You won't believe this, but in a former life, I was a golfer. I'm not kidding.
You know me as a whitewater fanatic. I was almost as addicted to golf in the 80s and early 90s. In the ten years I lived in Georgia, I played a minimum of twice a week.
Winters were short in Atlanta and golf courses were plenty. There were a few cheap municipal 9 hole courses to play. A yearly $100 donation to American Cancer Society got you one free round at 40 courses around the state. Sometimes one of my bosses would invite me to the more exclusive courses in town like Atlanta CC and East Lake.
I was never good, but I did get not bad. A co-worker who was a 1 handicapper made me a set of clubs for just the cost of the parts in 1985. Under $400 for that full set of woods and irons from Barry. They've been sitting in the garage untouched 30 years now.
While I haven't scared a golf ball in 30, I still love the sport. It is, without doubt, the hardest sport to be just decent at. Mark Twain might have called golf a good walk spoiled, but he probably only went once.
I always follow the major tournaments. That includes one of the best golf events, the Ryder Cup. For the uninitiated, the event began in 1927 to be competed every two years between the American PGA and the British PGA. After years of domination by the United States, Jack Nicklaus suggested Britain's team expand to include competitors from the European PGA. It did that in 1979.
Which brings us to last weekend. The Ryder Cup competition was held at Bethpage Black, a notoriously hard public golf course on Long Island, New York. The 12 best players from the United States against 12 from Europe.
Unlike most golf tournaments, the Ryder Cup can get boisterous in a good way. Lots of chanting, lots of team friendly costumes, lots of passion from fans of both sides. When the competition gets hot the atmosphere can be electric and everything you love about sports.
This year not so much. This year the basspoles were out in force and oddly enough, the people in charge were mighty slow in dealing with drunks actively threatening European golfers, caddies and their families between and during shots.
In the Friday and Saturday team competitions, the highly heralded American players got waxed. Going into Sunday's individual rounds, the U.S. would need 10 of the 12 available points to win the Ryder Cup. To their credit, they got to 8.5 of the 12 which surprised everyone and made it interesting.
But the damage had been done. While most, not all, American golfers represented their country like honorable sportsmen, the PGA of America didn't. The kind of incompetence and attitude on display from a certain golf course owner was on full display at the PGA hosted event right down to the excuses and denial of the obvious.
All I know is anyone who pulled those stunts at the Masters would still be under the Augusta jail.