The Ryder Cup is the most intense, pressurized setting in golf. The captains and players are under the most scrutiny, and feel it more in the team setting than anywhere else. Every player will tell you it’s by far the most pressure they have ever felt on a golf course.
Miguel Angel Jimenez stretches for Ryder Cup crowd, Jose Maria Olazabal dances
Being an assistant captain at the Ryder Cup is the best job at the event.
That’s not exactly the case for all the assistant and vice captains. That’s one of the best jobs in golf -- you show up, give some counsel and basically hang out in the team room. You’re certainly a part of the operation but the glory and criticism that’s showered upon the players and captain aren’t coming your way.
So it was wonderful when the Golf Channel cameras closed in on some of Europe’s assistant captains sitting on the first tee with their 10-6 lead, waiting for Sunday singles to begin. The 2012 captain Jose Maria Olazabal, who already has the captaining of that legendary Medinah comeback in the bank, didn’t exactly look too nervous. He and Sam Torrance delighted the crowd.
And of course there was fan-favorite (on both sides of the Atlantic) Miguel Angel Jimenez, the coolest man in golf. He’s never really nervous or too self-serious. The Mechanic won’t be making a swing on Sunday, but, puffing on his cigar, he still did his famous stretch routine for the crowd surrounding the first tee.
Jimenez was just a man in all his glory, playing to the crowd. An incredibly fun scene.
If you’re captain Paul McGinley, however, you’re a bit more tense.
