Ryder Cup

MEDINAH, Ill. -- A 41-year-old club pro from Baltimore will do his best to end all the controversy and debate leading up to the 81st PGA Championship by performing the most basic of tasks early this morning at Medinah Country Club.Wayne DeFrancesco will tee off.DeFrancesco, teaching pro at Pikesville's Woodholme Country Club, is scheduled to be the first of 156 players to take on the par-72, 7,401-yard course, longest ever played at sea level for a major championship.When his ball leaves the tee about 6: 40 a.m., the focus will be back on who's going to win the season's final major rather than on the play-for-pay issue at next month's Ryder Cup.The discussions have been going on for months, and Tuesday's meeting involving 16 PGA Tour players, commissioner Tim Finchem and Jim Awtrey, the PGA of America's chief executive, did not resolve the matter.

MEDINAH, Ill. -- Sergio Garcia is like many teen-agers: He has no trouble sleeping.Whether it was after taking the first-round lead at the 81st PGA Championship or after moving back in contention at Medinah Country Club with a 4-under par 68, the 19-year old from Spain doesn't have trouble shutting his eyes."

MEDINAH, Ill. -- The folks from the PGA of America who run both this week's PGA Championship and next month's Ryder Cup thought that the controversy swirling around the latter would cease once the former began yesterday at Medinah Country Club. Duval Think again.Consider what happened to David Duval after he shot a 2-under-par 70 in the opening round.It took five questions, but Duval was asked what he thought of U.S. captain Ben Crenshaw's pointed remarks about the players who have complained about not getting more than a $5,000 stipend for playing in the biennial event.

DURING LAST month's Ryder Cup golf competition in Brookline, Mass., more bad manners were on display than you'd find at an NHL game or at my dinner table.A yahoo factor previously absent from golf revealed itself during this esteemed tournament when members of the gallery taunted our European opponents with insults and deliberate attempts were made to break their concentration. The wife of the European captain was spat upon, if you can believe it.In addition, American players displayed inappropriate exuberance.

BROOKLINE, Mass. -- As a 16-year-old high school phenom from Texas, Ben Crenshaw came to The Country Club for the 1968 U.S. Junior Amateur. He wound up losing in the semifinals, but his disappointment in the result was overshadowed by what happened to him at this historic setting that week.He fell in love.The roots of Crenshaw's well-documented passion for the game and its lore can be found here. It's a love affair that has lasted more than three decades and has played a significant part in a career that has been both fulfilling and frustrating.

Christy O'Connor's emotions wavered at different moments in the final round of the $1.3 million State Farm Senior Classic yesterday at Hobbit's Glen Golf Club in Columbia.Thoughts of his son, Daren, who died at age 17 in an automobile accident in September entered his head several times. But what kept O'Connor focused was the fact that Bruce Fleisher wasn't going away.The three-shot lead that O'Connor had taken into the round and increased to five through five holes was down to one with seven to play.

ClarificationCaptions for two Ryder Cup photos in yesterday's editions, both referring to an 18th-hole putt by American golfer Davis Love, appeared to contradict one another. In fact, the caption on Page 1A referred to a morning round Friday, when Love's birdie effort failed. The caption on Page 1C was from the afternoon round, when his birdie putt dropped.BROOKLINE, Mass. -- A month ago, the biggest concern among several prominent members of the U.S. team headed to the 33rd Ryder Cup seemed to be compensation in some fashion for appearing here.

BROOKLINE, Mass. -- Ben Crenshaw had been saying all week that it would be difficult to sit anybody on the U.S. team in the first day's matches in the 33rd Ryder Cup, because most of his players were adapting so well to the course at The Country Club.Actually, it wasn't that tough, especially after Crenshaw found his team trailing by a point going into yesterday afternoon's four-ball matches. Crenshaw left Mark O'Meara and Steve Pate out of the lineup."It's always frustrating when you can't get out there, but that's the captain's decision," said O'Meara, who came into the competition in the midst of a slump.

BROOKLINE, Mass. -- Everywhere you looked yesterday at The Country Club, there was a collective defiance among the members of the U.S. team in the 33rd Ryder Cup. From jut-jawed Hal Sutton's pumping fist as he walked down the first fairway to Payne Stewart's blazing blue eyes as he walked up to the 18th green more than five hours later, the Americans never blinked.Certainly, Justin Leonard didn't.Faced with a four-hole deficit after 10 holes of his singles match with reigning Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain, Leonard made one long putt after another.

The Ryder Cup miracle? Everyone will tell you it was the United States team's dramatic and unprecedented comeback on the event's final day.But the comeback never would have occurred without the real Ryder miracle of 1999 -- captain Ben Crenshaw's feat of taking a dozen mostly spoiled, selfish PGA Tour rivals and turning them into a seamless, cohesive team capable of writing such history.The U.S. comeback not only was one of golf's best, but, at the risk of hyperbole, also one of the best seen in any sport.

During the Ryder Cup, the European press painted American players as stiff, smug, country-club elites with Stepford wives and as much personality as a box of Pro V1s. Sometimes, it was hard to argue that they were wrong. But this time around, it felt different. It's easy to lose sight of it in an election year, but what makes our country special, in my mind, is that the Boo Weekleys and the Anthony Kims are a part of our big, messy, beautiful American tapestry. (For more, go to baltimoresun.

It's hard to argue that the closing of Yankee Stadium wasn't the most memorable sports event this weekend, but in terms of lasting images, are you going to recall Brian Roberts making the last out or Jim Furyk making the last meaningful putt at the Ryder Cup? The celebration in the Bronx seemed muted by the fact that two teams that won't be advancing to the postseason were merely playing out the schedule. As my 15-year-old sports-savvy son asked, why weren't the Red Sox there to finish what Babe Ruth started all those generations ago?

Americans take big lead at Ryder Cup golf The Americans have built their biggest opening-day lead at the Ryder Cup in nearly three decades, losing only one match yesterday to go up 5 1/2 -2 1/2 over defending champion Europe in Louisville, Ky. Justin Leonard and Ryder Cup rookie Hunter Mahan won their matches. Phil Mickelson teamed with another rookie, Anthony Kim, to halve a morning match and win a full point in the afternoon. Ian Poulter and Justin Rose provided the only win for the Europeans, beating Steve Stricker and Ben Curtis, 4 and 2. Otherwise, the day belonged to the Americans, who had four outright wins and halved three other matches.

Ryder Cup 8 a.m. [ESPN] Just how much golf do you want to watch? ESPN is carrying this all day, scheduled up to 6 p.m. That's a golf fan's Valhalla, which is the name of the club in Louisville, Ky., where the Ryder Cup is being played. On Day One, the U.S. and European squads play better-ball and alternate-shot matches.

Withdrawing sports media notes while wondering why my bank is now charging for those lollipops it keeps by the tellers' windows: * Cue up the David Bowie/Queen "Under Pressure," because that's what everyone talks about for this weekend's Ryder Cup. (The pressure, that is, not Bowie or Queen.) Between ESPN and NBC, 26 hours of the U.S.-Europe biennial golf event will be televised (today, 8 a.m., ESPN; tomorrow, 8 a.m.; and Sunday, noon, WBAL/Channel 11 and WRC/Channel 4). "The pressure is amazing at the Ryder Cup - higher than any other event in all of golf," NBC's Johnny Miller said, according to highlights of a conference call this week.

Know that when I say this, I say it with love: It's time to bring your A-game and help the United States win the Ryder Cup. Enough excuses. You're the second-most talented player of your generation. This week, it's time to play like it. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/lifeofkings)

I was actually surprised, Bill, to hear that anyone thinks the U.S. has a good shot in this week's Ryder Cup. Sure, the Yanks dominated the first 60 or so years of the international golf showdown, but check out recent history. The Europeans have won the past three Ryder Cups, five of the past eight and eight of the past 11. In 2004 and 2006, seemingly loaded U.S. teams lost, 18 1/2 points to 9 1/2 points. For those unfamiliar with match-play scoring, that's the equivalent of say, a 35-10 beatdown in the NFL. Quite simply, the Ryder Cup isn't something Americans do well anymore.

Clarksville's McFadden wins two silver medals PARALYMPICS Tatyana McFadden of Clarksville captured two silver medals yesterday at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. She started her day in the women's 200-meter final, where she won bronze at the 2004 Paralympic Games. This time she set a new personal best time, 28.43 seconds, to clinch silver. The Atholton graduate grabbed a second silver medal, this time in the women's 800 meters with a personal best time of 1:46.95. "Oh my gosh, I'm so overwhelmed," McFadden, 19, said after winning her second silver medal of the meet.

In the aftermath of Europe's one-sided victory in the Ryder Cup, there is only one logical explanation for the collapse of American golf hegemony: We let them win. Sure, you could chalk the whole thing up to the seemingly obvious factors, like the fantastic teamwork of the European players or that tabloid spoof about American golf wives that totally psyched out Tiger Woods, but it can't be that simple. There's just no way that an American team could lose that badly unless there was some greater geopolitical strategy at work.

Good morning --American golfers-- At least it's another two years until the next Ryder Cup.