mill High School, you can have free golf at Tega Cay Golf Club. City and club officials recently agreed to allow students with grade-point averages of 3.9 or higher to play for free at Tega Cay after 2 p.m.
Former Charlotte 49ers
Andrew DiBitetto and
Matt Mincer have played their way into the first stage of PGA Tour qualifying school while
Jonas Enander Hedin has advanced to second-stage qualifying for the European Tour.
Observations
The American Ryder Cup victory has already led to the theory that the team is better off without Tiger Woods.
I'm not buying it.
It's different without Tiger, for sure. He's an intimidating presence to the Europeans and to the Americans, just because he's different from the rest of them.
But you can't convince me taking Tiger out of a lineup makes a golf team better.
This U.S. team, because of captain Paul Azinger and because of the new mix of young personalities, was unlike the recent teams that got clobbered. Tiger would have liked being part of this team and he stayed in regular contact, texting Azinger, Steve Stricker and others during the weekend.
There's already a movement underway to bring Azinger back as the U.S. captain in 2010 when the matches are played in Wales.
Don't count on it.
Maybe the PGA of America and Azinger will agree to keep it together, but it's doubtful. Azinger will be 50 in two years and the Champions Tour awaits. Plus, the U.S. typically changes captains for every cup, in part to give more guys the honor.
It would be terrific if Azinger were to return in two years but I'm guessing there will be another captain – Corey Pavin's name is out there with Davis Love III being mentioned for 2012.
Here's a suggestion: Make Jay Haas the 2010 captain. He didn't win a major, which seems required to be captain, but he has more than earned the opportunity and players would love him.
As you would expect, Nick Faldo is being blistered in the British press for failing to keep the Ryder Cup on the other side of the Atlantic.
Much of it is the nature of the tabloids there. They delighted in catching Faldo holding his pairings for television cameras to sneak a peek before the matches began and they pounded on him for sitting Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood on Saturday morning, though it turned out to be the only session the Europeans won.
When he stacked his top players at the back of the singles lineup Sunday where their impact was muted by the early U.S. success, Faldo's fate was sealed.
The fact remains that Garcia, Westwood and Padraig Harrington failed to win a match over three days. That's not the captain's fault.
My Two Cents
When the FedEx Cup playoffs were created, the idea was to give the PGA Tour season a big-bang finish.
The Tour Championship had become an afterthought. Several of the top players weren't making the season-ending trip to Atlanta. Interest had waned. There was no drama. It was lost in football season.
Sound familiar?
This week's Tour Championship has arrived with almost no buzz.
Vijay Singh has already clinched the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus. Woods isn't there. Neither is Harrington. But Briny Baird and Dudley Hart are there.
It's football season again and there's a massive comedown following a spectacular Ryder Cup.
Are the playoffs working?
I still like the concept of a season-ending playoff but the first two years haven't delivered the goods. Tiger torched everyone last year. Singh did it this year.
Last year, there wasn't enough movement in the standings. This year, there was plenty.
Can it be fixed? I'm not sure.
The bigger question may be whether anyone outside the Tour offices or inside the ropes really cares.
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