Writing from Medinah, Illinois
    Tuesday, September 25, 2012

    The gallery thronged Medinah Country Club on Tuesday, confirming the notion that even Ryder Cup practice is a big deal.
    It must be. Otherwise, 400 people, much less 40,000, wouldn’t get out of bed at an early hour to watch Peter Hanson play golf.
    But there he was on the first tee at mid-morning, and battalions of fans followed him and his cohorts, including Luke Donald – Chicago’s very own European Ryder Cupper – and Ian Poulter. He was difficult to tell from the others, since the team was decked out in orange shirts to the last man.
    Tuesday was the first of three days of practice for the Seinfeld of sports events, a three-day bacchanalia that decides absolutely nothing beyond which group of 12 guys were better this week.
    That, however, is enough to sell out all the tickets, plus 77 corporate tents, plus several others that defy mere numbering – NBC Sports Group has a palace on a hill overlooking the 13th tee – or are located in permanent structures, including the clubhouse and the pro shop, for the equivalent of 97 super suites in all.
    All for a 15-inch trophy topped by the likeness of Samuel Ryder’s personal pro, Abe Mitchell.
    And the golf world, which revolves around Medinah this week, has Jack William Nicklaus to thank for turning the Ryder Cup from a sleepy exhibition into the biggest thing this side of a certain April week in Augusta.
    Nicklaus, invariably the smartest man in the room, told Lord Darby in the late 1970s that the only way to make the Ryder Cup competitive was to add players from continental Europe to those from the British Isles who were clobbered every two years.
    Darby, then the president of the British PGA, convinced his side Nicklaus’ idea had merit, and within a few years, thanks to the emergence of Seve Ballesteros, then Bernhard Langer, the Americans had their hands full. What was a biannual walkover became a competition.
    That was hammered home to Nicklaus and the rest of the American side at what was then called PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., in 1983. Two years earlier, the strongest American team in history – how would you like Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino, Ray Floyd, Larry Nelson, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite as your first nine to pick from, with Jerry Pate, Bill Rogers and Bruce Lietzke just hanging around? –  crushed Europe, 18.5-9.5, with a 7-1 second day the key. Stunningly, Ballesteros wasn’t picked for the European squad, since he’d played most of the year on the PGA Tour.
    Ballesteros was back in 1983, collecting a miracle half-point against Fuzzy Zoeller, even as Lanny Wadkins, with the greatest 60-yard sand wedge in history, was doing the same against Jose Maria Canizares – it has to be the best one struck with lightning flashing in the distance, with U.S. captain Nicklaus kissing the divot, and then nicknaming Wadkins “wheelbarrow,” for the, er, gumption he needed to hit that shot at that moment. Wadkins’ master stroke to secure the halve gave the U.S. a 14.5-13.5 victory, and the game was afoot.
    If there is a Ryder Cup rout these days, it is the Europeans authoring it. This week’s visitors have won six of the last eight in this turkey shoot, including at Oak Hill in 1995 and Oakland Hills in 2004. The last American win in Europe came at The Belfry in 1993. Things have been batty since.
    They could well stay that way. The eight Americans with Ryder Cup experience are 41-59-16 in their matches. The 11 returning Europeans are 60-32-18.
    The three most experienced Americans are Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. Mickelson is 11-17-6, with a 4-4 mark in singles. Woods is 13-14-2, but 4-1-1 in singles. Furyk is 8-15-4, and 4-2-1 in singles.
    Woods, never thought of as the ultimate team player, called the European domination during his time – his only Ryder Cup team victory came in 1999 at The Country Club – his fault on Tuesday.
    “I am responsible for that,” Woods said. “I didn’t earn the points I was put out there for. I was out there for five sessions each time, and I didn’t go 5-0 on our side. I’m part of that, and that’s part of being a team. I needed to go get my points, and I didn’t do that. Hopefully I can do it this week, and the other guys can do the same, and we can get the ball rolling.”
    For Woods, that was a remarkable admission, the first big surprise of the week. Perhaps there will be others.
    – Tim Cronin