Archive for May, 2006

Competitions for Ryder Cup Tickets

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

As you probably know, tickets for the 2006 Ryder Cup are like gold dust! The official lottery is completed and if you didn’t get one there you’re probably going to have to pay in the region of €3000 for a ticket! (If you’re lucky).

We’re constantly on the lookout for competitions (if you come across any let us know) and this week Waterford Crystal are offering a very nice prize of a package for 2 including:

  • 3 Day Passes for the 2006 Ryder Cup Event
  • Access to Premium International Pavilion with Complimentary Food and Beverages
  • 4 Nights Luxury Accommodation at The Morrison Hotel, Dublin

To see the details of this competition which requires a purchase – click here

Bord Bia the Irish Food Promotion agency, who are sponsors of the event, have a great competition here

The Irish Indepenent Newspaper is also offering an offline competition, which involves collecting tokens from the paper over a number of weeks…

Sponsors of the event also have competitions as outlined here

Ryder Cup News Roundup – Week 17

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

Another busy week this week for Ryder Cup news and a day or too late on my part too so lets jump straight in starting this week with Team USA. A result which just didn’t make it into the previous weeks roundup was Tim Herron’s excellent win after a play-off with Sweden’s Richard Johnson in the in the Bank of America Colonial Tournament in Fort Worth, Texas. This catapults Herron right into contention at position nine in the US Ryder Cup Points list. The Mercury News charts the rise of Oberholser’s recent good form putting him into 12th spot and Jeff Maggert’s victory at the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tennessee see’s him still a way off at 18th position but may signifies a return to form.

US Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman was also talking this week about, amongst other things, the frustrations of changing his reputation on the European side of the water. We’ve also added an in-depth article of our own on the problems facing Lehman and his approach to answering his critics.

All our thoughts are with Tiger Woods after the death his father on May 3rd who looks like he will re-enter competition probably at the US Open.

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Is Lehman up to leading Team USA to Ryder Cup Victory?

Friday, May 26th, 2006

Tom Lehman’s captaincy has been dogged by controversy and sniping at his record from the outset from both sides of the Atlantic.

Tom Lehman

Firstly, but only briefly, let’s touch on his reputation in Europe. This is based one could say almost exclusively upon his conduct in the infamous “walking across the green” incident in the 1999 Brookline Ryder Cup. I may be showing a little bias here but there is no doubt the incident was not golf’s finest hour, a point often accepted by Lehman. To continue to punish and harangue Lehman over it seven years later however seems to be little unfair. In my limited exposure to Tom (having driven him around the JP McManus golf classic) he came across as a professional, courteous family man.

Tom Lehman has 18 tournament wins including 5 major PGA titles under his belt. Since turning professional in 1982 Lehman has appeared in three Ryder Cup tournaments 1995, 1997 and 1999. All in all it is a record on the professional tour which is not to be sniffed at. However it is record which hasn’t sufficiently impressed his detractors who deem it insufficiently experienced enough to captain the US Ryder Cup team.

Accepting the fact that Lehman’s record on the tour, although impressive, doesn’t put him up there with the all time greats the question still remains whether this actually matters? (more…)

Ryder Cup Results – The History

Wednesday, May 24th, 2006

The History of the results of the Ryder Cup Matches is as follows:

Team USA has won the trophy 24 times and held the trophy once through a tie as the incumbant.
Team Europe (in it’s various guises over the years) has one the competition 9 times and held the trophy once through a tie as the incumbant. This means that Team USA have won the competition 68% of the time and Team Europe have won the competition 26% of the time.

Ryder Cup Winners

If you have a look at the data below you’ll see that the results of the next Ryder Cup Matches are not as much of a foregone conclusion as the 24-9 margin might imply, as 6 of Europes wins have been in the last 10 matches. If you take the 1989 Tie at the Belfry into consideration this means that Team USA have only won 3 of the last 10 matches. (Or 1 of the last 5!). But let’s not write Tiger and Co off just yet…

Note the competition was not held during the course of World War II and was postponed in 2001 because of the attack on the Twin Towers in the US.  There is a full table of results after the fold (more…)

Ryder Cup News Roundup – Week 18

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

Well the the race for Ryder Cup points is really starting in earnest this week on both sides of the Atlantic. On the European side the major event contributing to Ryder Cup points was the Nissan Irish Open. The event was badly effected with weather delays and was only concluded today on the fifth day (see article on the Ryder Cup Weather prospects). It was the Dane Thomas BJÖRN who eventually triumphed on the sodden course with a birdie on the 18th to beat his nearest rivals Paul Casey (ENG) and the home favourite Darren Clarke(NIrl). This brings Bjorn up to 10th place on the European Ryder Cup Points list. Still, according to the K Club’s head greenkeeper Gerry Byrne such inclement conditions may favour the European team. Such optimism for a European win was also shared by previous Ryder Cup captain Mark James who predicted a European victory. He would say that of course!

Meanwhile Stateside saw Brett Wetterich take his first PGA Tour win at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship with Trevor Immelman coming up second. This brings him into the top ten on the points list. Prior to the event US Ryder Cup Captain Tom Lehman talked at length about the mental preparations already underway for the US team and the rise of his “Top Five Guys” (Woods, Mickelson, Furyk, Toms, Cambell) (more…)

Ryder Cup Weather

Friday, May 19th, 2006

Ireland's Weather

Ahhh the Irish weather. Never has a topic of conversation consumed a nation as much as the weather does in Ireland. Visitors to the country are often bemused as to the amount of time given over to the weather in everyday conversation. Most talk is given over to the upcoming weather, a little less to the current weather and when all else fails many still like to recount the weather extremes of times gone by. This fascination is all the more perplexing when in comparison to most countries Ireland’s climate is even and temperate; never too cold in the Winter nor too hot in the Summer, hurricanes are unheard of and droughts and floods are rare.

The current Nissan Irish Open has shown however that the weather can still greatly influence a golf tournament in Ireland. With play having to be postponed due to heavy rain and strong winds it brings to mind the question what type of weather we might expect for the 36th Ryder Cup in September.

I will leave the more occult forecasting techniques involving tea-leaves or hazel rod divination to those more in tune with them and look at the climate data for September from Ireland’s national weather centre Met Eireann. Firstly it’s not going to be hot with the average September temperature ranging 9 to 17 degrees celsius (48 – 63 fahrenheit). Rainfaill statistics for the period are suprisingly good with an average rainfall for September of 62.3 mm (2.5 inches) making it drier than both August and October around it. Wind, which could play a crucial factor on some of the tighter holes and raised greens averages 11 knots with a 47% chance of winds exceeding Force 4 (source windfinder.com).

So all in all it looks like the standard Irish weather forecast. Mixed in parts, sunny with an outbreak of showers and the possibility of winds most likely from the south-west. Here’s hoping for one of those rare Indian summers so that we can all enjoy a great golfing competition in the true spirit of the Ryder Cup.

Ryder Cup – The Course

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006

K Club Course

The 36th Ryder Cup Matches in September 2006 will be played on the Arnold Palmer designed North course at the K Club. The course was finished in 1991 on what was then a 330 acre estate with mature woodlands and the river Liffey flowing through it. Arnold Palmer and his right hand man Ed Seay designed and delivered an immaculate parkland course which utilises the river and mature woodlands to specatular effect. The course is unmistakably American in design ethos (which you will either love of hate!). In the early days the course suffered from waterlogging (a function of the relentless Irish rain), spurred on by media sniping the owner Dr. Michael Smurfit wheeled into action and installed a state of the art drainage system and re-built many of the greens. This resulted in a course which is playable in all weathers – bear in mind that doesn’t mean it’s fun for specators in the driving Irish rain – so we better all pray for an Indian summer for Kildare!

Ryder Cup News Roundup – Week 19

Monday, May 15th, 2006

The race for Ryder Cup points for the European Team started in earnest this week with the Quinn Direct British Masters at the Belfry being the first of a number of major events which contribute to Ryder Cup points. Sweden’s Johan Edfors was the eventual winner with the early pace-setter Daren Clarke unable maintain his sparkling form through to the final round. This win has jumped Edfors up to (more…)

Format of the Ryder Cup – How does it all work?

Friday, May 12th, 2006

Ryder Cup Golf

The 36th Ryder Cup Matches will take place in Ireland between Friday 22nd and Sunday 24th September 2006. Over the course of three days Team Europe will take on Team USA competing for a total of 28 points and of course the Ryder Cup Trophy (not to mention the even more valuable bragging rights for the next two years)! These points are won over the 3-day event with four foursomes and four fourballs on both Days 1 and 2, and 12 singles matches on Day 3. Read on if you’re not sure what this means.

The 28 Ryder Cup matches involve matchplay matches between the two teams of twelve. Days 1 and 2 consist of 8 foursomes and 8 fourballs. A foursomes match has two teams of two golfers compete against each other. Only a single ball is played per team with each team member taking alternate shots throughout the game. Tee-shots are alternated between the players on a team at each hole. With the foursome format the pairing of the team members is crucial to balance each others strengths and weaknesses and even assign compatible personalities.

The fourball format is similar to the foursomes however each player plays his own ball throughout the match and the winner of each hole is the team who’s golfer had the lowest individual score on each hole. Not all players play in the foursome and fourball matches and the Ryder Cup captain can select any eight players for each of the four rounds of play over these two days.

The final day sees all players on the team partaking in 12 single matchplay matches between two golfers.

The winner of the Ryder Cup Trophy is simply that team with the most points at the end of the final day. If it is a tie then the present cup-holders retain the trophy.

Ryder Cup – How to get to the K Club

Thursday, May 11th, 2006

If you’re travelling the the 36th Ryder Cup Matches and want to know how to get to the K Club this article is to help you figure out where it is and what resources are available online to get you there. First of all here’s a map of the route from Dublin.
How to get to the K Club Map
The K Club is in Straffan and Straffan is 18 miles from the Dublin the capital of Ireland. There are a number of routes out of Dublin which will get you there – either the N4 or N7 a good routfinder is available from the Automobile Association have a very good route planner at http://aaireland.com/routes/

Dublin Airport information is available at www.dublinairport.com

Dublin Taxis can be found at www.goldenpages.ie – this is the Irish telephone directory

There are a number of Bus services from the Airport to the City Centre www.aircoach.ie