Ryder drama hooks even the non-golfers

WHEN golfers start their usually lively discourse about the game, it can tune out wives, friends, officemates and others who don’t play golf. Golfers get caught up in their stories, and the uninterested bystanders just smile and nod in polite amusement over their friends’ passion for the game.
But this week, golfers and non-golfers caught the drama of the Ryder Cup. If you were a non-golfer, you could easily tell that it was simply good television.
There were no heroes or villains really. Only the best golfers in the world coming together and split into two teams representing where they came from—Europe and the United States.
The competition was a team event and the side with the most points went home with a handsome trophy, something they’ve been doing every two years since 1927.
Even if you didn’t understand the Ryder Cup scoring system completely, it was simple enough to get that Europe was ahead against the US by three points going into the final round of singles matches.
Players had to win their matches to score points. A simple scoreboard kept the audience up to date on every match.
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We were able to relish all the action because covering golf is par for the course for the European PGA TV crew that follows all the major events in the continent.
This team came to the Philippines in 1995 for the Johnny Walker classic at the Orchard. All the action is covered not only because of an abundance of cameras but with a well laid-out plan that captures the sport and drama of the event.
Europe’s lead was not safe as the Americans’ best players began to wax hot as the day wore on.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickleson nailed their matches and 21-year-old Rickie Fowler birdied the last three holes to snatch a half point against Edoardo Molinari, enough to forge a tie between the teams.
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It came down to the final pairing that had Irishman Graeme McDowell against Hunter Mahan. McDowell was 3-up but that vanished with some miscues on the 15th.
Mahan was breathing down his neck and managed to cut the lead to just one.
Golf is a fickle game, so difficult to play consistently hole after hole.  No two layouts or greens are the same.  Bad strokes and reads are possible even by golfers at the highest level of the game.
McDowell tried a little too hard on the 15th and was only 1-up while Mahan played with the mission of stealing the match and keeping the cup in the US.
And yet golf is also about recovering from mistakes and making adjustments.
McDowell, the US Open champion, dug in and nailed a birdie on the 16th to preserve the lead and move 2-up.  And on the 17th, Mahan hit a bad chip to the green that landed short when he just had to bring the ball close to the cup.
He then missed his par attempt and then conceded the match to McDowell.
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The European win was also made more visually rich since it was carved out on the home course of the winners. But it was the golf that made us watch, whether one was a golfer or not.
Sports provides a drama with an unknown ending, and that’s why we keep coming back to watch more.