Bubba Watson and Ian Poulter whipping the partisans into a frenzy before their morning match on day two of the 2012 Ryder Cup was great fun and all, but this year’s captains hope to discourage such whooping and hollering at Gleneagles.
Ryder Cup captains discourage unruly, Medinah-like ‘over-exuberance’
Boooooooooo this.
David Cannon
Decorum, please, gentlemen.
“There’s a moment for certain things to happen, but there’s a line that you shouldn’t cross,” U.S. skipper and staunch conservative Tom Watson told reporters during the captains’ kickoff press conference on Monday. “We are both traditionalists in that way. The game is a traditional game. I think that’s why a lot of people like to play the game. The solitude and quietness that you play in the game when you’re just going out on day by yourself; if you can put your cell phone away, that gives you -- it fills you up. The certainty fills you up. That’s what the game brings to people when they play it.”
Watson’s European counterpart wholeheartedly agreed that the game of golf — and the sainted Ryder Cup in particular — could weather such outlandish displays as Rickie Fowler’s USA haircut but that’s about as far as things should go.
Photo: Harry How
“We’re great, great traditionalists in the game, myself and Tom, and certainly we’ll be leading our teams with a great understanding and reverence towards the rules and traditions of the game,” Paul McGinley said about what a reporter termed “the dangers of over-exuberance.”
Don’t get either old-school bloke wrong; Fowler shaving his patriotism onto his scalp was swell, but let’s not get carried away.
“I thought it was great. I thought it was terrific,” 65-year-old Watson said about his young charge’s antics with the scissors. “It brings a spirit, a light spirit to the team and I wouldn’t be surprised if, heck, even Ted Bishop [president of the PGA of America, co-organizer of the Ryder Cup] … puts ‘USA’ on the side of his head if it means we’re going to win.”
McGinley, 47 going on 75, likewise enjoyed Fowler’s new look but warned competitors to keep their shenanigans on the down-low.
“As Tom said there with the haircut of Rickie, that’s great. I think that’s great. I think the guy who is so passionate about his country that he will go and do that for The Ryder Cup, I think that’s brilliant,” McGinley averred. “And even that -- not that I would endorse it or want our players to do it; what Bubba did spontaneously on the first tee at Medinah, again, as a one-off, I thought that was fantastic. I wouldn’t want it every round, but at that moment in time, I thought it was great. That’s what makes The Ryder Cup so special.
“Having said that, we all know, just like the crowd behavior, there’s a line,” McGinley pointed out, “and we all want to stay on the right side of that line.”
Bubba, Ian — you have been warned.
